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[SailorGreg]

 Just a brief update this time.  I have been cutting the windows in the superstructure and taking it very slowly to minimise the chance of a slipping blade causing me to use naughty words.  I started by placing masking tape around each window to give me a clear line to work to.  Then, following the instructions (good boy!) I drilled a small hole in each corner, well inside the tape, and then cut out the piece between the holes.  Then, using a small rat tail file, I filed out the corners to the tape edge.  I then carefully cut away the edges between the corners, finishing off with an emery board and a small file.  This picture shows those stages.  On the right the windows have had the centre cut out between the holes, in the middle I have filed out to the corners and to the left is a completed window.  I did find that when finished each window was still surrounded by a slight ridge from the bulge by which the vacform defines the windows.  A used a fine grit sanding pad to remove the ridge.

 

 
And after some patient cutting and filing, here is the superstructure sitting in place with all the windows cut out.
 

 
As I went along and as a break from cutting and filing I did a bit more on the bridge internals.  The floor has a grating so the crew can keep their feet dry, and I didn’t fancy trying to build a 1/24 grating, so I ordered an Amati kit of one.  When I went to put it together, it seemed a little short somehow…
 

 
The label says there are 30 pieces, which there are, and that it is a 52mm grating, which it is – in one dimension.  However, if you are expecting a 52mm square grating, you will be disappointed.  I guess the expectation is that modellers will make several small gratings from the pieces supplied.  Fortunately, there is enough complete grating for my bridge floor.  So here is my grating alongside the nearly finished (a couple more details to go) bridge front panel, my interpretation of the drawing in an earlier post.
 

 
I have ordered a few items from Battlecrafts including a flag locker for the bridge.  When they arrive I should be able to complete the bridge and fix it in place in the superstructure.


Going back to the windows for a moment, I plan to simply glue some clear plastic on the inside face of the superstructure.  I did wonder if I should be trying to cut pieces that fit exactly into the openings, but that seemed to me to be a mite tricky to say the least.  How do others do this bit?


Happy modelling – and sailing for those who can now venture out!
 
Greg

[SailorGreg]

Ooooh, just spotted that the last post was my 999th to Mayhem, so this one is my 1000th!   


Do I get a congratulatory telegram from Martin? 

[radiojoe]

No just the BILL. 

[Pauli]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for updating your build.

I like the idea of using masking tape to define the cutting area of the windows - that's a really good tip!

Glazing the windows will be tricky - will you be making frames for the them? I can't remember seeing any window frames amongst the fittings supplied with the kit.

Your build is progressing well - the floor gratings are a particularly nice touch!


- Pauli

[SailorGreg]

For those following this build (both of you!), I am afraid things are likely to go quiet for a while.  We are trying to downsize and as we know buying and selling houses ranks right up there as one of the most stressful things you can do.  I am under strict instructions to keep things tidy even in my man cave! 

I will post anything significant that I do but it is likely to be a while before I get back to "normal", and when we do move I guess there will be a period of settling in before the modelling stuff is unpacked.  I just hope things move ahead quickly.  Wish me luck!

Happy modelling and sailing one and all.

Greg

[Pauli]

Hi Greg,

Ah! that's a shame! - I looked forward to the updates on your build which I have found very interesting and helpful.

Good luck with your house move and hope you will be able to continue your build log at some time in the future.



- Pauli

[radiojoe]

Hi Greg, hope your move goes smoothly, yes can be very stressful, are you staying on the island if not try and find a home near a pond. 


Stay well  Joe.

[SailorGreg]

Thanks guys. Yes, we're staying on Hayling.  We are only moving because SWMBO can't do the stairs any more and we need a bungalow.  And I do hope to post progress occasionally in the next few weeks - it all depends how buying/selling goes and how long all the modelling stuff needs to be packed away.

Anyone want to buy a lovely house on Hayling Island?   

Greg

[dougal99]

Stannah stair lift? Mother found it very useful as did Dad later. Better than emptying two sheds of all dad's tools.

[SailorGreg]

Yes, considered a stairlift and an actual lift, but the geometry of our stairs/landing and general space considerations make the stairlift impossible and the lift very difficult (i.e. expensive).  And to be frank, the house is too big for us, so the sensible (but stressful) route is to find a property that suits us better.  Wish us luck!

Greg

[Daleb]

Wow! Stunning build as usual Greg, I'm definitely looking forward to seeing this one on the water

[BrianB6]

I wish you an easy move and no hassles. 
My wife and I have just moved our bedroom and several other bits and pieces from our Granny flat into the main house.   One grand daughter, a nurse, has been asked to help with Covid testing and it was considered safer for all, if she self isolated in our flat.   3 days and we are still using boxes. 

