Model Boat Mayhem
The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Seaport Tugs => Topic started by: chingdevil on January 03, 2009, 08:19:32 pm
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I wanted to do a conversion to the Seaport tug and decided Bareki would make a good conversion. Bareki is a wooden tug built in 1962 and now residing at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Darling Harbour, Sydney I know it will not be an exact copy as Bareki has a wooden hull, but as most of the hull is in the water.
Brian
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So first up we get a fairly big box with the boat in it, all ready to be put together, plus the radio control. the radio control has 7 channel written on it, the way it operates I think it struggles to have 3 channel. I noticed I actually got a european plug with the charger for the battery, not sure why.
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You remove the front of the superstructure to get at the battery compartment, as can be seen from the first picture there are a lot of screws holding this together. If you are going to do any conversions on this tug keep the screws you remove, then if you refit any components on the existing posts you already have the correct screws. There are screws hidden everywhere when you are trying to take this boat apart. I am not using any of the superstructure parts, so they have all been recycled. When the superstructure is released you get this horrible view that there is still more screws to go
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Keeping my eyes on this one
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If anyone has a Seaport tug and it does not run straight under this red cap is the control to straighten up the rudder, the second picture show how this fits on top of the rudder control, the third shows the inside have no idea how this worked
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I was going to now show the struggle I had to get the deck of the hull, but I think my workshop gnome has stolen the pictures because I can not find them anywhere. If I ever get hold of him I will £$%^& no better not this is a family forum.
First picture, this is what passes as the radio control in the Seaport, as you can see no crystals that can be changed that is why they can be a problem near other boats. Second picture the insides of the tug from left to right, battery holder, under the battery holder looks like a bit of volcanic pumice wrapped in tape this is supposed to be the ballast. Next is the water tank then we have the squirty thing motor and finally the rudder control. Third picture I am not sure that one ceramic capacitor and an electrolytic one are adequate suppresion for a motor, I think the aluminium plate is supposed to be a heat sink
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I drilled out the screws on the water tank lid to give me a nice area for the battery to live in. I patched the holes from the inside with some 1mm plasticard and then filled them in with Revell Plastic Model Filler on the outside, to be smoothed down later. I had already run the motor and found out that it made more noise than my coffee grinder, so that had to go. I then found out that the prop shaft was a bad fit in the tube, so that had to go. I think the original prop tube is a good source of water coming into the boat, if you have the nerve to take it out got for it. Careful use of a Dremel and the prop shft was no more
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Woops missed a picture out, bottom of boat showing the filled holes
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OK bits that are going back into the tug
MFA 380 motor
Action P70 Condor ESC
Hitec Light receiver plus battery
6volt 4ah SLA battery
New rudder servo plus rudder
New prop shaft
If I put any working lights on the tug i will fit an Action switcher to control them
I will show the making of the prop shaft and the rudder mount in the next few postings, this picture shows the basic layout. I kept the original battery box to house the receiver in. I drilled a hole in one end to feed the cables in. I do not have pictures of the rudder construction, damm gnome >:-o
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Prop Shaft
The original prop shaft had a diameter of 3.73mm and was a push fit into a hex end which then went into the prop and was held on with a screw. I had some 3mm stainless steel rod to use as the shaft, so I took some 5.63mm brass tube (this is from the K&S metals range so has an English equivalent) I cut some other small pieces of tube that went inside the first to make bearing ends, which were soldered into the ends of the larger tube leaving me with a bore very close to 3mm. I also soldered a oiling tube onto the prop shaft tube.
The 3mm stainless rod threads into the original hex end whch fits into the original prop, all held together by a 3mm stainless nyloc nut. That sounds complicated but it is not really
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One thing I forgot to mention about the original prop tube is there are no bearings in the tube, it is the same diameter along its length. This can cause extra drag on the shaft and then on the motor, there is also in my opinion no way to get any lubriciation in the tube if it is filled with the prop shaft
Brian
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When I refitted the prop tube I used the original clamp that partially held the old one in place, this helped to keep everything in place while the filler set. In the picture you can see the oiler tube that I fitted to the new prop tube.
I was going to use the original motor mount, but this was not possible to get the correct alignment of motor and prop shaft. One of the sources of noise from this tug is the fact that the motor and prop tube are not aligned correctly. I used a commercial motor mount brought from Howe's. lined everything up and filler to hold it in place.
