Topic: 12m SSRS Victoria Class Lifeboat (Read 23963 times)

Charlie · « **Reply #50 on:** May 08, 2020, 09:28:09 pm »

Deck mould was completed on Wednesday, and I left it to Harden until today when I took it off the plug. There were only 2 small cavities to fill, so it's now all ready to layup the actual deck

Capt Podge · « **Reply #51 on:** May 08, 2020, 09:52:19 pm »

Hi Charlie, judging by the photos you appear to have been successful and with no damage to your plug - now, that's impressive.
Looking forward to seeing the results of the layup.

Regards,
Ray.

Charlie · « **Reply #52 on:** May 10, 2020, 08:10:35 pm »

Todays progress - took the deck out of the mould and trimmed the edges and the opening. It just popped out of the mould with just a couple of taps from my rubber mallet, awesome! Next job will be to make the wheelhouse, so I have been studying all the photos I can find, since I don't have any detail drawings. From what I can see, all of the boats have slight differences particularly around the rear of the wheel house, and the mast arrangement. Some boats have an upper control/steering position but others don't.

Canterbury Coxswain · « **Reply #53 on:** May 10, 2020, 11:45:55 pm »

Hi Charlie,
It's looking as good as I would have expected from your previous builds, you must be well pleased. Have you asked whether they could provide plans, or do you want the challenge?
Maybe we'll get to see each other again sometime......but not soon it would appear.
Regards,
Kim

Charlie · « **Reply #54 on:** May 11, 2020, 11:34:50 am »

Hi Kim,
Yes, i am well pleased with how this is turning out so far. I have a General Arrangement drawing which i can take the overall dimensions from, which is good enough. I never did approach the builder, as i suspect that they would never release any more detailed drawings of their design, for obvious reasons. However, i think i have now figured out the wheelhouse design, so i will proceed with the build. I can also start cutting the holes in the hull for the water jets.
Maybe one day i can run this alongside your Shannon! That would be something to look forward to.
Regards,
Charlie

Charlie · « **Reply #55 on:** May 12, 2020, 09:18:15 am »

Back in 1995 i started to build my first GRP boat, a 1:15 scale model of the Dungeness Mersey Class Lifeboat. This turned out quite well, except for one problem. I over-engineered the build which resulted in it being overweight. The hull was laid up of probably 4 or 5 layers of fairly thick Chopped Strand Mat, which meant that it was virtually indestructible, but sat too low in the water. So ever since then, i have been careful to keep the weight of my boats down.
I have weighed all the components so far, and these are the totals:

Hull 1480g
Deck 611g
2x 5000mah LIPOs 708g
Jets & Motors 348g
4x Servos & 2x Action P105 280g
2x ESC 116g
Total 3543g

The full size boat displaces 14 tons with full stores, which is approx 8kg at 1:12 scale. So even allowing for another 1kg for the wheelhouse and fittings, i am well underweight, and have enough spare capacity to add additional batteries if required.

This is a link to a video of my Mersey, taken back in 2000, and you can see what i mean.

https://eur01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fyoutu.be%2FEHYwiVOfAmE&data=02%7C01%7Ccharles.bowley%40maersk.com%7C46a8c287e5ab4cd6b04c08d7f64ca8a2%7C05d75c05fa1a42e79cf1eb416c396f2d%7C0%7C0%7C637248681422494747&sdata=zay3t6br2qZr9O5p%2Bv%2BR9SO95uSOQO6jnfzYGwRvAYs%3D&reserved=0

Charlie · « **Reply #56 on:** May 17, 2020, 08:58:46 pm »

Started making the pattern for the wheelhouse moulding. Doesn't look pretty exactly, but should be good enough

Capt Podge · « **Reply #57 on:** May 17, 2020, 09:26:23 pm »

Once again, you appear to have made good progress. Good to see you're using your deck plug to build the framework on.

Regards,
Ray.

Charlie · « **Reply #58 on:** May 20, 2020, 03:32:29 pm »

Framework is just about complete. Next job will be to start sheeting over the structure.

TugCowboy · « **Reply #59 on:** May 21, 2020, 02:44:08 pm »

Sterling work Charlie, really enjoying this build.

Charlie · « **Reply #60 on:** May 22, 2020, 10:24:48 am »

The Wheelhouse side pieces are now glued into position. Did i mention that i love this new working from home culture we have?

I have also started uploading hi-res photos of my build into a new Flickr gallery here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/188396953@N05/albums/72157714284998633

Charlie · « **Reply #61 on:** May 26, 2020, 11:52:21 am »

What a busy weekend that was! The weather was far too nice to spend all of it in the shed; i took a boat to the lake early on Sunday morning for a sail (YouTube link below). There were only a few joggers and dog walkers around, so i had no social distancing issues. I am so lucky to have this beautiful sailing location right on my doorstep. During this lockdown i have re-discovered the joys of Mountain Biking; i have dusted down my old Cannondale MTB, given it a good oiling and pumped up the tyres, and have been hitting the trails again. Just a 20-minute drive away is Bedgebury Forest which contains an awesome 13km Singletrack MTB trail which i have been enjoying for the last 2 days.
That said, i did make some progress on the Wheelhouse, which the photos below illustrate.

https://youtu.be/kKRdT7Ddijc

Charlie · « **Reply #62 on:** June 01, 2020, 10:36:47 pm »

I thought I had just about finished the Wheelhouse - I had started applying filler to all of the gaps and cracks. But then I noticed that the rear face of the wheelhouse wasn't square; the top right corner was sloping forward by approx 6mm, although it is square at the base. So I had to remedy this by adding some tapered battens and a sheet of 0.8mm Ply to create a new rear face. Not sure how I didn't notice this before, but at least it is fixed now. The Wheelhouse roof design means that a separate moulding is required, as this fits over, and overlaps the sides of the Wheelhouse. I have started to make this, but no photos of this part yet.

