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[Stuw]

Wow. Looking good. So that’s a lift off Rapier/Edita style superstructure on the same hull?! Good work.

[Andy M]

Thanks.
I am doing a Javelin superstructure too, thats it in the first pic, not very much to the cabin sides.

[Andy M]

I have to say that I am really enjoying this build, I am really happy with how my balsa Javelin turned out, still has some work to go, but it is close, I can look at it and get inspiration to keep going with the other one (s?)
 My ply version of the Javelin/Rapier/Edita has turned out better than I hoped, really sharp and crisp looking, looks straight too, glad I can put different superstructures on it as well, makes sense really.
 I have started building up the Javelin top, it is mostly a ladder frame and 2 bits of 1/16 ply. I made sure I reinforced the bulkhead joins to the sides, so they dont pull the whole thing out of shape. I glued the ply tops on with the frame on the boat, so I had to be careful not to use too much glue! Just in case. 😁
 The Edita superstructure is pretty large, the original Edita is shown below, its a totally different hull. The original has a lot of hull sticking out behind the superstructure, I couldnt do that, theres only about 2 inches on the Javelin/Rapier hull.
  I also had to adjust the angle of the rear 'pillars?' of the cabin as the original Edita hull was totally flat decked, the Javelin slopes down a good bit. The photo shows this better.

[Andy M]

 I am getting closer to having the hull ready for painting, still a fair bit to do but I decided it was time to try carving/planing/sanding an 1/8 x 1/4 obeche strip to make a spray rail, but it was not very good, it took ages and cramped up my hands, I have arthritis and I knew there was no way I could manage the amount required. I have 2 boats to make rails for..... I needed an easier way, so I made an attachment for my little sander, to make triangular spray rails from rectangular bits of wood. Some amount of sawdust. Did 12 of them.😁
 My little attachment worked a treat.
 I added a little 1/4 ply table extension to the sander to support it/attach it to, this will be useful anyway.
 I was going to screw it in place but ended up using a hefty g clamp.
 The jig is built using 6mm and 3mm ply and 2 bits of 1/8 thick spruce glued 1/4 inch apart. This is supported at the correct angles by 3mm ply pieces joined with superglue and sawdust to make a solid unit.
 It is simple, but very effective, I just needed to think about it properly.
 A power feed would be good.
 Before I started sanding the triangular profile, I had to sand some bits of the edges of a few of the 1/8 x 1/4 obeche strips as they were binding in the jig, not a lot but enough for a stoppage.
 I am pretty happy with the rails, a couple of bits that need slight sanding, but nothing major, just a lot of them, and they are fiddly to hold.
 I am going to glue on my rubbing strips and chine rails first, to bring it to the same stage as the balsa one, then fit all the spray rails on both hulls.
 I still need to make a stand for the ply one, with cutout for propshaft. I should get this made and I can get my propshaft glued in.
 Still a long way to go really, the basic bits are there, but a lot to do to finish them all off.
 The balsa one is closest as it only needs spray rails, rudder servo mount made and then painting can start. After that, fit windscreen and bolt on the outboard.
 I really want to have the 2 boats and 3 tops ready for painting at the same time, don't know how this will work out, might be a bit much for my hands/wrists to try and paint them all in one sitting. It will only be base coats of probably white to start with, no real idea of colour schemes yet.
 The ply hull colour(s) have to suit 3 different lids, need to think about that.
 

[ChrisF]

Hi Andy

The Edita version looks really good and I think it looks better with the cockpit going further back and if it was a full-sized boat would give a better, more useful sized cockpit.

It looks as though you have moved the front of the superstructure forwards as well to reduce the long foredeck of the standard Rapier as well.

Good method for producing the strakes.

I know what you mean about getting a number of models ready to paint at once. Trouble is I'm doing it with 5 which is one reason the builds are taking so long! Not helped by my speed (lack of) of building.

Chris

[Andy M]

I have been thinking about what you said about the Rapier cabin front, There isnt any more of it ahead of the coaming than the Javelin, however, I drew up my plan before the Stiletto plan resurfaced, so all my measurements are based on the photos I could find at the time, mostly the side view that I used when designing my little Viper.
 Having thought about this, I came to the conclusion that my foredeck bit might have ended up shorter due to me using the photo, and its altered perspective, the bow would be furthest from the camera and appear shorter than it would be if looking at a flat plan.
 Dunno if I am rambling about the perspective thing but I know both my hulls arent the same as the lesro version, the Stiletto looked to have a slight sweep up of the chine line at the stern, similar to Sea Rover, I have gone for totally straight and I also went for angled sides as I did this on the Viper and it looked good.
 After having to modify the front 2 bulkheads on my balsa version, easily done on balsa, but not so easy on ply, I decided to use my nice straight looking balsa hull to give me accurate measurements to produce a complete set of mk2 bulkheads, rather than estimate the the thickness of an angled bit of 1/4 or 1/8 balsa sheeting, and lose the accuracy, I decided that I would just make the bulkheads to the outside size of the balsa one, if you know what I mean, then the 1/16 ply added, so my ply one has 1/8 wider hull and a bit extra on length too.
 I have strayed from the original a bit, but it is still a beautiful looking boat, and close enough to do me.
 So much I built 2 😁
 And a small batch of superstructures.
I still have that niggling urge to build the 19 foot version........... Do Slec do 3/8 ply in 20 foot bits? Lol. I would love to  build one. Just for the build.
 Swap tops on a real boat? That would be good.

