Model Boat Mayhem
Mess Deck: General Section => Tugs and Towing => Topic started by: Tumppi on May 18, 2020, 04:04:53 pm
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Hi,[/size]I have a Tugboat from the 80's. This is made by OK MODEL Co., Ltd / RPM.I have owned it since kid and it still working properly. I don't have much information of this.
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Hi Tumppi,
Well what a surprise! I thought I was the only that had built the OK MODEL's Ontario!
It was my first 'scale model' and I was very proud of it. :-)
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/18/Onterio1.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/ZxHrP)
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/18/Onterio2.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Zxvw9)
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Nice boat Martin :-))
So, is this rare / valuable ?
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Very rare.... but sorry, not very valuable!
It was a very basic kit to start with and not very popular.
It's the economic / entry level / base model version of a scale boat kit.
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/19/Onterio6.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/ZxrDZ)
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/19/Onterio5.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/ZxpAG)
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Hi Martin, I noticed your tug has a hook for towing, is this a common feature? I may choose to have a similar fitting on my 18.5cm tug. Definately simplifies things. I need to keep detailing fairly simple to survive travelling in a box in my rucksack.
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Yes, it was a fully working metal tow hook, an after market item... long out of production now.
The whole area was beefed up to support the hook.
(https://i.ibb.co/r7yh70M/Onterio9.jpg)
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Hey! I found the build log!
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton10.jpg)
OK MODEL Co. - ONTARIO Tugboat Kit
Running name "ORTON"
Semi-scale tug boat, electric 'slow ' 540 motor & 2 channel radio.
Shop...........Howes Model shop, Oxford.
AIMS
All my boats up till now have been sport or speed boats, but now for something different, a nice slow scale tug boat.
It's main role would be to tow in my dead IC boats back to shore, but if it turned out good enough I could enter it into
scale steering competitions in the local scale club.
Until now, I have been using my "Rescue One" ie. the MFA PIRANHA, but when I saw this ABS tug boat kit in Howes Model,
complete with running gear, motor, [mechanical] speed controller and fittings for £40 (1988) I couldn't pass up the offer.
THE MODEL
An ABS(?) plastic hull, 650 x 175mm. This will be an ideal kit for your first scale model if you can get hold of one (1988).
Even if you can't get hold of this particular kit it is similar to other kits such as the Robbe Neptune or HFM Marine's OCEAN tug
as much of the construction techniques are similar.
The ONTARIO has a one piece hull and deck, the rest of the main parts such as cabins, bridge, funnel and hatches all also
ready made in ABS. Most of the parts only needing careful cutting out, fitting and painting, the surface finish of ABS is very shiny!
The cutting lines are slight groves in the ABS, highlight these lines with a felt tip pen or pencil. Trim out the parts with a very
sharp Stanly knife or scissors. If you use a knife, score a light groove to start with then gradually deepen it on progressive cuts
but don't try and cut right through. Flex the groove and the ABS will cleanly split along the line. There is no easy way of
cutting the bits out and some of the corners are real tricky.
Also included in the kit is a wooden stand. It's a nice touch, including the stand because it usually one of the first things
you need and it's not the first thing you feel like scratch building when you've just bought your new kit. The stand is a little
on the weak side but easily beefed up for carrying the boat as it's quite heavy once ballasted.
Other fittings also included were a motor & mount, coil / resister type speed mechanical controller, propeller, coupling,
bow protector, rubbing strip, brass wire etc. Some parts you may feel like replacing such as the bollards, cowl vents and towing
gear as these will take a lot of work to make presentable, whereas you can buy these parts ready made. I bought new
bollards, vents, tow gear and replaced the shaft for a brass and stainless steel one and the ball and socket coupling for a Marx double
KARDAN type.
The kit comes with a plan sheet in Japanese and English ...... it's hard to tell which is which. There are no step by step instructions
but their is 7 photo sequence of assembly which all that really needed. Even if you haven't built a model boat before this
shouldn't present any problems as the logical steps are obvious.
Only use Stabalit Express or a good Superglue on an ABS boat.
ON THE SLIPWAY
All the internal work is done before fitting the deck as this gives you more room to work with. Bear-in-mind that access to
the major internals gear will be necessary, for repairs and maintenance once the deck is glued on. The motor and battery mount
sits on the bottom of the hull which support the motor and gives the hull extra strength. The included motor was a 540 but a
nice very low revving type and didn't require replacement. Power would be from a 6v Nicad.
Next fit the woodwork in the bows having water proofed it first. Install the shaft, motor and coupling making sure the alignment
is as good as possible. The plastic KARDAN coupling ensures minimum power loss in alignment.... even with quite a poor installation!
These couplings are not incredibly strong so are not to be used on high power installations. An oiler tube was added to the shaft
and the pathetic looking two bladed propeller replaced with a brass four blade brass one.
Make the rudder and lower support need to be made up carefully as once it's been fitted they can't be removed. The lower support
is made up of four strips of ABS glued together was smoothed of fettled to allow for a bigger propeller to be fitted if required.
A brass servo mount bush was also fitted to act as a bearing to prevent wear on the lower stock.