Capt Podge · « **Reply #63 on:** June 01, 2020, 11:52:51 pm »

It's great to see that you spotted the error in good time Charlie, a lot of extra effort would have been needed if you had ploughed on and went ahead with the making of the mould

.
So you have saved a lot of extra work in the long run.. Good work.

Regards,
Ray.

Charlie · « **Reply #64 on:** June 03, 2020, 09:09:30 am »

So the Wheelhouse is all straightened out, now i can start on the pattern for the Roof moulding.

Charlie · « **Reply #65 on:** June 08, 2020, 02:13:12 pm »

This is what i have to show for my weekend's efforts - a just about completed Roof Moulding pattern.

Charlie · « **Reply #66 on:** June 08, 2020, 04:35:37 pm »

Just for clarity i have circled this component in the attached photo, so you can see what this looks like on the full size vessel.

Capt Podge · « **Reply #67 on:** June 08, 2020, 04:42:29 pm »

Thanks for the update Charlie, helps a lot when looking at your plug work.

Regards,
Ray.

Charlie · « **Reply #68 on:** June 09, 2020, 12:57:13 pm »

Just checking my wheelhouse again, and noticed one small detail that i missed. The front face has a small vertical section which i had missed. I will add this, then i can prepare for moulding.

Charlie · « **Reply #69 on:** June 17, 2020, 07:54:56 pm »

The build has been progressing! Both the Wheelhouse and the Roof patterns were finished, sprayed, and then the mouldings were made. The Wheelhouse is a 3-piece moulding, so this took the longest to complete. The final side was finished tonight, and i will give it a couple of days to harden completely before removing the moulding from the plug. The Roof was a simple one piece moulding, so this was finished in one go. It was nice and easy to remove the moulding from the plug, and has turned out really well. Also, my 'Sjöräddningssällskapet' house flag from 'Scale Flags and Ensigns', has arrived! This will look the business when it is hanging from the mast and the boat is powering along at a scale 40 knots! It is 100mm width, and is deliberately a bit oversize so that it is more prominent on the model.

Charlie · « **Reply #70 on:** June 18, 2020, 08:16:40 pm »

In the end i couldn't wait any longer - i had to remove the wheelhouse moulding from the plug. This wasn't an easy task this time; the top/front of the wheelhouse roof had become stuck to the GRP, despite the application of 2 separate coats of release agent. However after a great deal of some quite brutal persuasion with a hammer, i was finally able to achieve the release. However the moulds look to be in pretty good shape, and after a bit of minor filling and sanding, we should be able to crack on and make the final wheelhouse mouldings.

Charlie · « **Reply #71 on:** June 24, 2020, 10:00:14 pm »

I have just taken the Wheelhouse and the Roof Mouldings out of the moulds, and they look to have turned out really well. Now i can move on to fitting the Ocean-Works Water Jets and the RC gear.

Charlie · « **Reply #72 on:** July 04, 2020, 08:03:24 pm »

My plan today was to get all of the electronics connected so i could test everything out on the bench. I'm planning to make the RC setup as simple as possible. So left stick will run the Port Waterjet, using the Action P105 to control the ESC and the Servo for the reversing bucket. Right stick will do the same for the Starboard Waterjet. Right stick will be connected via a Y-lead to 2 servos, which will operate both steering nozzles simultaneously. So i soldered the HXT Connectors to the ESC's, and prepared the P105's by filing the openings for the wiring. But then i hit a snag - the Motors have 3.5mm bullet connectors, but the ESC's have 4mm connectors, so i couldn't proceed. I found a supplier on Ebay for some 3.5mm to 4mm bullet connector adaptors which should arrive next week.

Charlie · « **Reply #73 on:** July 13, 2020, 10:42:42 am »

My bullet connector adaptors arrived, and i was able to connect everything together. If i connect the motors and servos directly to my Planet Receiver, everything works fine. However once i connected in the Action P105's, i just couldn't get them to work. I did post a request for help in the 'Black Arts' section, https://www.modelboatmayhem.co.uk/forum/index.php/topic,65298.0.html but unfortunately there are no replies, i'm guessing because not many people have used these. I did follow the instructions to the letter, i doubt there is anything wrong with the units, some i'm wondering if there could be some sort of compatibility issue with the particular RX and ESC i'm using. Not to worry, i'm going to press on with the build.
I have now cut out the openings for the Ocean Works Jet Units, using the template method used to mark them out, as described in Andy Waters Shannon build! I used my Dremel and a 4mm drill bit to cut the openings, and then used a coarse abrasive paper to finish the job. I then spent a few hours filling and rubbing down a few blemishes in the GRP hull before giving it a wash to remove any trace of release agent. Once i have finished filling and smoothing the hull, i will epoxy the jets into position.
In other news, i have got my new Proxxon lathe working! It must be 30 odd years since i last touched a lathe, when i was a Mechanical Engineering Apprentice! I'm starting off with a nice easy job, which is to make some nylon rollers for another model lifeboat related project - any guesses what this might be?

Canterbury Coxswain · « **Reply #74 on:** July 13, 2020, 11:55:40 am »

Hi Charlie,
All looking very good, as we have come to expect! Regarding the electrical problems and set-up, 'phone Iain at Component Shop and tell him 'I sent you to him', he sells these products and is very good and in touch with Dave Milbourn who used to make them [might still help?], so between them they should put you in the right direction.
Cheers and hope this gets rectified OK.
Kim

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Author Topic: 12m SSRS Victoria Class Lifeboat (Read 23963 times)