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As far as I know Bareki does not have a Korts nozzle fitted so the one fitted to the Seaport had to go. I then made up a bush to fill the large hole left by its removal, and then drilled a 4mm hole in the centre for the new rudder. I used the original bottom support for the Korts to support the new rudder, making a 5mm high spacer to keep it lifted up. The new rudder is 2.5mm brass, the top rod is 4mm and the bottom rod is 5mm because that is the size of the hole in the original support
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When I was making the rudder servo bracket I decided to make it so I could remove the servo with ease. Then guess what I made and fitted the deck and promptly forgot that, so another servo consigned to the dark for ever :(( :((
I did not want to have a rudder linkage that I could not get to, so I used an idea I have seen written by Bluebird which is basically a fixed arm on the servo which sweeps through a slot in the tiller arm and moves the rudder.
Firstly I drilled a hole in the servo horn and enlarged it to take a 2mm cap head. Using a compass and using the pin on the clevis as the centre point I marked where the hole needed to be on the clevis for the cap head and then drilled away. the clevis is held on the servo horn with a 2mm cap head nut and shake proof washer
I then joined up all the holes in the tiller arm to make a slot, making sure there were no notches carved in it. When it all felt nice and smooth, even though in the pictures it does not look like it is it was all fitted in the hull.
I used the mounting points for the original rudder control to mount the servo, as cnn be seen in the photo there is a fair amount of movement in this set up and I do not have to worry about any linkages coming loose
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Thats the internal bits over with for the moment. I took the original deck and ground off all the raised parts on it, man did that make a smell and a mess. On to this I stuck some 1.5mm ply using Evo-Stick, I then cut out the centre holes and drilled the holes for the deck fixing screws. When all fitted well I ran a bead of super glue along the edge of the hull, then using the original screws fixed the deck down permanently. You can see the screw holes in one of the pictures
I then gave the hull a nose job, Seaport comes with a smooth hull, Bareki has a beam at the bow end that rises above the deck and the bulwark (I do not know the name of this beam, i am sure someone can tell me) The beam is made out of plasticard rod 6.5mm x 5mm slots cut down its length to get it to bend and then stuck on to the hull with plasticweld. Then faired into the hull with filler, I put a notch in the deck at the bow to get this strip to sit correctly.
I then started on the bulwarks, onto the plastic lip of the original deck I stuck some 1mm plasticard and then shaped it to what you see in the photo's. The bulwarks on Bareki are all wooden, this is something I wanted to replicate, so when I was happy with the shape I started to stick strips of beech 3mm x 0.6mm brought from The Model Dockyard. I roughed up the plasticard first with some glasspaper and used super glue to fix the strips. Looking at the photo's the wood does not look smooth, but then take a look at the photo of Bareki stern that is not smooth either
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Great start Brian, looking good.
Damien.
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Chingdevil, you sure got the right workshop, tools, and boat building skills for this project. A+ :-))
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After I had stuck all the strip on the side of the bulwarks I stuck 4x4x.5 plastic angle on the top of the bulwarks. Onto this I stuck some more beech strip, I then stuck to layers of beech at the top of the bulwarks to make the top rubbing strip and then stuck a 2x2 strip along the bottom. I then sanded everything down to take off all the sharp edges of the wood, and to smooth it a little bit. I then stuck pices of 2mm T plastistrip on the inside of the bulwarks and on the internal top edge of the angle some 1.4mm half round was stuck. This was then sprayed with Halfords primer and then some Halfords Matt Black. The first couple of pictures show a small test I did so I was sure it would look right.
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Looks like all the hard work is paying off, keep going and posting, can't wait to see more. Sonic
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I know there is usually a gap from the bulwarks to the planking, but as I wanted something to but the planks to I stuck a strip of plasticard around the edge, 4x0.5. To get it to fit to the curve of the bulwarks I worked the strip to the shape required then roughed up the back and stuck it down with superglue, pressing it down with a tool I got from Proops some years ago, some dentist thing. Any joins were filled in with Revell plastic body filler and then sanded smooth
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Planking
I am not going to give any advice on planking, I just do it the way I do it to look nice. I brought some Lime planks from Mantua Models at Warwick last year, 4x0.6, the planks lengths are 1,2,3,4inch. I chose Lime because looking at the pictures I had the deck looked fairly light in colour, after completing the planking I thought the deck looked too bright. I decided I wanted the deck to be darker and look like it had been used, so I filled in the gaps between the planks with Revel plastic body filler sanded it all down to a fairly smooth surface. I then used a suede brush that had been used on other things and rubbed along the length of the planks, this gave it a nice looking used look. A light sand to remove any shine on the surface and then three coats of Humbrol matt varnish, it looks pretty good though the pictures do not show it.