[SailorGreg]

The house move has had a couple of false starts, but things are looking up on that front.  Fingers crossed!  I have been doing a bit here and there on the MGB, so here is an update.  Nothing major, but at least I haven't stopped completely.

First, I received my order from Battlecrafts which included the flag locker, so that went into the bridge.  The "flags" are rolled up pieces of tissue coloured with water colours.  I haven't filled the whole thing, and there is no real attempt to replicate any flag, just an attempt to give a general impression of things.




The bridge was then assembled and glued in place in the superstructure.  [/font][/size]I have now added a little putty to hide the joins.





Having cut out all the windows, it was clear (!) that I could see right through the superstructure which isn’t what I wanted. 
I am not going to detail the internals at all, but I did add some baffles inside to give an impression of internal structure.




And then painted the internal surfaces dark grey to make it a bit gloomy. Not my best ever paint job, but it does tone everything down nicely.


[/font][/size]

 I then moved on to the sliding hatch on top of the superstructure. 
Along with many other parts, the parts for this are laser cut, so I simply popped them out of the sheet, cleaned them up a bit and glued in place.




Then I checked the plan and realised there are some lockers that need to fit between the hatch and the bridge.  Popped them into place, and they don’t fit!  (And some of the resin mouldings need a fair bit of fettling to make them useable).  7Ps springs to mind! (Persistent proper planning prevents p*** poor performance!)





So I cut the hatch runners shorter and everything fitted nicely.  [/font][/size]But I asked myself, not for the first time, why go to the trouble and expense of laser cutting pieces that are the wrong size?




I have also glazed the windows although no material is supplied in the kit for this (should have done that before putting the internal stuff in, would have been easier and less messy).  I bought some canopy glue from Deluxe Materials for this and it works great, but I did use too much in some places leading to a squeeze out onto the glazing.  That needed some careful picking once the glue was dry. No pictures of the windows – not a lot to see!


I have also started adding the hatches to the deck.   The kit was a tad short on the necessary hatches, but Deans soon provided a plentiful supply along with photos of where each should go.   You will recall that I have added a removable section at the stern for access to the rudder controls, and one hatch has to overhang the edge of this, but that is no big deal.  The other potential issue is the smoke generator at the stern, but again it can be fixed to my removable part and should not inhibit its removal.




That’s about it for the moment.   Not sure when the next episode will appear.  I have to start sorting through 28 years-worth of assorted “useful stuff” in my workshop.  I just KNOW that whatever I throw away is going to be ideal for some job in the near future.  I really must harden my resolve.  Wish me luck!

  Greg

[Pauli]

Hi Greg,

Thanks for updating your build log (even though it seems that you are still in the middle of a house move) - best of luck for a successful completion!

The coloured pieces of tissue to represent the flags are a nice touch and the bridge looks good with your other additions.

I wished I had thought of using "canopy glue" when fixing the glazing panels in place on my "Najade" - I foolishly used cyano which reacts with the clear plastic to leave a "frosted" effect on the surface - ah well, lesson learned!

Seeing the smoke generator made me wonder if a working unit could be installed on this model or do you think there is insufficient room? It would certainly make a nice working feature if possible.

Looking forward to the next installment of your build 


- Pauli

[Daleb]

Hi Greg,


I was reading this evening about these B.P.C. boats and it appears that quite a few changed configuration during the war years.
Interestingly MGB 77 later became MTB 141 around 1943.
I expect you've read that yourself but all very interesting


Hope the move all going to plan,


Dale.

[SailorGreg]

Yes, even as MGB 77 she had various fits as witnessed by the kit configuration compared to the photo of 77 I showed here way back in July.

Move is at last firming up, but the modelling stuff seems to have been packed away for ages.  And when we get moved in (2 weeks time, fingers crossed) I have to build a workshop, so no more progress here for a while I'm afraid.

Greg

[SailorGreg]

 Following a short pause (involving a house move, a building of a new man cave, replacement of a garden shed, some essential garden changes, a little bit of sailing, and an almost complete failure of enthusiasm), the MGB has been exhumed from the cardboard tomb and set back on the bench.  Those with very long memories who have been following this, welcome back, and welcome to anyone new watching this build.  Actually, the boat’s first trip wasn’t to the bench, but to the lake!  As the hull had a complete set of mechanics/electrics, I thought I would re-kindle my enthusiasm by giving the hull an experimental run to see how it performed.








