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[Alan52]

Hi Phil

930kv should certainly give it enough power. Stan does give good advice. Love this build. Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Phil22]

Yep Alan, I’m thinking it’ll have a ‘bit of go’ in reserve if the need ever crops up! 
 

A few odds and ends were worked on this week while waiting for a parts delivery from CMB. As usual, they provided their superb, efficient, and reliable service.

These little chaps were salvaged with some plasticard instead of the portholes being set into the ply directly.



Some priming work has been done on the rear deck details.



Touched upon previously, another item I'm finding that has limited options in Tokyo is wood undercoat. The one I bought is leaving the surface bitty feeling and gummy bubbles are forming so I’ll continue looking for another brand.

The vac-formed funnel got trimmed to fit. This was done carefully with a combination of nail scissors, fine sandpaper and a jewelers file. Going all the way to the line wasn’t required here.



A minor forward lean on the rear mast needed correcting, it now has a slight rake to better match the main mast. The supports have been roughly measured in a slightly larger diameter dowel (non-kit).





Another layer of fiberglass was applied inside the bow, and the rear hatch got squared back up following cuts made to the deck. This turned out better than expected.



This is the new 4mm~5mm coupling by Logic RC.





With the height of the motor in the mount, the propshaft is more or less going to be parallel with the keel. Is there anything to be mindful of in such cases? Is it better to have a slight downward angle from the motor end or is parallel OK?

Thanks in advance for any advice received.
Phil

[Phil22]

Hi All,

Back to the build after returning from our honeymoon. This week I've been working on fitting the electronics. The parts and layout are going to be more or less the same as in our Banckert.

I swapped the speed controller's Tamiya connector for an XT60.






Wood has been expoxied and screwed to motor mount's base. I'm planning to use woodglue to attach its centre to the keel batton, and expoxy the sides where it contacts the ABS.
















I'll post about this next time but for the prop I bought, the depth was too much to work with the kit's design. I'll put it down to my experience level but some parts ended up getting modified so test assembly could happen.

Have a great weekend!
Phil

[SteamboatPhil]

Looking really good, nice work 

[Phil22]

Thanks a lot Phil!
-
Primer coat for the details. Unless we get some warmer spells in Tokyo, painting will likely have to wait now until the spring.



Here's what I touched upon in my last post about the prop fitting. I've probably not tackled this well, my aftermarket prop wouldn't fit the kit part. I thought about removing the outlined section but didn't think I could get a good finish.



I went ahead and cut the section out completely and added half of it back in. With 2 saw cuts difference, the piece removed became too narrow for the epoxy to grab well enough. My join wasn't good enough here.





I took the whole upright out. The part is fairly robust so I don't think there's the need to reinforce it anywhere.



The kitchen cupboards were a perfect support while the epoxy started to cure.





The current puzzle is how to get the rudder in. The only way I can think of so far is to put the rudder tube and stock in last from inside the hull.

A first go in the bath to get an idea of ballast. I recall it was about 3.8kgs (8.4lbs) to get it to the waterline.





I made the hole for the propshaft in the bulkhead oval, this made things easier to set the propshaft in position. This point really fought me too much on the Banckert so I gave it more thought this time haha. Pieces of wood front and rear close the oval and help support the propshaft.





Some new brass pieces for ballast.







Cheers!
Phil

[hama]

Hello!
Really enjoy your build logs, I follow with great interest.
As for the propeller, you could get away with grinding the hub down a bit. I don't think the real propeller would have that "cone" anyway, but perhaps you don't want to do alterations to it. I did just that on one of my boats when the prop wouldn't fit  behind the rudder.
Anyway, great build!
Hama

[Phil22]

Hi Hama,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience and for the photo upload to demonstrate. It's a cool looking idea to take a section out of the rudder. I'll have to remember this. The ZZ has a straight post right down (see below) so I think I'll have to go with things the way they are now. As you suggested, I did think that maybe I could take some off the cone. A few things made me think twice like, how thick is the brass? Would I make an unwanted hole? How would the finish look afterwards?
 
Anyhow I appreciate your helpful reply.



Progress is steady at the moment. An epoxy pour has been done to dam up the exit for the propshaft.



This was a test fit of the internal batons to add further strength to the bulkheads. With me making a cut in the length of the deck, they're probably in a different place to where they should be. The removable deck still sits flush so no worries.



I've not glued them in yet as I want access to underside of the deck still. Nod to Harry (canabus) on his advice about sealing the deck well enough.