You can see where while sanding I caught the plastic edge, so I resprayed the bulwarks but this time with a Halfords satin black. I know I should have done the spraying before the planking but too late I decided that I did not like the matt finish
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If you look at various pictures you will see different superstructures, the first one did not look right and the second did not fit right, its a pity plasticard is not recyclable I would be doing great in going green {:-{ {:-{
Anyway third time lucky, I first built the front of the superstructure to get the right look, I cut the plasticard to size and the scored it on the fron to get the two angles that I wanted. I then stuck a temporary strip across the top to stop too much movement.
The piece tapped to the back of the piece in the first picture is there to hold it while the strip was stuck in position.
I realised I did not take a picture to show how I got the curves for the front or the back, I will add one later
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I now cut a piece on 2mm thick plasticard to the same shape and angles as the front an stuck it in position, this will also be used to support the backing so you will not be able to see all the way through the superstructure
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I cut two pieces of plasticard for the side and one for the back with the same roof curve as the front. The side pieces were not a rectangle due to the angle of the deck. the front needed to end up at 43mm while the back was 54mm. So they were cut 5mm longer than this to get them to fit the deck curve.
There might be other ways to do this but this worked for me. I held the front and back pieces in position with blocks and at the correct angle. I then offered up the side pieces as you can see they fitted where they touched which was not all the way along. So I now took a compass and set it at 5mm, then following the deck curve I scribbed a line along each side. This was then cut away and sanded to a good fit so the superstructure sits snug on the deck. Sorry for the quality of the pictures I ran out of hands to hold things.
Before all the pieces were stuck together I cut out the openings for the windows and doors after I fitted the sides to the deck
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To get the roof to the right curve I cut a piece of plasticard the right size and rolled it around a piece of s/s tube I had lying around. When it fitted nicely I laid it down and put the superstructure on top, holding it in place with a knife blade I have. I then stuck it in the middle, you can see the internal support in the second picture. After the glue had set I held the roof in position with masking tape and then clamped some angle to the inside of the superstructure to get rid of any warping before the final sticking.
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Hi Chingdevil
I've recently converted a Seaport tug to my own spec. with an esc, new radio, rudder linkage etc. put it all back together again (bit of head scratching!) and with an audience of two eager grandchildren put it on the water. Hey presto! It promptly fell over, most embarassing!
The moral of this story is make sure you have adequate ballast in the boat. Not trying to tell you how to suck lemons but I notice that your water inlets under the boat have been sealed off so I think you will need quite a lot of lead to bring the hull down.
Myself, being a smart a..e tested the boat in the bath before putting the superstructure back on and it seemed OK. How are the mighty fallen!!
Brian
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When this was done the front part of the superstructure fitted nicely over the coamings, as you can see from this picture I did recycle some of the other superstructures that is why the back part is grey.
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Hi Brian
I started to update this build log because the conversion is a lot further along than this thread is. This picture was taken last week on the first bottom wetting of Bereki. She has one 6v 4ah SLA battery inside and one Hitec RX reciever battery, no other weight, she sits actually sit slightly high for me.
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Thanks, looking good.
Brian
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This has to be the best conversion yet for the Seaport & Dickie Tug. I have been sitting on 2 Dickie Tug to convert for my Grandkids for the past 4 years. I feel now with your thread I can do a major conversion to both my tugs. I especially like the way you replace knot nozzle with a straight rudder and how you did your steering servo, very good ideas. Great job Mr. chingdevil :-))
Ralph1937 :-)
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By the way Ralph when you do your conversions remember to put a screw in the steering servo before fitting the deck, I did not and after its first run the steering failed and I had to cut a hole for another hatch to get to the servo and fix it >>:-( >>:-( >>:-( >>:-( >>:-(
Brian
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After building the main part of the superstructure I then went on and built the rear part scribing the lower edge to get it to fit the deck. At this time I also built the wheelhouse. The only entrance to the wheel house is via the outside, on the roof is some wooden lathes as treads. I wanted to show these so, I cut a strip of masking tape about 5mm wide and held it down with weights. I then took some microstrip .04 x .03 and cut it to a rough length and then stuck it onto the masking tape. I then cut the strip to the length I wanted, removed the weights from the tape and stuck this into position on the roof then stuck the strip down. When all was dry I removed the masking tape and made sure the strip was stuck down along its length.