The good news – everything worked just fine after the long lay-off, the boat went forward, turned when asked, and even did a little reverse.  The Action Electronics gizmo did its stuff on the turns, making the boat quite manoeuvrable, although the speed dropped noticeably as one motor was throttled back in the turn.  The less good news – the performance was less than sparkling.  Top speed is shown in the pictures above, and I don’t think it is even scale max speed, let alone an exciting model to drive.  I chose relatively low speed brushless motors (740 kv), thinking that two of them would push this along at a fair old lick, but I confess that was a guess.  Shots of these boats at full speed show the bow well out of the water, but the model was way off achieving that.  So back to Component Shop, and lo and behold! An exact plug-in replacement for my 740 kv motors with 1240 kv ones.  A quick waft of the credit card, a few screws undone and done up again and the MGB is re-engined.  Any better?  Oh yes!  I can only apologise to those who previously saw my advice on motors, but I hope the fact that I was working on a bit of guesswork was clear.  And if you are after a model whose details you can admire as it sails past, the 740 kv ones will do fine.  The 1240 kv ones give the boat a bit of pizazz without being really silly.  Of course, I don’t have the superstructure on yet, and that might slow things a bit, but overall I am happy now with the performance.  I would show a picture to compare with the ones above, but I had an issue with batteries which cut the practice run short.

On the construction front, my first project in phase 2 was the twin 20mm oerlikon mount aft on the superstructure.  I am sorry there are no photos of this in progress, as it was done in a series of very short stints at the bench, several of which were rectifying things I messed up the previous time.  I confess I didn’t really enjoy putting this piece together and struggled to get any part of it square to any other part, and even when it was finished I wasn’t entirely happy with it.  Once finished, I carefully cleaned everything up ready for painting.  Then dropped the whole thing onto the concrete floor.  Perhaps subconsciously I was telling myself that it really wasn’t good enough!





A better man than me would have reached for the glue and patiently reconstructed it.  But my patience for this particular element was now in short supply.  Straight onto the Battlecrafts website and I ordered a complete unit from there.  Right, that’s the 20mm oerlikon finished!  (Picture from Battlecraft's website)





So, back to building with a bit of a stuttering start, but I will finish the MGB.  And I promise it won’t be two years before the next post.  Onwards and upwards!
 
Greg

[Pauli]

Hi Greg,

Glad to hear that you have resumed construction of your MGB77. I have now completed my MGB77 and have sailed her at my local pond. In the mean time I have purchased another kit, but due to other things vying for my time I have not yet begun construction.

Interesting that your initial test run showed a lack of power from your drive setup - I went along with Dean's Marines recommendation and installed a brace of Kestral motors (MFA / Como Drills 719 RE 385) powered from two 6V 3300mAh SC NiMH batteries. Together with the brass props that Dean's Marine recommended I find this gives a good scale speed with the hull getting on "plane" very easily.

I also incorporated your idea of altering the prop speed in tandem with the rudder movement. I was able to achieve this without any additional mixers by using two seperate ESC's and the channel mixing feature on my Flysky transmitter. I find this works extremely well giving the boat a very tight turning circle.

I was slightly dissapointed with the quality of the guns and some other fittings in the kit so like you I ordered some fittings from the excellent "Battlecrafts" company. The quality of these fittings are very good as is the customer service from the company.

Aside from some slight niggles with some of the fittings, overall I was very pleased with how this kit went together and how well it performs on the water.

Good luck with your build - I will be watching with interest 

Kind regards,
Pauli

[SailorGreg]

Hi Pauli, glad you got your MGB completed and have been enjoying running her.  Interesting that you can mix the throttle and steering with your transmitter - not something that occurred to me, although I have a transmitter that (I now find) can do it.      Live and learn!

If you have cracked posting pictures here, I am sure we all would like to see your model.

Greg

[Pauli]

Hi Greg,

I have a Flysky FS-i6X 10 Ch transmitter which can be programmed for several different models and allows different channels to be mixed at different rates.

Although it would seem this radio has been developed mainly for the RC flier where control interactions can be more complex it also lends itself to some marine applications such as the rudder / throttle mixing that we have both adopted for our respective models.

With the Flysky FS-i6X transmitter I selected stick mode 4 and then assigned:

Ch3 to throttle
Ch4 to rudder
Ch6 to throttle

I then mixed the channels according to this arrangement:

Mixes:
1- Master Ch4, Slave Ch6, -25%
2- Master Ch3, Slave Ch6, 100%
3- Master Ch4, Slave Ch 3, 25%

This really works well on my model.

As an aside I must admit being a newcomer to the hobby I was really surprised as to how inexpensive some of this radio control technology is.

Regarding posting pictures - I must admit that I'm not someone who takes many photos of anything! But, I can certainly see the value of doing so in a forum like this. I must try and see if I can post some photos of my MGB at sometime.


Kind regards,

Pauli

[Daleb]

Greg,
great to see you're back on the build with this, I've no doubt she will look top drawer when finished


Dale.