[ChrisF]

I know what you mean about working off a photo. I did that for my Fairey River Cruiser, using a small B&W photo from a book. It's amazing how much even a slight angle from straight on can skew things.

You had me confused as in your last photos as the foredeck  looks longer than it did previously. Then I saw the underside of the superstructure and realized that the front of the cabin sits quite away in front of the coaming!

You've got a good fit between the cabin sides and the deck which isn't easy.

Chris

[Stuw]

That Javelin photo that Andy used for his Viper was the box art on my kit from 1994 that I purchased from model shop in Addlestone many years ago.
]Note the strakes poking out of the water. I no longer have my plan but it must have had strakes on it otherwise I wouldn’t have added any. This must have been a mod to the original plans that Bob and others have.

I’ve tried to add a couple of pics using the post image button but they don’t seem to appear?

Edited - added one the old way!

[madwelshman]

I’ve tried to add a couple of pics using the post image button but they don’t seem to appear?

Stuw, if the pictures don't appear and the post seems to take a while to upload, then I would say the images are too big. While they upload one at a time rather than in multiples?


Will

[Andy M]

I made up a template when I started, so all the bits that use that curve are the same, this includes all the superstructures. I made my deck supports on both models from 3mm ply, about 20 mm deep, these helped keep its shape while I slid the cockpit sides (on balsa version) in or out for deck trimming etc.
 The ply version has the lower bit of coaming glued to the deck and deck supports.
 I have been busy fitting spray rails, chine rails and rubbing strips, what a job, they kept pinging loose or sliding about. Waaah!
 Ah well, all done now, looking not bad, just to go over them looking for any bits that need more glue. After that, I can start final sanding ready for painting. My Daughter said the spray rails made it look more realistic. 😁 Cheers.
 The balsa one is close to painting now, just need to catch up a bit with the ply hull and at least one superstructure.

[Andy M]

I have been trying to get both models to the painting stage, I underestimated how much was still left to do and overestimated my energy. 😁
 Things always seem to take longer than you think they will.
 Anyway, I made up 1/16 square spruce to make frames for the mesh in my vents. Once all set, the frames and interior of the vents were painted matt black, I cut the mesh screens and glued these in once paint had dried. I worked out where  I wanted them and glued them onto the rear hatch cover.
 Front airscoop is pretty much solid, so its mesh is sandwiched in place by a 1/16 ply frame. No water (or air) can get in through this one.
 I also fitted a 1/32 ply floor to the airscoop on the balsa Javelin, as someone had said I might get water coming in there, the ply will contain it inside the scoop, hopefully.......
 I am going to incorporate what I think is a good idea, a bit of string tethering each hatch or superstructure to the hull, that way if anything happens, they wont drift away from each other.
 My depron hydro parts all started separating after it flipped over, the cockpit came off and started drifting away from the hull, I just managed to rescue the boat, but I nearly missed my opportunity to rescue the lid, it was a full stretch to reach it from the moored boat I had got onto.
 Anyway, I have now fitted the 'floor' parts to the Javelin and Rapier superstructures, these unscrew to allow me access for painting and future detailing.
 I have run beads of woodglue along edges of chine rails and rubbing strips, these were smoothed with a finger and give a nice tight radius once they dry and shrink back.
 I fitted my propshaft and skeg, binding the propshaft to it with heavy duty thread and epoxy smoothed over.
 I built a flat platform for my waterscoop and rudder to sit on, so the o-ring actually works.
 I glued on small offcuts from spray rails, sanded them flat and glued a 1/32 ply cap over them.
 I reached the point where I could start varnishing both hulls, and the hatch covers for the balsa one. I have still to finish off the Javelin superstructure for the ply one. I usually do more coats on the hull than on the superstructure anyway.
 There isnt much to do on the Javelin top, I have been adding fittings to take the windscreen, this one is made from a very new looking visor that has been in a bag, still with its £25 price label, for about 20 years in the boiler cupboard. The padding in the helmet turned to jaggy powder years ago and it got binned.
 Anyway, I think it looks not bad, maybe a few tweaks and some trimming and final couple of screw anchor points added, recycling, love it. It is pretty tough as well.
 It felt a bit mad, cutting a perfectly good visor in half with my angle grinder but results are good, might even be a big enough slice left for the balsa one, I have a windscreen made for it already, but it is thin and easily cracked, I need to wait till my varnish is dry to check if it will do.
 I was outside, just about to start varnishing in the sun and it started snowing, so I had to move it all into my shed quickly.
 The varnish I am using is very smelly, bit gives a nice finish, I used it on my Sea Rover. It also takes a couple of days to dry if its not warm.
 I can get on with my superstructures in between coats of varnish. The Javelin top is closest to getting painted/varnished, followed by Rapier. The Edita superstructure will take longest, it has plenty options for detailing, most of which I would like to do before the roof gets glued on. I will still be able to remove cabin floor for access but top and bottom will make things a bit easier. I did think about screwing the lid on but it would need loads of screws to hold it flat along the edges, its under a fair bit of tension when it is curved over the roof beams.
 Maybe 2 layers of 1/32 ply laminated in place? That would probably hold its shape well, requiring fewer screws. I may try this later. I am thinking the Rapier could be done this way too. I have already cut out my 1/16 ply roof panels for both, but they could be used for something else later.
 I need to think about it for a while.