(brass block addresses a kink in the ply, caused by my mod to fit it)



The tiller (correct terminology welcome) is a super tight fit under the deck, there's less than 2mm clearance. I've seen some builds that have the servo arm above deck as one way to tackle this, creatively semi-masked inside the deck structures. I've tested things out by placing the servo quite close to the tiller and everything looks good. I'll post about this next, I'll pickup some linkages this weekend.





Battery box now taken off the list.

[Phil22]

Hi All,

Here's another update from the past few days building.
Up till now I've been working with the long cabin bolted to the deck. This has really helped a lot to keep the deck straight, especially when taking measurements and test fitting.





After looking online at other builds of the ZZ for ideas, I decided I wanted to get the servo close to the tiller and keep the linkages short. The epoxy dam was angled when drying and this was a lucky move, the space left was ideal for how the servo housing ended up taking shape.







Using this template the servo is housed above the epoxy.









There’s ample clearance under the deck.



Linkages fitted.





Made and epoxied in a simple rudder stock.



The kit's rudder is made of 3 pieces. I decided to make it slightly thicker and use 4. This has helped to set the post in snug without making adjustments to the outer pieces on their in-facing sides.



I've drilled 2 holes for pinning. I've since picked up some shorter brass screws so I'll see which might work best with some epoxy.







The motor mount is now in too.



Another ballast check.







The hull already has a section of brass inside the dam and 2 pieces by the motor. In addition to the motor, mount, propshaft, servo, and 2S Lipo she needed another 2.8kgs (6.2lbs). 

Thanks for reading.
Cheers!!
Phil

[Alan52]

Hi Phil


Love this build and the attention to detail. Billings could use your build pictures as a photo book instructions. More than a help for anyone contemplating building this kit. Looking forward to the next instalment.

[Phil22]

Hi Alan,

Thanks as always for your encouragement, glad you're enjoying to follow the progress : )

I'll be honest, the ZZ definitely is a different beast entirely to the Banckert. Both are listed in 'The Experienced' section of Billing's website but I think of the two, I'm leaning toward a preference for the 1:50 scale. The Banckert's vac-formed hull and deck made things more straightforward to construct. In my opinion, there's a lot more thinking ahead, build order management and imagination required when the putting the ZZ together. I think I'm at a point where most of the 'heavy lifting' has been done, and it's going to be largely detailing now which is what I like doing the best.

Portholes have all gone in



I was initially thinking to sand them flush inboard then apply a single watertight strip, excess feathering of the portholes changed my plan. Each got a plasticard backing that was then encased in epoxy.











I recommend to keep the bulwarks separated into their own piles, even better colour-coding them would be my advice. The A's and B's are easily mixed up. I had separated them out and still managed to install a B where an A needed to go.

 




The rear ones were purposely left off so the deck could be clamped for permanent fixing.





The seam was filled in all around and a bead of silicon applied to the underside.



The pinning of the rudder looks to have worked well. I did end up filing some material off the cone. The previous concerns for its reshaping were OK.



The ABS hull needs a lot of support to bring the sides in to square. Piece 7 (orange arrow) was first bonded to the hull without any clamping. Piece 10 (blue arrow) is supposed to sit on top of it. I thought that the angle is going to change after bringing in the sides so I selected to stick the 10s on the deck's underside.



The central wall with some additional supports holds everything in place strong.











Cheers,
Phil

[Phil22]

Hi MBM

Happy New Year and all the best for 2023!

The ZZ build has a recruited a special guest, my Dad :)
My parents have come over to Tokyo for the holidays and Dad has been interested to get involved. It's been great to pick up new things from him and get his ideas and opinions. While not a modeller, he does have a background in carpentry (cabinet making) and is a DIY whiz. Not everything has been logged as before as we've enjoyed a few drinks together while working away. I've captured what has been going on when I've remembered.

Wrapping the sides around the stern took some time. I'm not so sure that my minor mod to the deck caused the fitment to be this off. After some thought I decided to create my own pieces using ABS.











Inner and outer pieces (4 in total) were made so that the thickness matched up flush with the side of the hull.



These points are solid for getting a good fixing.







Wrapping the last piece of veneer there was a sizeable gap to sort out. This was first tackled with some squares of plasticard between bulwarks. Later a layer of filler was applied

[Phil22]

continued

Bending of the wooden trim.







sealing the beading with epoxy



Measuring up for the bilge keels.

















The freeing ports have been simulated inside and out.





Balcony paintbooth now back in action. Primer goes on.





Dad gets on board





Another go in the testing facility to confirm the waterline











Dad adds a plumb line to help when fitting the forward and main decks.

[Phil22]

continued

The initial idea was to first fit the main deck which has a winch area that locates under the forward deck. There was a lot of resistance from the hull wanting to push both decks up. This can be seen in the bath shots earlier.

