Model Boat Mayhem

The Shipyard ( Dry Dock ): Builds & Questions => Navy - Military - Battleships: => Topic started by: guard_jamie on June 22, 2006, 04:42:49 pm

Title: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: guard_jamie on June 22, 2006, 04:42:49 pm
I must first admit to being somewhat out of my depth in this field of modelling- I'm a railway man myself! But after watching The Cruel Sea I simply had to have a Corvette, and I got a Revell one. I haven't made much of a start, but I was wondering if anyone could give me some really detailed information on motors, batteries, props, RC equipment, and all the other related paraphernalia that has to be included if I wish to make it sail (and I've never seen the point in a model that doesn't work!) What you would recommend, where to put what in the boat, any easy yet fun extras I could add, what to use as ballast. Basically, 'the low down', in its entirety!

Thank you,

Jamie Green

"The boy stood on the burning deck, whence all but he had fled. Twit".
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: RickF on June 22, 2006, 04:58:04 pm
Jamie - "Voyager" has just started building an R/C Revel "Flower" on the "Your Builds" board - Check it out!

Rick
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: guard_jamie on June 22, 2006, 06:18:31 pm
Painfully elementary question that I'm very embarassed to ask- how on earth do you stop water getting up the prop shaft? ???
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Made it to 80 (25p Richer now) on June 22, 2006, 06:37:01 pm
Stick some grease in it or I use motor-cycle chain lube some may say that useing grease causes a lot of drag but so what we are not talking fast electrics here
                                                                       Cheers
                                                                           Bob B
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: funtimefrankie on June 23, 2006, 07:13:59 pm
Check this out
http://www.cbrnp.com/RNP/Flower/contents.htm
Frank
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on June 26, 2006, 11:51:50 am
Regarding the water up the proptube - I agree with the greasing, but make sure that you can service it (ensure that yoiu can get the rudder out of the way without demolishing the back end of the boat).  I sail mine in a salt water lake with plenty of silt and geese, after several years and about 500 real miles, I had to change the prop shaft assembly, the shaft was badly worn in the area of the bearings, letting water up the tube, and the brass tube was corroded. 
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Shipmate60 on June 26, 2006, 09:40:03 pm
And ballast her deep, I have seen so many bobbing over the waves and looking very toy-like.
When they are deep in the water they look superb and handle better.

Bob
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 26, 2006, 09:55:57 pm
I agree with Shipmate60. I used 11kg of ballest in mine to get it to the right level.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on June 27, 2006, 11:26:43 am
Daryl
Are you talking about the Revell Flower class?  Its a 1/72 scale model, and the correct weight is 6 pounds, give or take a very few ounces.  11Kg would be disappointing.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 27, 2006, 12:36:54 pm
Why disapponting????? I ballasted it to a photo I had of the real thing. Works for me. This photo was taken at Kingsgate Park Yate a few months ago. The inside of the hull is lined with GRP. When you convert pounds to kilos it works out at about 5lb of ballest then add about 1lb for motor and battery and there you have the result in the picture.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: cbr900 on June 27, 2006, 12:48:29 pm
Daryl,

I reckon you could probably do with another pound these sort of ships were not supposed to ride the but cut through the water, nice model and all...

Roy
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: ron h on June 27, 2006, 12:49:43 pm
Daryl, lovely looking model on the water, but you have your lbs and lilo,s mixed up, its 2.2 lbs to 1 kilo, what he ment about dissapionting at 11kilo,s which is 24.2 lbs it would sink under the water. ;D ;D
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 27, 2006, 12:59:30 pm
Hi Ron,
your right, wrong conversion!!! sorry folks.

I put most of the ballest towards the front to try to improve the sea keeping which to some extent worked.

I have just had a look and its got a 5 Kilo weight in it plus battery etc. Which makes it about 6lb.

11kg is fine for a 1/48 scale but as you said on the Revell it would sink it. The shade of the colours is brighter than the RN Western Approaches scheme in that I have seen several near misses and one sinking where the camoflauge did exactly what it said on the tin. So I thought I would make it a bit more obvious.

Daryl

Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: dannymax on June 27, 2006, 05:09:29 pm
the lb ands kilos in these posts are all over the place......454g = 1lb so basically to make it easy a kilo is around 2lb
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: dougal99 on June 27, 2006, 05:12:24 pm
I have just had a look and its got a 5 Kilo weight in it plus battery etc. Which makes it about 6lb.




