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Author Topic: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB  (Read 11053 times)

steve pickstock

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Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« on: March 30, 2009, 11:38:58 am »

I decided to create this post rather than hi-jack someone else’s. And put it under warships because – after all – the 72ft Vosper was a warship.

I don’t have any pictures in this post but will get some sorted as soon as I can.

I am a beginner at marine modelling, though I have been model making for a long time. This is one of those long held dream things – had the model when I was much younger and wanted to RC it then, so now here I am. Plus we have a bit of model boat thing going at the wargames club.

I asked around at the Ellesmere Port show and got some good advice there. Then bought a Hi-Tech Ranger set from Model zone:- controller, receiver, 2 servo's and battery case. I also have another couple of servos and a 'mixer', which I bought at Elly Port. I stripped down two of the servos to use as motors and steering - no rudder - just use the power of the motors to steer it. That was a job and a half – mainly due to the ruggedness of the Hi-Tech servos but with one mistake consigned to the spares box I dismantled two more servos, connected them to the mixer, tweaked the potentiometers down to idle speeds and it works fine. Thanks to the sanity of the clip together system and the suggestion that a mixer would be what I need that all works nicely.
The next big job is to shoe-horn the radio gear into the hull, and get the props turning.

The first attempt to get the hull together I made a complete mess of - one of the hull sides was very warped - but at GBP11, it wasn't too great a hardship to pick up a second kit, with a much better formed hull (the plus side of that is that it has given me some really useful pieces). I cleaned some of the moulded register pieces off the hull sides and used Evergreen plastic strip to increase the glue surface - so the hull sides have gone together quite well.
Next step is to mate the hull sides to the bottom and seal it all up, which I am doing very slowly to ensure good adhesion and take care of the warpage at the same time.

I also cleaned up the cockpit area and added some wire conduits using wires from an old Samsung mobile phone hands-free kit. I added the engine room voice pipes from florist’s wire – and did the mouthpiece/speaker using greenstuff putty. The illustration in the Osprey I’m working from shows grab rails in front of the steering position and on the sides of the cockpit – which I added using florist’s wire.

I decided not to do the throttle controls and torpedo firing mechanism as that is mainly under a shelf at the front of the cockpit.

I purchased a couple of the Gunthwaite 1/72 metal figures from Halifax Model shop to use on the model, but looking at the space available in the cockpit I decided against this and will just use two of the kit figures – with shrink marks suitable filled using Humbrol model filler.

Last of all so far I am working on the oerlikon guns - I tried using very fine tube from a Revell glue applicator to replace the kit barrels. All I succeeded in doing is making it look a bit like a six pounder. The old oerlikon is an exquisite looking gun - beautiful design, elegant - so I may end up going for an after market piece there.
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KitS

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #1 on: March 30, 2009, 01:49:51 pm »

Steve,

What a challenge you've taken on!  :-))

Well it would be for me anyway, putting TWO motors plus the rest of the R/C gear in such a tiny hull. It's only slightly larger than the ASR that I have and mine will be a static model for sure. I can't wait to see the photos to see how you got it all in.

It sounds like the Vosper has a different form of hull construction to the ASR, but both seem to be as difficult to build as each other.
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Regards
Kit

steve pickstock

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #2 on: March 30, 2009, 02:12:06 pm »

It's not so much getting both motors in, the actual motor cases will fit. It's the Printed Circuit Boards that are the issue. They are too big to both go in with the PCBs vertical, or turned through ninety degrees and lying flat, but what I think will need to be done is have assymetric prop shafts - one longer than the other and have the PCBs overlapping each other.

And yes I know what I have taken on, but hey what's the point of doing it if it's easy?

I've already got my next project lined up a nice big, flat bottomed, scratch built 1/72nd scale Lct Mk 6, and a squadron of Hat Cromwell's on deck.
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steve pickstock

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #3 on: March 31, 2009, 08:31:50 pm »

It floats!   

Pictures tomorrow.
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steve pickstock

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #4 on: April 01, 2009, 07:22:53 am »

Well I promised pictures so here goes.

First up the sides of the cockpit as they are originally in the kit - starboard and port.





Next some views of the bridge and the cockpit as I have done them. Showing the grab rails as they have been added, the new conduit for wiring and the green blob of the engine room speaker tub.







Next is the hull as completed with the openings blanked off with styrene sheet.
It's sealed with Humbrol model filler and Wilkinson's (the hardware store) Polystyrene cement - which is one of the best I have found as it glues vinyl - more of that later in the saga. However it does have gap stopping properties. These also show the glue blocks inside the transom, which I also thinking about for the deck, as I tried a dry fit the othernight and it wasn't easy. (And yes that is my work bench in the back ground and no I don't apologies for the state of it).