So the forward deck went on first. The winch walls were removed and salvaged from the main deck, made lower then reaffixed.



This then allowed the winch area to go in smoothly.







A 3mm bead was added and sanded to match the level of the forward deck. This smartens up the join.











Fitting the main deck.







Small housing for the speed controller



Went for a simple zip tie fixing for the receiver. This worked really well in the Banckert.









Forward bulwarks were done with Tamiya 2x2mm plastic and filed to match the hull's profile.

[Phil22]

continued

The davits were a fun detail to work on. The instructions aren't really that clear so we came up with this design. Their base posts only will be attached to the main deck, so the davits themselves will lift off with the upper deck.



















Getting an idea of the overall look with the masts. The rear one needs to go forward a touch.









The towing setup was quick to do with Dad's help.

















We came up with this idea for fixing the spare anchors aboard.



The weather has been great these past few weeks and hasn't gone icy like it can do. This has lent a hand to painting during midday.








Cheers,
Dad and Son

[SteamboatPhil]

Looking really good, I am enjoying this build blog, congratulations to you and Dad 

[Phil22]

Thanks so much Phil! Appreciate the kind words!

It has been such a brilliant time working on the boat with my Dad these past 5 weeks. We've had a load of laughs and in the end got to the lake for her first trial. I've posted a video link below. Here is what's been going on.

Getting some coats of paint on to help seal everything a little. A coat of urethane would've been ideal too but the lettering hasn't gone on yet. LOL the sheet I had in my stock only contains 3 letter z's, I need 6.



Masking off for the red.



This took several attempts to get the back looking right as not to have the line bowing up or down at eye level.





I managed to 'tint' the grey balcony floor pink with overspray!!! This came off with a couple of goes with thinner, thankfully!!! “Nothing to see here landlord!”



The hull will stay like this now. The additional colours up on the bow of yellow and blue I've decided to leave off. I prefer the look of the 2 tone.



The forward deck was masked so that the black line continues up and around from the hand rails



Ballast check with the hull painted. Only going off past experience with the Banckert some weight was left out of the bow to see if the model would hunker down under acceleration. After testing we found it didn't but the opposite. A chunk of ballast was removed from the stern, the bow lowered a touch and the result looked great in the water when cruising.









Here's where Dad taught me some new stuff. Soaking a cloth in water then applying the iron with some steam made the wood become super pliable in seconds.





The forward set of rails have an inward arc then an outward twist. The back of our chair made for a perfect template, these were left overnight in this position.



For the midship rails.



Any bends that are too much can be softened again after another go with the soaked cloth and the iron.





The hand rails could all be completed over 2 evenings.


















All of the decks are still not fixed. Dad added locators to each level to save on measuring up each time.



When fitting the rear mast, we had to remove this inner section so a sprig could locate as well as let the wiring come through. The wall got drilled which then made for its easy removal with a craft knife. This one was Dad's too.





I'll add a bit on the sailing experience.

As a newbie and only having ever 'piloted' our Banckert which is very agile I'd say, at first the ZZ's handling came as a massive surprise. The longer and heavier hull makes operating her a process that needs more thought and attention. The rudder is small and the turning circle is about 12ft if I recall right. At one stage Dad and I thought her rudder had stopped working as there was little to no response at low speed. We got her back in with only forward and reverse and then tested the rudder servo from distance, all was fine, no issues with reception at all. Back in the water we learned that the model needs thrust for the rudder to work at lower speeds, it doesn't really steer without some use of the prop. This began to make total real-world sense especially due to the weight and retained momentum from after the motor is disengaged. I can now appreciate why folks install bow-thrusters. After we got over the nervousness, we really began to enjoy the new sailing experience. Dad got a go of the Banckert when he arrived, so he too had a benchmark ; )

This link is hosted on Vimeo showing our first trial. Dad's doing the sailing =)

https://vimeo.com/manage/videos/793319676

Thanks for reading,
GC & Son.

[Alan52]

Really coming on Phil. Quality work. Looks really good in the water.

[Phil22]

Nice one Alan! Thanks for your support.

A few various things for this installment, some structural, some detail related but needs doing before another round of priming.

These plastic guides work to bring the wrapped veneer into the required spot. They'll be used as a fixing point later on. Some bulk was added to the sides of the mast to make it approximately the same as the original kit parts. The walls were also remade to close off the angled gap seen here.





Mounting points were made for the navigation lights. The unused stern veneer got recycled for these.









The 3mm LEDs wouldn't go into the brass housings fully. Carefully filing some plastic away from their bases allowed for a complete fit.







