Topic: Building Torpedo Boat No. 80 (Read 18050 times)

RickF · « **Reply #50 on:** November 17, 2006, 11:52:13 am »

Having spent a few hours thinking about how I'm going to build the new conning tower, I've decided to mould it. The technique I'll use is that described by Brian King in several of his books - although I don't think he originated it.

Put simply, a plug is carved to size and a hole is cut in a piece of flat wood for the plug to pass through. Plasticard is pinned on the flat wood, heated up and the plug is pushed through the hole. BK uses boiling water to heat the plasticard - I've tried that and found it too messy, so I use the workshop electric fire.

The pictures below show the stages in building a cowl vent. I've not tried anything as big as this conning tower, but we'll have a go!

cbr900 · « **Reply #51 on:** November 17, 2006, 12:08:51 pm »

Rick,

It should work out ok mate I used to use a similar method to make cowls and canopies for aircraft, principal is the same, I used to use the gas bottle on a soft heat flame........

Roy

RickF · « **Reply #52 on:** November 20, 2006, 12:07:19 am »

I should point out, having had a closer look at the photo of the cowl vent that I posted above, that's not the finished item! Although not perfect, my modelling skills are not that bad - I hope.

White Ensign · « **Reply #53 on:** November 20, 2006, 11:20:29 am »

Rick- no problem, it is obvious that the way you`re doing it is fine.
About the cowl vents, I use the same method and an old hair-dryer. Does a prfect job as an open flame could damage the surface and makes some extra sanding an priming necessary.

Jörg

gingyer · « **Reply #54 on:** December 01, 2006, 03:06:22 pm »

Hi Rick,
Sorry I never got back to you sooner.
My Friend who works in yarrow's got onto the archive people
who found the box for the info but nothing that was of use
to modelers, just some notes on the engine problems during trials.
They are unsure where they went one person suggested the admiralty
may have taken them for security as these were the stealth bombers of the
day some other ships had their info removed also.

If anything does turn up I will get in tough ASAP

Colin

RickF · « **Reply #55 on:** December 01, 2006, 05:01:00 pm »

Thank for trying, Colin. I have got just about enough info to make the aft tubes - at least to my own satisfaction. I hope they will look OK, even if they are not 100% accurate.

Building the conning tower turned out to be much harder than I was expecting. The moulding method was a disaster - couldn't keep the plastic hot enough, evenly enough for long enough. In the end I fabricated it from sheet. Looks OK. I installed it earlier today, so once I've cleaned it up I'll post some more pictures.

Rick

RickF · « **Reply #56 on:** December 20, 2006, 11:39:02 pm »

Still working on the conning tower/turtle deck/front end, so no photographs yet. Also begun work (again!) on 1:48 HMVS Cerberus, so expect some diversions from HMTB 80.

Tomorrow the DSM and I are off down the Rhine for a bit of festive "12 inches to the foot" boating, so a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all.

Rick

RickF · « **Reply #57 on:** January 16, 2007, 05:16:32 pm »

Plating

I’ve finally come up with a system I’m happy with for reproducing the plating.

I ‘m using 160 gram white card, cut into strips and scored vertically to represent 6 foot by 3 foot plates. These strips are then glued to the hull using 50/50 diluted PVA white glue.

Once dry, the vertical scoring is gone over again with a hard pencil and a coat of polyurethane varnish applied, then rubbed down lightly with fine wet-and-dry.

After another “rescore” with the pencil, a couple of coats of red primer are sprayed on.

The photos show the stages of my trial run on an old hull. The only thing I think I need to do to improve it is to “back up” the raised plates so they don’t form a joggle when dried. So the next stage is grit my teeth and tackle the real thing!

RickF · « **Reply #58 on:** March 11, 2007, 04:59:21 pm »

Well, progress on TB 80 has been a story of some ups and a few downs!

The plating went fairly well. I learnt a few things while I was doing it. (1) The plating strips go on cleaner if you spray them with primer first. (2) A couple of glasses of red wine makes the job less tedious. (3) A whole bottle of red wine leads to stripping off the plating the following morning!

Once the plating was finished I stuck on a rubbing strake of half-round styrene and prepared the rear deck for installing the steering chain system. As I said earlier, this was to be to scale, with all the pulleys and pivots modelled. Ah well, the best laid plans........

I fixed the pivots in place and made the pulleys and rollers. I ran neoprene tubing from midships to the rear conning tower to route the chains to the servo drum. I made up the chain/wire ropes and coupled the whole thing to the tiller. It looked good, if a little over scale. Unfortunately, it didn't work! Even before I threaded the chains back to the servo there was so much friction that it was almost impossible to put the helm over.

So it was back to the drawing board. How could I operate the tiller, which is mounted above the deck with the pivot at the stern, outside the hull, without a lot of non-scale gear on deck?

What I decided to do was to install a slotted crank below the tiller. A vertical pin in the tiller will pass through a curved slot in the deck and engage with the crank which will be operated by a pushrod from the midships servo.

So,all my careful work on the rear deck went into the scrap bin as I chopped a large hole to install the crank and push rod. No pictures of this yet - it's too disheartening!

Rick

White Ensign · « **Reply #59 on:** March 12, 2007, 06:27:05 am »

Hi Rick- good to see that you are still busy. Would like to see some photographs of your progress, if possible.

Jörg

DickyD · « **Reply #60 on:** June 29, 2007, 09:26:19 pm »

Hi Rick whatever happened to this build. It was going on fine, then nothing. Have you finished it yet ?

