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Author Topic: Chinese £20 warships  (Read 21527 times)

tobyker

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Chinese £20 warships
« on: June 24, 2008, 06:11:02 pm »

Has anyone tried to do a "seaport workboat" type make-over on one of those cheap chinese carriers or destroyers? I admit the chrome gun turrets and radar scanners do rather put one off.
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #1 on: June 24, 2008, 06:57:40 pm »

I saw one at a show, it didn't look too bad painted up properly!
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #2 on: June 25, 2008, 05:22:22 pm »

Thanks, Martin - I'm going down the M40 tomorrow so I might pop in to Kidlington for a shufti and possibly take a punt. I might as well get one anyway - if it looks as though installing rudders and a proper radio won't be worth it, I can always lob it in the direction of a deserving small boy. And if it is worth doing, I'll let everyone know how I get on.
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Edward Pinniger

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #3 on: June 25, 2008, 05:52:38 pm »

I have a "Smasher" (Soviet Sovremenny destroyer) which I plan to do a make-over on soon, with a complete repaint and extra detail (including railings).

Despite its plasticy toylike appearance out of the box, it's actually quite an accurate + detailed representation of its subject, as it's based on the Trumpeter plastic kit (I'm not sure if it's a knock-off of the kit, or if it's actually produced by Trumpeter - I know they have a subsidiary company who produces R/C tanks based on their kits). The "Challenger" aircraft carrier is a Soviet Kiev-class and could also be rebuilt into a good model, though the smaller scale of 1/350 has put me off this one.

I'm fairly certain the model at the Leamington show posted by Martin is actually an original Trumpeter kit, but it does show what the RTR boat could look like with a decent paint job + a bit of cleanup/detailing work!

One tip, if you're not planning on replacing the radio gear + adding rudders, you can get the model to run at a much more "scale" speed by either changing the battery for a lower voltage one and/or replacing the racing-type props with smaller, conventional ones.
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Shipmate60

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #4 on: June 25, 2008, 10:39:55 pm »

Have you had her apart yet.
I have taken 1 to bits but decided to give the carcass to a friends child.

Bob
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J.beazley

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #5 on: June 25, 2008, 10:57:49 pm »

Anything that could break off it has been broken off it by my son aswell cheers Bob O0

still got to give it to the little toy it still floats in the bath even with half the superstructure missing.

Jay
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #6 on: June 25, 2008, 11:20:21 pm »

Shipmate 60, why did you decide to bin it?
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Shipmate60

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #7 on: June 25, 2008, 11:31:16 pm »

Firstly, have you got the thing apart yet.
There are screws under the ships boats and to get the foredeck off you need to break off the port and stbd missile launchers.
The one I took apart had the main deck, which continues under the foredeck sealed with silicone, so the hull was split getting it all out.
Nothing drastic, it could have been repaired and I did have another complete one still in the box.
The shaft exits from the hull were distorted and melted (on both models).
When I weighed it all up after she was stripped down it would have been easy to fit "propper" Radio Gear in her, but to me whatever was done to it, it would still be a £15 toy.
As she was sealed so well she would take heavy weather, but again to me she would always be a toy, so just couldn't be bothered while I have so many awaiting building.

Oh yes and it was the hull Martin gave to RMAS Master at Wicksteed, so I just gave him the complete one for his nephew.

Bob
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Tom@Crewe

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #8 on: June 26, 2008, 02:02:45 pm »

are there any pictures of the range available
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DickyD

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #9 on: June 26, 2008, 02:14:57 pm »

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herrmill

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #10 on: June 27, 2008, 03:53:21 am »

There's a gent in Bahrain who is in the midst of doing a major conversion on the cheap Sov toy model.

You can follow his build over at RCU: http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/m_7270463/tm.htm

Chuck
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Edward Pinniger

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #11 on: June 29, 2008, 06:59:09 pm »

There's a gent in Bahrain who is in the midst of doing a major conversion on the cheap Sov toy model.

Looks very good! This is more or less what I hope mine will look like when finished, though I'll also be adding rails + ladders.
I might also use the tip of using small magnets to hold the removable superstructure parts in place!
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #12 on: June 29, 2008, 11:51:09 pm »

Cunning plan foiled by rainstorms and accidents on M6. Didn't get to M40 until 5pm - closing time. Rats! May have to pay postage to acquire one shock horror.
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Shipmate60

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #13 on: June 30, 2008, 12:01:59 am »

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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2008, 01:02:22 pm »

