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Author Topic: Freelance tug - of sorts.  (Read 12520 times)

craftysod

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #25 on: February 19, 2009, 08:56:56 pm »

A very nice looking boat,i like the way the bridge sits forward
Mark
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #26 on: March 08, 2009, 05:14:52 pm »

Long time since last update but a couple more pics of the second planking. Bit of a mixture of woods - Mahogany, lime and other types that I had spare.
Plenty more rubbing down in between coats of clear varnish (I want about six coats I think) which will be followed by quite a few coats of lacquer.
Finally getting the electrics in and now that I have had some good advice from others on here, things are looking better in that department.
Still tons to do and many weeks/months before ready to get the bottom wet but it will happen.

Ron.
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Roger in France

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #27 on: March 09, 2009, 07:16:17 am »

Good looking planking, Ron. Seems a pity to cover it with paint!

Had you thought about possible differential shrinkage between the different woods?

Roger in France
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #28 on: March 09, 2009, 07:46:52 am »

Hello Roger.

No, I will not be painting it but there will be plenty of clear varnish.
As for wood shrinkage, I never gave that a thought. Do you think it will/might shrink enough to spring any leaks? Surely the amount of varnish and lacquer I will be using should keep it tight but I could be wrong in my thinking.

Ron.
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Roger in France

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #29 on: March 10, 2009, 07:32:36 am »

I am sure if you have a complete seal inside and out you should be OK. It is just that I always try to avoid using different woods if I can. However, I have very limited experience of plank on frame and so I may be raising a spectre without good cause.

Roger in France
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #30 on: March 22, 2009, 03:54:50 pm »

I thought it would be a good idea to post an update on the build so far.
I think it's now starting to resemble a tug although I will admit that the hull is definitely not tug shape! That is from a plan for a Pinasse steam boat but it appealed to me.
The winch is made from some old clockwork gears, scrap copper tubing and plastic sheet and styrene. I cut some black railway pins heads off and stuck these on the bases to resemble rivets or bolts. Portholes are made from brass washers.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #31 on: March 22, 2009, 04:04:34 pm »

The propeller base was made from scrap brass sheet as are the side-support for added strength.
I will be adding grain of wheat/rice bulbs at a later date as the cabins are not fixed down yet. I have had to place some neoprene between the motor and the base as the noise transmitted from it was one heck of a lot. Another mistake I made when I lacquered the hull was in using gloss. I thought it was matt when I "borrowed" it from work. Is there anyway I can respray the hull without the need to rub it down? I do not really want to do this as I have 5 layers of varnish below this.

Ron.
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craftysod

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #32 on: March 22, 2009, 04:16:58 pm »

Looks very nice mate  :-))
With regards to respraying,you will have to rub down very lightly,with a very fine wet and dry,to give the new varnish/laquer to adhere to
Mark
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #33 on: March 22, 2009, 04:38:52 pm »

I finally made a stand for it! Bit over the top but who cares? I can honestly say that this boat/tug or whatever it is, has been the most fun I have had in yonks.
To me, this is my idea of a what an old tug looks like. I am not a sea going person and I do not recall seeing one, and if I had of done it would of been when I did not really have an interest in boats of any kind.
It is all from scratch including the winch. Everything.
I do not know if the chimney is correct, or if there is a real-life tug or boat that in anyway resembles all or part of this but again, do I care?
The biggest headache I had was concerning the rudder. On the drawing (of which I have earlier mentioned the web site where I got it from), it showed the boat as a steam powered boat having a rudder on the transom. It was not until I had got quite a way through building it, that it dawned on me that I would have problems getting the rudder to work as it shows it connected to a tiller. I didn't want a tiller and after a few experiments, came up with cutting out a square at the rear of the deck and making a hatch hiding the servo which is connected to chains. Awkward to explain how its connected but I hope the pics will show how it is.
I will be making a winch for the fore-part of the boat for which I am going to try to incorporate one for the anchors. I will try to make this a working one but if I cannot, so be it.
I have a spare channel on my transmitter and if I can't do this, then I will try something else.

With any luck, I will hopefully have some spare time in the near future to complete more of the build. As some of you will know, I work in F1 and these past few months have been extremely hectic and at times, I have only been able to snatch a couple of hours at the most on the odd weekend to do any building. Now that our milkfloats  cars are winging there way over to Australia and will be away from here for the next month or so, I hope to be able to do more.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #34 on: March 22, 2009, 04:42:24 pm »

Cheers Mark. Will give it a go soon. Still too bl''dy knackered at the moment and only feel like doing small jobs on it.
Got a little something for when you come along!! O0

Ron.
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Proteus

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #35 on: March 22, 2009, 05:49:25 pm »

I don't normally comment on peoples builds but this one is very nice, really nice wood and bass work, does the winch work and what is the rope you have used.. :-))

Just out of interest are you still having problems getting the rudder to work i had a similar problem at one time it was because I had not placed the connections on the servo the same distance behind the centre through line as i had the rudder,you may know what I mean.