The radio was installed next and the link made to the rudder. I didn't use the included speed controller but fitted a 5 Amp
'BOB's BOARD' controller on top of a servo. 'BOB BOARDS' are my favourite speed controllers for electric boats, as they
are simple & quick to fit and provide good control at low speed. ( ESC still very expensive back then !)
With most of the running gear in place the deck can be fitted. Access through the deck opening is limited and getting at the
radio is possible but not easy, so it pays to get the mechanical installation as good as you can now. As much as I tried I wouldn't
be able to get to all the radio gear with deck in place. I had a brain-storm and stuck down with clear silicon sealant so if I did needed
to do major internal work the deck could be removed without ruining the boat. ( NB. This lasted the life of the boat with NO ISSUES! )
A SGH rubbing strip would strengthen the joint being tacked on with Superglue at regular intervals on the upper deck only.
The rubbing strip covering the join which could be pulled off and the joint opened with a knife in an emergency. The SGH rubbing strip
is thicker and more able to take knocks than the flimsy one supplied in the kit. The joint has proved strong despite how dubious
it sounds!
The cabins and bridge were made up as per plan with the railing taking ages to make up. I used the supplied brass wire and
soldered sanctions to the rail. ( I should have stretch it a little first to straighten it... ) Holes a drilled for the stations glued in with Stabalit.
A brass wire ladder was made up for the crew to get to the hydrants and fitted to the starboard side. I painted the railings and
ladders red, they don't look too bad when you stand back ... quite a long way. The jib crane was made up from 1/8 brass tube instead of the supplied bamboo and bent it to a pleasing curve. The funnel in the kit made the boat looked too "American",
so I made up a new one from balsa and Isopon which was filled and sanded until I had a more European funnel. This was quite an
achievement for me, scratch building something that actually looks like what it's meant to look like!
I didn't bother with the masts and rigging as I felt that I would quickly damaged with rough handling, only a spring steel aerial
for the radio was fitted.
The superstructure only sits on the deck and the plan shows the towing gear was to be fixed to the rear of it, this was not going to
be strong enough to tow heavy loads so a modification was required. I had bought a Aeronaut metal towing hook from Midway Models,
Leicester [ https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/aeronaut_towhooks.html ] and made up a right angle stainless steel sheet bracket to sit on the platform between the engine room hood and the cabin. A block of wood raised the towing hook support
ring (? nautical name ? ) to a level where it would not foul the engine cowling. The hook is then bolted to the top of the bracket,
the bracket was screwed down to the block, the block screwed and Stabalited down to the deck. The cabin then sits right up against
the bracket and doesn't look too bad.
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton12.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Z49dG)
FINISHING OFF
Everything above the deck was then painted light gray as I don't know what the real colour should be ( I had no internet back then).
I knew I would make a hash of cutting out portholes and windows so I cheated, the portholes, doors and vents are drawn on with a
fine waterproof fibre tipped pen and matt black painted. The funnel was painted black, wire was striped of it red coating and applied
to the edge of the wooden screen in front of the bridge. Two Graupner fire hydrants were fitted above the bridge.
I did plan to made these monitors functional but never did....
False navigation lights were also fitted above the bridge. Bollards were Superglued in place around the deck where they
looked about right and the same goes for the vents. Other fittings are life rafts, life belts, hawser, capstans, extinguisher, piping etc.
Some of the parts are taken from unmade plastic kits of roughly the same scale. Large areas with no detail gives away scale boats
so break up these expanses with some sort of detail which draws the onlooker in and the model then becomes larger in the minds eye.
The Plimsoll or water line needs to drawn on the hull. The waterline is taken from the plans and transferred to the bow and stern of the hull.
Sit the hull in it's stand and on a flat table and adjust the height of the boat stand so that the bow and stern marks are level. Set a pencil
on a block of wood or in a third hand vice to meet the marks then simply trace the pencil around the boat to meet the two marks and 'Hey presto' you have a half decent Plimsoll line (fig b). The hull was painted satin black above the waterline and matt red below.
The white waterline is Model Technics sticky coach line and just wide enough to cover the wobbly paint join. The same coach line is also
used around the funnel. I wanted my boat to gain a weathered and used look so I didn't varnish or fuel proof the paint work, if you want the paint work to stay the same as when you finished it then some sort of varnish is essential. ( It turned in to just a " banged up model" in the end, rather than weathered! Plastic doesn't rust... )
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton11.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Z4wEn)
The lettering is of the rub down type and the shiny anchor is stuck on with Superglue. The "Speedbird" on the funnel is sticky-back-plastic. The cabin, engine hatch and rudder gear hatches are all tied together below decks with plastic string to prevent loss at sea.
The kit was easy to put together taking only 8 hours to build and another 10 to paint and "detail".
SAILING & MODIFICATIONS
I tested the boat in the houses "internal heated test tank". I was running without any ballast and so the hull was more sitting on the
water as opposed to in it, and being naive, I didn't think that this would matter much. I had built the tug in the same manor as all my
speed boats ie. building as light as possible and using polystyrene and air bags for buoyancy.
