Well here is my build of the wonderful Model Slipways Tsekoa II kit. This was one of those shelf queens that finally was finished.
Well this project has been about 12 years in the making.... And then some!
The story goes that I got this kit back in 2004 or so for Christmas from the parents. It seemed easy enough and in my skillset at the time to get it finished within a year or 2.
I built up a lot of the smaller items - crane, lifeboat, davit, mast, etc. and when it came time to get the electronics in, things stalled. I had purchased a vantec speed control with the kit, and lost it (I have it now)... to top it off the motor couplings needed to be tapped and drilled which I could not do.
So there she sat for a long period of time.... smaller parts finished, rudder servo installed, rudders hooked up, shafts installed.
It sat for a few years, before I brought it to NH thinking I could get some work done, but nothing... then last year I moved from place in Mass, to where I am now, and it came along again.
FINALLY I said screw this and got around to working on it - I was tired of it being the neglected build...
Upon opening the box, I noticed a rudder shaft broken, which has been the bane of my existence since restarting. Other than that, and trying to clean up a lot of the mess I had made with the shafts, its been pretty straight forward. Motors had 6:1 reduction gears on them, but I since removed it after testing in the lake on a choppy day. They were removed o give the 550 motors a bit more kick in pushing through heavy seas and high winds.
Now having "lost" that speed control, I picked up a dynamite one from Horizon, and it handles the job nicely. I have had it out running for about 45 minutes at partial throttle.
I have it set for counter rotating props, and will replace the kit props with brass ones at some point, but for now she is a blast to run and handles any variety of water conditions with ease.
My only issues are that when water runs across the deck, there is some that makes its way between the hatch and the lip and down into the hull.. I will need to sort that out and fix a driveline vibration caused by a bad coupling end.
I have since added a Canadian flag and will take pictures of it underway soon!
The full build blog is here :
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2543017