Proteus
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #36 on: March 22, 2009, 06:55:13 pm »

Proteus,

Thanks very much for your comments.
The rope was from Amati.
I know exactly what you meant!! I got the servo running okay in the end as it was a case of trial and error. Mainly error but by juggling the length of the chain and different positions for the connecting holes, I finally achieved a good result.
I could of had the winch working as I had the gears but my third channel is non-reversing, and I cant quite afford a four channel yet. I did say earlier that I would try and make a working winch but obviously I wouldn't be able to use it until I get a better radio.
The wood and brass work is deliberately kept as that with no paint except for the cabin roofs and some small parts like the window frames. I wanted to do something similar to my Rainbow yacht which I have still to finish off, but on a bigger scale. Picture for show.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #37 on: March 22, 2009, 07:18:25 pm »

Don't you just hate it when you put in the same photo twice? >>:-(
And on two different postings!
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awvs

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #38 on: March 22, 2009, 10:22:27 pm »

Hi ronkh,
your tug is beautiful. Great job!

Best
Wilhelm
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kno3

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #39 on: March 23, 2009, 11:26:04 am »

Ron, beautiful woodwork on your tug. I hope you won't paint the hull, it's so nice to look at a well made plank-on-frame boat.
By the way, you could put some brass nails in the ends of the planks, that usually looks very nice.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #40 on: March 28, 2009, 07:52:43 pm »

Another small update of the boat.
I was going to get a soldering gun/iron to do the rails but thought I would leave it for a while until I can get some practice in.
Instead, I bought some double ball 14m/m stanchions from www.model-dockyard.com I ordered these yesterday about 10am and they arrived today 28th March along with a couple of navigation lights and a book on Model R/C control. Its going to take some reading and double-checking before I am anyway near good enough to do what I want to do.
The stanchions I am using with 1/32" brass rod.
The winches are none working as I do not have a spare channel, but I hope to be able to do so on a future build. Use as working winches that is!
I am afraid that the picture quality is like the camera, crap. A lot like my abilities when it comes to using them!

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #41 on: March 28, 2009, 07:58:31 pm »

Couple more.
Hopefully, I will get a good run on it tomorrow. I really want to finish the insides of the hull but I can't do that until the decks down and for that, I have to be sure that everything is finished inside. As this is my first scratch built effort, I am a little nervous about doing that. Still in for a penny, in for a pound.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #42 on: April 10, 2009, 07:53:30 pm »

Uploading a few more pictures for an update. To keep cost down, almost all the extras are made from scratch.
I think the wind vane is out of scale (this could be because I don't remember seeing a tug in real life!) as could a few other things but as I said earlier, I enjoy it, its' my first scratch built and to me, it looks good.
The two square bits by the sides of the cabin are coal shoots. The anchor winch works - by hand - and the other winches would do work but turning by hand only, I didn't motorise them because of cost but also mainly as I wanted to see what I could do and how things would look before I do a bigger working tug. This will most likely be the "Archer" from a Jim Pottinger plan, and on this, all the winches etc I hope to have working.
I will let the photos show the work I have done.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #43 on: April 10, 2009, 08:00:51 pm »

A few more.
The small boats are scratch made. Is it carvel? I cant remember. Very fiddly as they only measure 75m/m. 3 inches in length.
The bumper bit was again scratch made. I carved a piece of balsa to what I presumed to be the correct shape and then just wrapped some rope over it. Looks okay though yet my hands are now covered in superglue!
The anchor davit works. (Did I already say that? Never mind if I did!).
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #44 on: April 10, 2009, 08:06:34 pm »

The anchor is also scratch made.
I have tried it in the bath and no way am I going to show a photo of that!
The bath dates from around the late seventies/early eighties or so and the colour must of been copied from someone having an accident after too many beers and some junk food. %%
I hope to be able to at least show some photos of it in the water and if I can, a video or something from my phone.
I still have a few deck bits of clutter to put on and again, I do not have a real idea of what some of them do but I am learning O0

Ron
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cbr900

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Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #45 on: April 11, 2009, 01:56:44 pm »

Ron,

Just be careful when moving it about, with the rudder position it is very vulnerable.

Looks the ducks gutz mate..........

Roy
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I try not to be naughty but nautical

ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #46 on: April 11, 2009, 04:33:07 pm »

Thanks Roy.

Re. Rudder.
Believe me, I found out the ouch <:( way about the rudder >:-o
The hull was originally for a Pinacce boat and I changed it to a "tug of sorts", and it was not until I had nearly finished it that I realised that I would have problems with the rudder. The only solution that I could think of was to fit it with chains after extending it out of the back.
Seems to work okay but will have to wail until it gets it's bottom wet.

Ron.
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ronkh

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #47 on: May 22, 2009, 08:50:43 pm »

Went down to Cripplegate Lake situated at Southwater in West Sussex (UK) today. www.horshamdistrictcountryside.org (go to Southwater Country Park)
This is the home of the www.dabblers.wikispaces.com
This was my second time down there but I forgot my camera last week!
I remembered this time, but could only take three shots as the card was full and I did not have one of my son's to tell me how to re-set it to zero!
Still, at least it proves that it floats, it does not leak, I had some very good comments from the boaters there and I had a grin like the Cheshire Cat!
For my first scratch build, I am very pleased and happy with it and I am now completely hooked on model R/C boats!
I can't see many static boats being done in the future now!! (Well, maybe just a couple).
The photos are not exactly close up but at least they show it on the water! More later and I hope that you can see them well enough.
In a couple of months, I should have a Springer ready of which more of when the time comes.

Ron.
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barryfoote

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Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #48 on: May 22, 2009, 10:06:02 pm »

Ron,

Some skill you have there......very nice indeed..

Barry
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craftysod

  • Guest
Re: Freelance tug - of sorts.
« Reply #49 on: May 22, 2009, 10:24:29 pm »

Looks great mate,have you named her yet  :-))
Mark
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