RickF · « **Reply #61 on:** June 29, 2007, 11:29:33 pm »

I keep getting diverted - other projects, and now it's the old car rallying season. Also suffering a bit with a frozen right shoulder, One of the problems with getting old. Still, it's better than the alternative to getting old!

Rick

RickF · « **Reply #62 on:** July 24, 2007, 11:39:04 pm »

Well......

Finally got around to doing some work on TB80 - it's been too wet to go out and play with the Austin! Finished off plating the hull and begun to work on adding details. Started with the scuttles on the hull and turtle deck. These are slices off the appropriate size of "Plastruct" tube, glued in place and then rubbed down to the correct thickness. I use a piece of brass sheet with a hole in it as a gauge. There are also scuttles all along the deck. Next job is to make the eleven assorted cowl vents and nine hatches.

Rick

DickyD · « **Reply #63 on:** July 25, 2007, 08:24:22 am »

Glad to see you are back on it again Rick.
Looking good.

RickF · « **Reply #64 on:** July 29, 2007, 12:17:17 am »

A little more progress.

There is virtually no superstructure on TB 80. From the stern there is the aft conning tower, with twin 14" tubes, the engine casing, twin funnels and the forward conning tower, which is faired into the turtle-decked forecastle.

Around the forward conning tower is a raised platform, which I call the "bandstand". This is constructed of radial slats - I guess the original would have been metal - with a hinged section to allow access to the tower. A rail runs around the bandstand and continues down the forecastle to the bow.

I made the bandstand in styrene. First I made a ring of the appropriate diameter, which I pinned sown in position over a copy of the plan. I then applied the radial slats, using "Plastruct" square section. Once this had hardened, I cut the slats to fit the profile of the tower/forecastle. I then applied half-round sections of tube to act as bosses for the stanchions - I'm using James Lane.

The photo shows the finished platform. Once in position on the tower the hinged section (between the stanchions) will be separated and set in the open position

gary r uk · « **Reply #65 on:** July 29, 2007, 07:15:15 am »

rickf
wow
you cut that from a solid, i worship the water you sail mate
did i mention wow
gary

RickF · « **Reply #66 on:** July 29, 2007, 10:43:19 pm »

No, Gary, I'm not that clever! It's all fabricated from bits of styrene. The ring was made up from sheet wound round a former and the radial slats stuck in. This was then cut away to fit round the conning tower.

Rick

PS Must stop posting after a couple of bottles of plonk - I've just edited the typos!

Sebastian B. · « **Reply #67 on:** July 30, 2007, 12:19:07 am »

Wow, good job ! I'm waiting for more pictures !

gary r uk · « **Reply #68 on:** July 30, 2007, 10:09:08 am »

rick
you still walk on water
gary

cdsc123 · « **Reply #69 on:** July 31, 2007, 05:53:27 pm »

Some photos of a nice HMTB68 here;
http://www.marinemodell-fotoarchiv.de/fotoarchiv/flottenparade/flottenparade2002/Deutsch/flottenparade2002.html
Unfortunately no close-ups, but it looks a good 'un.

RickF · « **Reply #70 on:** July 31, 2007, 11:43:55 pm »

Thanks for that, Christian - lovely sharp modelling there.

Now for a question.

Torpedo Boat No. 80 has 17 coalling scuttles in the engine/boiler room area - seven down each side and three on the centreline. According to March's drawing they are oval, with a plain rim and a chequered centre (see below). My question is: is the rim raised or the centre, or are they flush. Also, how much are they raised above the deck. All thoughts welcome.

I'm also posting this question on the "Queries" board.

Rick

RickF · « **Reply #71 on:** August 13, 2007, 07:30:09 pm »

Still working on the coaling scuttles. I've got some diamond-pattern Plasticard, so I'll see what I can make with that.

I was about to start painting the hull when I realised I had made a mistake with the bow torpedo tube, so that has to be rebuilt first.

In the meantime, I've been making the deck fittings shown below. The cowls for the vents and the pedestals for the gun and searchlight are made on the heated styrene and former principle. The hatches are fabricated from tube and sheet styrene and the 3-pounders were supplied by Paul at Sirmar. The searchlight is unfinished.

Rick

colin-stevens · « **Reply #72 on:** August 13, 2007, 08:48:46 pm »

you can get PE boiler plate from various scources. try the model railway world. also Westbourne used to keep some.
colin

slewis · « **Reply #73 on:** August 13, 2007, 10:16:25 pm »

Nice work Rick

Quote

The cowls for the vents and the pedestals for the gun and searchlight are made on the heated styrene and former principle

For those of us less enlightened can you perhaps be persuaded to explain this method ? :)

Shane

RickF · « **Reply #74 on:** August 13, 2007, 11:33:04 pm »

Shane,

I described the system earlier in the build, but it won't hurt to repeat it. It's described by Brian King in several of his books - although I don't think he originated it.

Put simply, a plug is carved to size and a hole is cut in a piece of flat wood for the plug to pass through. Plasticard is pinned on the flat wood, heated up and the plug is pushed through the hole. BK uses boiling water to heat the styrene - I've tried that and found it too messy, so I use the workshop electric fire.

The pictures below show the stages in building a cowl vent. As you can see, I use some pretty sophisticated equipment!

Rick

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Author Topic: Building Torpedo Boat No. 80 (Read 18050 times)

Sebastian B.

cdsc123

slewis