[radiojoe]

Hi Greg  glad your house move went ok,  the MGB will be a fast boat when she's finished I take it you have found a new sailing venue big enough for fast runs, I'll be following.


Joe.

[Dean's Marine]

HI 6 different models of the MGB 77 on you tube from different countries on here germany
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TsWoL4WvsoQ








The good news – everything worked just fine after the long lay-off, the boat went forward, turned when asked, and even did a little reverse.  The Action Electronics gizmo did its stuff on the turns, making the boat quite manoeuvrable, although the speed dropped noticeably as one motor was throttled back in the turn.  The less good news – the performance was less than sparkling.  Top speed is shown in the pictures above, and I don’t think it is even scale max speed, let alone an exciting model to drive.  I chose relatively low speed brushless motors (740 kv), thinking that two of them would push this along at a fair old lick, but I confess that was a guess.  Shots of these boats at full speed show the bow well out of the water, but the model was way off achieving that.  So back to Component Shop, and lo and behold! An exact plug-in replacement for my 740 kv motors with 1240 kv ones.  A quick waft of the credit card, a few screws undone and done up again and the MGB is re-engined.  Any better?  Oh yes!  I can only apologise to those who previously saw my advice on motors, but I hope the fact that I was working on a bit of guesswork was clear.  And if you are after a model whose details you can admire as it sails past, the 740 kv ones will do fine.  The 1240 kv ones give the boat a bit of pizazz without being really silly.  Of course, I don’t have the superstructure on yet, and that might slow things a bit, but overall I am happy now with the performance.  I would show a picture to compare with the ones above, but I had an issue with batteries which cut the practice run short.

On the construction front, my first project in phase 2 was the twin 20mm oerlikon mount aft on the superstructure.  I am sorry there are no photos of this in progress, as it was done in a series of very short stints at the bench, several of which were rectifying things I messed up the previous time.  I confess I didn’t really enjoy putting this piece together and struggled to get any part of it square to any other part, and even when it was finished I wasn’t entirely happy with it.  Once finished, I carefully cleaned everything up ready for painting.  Then dropped the whole thing onto the concrete floor.  Perhaps subconsciously I was telling myself that it really wasn’t good enough!





A better man than me would have reached for the glue and patiently reconstructed it.  But my patience for this particular element was now in short supply.  Straight onto the Battlecrafts website and I ordered a complete unit from there.  Right, that’s the 20mm oerlikon finished!  (Picture from Battlecraft's website)





So, back to building with a bit of a stuttering start, but I will finish the MGB.  And I promise it won’t be two years before the next post.  Onwards and upwards!
 
Greg

[SailorGreg]

 The Battlecrafts twin Oerlikon arrived very quickly and is a very nice moulding.  Much better detailed than I could achieve by tweaking the kit parts.  However, I now needed to remove the kit base (where I had recently filled the join!) to make room for the newcomer.





And in place – looks the part!  The Battlecraft piece is quite heavy, and comes with a central fixing bolt underneath.  The vacform superstructure is a bit flexible, as are all vacforms, so I put a disc of thick plasticard under the base to give the mount a firm footing.





Then I moved on to the breakwater for the foredeck.  This comes as a vacform and I released it by wet sanding on a pane of glass.





And having done that top and bottom, this is the piece remaining.





Add a strengthening piece along the top edge and the triangular support webs and it ends up like…





Getting those triangular bits to stick was a bit tricky, which is why the whole thing isn’t on the deck yet – when I went to stick it, a couple of them made a bid for freedom, so they have been firmly glued again and I have left the whole thing to dry thoroughly before trying again.  (For those with an eye to detail, the plan provided with the kit as well as any other plans I have seen show fourteen of these triangular webs.  There are only twelve in the laser cut sheet in the kit, and I only bothered to count after I had stuck them all in place.  I won't tell if you don't.  )


In the meantime, some detailing of the superstructure was done.  Lockers and a hatch plus some strips which I guess are foot holds for those clambering over this curved and slippery surface.





These MGBs had a uniquely shaped vent each side alongside the superstructure, an item missing from the kit.  So I made a couple from balsa sheet with a facing of thin styrene card stuck to the surface.  I did try shaping the balsa on its own but it split too easily.  The card not only gives a smooth surface for painting but keeps that fragile balsa in its place.  These will be fastened to the side of the superstructure once that has been glued to the deck.








And yes, they should be handed, not two identical ones.  But that just means turning one round.   


Well, if slow and steady wins the race then my gold medal awaits.  At the moment everything seems to be taking me for ever.  Those 4 lockers on the superstructure just behind the bridge took an afternoon of fettling, fiddling and finally fitting.  I think now I am getting back into the swing of things, construction will speed up a bit.


Happy modelling and sailing folks!


Greg

[Daleb]

Great progress Greg