5Kg is about 11Lbs (1k = 2.2Lbs)

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Made it to 80 (25p Richer now) on June 27, 2006, 06:07:47 pm
Wouldn't be having all these problems with weight if we just stuck to good old english lbs if your working imperial stay imperial if you are working in metric stay in metric saves a lot of messing about with convering one to another.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: ron h on June 27, 2006, 06:56:17 pm
Wouldn't be having all these problems with weight if we just stuck to good old english lbs if your working imperial stay imperial if you are working in metric stay in metric saves a lot of messing about with convering one to another.



I just put 30lbs of lead in mine, and a few batteries, she is 7ft long ::) ::)
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 27, 2006, 09:33:55 pm
Umm.... glad to see its all getting confused, that way I can spread the balme!!!!

Now I am at home I can clarify what I have in there, when I got the confusion going I was at work trying and failing to do three things at once and mucking up all of them!

What I have in there is a bar of lead/tin ( ratio 60-40) 1 inch wide, 1inch high and 16 inches long. I'll leave you all to work out the weight.

Can't find Carol Vorderman when you want her.........

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: dougal99 on June 28, 2006, 07:46:14 am
Lead is much denser than tin (which is quite expensive). If it is tin sell it and buy a new boat ;D ;D ;D

Cheers

Doug
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 28, 2006, 08:49:55 am
Firm I work for was chucking out a flow solder machine and I had the left over bars, which would have ended up at the reclamation centre. As you can see from the photo it works fine.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on June 28, 2006, 03:18:19 pm
Nice one, Daryl
I "ballasted" mine with a 12v 3AH battery as far back as I could in the forecastle.  This wasn't quite as far back s I would have preferred as the local model shop didn't have a prop shaft shorter than 10", so I wound up putting about 8oz of lead in the stern to trim it.  You are right about the paint job - the pale western approaches job does have a habit of vanishing in overcast conditions with a bit of a dapple on the water, especially if it is not leaving an obvious wake.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on June 28, 2006, 04:05:02 pm
Hi Malcolm,

Did you have a problem with the deck stringers? I went by the instructions and found the deck was 6mm to wide. I ended up trimming the deck as by this time I had lined the hull with grp tissue. It appears that in my kit the stringers are to short, a friend of mine who built the Matchbox version did not have this problem so I wonder what have Revell done to muck it up? A rather puzzeling.

I had to do the same as yourself as I glassed in the solder bar to far forward and ended up putting some lead sheeting left over from a roof replacement to balance the thing.

Daryl

Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on July 03, 2006, 07:22:15 pm
Hi Daryl
The deck beams on mine all fitted easily.  Thats on the 6 year old one.  The new one had one a bit long, but it was just a few strokes of sandpaper.  I never felt the need to line with GRP - the plastic is strong enough.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on July 04, 2006, 09:21:38 am
I lined mine with grp as when I put it in the bath I had a small leak from one of the side joins. So with the traditionial use a sledgehammer to crack a nut idea, I lined all of it with grp and the used it to fix the solder bar in.

Good kit, I used John Lamberts excellent book to detail mine, well worth getting.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: shark bait on July 05, 2006, 12:46:42 pm
I have seen lots of variations in the camuflage schemes used on these corvettes. Has anyone got an idea where can i get a guide as to what was used in various theatres and by which ships. My model is HMS Bluebell if that helps. I would like to get it authentic but without blatently copying another modellers creation.

Any ideas or pointers would be welcome.

PS The guy who had the corvette at the Northern Boat Show had a wonderful boat. It looked great and got me thinking i could improve on mine.

thanks

Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on July 05, 2006, 12:50:42 pm
John Lamberts book on flower class corvettes covers the various camoflauge schemes used and on which ships at various times in their careers. There are numerious drawings in the book detailing the patterns and colours used.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on July 05, 2006, 03:35:30 pm
Hi Shark Bait
try
http://www.cbrnp.com/profiles/naval/Flower_Class-Corvettes.htm
for some schemes - there are probably links to other pages with more information.  One of the German ones would be a bit different.
I assume that you were looking at the superb 1/48 one opposite A Model World's stand, and not mine.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: shark bait on July 06, 2006, 09:01:48 am
Thanks for the link. Can't wait to get painting!

 
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: ron h on July 22, 2006, 09:54:38 pm
Well Guys, Here,s mine on the water , but its not a REVELL

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Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: warspite on August 04, 2006, 07:31:05 pm
Hi mines - 24 years old now one of the matchbox types, built using that clear acetate strip that came with it and several tubes of model glue, ie glue the joint then apply glue over the top sandwiched between the hull and the acetate. has not fallen apart yet touch wood, brass prop 6-8" long has a decaperm 6V motor and i use two 'titan' 6v motors for ballast / power, never did like the guns so replaced the rear gun with a airfix bofor's (since reading the anatomy of a ship book by john roberts - a very good reference book for options/drawings by the way - they carried what ever was available / aquired), though not strictly to scale i use two 50mm browning machine guns from 1/35th scale tamiya jeeps.