[Andy M]

Vents

[ChrisF]

Hi Andy

For the roofs on my Faireys rather than use ply I use 3mm thick bass planks which once the glue has dried I sand to shape. Using this method there is no stress.

Ok, my roofs are glued in place but they could be formed on cling film so that they can be removed and then secured with screws. Could this work and I suppose you could use balsa planks, my bass ones are 8 or 9mm wide.

Chris

[Andy M]

I have been plodding away at the boats, I got a coat of (very smelly) yacht varnish on the outside of both boats. It took days to dry. There was a bit I had varnished outside in the sun, but it was a cold wind and the varnish had gone on really thick and non flowing, so  I stopped, took it in my shed and got the heater on as I brushed white spirit on trying to flow the thick varnish. It mostly worked apart from a strip along the back edge, I tried sanding this off when the rest had set. It was still gummy so the sandpaper rolled it into little sausages and it could be worked towards an edge to remove the gummy bit. About half an hour of this and it was mostly gone, a wipe with white spirit took the remains off.
 I gave all the bits I had varnished a good sand, dry brushed them with a 2 inch paintbrush and blasted them all inside and out with the airline. I then wiped over them all with white spirit. The balsa version got 2 coats of white undercoat then my plan was to paint it gloss white before deciding what colour scheme to go with. I painted it with 2 coats of water based gloss, then a coat of yellow water based gloss, but I didnt like it, so it has now had 3 coats of a different yellow, the same paint as I used on the 23cm cruiser, Rorqual, 2 wasps and a jetranger. Still lots left, I want another coat or 2 on the balsa one. The ply version is all white just now. It also needs another coat.
 I managed to get 2 tinted windscreens from the motorcycle helmet visor, only a thin strip was left.
 Both boats are coming on well. Starting to think more about motor fitting in the ply version, the balsa one only needs the outboard bolted on. I say only, but this lead to me working out a better fitting system for the hood/cover/lid.
 It used to rely on tiny tabs that fell off so easily, snapping along the horizontal printing plane. The rear mounting on the main outboard body was replaced with a piece of plastic coated paperclip, it is much sturdier, not that it needs to be really strong, just enough to hold the hood on. At the front, I decided to make it a 2 screw fitting, this involved adding P.L.A to the front sides of the hood with a 3d pen (mig welder for P. L.A) this was smoothed with a flat soldering iron tip. Drilled and repainted it works much better, no pingy off bits now. Another small refinement.
 I have built my second outboard as well now, so I have a matching pair. One still has to have its wires lengthened with flexi silicone cable. I am going to run one outboard to start with, but I am planning in the second one just now, just in case it needs it, I will probably try 2 just to see anyway😁
 Steering servo will be worked out once the outboard is in place. The mounting bracket will stay on the boat, allowing the outboard to be removed easily by removing the 4mm pivot pin. I have more brackets already printed.
 I made a start on the cockpit of the balsa version, trimmed and fitted screen, fitted my 3d printed recaro seats (tops of them, anyway) made up my instruments, 3d printed bezels and photos of dials. A nice momo steering wheel attached to a transmitter aerial section, in turn attached to a plastic power meter moulding from a transmitter.
 Looks not bad at all, Action Man liked it so much that he cut his own legs off just so he could fit in it!
 Well, actually it was me, with a hacksaw. 😁
 I am making him with a servo operated head, I was in the process of glueing the servo in, and noticed it was a constant rotation servo that I was fitting, so I quickly removed it and cleaned off the glue. I will have to raid a servo from something.
 Looking promising though, the boats are progressing well.
 My painting isnt the best, but they can always get rubbed down and repainted if I feel the need. I really want to get one of them on the water soon, even if its just for some nice photos.

