Via email to Mayhem...
Hi
I thought it was about time I dipped my toe in the water. I haven't posted yet but here are some photos of my latest build.
She is a US Towboat 'Lake Charles' scratch built from plans drawn by John L Fryant. The original is, I believe, still owned by CONOCO and based in Houston.
The model is not exactly to scale as I built her to try tug towing so some of the fiddly bits like rails have been left out and I have included towing equipment which I
don't think is on the prototype.
The model is built from sheet ply of various thickness and measures 32" by 12" beam. It was quite an easy build as she is just basically a series of boxes one on top of the other.
She has two Beuhler? motors from MMD, running on 24 volts, (I think this may be a bit much as on her first outing she tried to turn submarine).
At the moment both motors run off one 'RC Workshops' ESC, however I may treat myself to another if they are at Ellesmere this year.
The model has a full set of flanking rudders as per the original but for the life of me I cannot see what they do, they certainly don't make the model any more manoeuvrable, I hope they are more use on the prototype.
The motors power 2 X 68mm, 4 bladed props, from Prop Shop, via 6mm shafts.
The boat looks quite good on the water but the 24 volt power made her a bit, shall we say, unruly. At Huddersfield two weeks ago I managed to sink a totally innocent tug being used as an obstacle on the course.
I haven't yet managed to couple her up to a tow but there should be no issues with power.
Happy Building cheers........liam.......