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You can see from these shots the superstructure with its portholes and doors fitted. Also the shape of the wheelhouse, I have also fitted the bar that protects the superstructure from the towing rope (I do not know what that is called). This bar is a wire covered in plastic, brought at Warwick last year from SHG, it is nice to bend and is strong
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I thought I would have a rest from breathing plastic fumes and build the funnel. The funnel is made from 15mm brass tube 120mm long. I put one end into a vice and squashed it to get an oval shape at the top while keeping it round at the bottom
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I then cut the top at a 45deg angle and cleaned all the burrs off it. I the drilled a couple of 3.5mm holes and also cut some vent slots in the down from the top with a Dremel cutting disc. I made a small plate 3mm thick and screwed a 3mm brass screw into it and then soldered that. Bent a piece of 5mm brass tube to get the angle of the exhaust stack, and then soldered that to a piece of 3mm brass. the whole lot was then soldered into position. Everything given a polish with a sanding disc to get rid of any scratches, Halfords grey primer and satin black finish the job.
The black tubes were going to be fibre optic lights, but I could not get it to bend tight enough and hold its position, so no lights on the funnel >:-o I might find some thinner fibre optics at a latter date and retro fit
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looking very nice O0
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Back after another delay due to work and home commitments.
OK when I made the funnel I also made the towing hook and towing beam.
The three parts to the hook can be seen in the first picture, strange how bad the filing looks when you take photos of an item. The "u" piece is one of those 7mm brass shackles you can get from Redbanks Models. I can not remember how long the flat piece is but it is 3mm thick, the hook part is a piece of brass rod bent and attacked with a file.
The second picture shows the hook mounted on the beam, the beam is 8mm square wood superglued together. The old shackle part is soldered to the back plate, which has two dress making pins through it and superglued into the wood. The hook support hoop is 1.6mm s/s welding rod, again superglued into the wood. There was a touch more cleaning to be done to the hook in that picture.
In the third picture the two support legs can be seen, these are pieces of brazing rod superglued into the wood. The holes they go into in the deck have blocks of 10mm square wood glued underneath to stop the tow beam wobbling
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On the original boat the towing beam had supports into the deck, I wanted to replicate this but make the beam removable when i needed to remove the superstructure.
I made a jig up from a piece of 4mm thick s/s plate with the corner cut off so the plastic did not bind as it was bent around the jig. I then cut some 8mm channel which has 1.2mm sides 70mm long. Cut some notches in the channel and bent it around the jig held it in place with masking tape while the plastic weld dried. At the same time I cut some small pieces of plastic strip to go over the joins, the idea being that I could file them close to flat and they would add some support to the channel. Unfortunately as you can see in one picture I caught one of the pieces when it was stuck on the wood and it broke, had to be re-glued. I took a small bradel type tool and made some indentations on the reverse of the channel to make it look like it was riveted to the wood and the deck
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Rest of images in next post
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I fitted the handrail on the top of the superstructure, the posts I brought from Redbanks and the wire is 1amp fusewire. I painted the supports first and then cleaned off one side of the end ones, so I could solder the wire. The picture shows some of the supports leaning caused by using too much heat for the soldering, so I had to unsolder restick the supports and then resolder. I wanted the wire to hang down like it would naturally, it is not too bad but not perfect. To the right of the hand rails is a small brass tube with a nut, this is where the aerial is put in. The tube was threaded 8BA and then fixed on the superstructure roof, I put a small lug underneath with a small plug and socket on it so I could disconnect the aerial when the superstructure is removed. I made the plug and socket from the male and female pins used to make up your own D plugs. I believe Maplin sell them I got mine from RS the pins were covered with shrink sleeve so they did not touch anything and cause a problem
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On the roof of the superstructure are three small cups these were to hold the aerial in place, the Aeriel is held down with very thin elstic coloured black. The lights on the aerial are 2mm acrylic rod painted black at each end. The aerial is plastic coated steel rod stuck with superglue
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On the back of the superstructure on the full size tug is a fire hydrant and a hose cabinet. the cabinet is two pieces of 2mm plasticard stuck together and then filed to shape, the top is another piece of plasticard again filed to shape. The hydrant was a trial, the backing disk was cut out of 1mm plasticard the two pipes are plastic tube the valve bodies are square plastic filed round. The handles of the valves were made by drilling a hole in a piece of wood the diameter I wanted, then using a pin punch punching through a piece of 1mm plasticard. The ends of the hydrant are just plastic rod cut and shaped.
The steps next to the hydrant are 2.5mm plastic angle shaped and stuck on
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The bollards are 6mm beech with grooves filed into them to hold the rope, the bottom of the bollards has a 1mm brass rod in them so if the bollards are knocked they should stay in place. The hooks on the bollards are cleats cut in half filed down and then superglued in position. A couple of coats of Halfords satin black and then stuck in position, would not hold a fly in position but look effective
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