Destroyer arrived this am 26 hours from order- well done Howes!. It looks and feels better than I expected. Minor points are moulding flash left on quite a lot of bits, and stickers here and there. I shall take some photos "as delivered", conduct sea trials and then investigate access and potential for modification. The big problem will probably be weight if I decide to add rudders and speed controllers but we shall see. Incidentally the propellors have slotted hubs and fit onto dogs on brass collars fixed to the shafts, held on by Nyloc nuts.
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #15 on: July 01, 2008, 01:25:22 pm »


...this is going to be a interesting build!   :)
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #16 on: July 01, 2008, 10:54:54 pm »

Thanks Martin. As in the famous Chinese curse "May you live in interesting times". Much quoted in the Civil Service. Don't hold your breath though - I've got a barge to get sailing.
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #17 on: July 02, 2008, 03:04:40 pm »

Further investigation today. I suspect the guy who assembled it was on piece work as there are some minor bits missing off the bridge, and there are two holes under the breakwater in the foredeck for screws which are not fitted. There are quite a lot of sprue marks which need removing. The stabilisers have reinforcing gussets which hang out in the water flow, and the shaft exits are extremely unstreamlined.  The two main turrets and the helicopter flap about and need securing propery - the latter though looks a bit out of scale and may be sacrificed to save weight.The aft deck has large "jelly" bungs  over the screw holes.The boat weighs 1,395g, Bow 675 and stern 733, so I can get the balance right after modification. (I know they don't add up but so long as I support it in the same places the proportions will be right.) Since the battery only weighs 114g, either the motors are very heavy or there may, with luck, be some ballast which can be reduced to compensate for any additions. Some of the superstructure, for example the silver deck on the switch cover, is held together with steel screws, so there is a weight saving high up when they are replaced with glue.  I have done a full "field strip" - switch cover and battery housing, and will delve further after sea trials, which are now unlikely to take place until next week. It may well be that this further investigation will show that it's not worth going any further, but wth. Interestingly, the picture on the box is very true to the model, so it's easy to see which bits are missing. The silver bits are not as glaringly chrome as they look in most pictures, but the dark green missile tubes and boats do look weird. I'm pretty sure that the photo Martin posted was of the Trumpeter kit, as the missiles are showing in the launchers, but on the toy the tubes are closed, and there are no signs of screw holes in the fore deck. I'll try to send photos later, but may have to send them to Martin and see if he can put them in. Now off to try the resizing exercise!
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #18 on: July 02, 2008, 03:15:49 pm »

Pictures maybe.
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Martin (Admin)

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #19 on: July 02, 2008, 06:39:25 pm »


For Reference - Smasher out of the box video:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3itYvp5hhjU

(Ignore all the chatter about the non planing hydroplane! )
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Shipmate60

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #20 on: July 02, 2008, 11:03:55 pm »

tobyker
There are 2 bits of ballast, they are a shaped cinder ( as in cheap Breeze Blocks )  like material.

Bob
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #21 on: July 04, 2008, 10:34:14 pm »

Thanks, shipmate. Sounds rather like a washing machine then. I'll go looking for them after sea trials. (Hardly necessary now Martin's posted that video, but I need to see it working for a "before and after" comparision). If, of course there is an after!
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Shipmate60

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #22 on: July 04, 2008, 10:49:37 pm »

There are lots of hidden screws so just take your time.

Bob
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Edward Pinniger

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #23 on: July 07, 2008, 06:08:42 pm »

Regarding the issue with the screws holding the deck, hull + superstructure together, with my rebuild (not yet started) I've decided to basically remove all the screws, fill in the holes and glue everything together, leaving only the superstructure bits over the switch + battery compartment removable (with these I'll either use brass rods or small magnets to hold them in place, instead of the screws). If the motor or receiver go, it'll just have to be relegated to a static display model! But I can't think of any other easy way of dealing with the many large screw holes in the deck and superstructure.

I may have mentioned this before, but one way to give this model (and presumably the others in the "HT" range, like the carrier and Bismarck) a much more scale speed without modifying the running gear is to replace the 7.5v battery pack with a lower voltage; I replaced it with a battery holder containing 4 rechargeable AAs (4.8v total).
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tobyker

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Re: Chinese £20 warships
« Reply #24 on: July 08, 2008, 12:00:55 am »

Though I too haven't stripped mine yet, I wondered if after screwing it back together (if I do!), I could fill the screw holes with a short length of slaters plasticard tube topped with a disc which would sit flush with the deck. They could be filled and painted, but couls also be dug out later if required - a photo pre-filling would show you where to look for them. ! Pray for fine weather tomorrow for sea trials of this and the barge. (Has yours got screw hole plugs in the fore deck? mine only had the jelly plugs in the aft deck.)
Presumably a smaller battery pack will give less run time too - I'd be hoping to find space and weight saving to fit speed control. We shall have to do some amp measuring to find out how light we can get that.
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