[Stuw]

Great work Andy. They’re looking good. Paint job looks fine from here to me 

[Andy M]

I have been very busy since yesterday, a very, very late night and a bit of the morning too.
 I was going to try the balsa Javelin with just one outboard to see how it went, but I had to think of a way of getting watercooling to the speed controller. I had a brainwave a while ago, to use an outboard mount assembly, but the pivot point was bored out to accept a 5mm brass tube pickup.
 I was going to mount this to one side, but didnt want any extra holes when I changed to 2 outboards, so measured where the 2 sets of mounting holes would be, and decided that I would just go ahead and fit the 2 outboards and the waterscoop mount went where the single outboard had been.
 It works out better in the long run, why have one when you can have 2?
 Anyway, it was onto working out mounts for 2 esc's and a receiver, took a little while to get it neatish looking, but I am quite happy with it.
 To join the 2 esc's watercooling systems, I used snake outer and heated it with my cotton bud pipe bender to stop it crushing. Works nice enough for me. I also made a hull entry pipe connected to pickup with short length of silicone tubing, inside, another bit of tubing takes the feed to first esc, the water outlet exits the hull through another bit of shaped snake tubing. Thats about it really, just need to get to some open water for some testing now.

[SteamboatPhil]

That is really cool 

[Andy M]

Cheers, much appreciated.
I was wondering if I was being too ambitious trying to run 2 experimental outboards at once. I suppose I will find out when I manage a test.

[Andy M]

The ply Javelin is coming on too, I have now got my motor mounted and connected to propshaft. Rudder is fitted, watercooling system is finished.
 I have to make up a mount for the rudder servo and mount my battery tray.
 I also need to find a way of holding the different superstructures to the hull. A bit more required than the small magnets I used on the balsa Javelin hatches.
 Still a fair bit to do, things always take longer than you think.
 I did get to the stage where a bath test was possible, just to see what the  motor was like.
 I tried it on 7.4v, quite impressive, next up was a test on 14.4v, wow, very impressive, I have no doubts that it will be fast!
 One more thing to test..... 22.2v!
 I only managed a tiny burst of full throttle, but it was extreme.
 Oops, some water has left the bathtub.. bit of mopping up required but worth it to see how much power it has. I dont know what voltage I will end up running, I have 3 packs of 7.4v 8000mah and several home made packs built from e bike cells. I have11. 1v 6300mah pack and several 7.4v packs. I made up an adaptor lead that allows 3 packs to be joined in series, so I can run any combination of  voltages.
 Very impressed with the motor and speed controller, they were not that expensive, I did hunt for a good while before I found them.

[ChrisF]

I like the cockpit detail.

Good to see them on the water and look forward to some speed!

Chris

[David - Dry Dock 3D]

just caught up on the build, she is a beauty!

[Andy M]

Thanks, nice comments always appreciated 😁
 As you may have guessed from the photos, I managed out for a test of both boats the other night. Nice evening, flat calm and some ducks and a heron as spectators.
 I tried the ply Javelin first, a short distance on just the one 7.4 volt pack showed me I was as well just going for the full caboodle and getting it on 22.2 volts.
 Good choice 😁
 Its a beast, I kept bringing it in to check temperatures of batteries, esc and motor, lukewarm at most. Lovely. The esc has its own fan, the motor watercooling was working well too, with a nice stream coming out of the outlet.
 The motor never had any cooling anyway, I added the watercooling jacket as an extra precaution.
I have uploaded videos to youtube but they come up with a padlock shown, even though I select public. I have no idea how to unlock them.
My channel is Macyam
 If you look in my videos you will find them, (and loads of others😁)
The balsa Javelin, complete with its lovely twin 3d printed outboards, was a bit less of a success, something stopped on one outboard, I was able to get back to shore on just one, so my idea of using 2 to start with was good😁.
 I have still to investigate whether the motor stopped or a grub screw came loose, I am guessing grub screw. They may all need loctite and possibly flats filed on the shafts.
 The balsa Javelin didnt look as if it was going to go as fast, but couldnt really tell as it let go before I got near full revs. I will fix any problems if possible and try again. It is experimental after all.
 

[Andy M]

Balsa Javelin

[David - Dry Dock 3D]

What scale is that buddy? I will resin print you a driver for free  if you need one :)

[Andy M]

They are both 1/6. I 3d printed some of the parts myself but not a driver.