Hi,
I'm well overdue to share some pictures. Having to do this from a separate computer as can't get on to mayhem on my personal one so I'm afraid there's not so much write-up for these pics but a quick summary...
Lock-down build, living room table top at the family home while I am away from my place caring for a family member. I have my little Steadytech Mini* 3-D printer here. I suppose this took about a month to get it to 95% done seen here.
*same as a Wanhao i3 Mini
Inspiration for this was "Falls of Lora" just from pictures on the web. at about 110x330mm it works out somewhere about 1:48 to 1:50 (close enough for me).
Hull and main parts:
Hull was printed from Fiberlogy Easy-PLA in 4 parts each just big enough to fit in build area of 130x120x100mm and glued together with CA and araldite. Hull shell covered in lightweight glass cloth and z-poxy. The grilles are all printed and popped into pre-printed holes from the insides spanning the joins. They give a bit of strength also. Deck is polystyrene sheet. The hatch has a full rig of magnetic sheet around it -thought this might be the best way to keep water out on a very small model.
The hand rails are all Billings 23mm 3 rail stanchions solders up with brass rod.
Fenders are dinky tyres from ebay, think they're 17mm size.
The wheelhouse is part printed, part made from polystyrene, brass bits etc.
The deck winch is printed with a drum from pinched my mothers plastic sewing machine bobbins. The lever is a brass stanchion filed down.
The HIAB is a 1:50 Corgi truck crane -from ebay and the truck mount stripped off and made my own. I moved the seat from half way up to down at the bottom and added some brass ladders.
Most of the fittings are printed or modified from bits, the bollards and vents are Robbe / spare bits from my boxes.
Adhesives and painting:
Gorilla glue (brushed) and Zap thin Cyano. Araldite epoxy. Deluxe glass cloth and z-poxy resin. Fillers are a mix of Ronseal woof diller (works great on PLA prints!), Testors and Mr White putty. Primered in Halfords rattle cans with top coatings of Rustoleum super enamel. Colour choice a bit limited and unfortunately pretty much all in gloss but all I could get locally. Small bits brushed with Revell enamel (I don't use Humbrol!!).
Electrics:
I found out at first bath test it was WAY too small for the planned 5cell Sub-C Ni-Mh pack. So I made a 5 cell 2.9Ah AA pack up. Motors are two RE285's from MFA with 2mm prop shafts and 20mm brass propellers in kort nozzles. The ESC's are the 5A mini ones from action electronics*, no BEC so there's a separate one tucked in under the receiver. Had to save as much weight as possible -no ESC enclosures, no on/off switch, just unplug the batteries.
*I might change out the Action ESC's for some of the cheap 20A Chinese ones off eBay as I really need to shave a few more grams off it.
Radio gear:
Volantex Exmitter (non-computer tx). I've used the "mix" function which puts both controls on the right stick which I really don't like but don't want the extra weight of a mixer on the model. I might re-solder the transmitter so it works properly with throttle on the left stick. The mixer works fine, very steerable, not really any different to rudders except that the left/right is the opposite way round when going aft! It will spin on the spot when the stick is pushed left/right which is ideal.
First sailing:
Had it in the canal basin in Linlithgow last week. Bit too much weed unfortunately. Couldn't get any clear pictures. The 285 motors are about right for speed, nice wake and no bow wave coming over the deck, I ran it for must be 30mins without any sign of the batteries dropping off. As with all small models I find it always a bit nerve wracking and I regularly bring them in to check for leaks because there's not much freeboard or warning of it going down!
Hope it gives some inspiration,
Rich