Next up is the test rig I built to try out my rc set up. I am a beginner at all this RC stuff and wanted to know more about how it all worked so I built this rig to understand that. The two motors use electric wire insulation to connect to the prop shafts and two bits of masking tape are so I can see which way the shafts are turning more easily.






Lastly the oerlikons.

First is the guns from the kit.
Next is my attempts at improving the barrels. These barrels are the correct length according to one drawing I have seen but they look too short - I may replace them with slightly longer barrels just for the look of it. 






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Dazzler

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #5 on: April 01, 2009, 07:20:57 pm »

Looks good Steve,can't wait to see the next steps and I hope it all goes to plan. :-))
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warspite

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2009, 10:40:32 pm »

I like it too, I need to be a naughty boy again and get sent to the naughty room to continue mine, no progress since last year, too much work  {:-{
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steve pickstock

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #7 on: April 14, 2009, 10:44:14 am »

Sorry to keep you all waiting, the Easter break went a bit pear-shaped. Should have been at an English Civil War re-enactment in Basingstoke but the car is a little poorly. Only a bit but significant and the main dealers can't fix it, yet.

Spent most of the week-end with she who walks in splendour, but have been doing things like finishing off the torpedo tubes, drilling the extra holes needed in the bases. Opened up the insides to take the device warheads. Spent some time burring out the smaller cowls and cleaning up the large cowls. I also filled and sanded the sink marks in the deck, and on the oerlikon bandstand, and filled and sanded the propellors.

But it is all small stuff no major steps forwards.

However I am hoping to change all of that soon. I found some cheap small remote control boats, here

http://gadgetsangizmos.co.uk/onlineshop/prod_125329-Mini-RC-2CH-Speed-Boat.html

Have ordered a couple of these and will use one in the Vosper. They should be here this week.
The Vosper is never going to be a major player on my local lake, as a first project I'll be happy if I can get it to go forwards and back and turn left and right. I have learned so much doing this that I already have my next project lined up. But this little boat will hopefully do the business, and allow me to make the Vosper a sealed unit, with the on-off switch and charger coupler hidden under the companion way covers.

BTW I decided to go with the kit oerlikons after I saw a group build on another forum.

The other thing about all of this is that I haven't actually made a large model in years - I mainly paint wargames figures - and it is very nice to be involved in this work, and find I can still do it.

Oh and one little thing - Airfix now do a small motor, with plastic coupler tube and shaft, for making the props work on their 1/24 scale aircraft. They used to do these but the motors never had a lot of torque and could be stoped with a finger very easily. These don't, with a single AA battery (in UK terms) they are quite fast and pack a fair bit of grunt, and all for GBP2.99.
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cling-on-bop

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #8 on: April 14, 2009, 05:52:54 pm »

I've already got my next project lined up a nice big, flat bottomed, scratch built 1/72nd scale Lct Mk 6, and a squadron of Hat Cromwell's on deck.

Anything like this, i never threw anything away, i still have all my tanks trucks etc from childhood, so the prop's are from an old vosper or e-boat, and the motors are from servo's
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cling-on-bop

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #9 on: April 14, 2009, 05:57:40 pm »

 :-)
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cling-on-bop

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2009, 06:01:15 pm »

 :-)
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cling-on-bop

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2009, 06:04:15 pm »

 :-)

the last two are showing the props rotated, the only wet test carried out was a short stint in the sink, as is with the higgins boat it probablly is a fair weather vessel
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steve pickstock

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #12 on: April 15, 2009, 07:18:56 am »

Was thinking about this as a further addition to my 1/72 scale fleet, but doing the LCM 6 - stretched by 6 ft. Thanks for sharing that.
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KitS

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Re: Airfix 73ft Vosper MTB
« Reply #13 on: April 16, 2009, 02:16:29 pm »

Oh and one little thing - Airfix now do a small motor, with plastic coupler tube and shaft, for making the props work on their 1/24 scale aircraft. They used to do these but the motors never had a lot of torque and could be stoped with a finger very easily. These don't, with a single AA battery (in UK terms) they are quite fast and pack a fair bit of grunt, and all for GBP2.99.

The original motors you mentioned were designed specially for use in small aircraft models to drive props. They were only 2 pole motors, so had a stalled position that didn't draw any current, thus the ability to start them by flicking and stopping by sticking your finger in the prop. I built a B-24 Liberator with 4 of them installed with batteries in the bomb bay. I've lost count of the number of props I've had to replace after knocking the blades off while trying to stop them.  {:-{

The new ones are 3 pole motors as I understand it, but around the same size, so will need a switch to start and stop them.
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Regards
Kit
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