In the early days she ran on a smaller motor run on 1.5v 'C' sized batteries - oh the follies of youth, didn't do to bad in a competition though. has sunk once in a local lodge, sunk by the weed wrapping round the prop and dragging her down, and has had several attempts to get the running gear to work properly without success (still needs sorting), she usually only runs for twenty minutes before giving up, good scale speed though.

Most of the body comes off to allow easy access (cause i am lazy and dont want to struggle getting things in and out). Properly ballasted she took 75mm (3") waves on the lodge and provided she stayed into the waves, did not take on much water, so quite a good starter boat for a bigginer.

Has been displayed at the ellesmere boat show some years ago when i was a member of the North West Model Boat Club, along with my 1/72 scale German 'S' boat which has much of the same problems (trouble with being a office jockey and little engineering/electronics experience).
At the same show i counted 47, yes 47 flower class corvettes one or two 1/48 scale and several whalecatcher/ earlier versions, but the majority were snowberry types.

phil
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: DickyD on August 10, 2006, 09:30:08 am
Have just about finished making the Revell kit and am now looking for a model club in Southampton area . Anyone help?
Have used 3in 1 oil in prop shaft but still get water in any ideas.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: ambernblu on August 10, 2006, 09:39:07 am

... hiya, there are a couple of threads on here already relating to the oiling of propshaft problem/solutions - check them out....

I think most agreed on a teflon/silicone based grease. Cheers, Brian

Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: DickyD on August 10, 2006, 10:53:25 am
Can anyone tell me whether it is alright to run the R/C antenna around the hull or should it be run up the mast.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Daryl on August 10, 2006, 11:41:30 am
I ran mine up the funnel after trying running it around the hull and found slight interferance.

Daryl
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: Made it to 80 (25p Richer now) on August 10, 2006, 12:17:16 pm
Working on the theory that indoor ariels don't work as well as outdoor one's I aways try and get the ariel somewhere up a mast or superstructure  :P
                                                                                          Cheers
                                                                                              Bob B
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: DickyD on August 10, 2006, 04:47:31 pm

... hiya, there are a couple of threads on here already relating to the oiling of propshaft problem/solutions - check them out....

I think most agreed on a teflon/silicone based grease. Cheers, Brian


Thanks Brian
Any idea where I can get it? Model shops in Southampton dont do much for model boats so I shall probably have to get it on the interweb [note I have mastered this computer jargon]. Southampton a city built because of its docks and shipping !!??
Cheers Richard
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: ambernblu on August 10, 2006, 06:36:20 pm

.... I would suggest you try your local Halfords or similar store - they must stock a cycle grease with Teflon or Silicone which should be what you are after - unless you can find something similar on ebay for a reasonable price maybe??

Its good value anyway as its virtually indestructible - and lasts a very long time! I've still got my little tub going strong, so don't need to chase around for any at the moment... Hope you find some to suit your purposes, regards. Brian
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on August 11, 2006, 02:01:54 pm
With aerials, the higher the better, but also you have to bear in mind that "the further away from the motor wiring, the better".  A badly suppressed motor directly under the aerial will give poor range due to interference.  A aerial laid around the deck away from the motor will work very adequately, especially if the motor is properly supressed.  If you have full control over the range offered by your sailing water by whatever method, you will have the right method.
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: DickyD on August 11, 2006, 03:43:00 pm
Can anyone tell me if expanding foam has any adverse affects on the plastic hull other than using to much.
                                                                                                                    Richard
Title: Re: Revell Flower class corvettes
Post by: malcolmfrary on August 12, 2006, 02:25:29 pm
The bow of mine is filled with foam and this is probably useful.  Threads on the subject elsewhere have indicated a possible problem if the stuff should "wake up" again on a warm day - I have used the foam mostly to be a mount for a speaker enclosure as it is easy to cut shelves out.  Should the re-expanding happen, it will have somewhere to go without spreading the hull and deck apart.
A problem I did find when using it on a yacht was that although the hull will be incapable of sinking, the space left fills very rapidly should any water find its way in.  Of course, I only sail the yacht when there is enough wind for it, which usually means quite lumpy water.
A cheaper alternative is to use very partially inflated balloons - just blow them up enough to give some shape and push as many into the space as will fit easily then tack a plasticard sheet in as a retainer.  After a while (a year or two) the balloons will fail, but at about 1p a go they are cheap enough to sacrifice.