Down at the lake on her maiden voyage I soon found out why scale boats do need to be properly ballasted! It sat upright, very high but
when I opened the throttle all the propeller cavitated and just produced fizzy water!
The boat did work, sort off and looked OK but wasn't able to tow the skin of a rice pudding.
BALLASTING
Back in the bathroom I pressed down the hull with both hand and was surprised how much effort it took to get the boat down to the
waterline. I was even more surprised to see how much lead it took to achieve the correct waterline! I used car wheel balance weights
begged off a car tire shop.
There are several different schools of thought about distributing ballast around a scale boat;
1) a central bulk weight low and central in the hull, even underneath like a yacht's keel,
2) two ballast boxes fore and aft &
3) ballast distributed evenly around the hull.
Method 1) makes for a very stable ship but is not always practical as the motor usually needs sit on the hull bottom and external keels on
ships look silly.
2) Is much more widely used as it is the simplest to install and adjust to get the correct waterline.
3) Follows full size practice as the majority of a ships weight is spread over the entire vessel but concentrated around the bottom,
this method might make your model roll around a little too much if the wind get up.
Ballasting the bow was difficult because of the bulky woodwork so strips of lead sheet are laid against the hull walls next to the battery.
Care with hull loading. Not too much load over a small area!
Sea trails showed that I hadn't got it quite right yet as when I applied full astern the propeller could still break the surface and loosing it's
pulling power. An ABS stern bulkhead was then fitted over the prop shaft and Stabalited in place. Some lead was lost from the main ballast and re-positioned behind the new bulkhead and over the propeller. The propeller now stayed in the water all the time.
At full throttle, it must be doing a scale speed of about 60 mph ... but the extra power was useful when pulling in heavy waterlogged
IC boats. I first fitted a Nicad 6v 1.2 AH which could provide enough pulling power for a couple of hours but has later upgraded to a 6v 4AH Lead acid battery (SLA) that lasted all day long..... and most of the week as well.
CONCLUSION
And that's about it, an easy to put together kit that didn't make me feel that I had taken on too much half way through construction!
Building was easy and swift taking only about two weeks of spare time. The hardest job was the reshaping of the funnel and painting.
Rescuing and towing is achieved by an attaching a line of about 2 or 3 metre to the tow hook and a small brightly painted buoy on the
end, a small plastic bottle or the like. I then circle the dead boat with the float trailing behind, eventually snaging the line on the
dead boat's propeller or rudder as the line passes under the hull, circle the boat once more to make sure then tow the dead boat in backwards!
With a little practice this can be done quite quickly, first time and at great range.
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton09.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Z4SLZ)
Just for fun I entered a local model club's steering competition and came third in the stand-off scale class scoring 96 from 100.
I think I came third because there was only three boats entered in this class, but you never know there could have been some others
that I hadn't seen.... I hoped! I had lost the points on the reversing gate and was told that if a KORT nozzle would facilitate much better
handling when going. One was easily made out of a plastic top of an aerosol can that just happened to be the right size for the propellor. It was cut up and shaped to fit around the rear of the hull and lower rudder support and Superglued in place.
Handling is but much better astern now but not perfect as very few single screw boats are.
The radio did show some interference problems, this was solved by removing the whip aerial and the receiver wire connected to the long
rudder linkage, that was almost as long as the whip aerial anyway. The rudder linkage had plastic clevises on each end and I had had no problems after that. After a while, I stripped out and maintain the radio gear. The gear was second hand and I hadn't properly serviced it
before installing it. This was rectified by a good clean out with safety solvent and covering the bottom of the receiver PCB and servos PCB
and gears with silicon grease. DON'T ATTEMPT THIS IF YOU ARE THE LEAST BIT UNSURE OF WHAT YOU ARE DOING, but it will help
protect the gear if it gets drowned.
I had to split the hull join to remove deck and get the radio out so
I was glad of the silicon deck join which made this possible.
The ORTON moves very stately, if not a little fast. There is a great shot of a swan getting rather annoyed that I should dare get close
to him on his lake and gives a clearly audible hiss to warn me off, ORTON didn't argue and backed off at full astern.
Because this boat is nice and slow it's the only boat that I feel safe to let my wife when she used to come boating.
Why is it that when you give your wife a transmitter and tell her "Don't go near the reeds," that's the first place she heads to boat to?
Maybe she's trying to tell me something....!
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton17.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Z4Y9l)
FINAL SPECIFICATION
'Slow' 3-pole 550 motor
Brass 4 blade 40mm propeller
KORT nozzle
5 Amp Bob's board speed controller
YUASA 6V 4AH battery
Accoms 2 channel radio
PERSONAL RATINGS (out of 10)
Value ..................... 9 (Motor, controller included)
Kit Quality .............. 8 (A few parts need to be replaced)
Kit Design .............. 7 (Layout has been well though out)
Ease of Building ...... 8 (No real problem)
Finished appearance .6 (Lets not kid ourselves here)
Handling ................ 8 (Difficult to revers without KORT)
(https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/images/2020/05/24/Orton15.jpg) (https://www.modelboatmayhemimages.co.uk/image/Z4T12)