Locator for the mast. This should create a solid joint when glued. It'll be good to prevent any movement as there's going to be some mild tension pulling from different directions when the elastic for the rigging gets fitted.



The rigging points are I think up to the builder. The box image shows the general locations but instruction is light.

[Phil22]

continued...

This gives an idea of the look and so far none of the lines are fouling anywhere. The final installation won't have the 2 centre eye-hooks connected as they are here.





Happy 70th Mum xxxxx



There's a little more to go on on both masts but they're almost complete.





This removable piece of plasticard will be used to either template the wooden deck or I'll affix the veneer directly to it. I'll work that out at the time.







On the rear mast platform, there are 2 brackets for securing the 'booms' (correct terminology welcome). The molding here is pretty poor looking so they've been removed and I've gone at it with free licence.





To look something like this when in place.



On to working on the railings. In my opinion the stanchions found in the Banckert kit are far better, I'm not a fan on the ones supplied with the zz, many are slightly bent, I assume from the hole punching process. 



As the gauge is thin at 0.7mm, I thought I'd test to see if I could accurately bend all three rails at once having soldered both ends. I've not tested the result in the stanchions yet but so far they seem to have turned out OK.





Lastly, I'm trying out ideas for linking the tops of both masts, 4 lines connect both. I want something fairly durable to help in the event of any accidental knocks. This is still a work in progress for the moment.



Cheers,
Phil
Lead Engineer (Reinstated)

[Phil22]

Hi All,

Here’s how the mast to mast rigging turned out. Each piece has received a thin coat of epoxy to bind everything together and stop any movement. The pen lines give an idea of the finished look.





This week has been ‘railings week’. The set for the bridge took 3 tries. With the first attempt I tried to follow the plans and get the exact shape using my 3 rails soldered together then shaped. The results were OK but from some angles I hadn’t gotten some stanchions vertical.





Next, I tried bending a single set of railings to follow the plans but I still wasn’t content with the results =P







This gave me the idea to simplify things.





Seeing me solder recently, Dad advised me to use more flux and more heat, this tip has helped so much as less solder is needed to get a good join, in turn it has stopped me getting the usual unwanted blobs.



Transferring the new locator points and filling the existing laser-cut holes.





While out buying elastic for the rigging last weekend, I wandered through the jewellery supplies area of Yuzawaya a great arts and crafts shop in Tokyo. I was after some small black beads with pre-molded holes to join rigging lines in parts. I found those, plus a load of other useful looking bits.







A small point of caution for future builders about the railings. The deck has 2 extra holes drilled in the ply that look to be an error unless Billings are giving the option on which side to put the pilot boat. Anyhow with the plans as they are, the left most 2 would cause the davits not to fit on the port side.

[Phil22]

continued...

I’ve been using pliers to push the stanchions into 0.5mm pre drilled holes, and using extra ones to hold the rails in place before the actual ends have been soldered.







Produced a slightly different design to the kit’s.







Finishing up the booms (??) midship. The instructions here don’t help and there are very few shots online of this spot. I wanted to work out how they might realistically operate, so made a mock up that can be raised and lowered with some limited lateral movement.













Fixing points. The kit parts from the rudder stock got repurposed.















Thanks for reading.
Have a good weekend!
Phil

[Circlip]

Doing justice to a classic design. Looks like it's doing 30knts even standing still.


  Regards  Ian.

[Alan52]

It's a credit to you Phil. Cracking build and brilliant build information. 

[Phil22]

Thanks very much Ian @Circlip, Alan @Alan52.

Railings 'Part 2' this week with another installment of the same next time. I've actually grown to like their design more than I did, maybe it's because they're 'cooperating' with me during assembly.
 



Some Tamiya putty has been applied where the railings go into the ply. This still needs sanding but does a good job of sealing everything.







The forward deck got done over a couple of nights. The very front is likely to get remade if I have enough material left over. The gaps in relation to the next sets of railings either side can be improved.















Would anyone be able to tell me what this is and its function? I'd guess still something for ropes.





Cheers!
Phil

[Phil22]

All the cutting, shaping, and soldering for the railings is now complete. Additional to the brass wire gauges provided in the kit, I went through almost 40 more 0.7mm x 300mm lengths. I made some mistakes along the way but my advice is to have plenty handy for the 100+ stanchions.



For the railings midship, the kit looks to have the stanchions set into a strip of beading. From the drawings it's hard to make out for certain, the wood I used here is none-kit.

As not to have the railings step down where they return, I've added material there to become like low platforms either side.





The starboard rails are lower for the pilot boat. I made the access gap wider than in the plans.





This section is the deck above the main towing gear. Railings here were extended onto the main deck.





Staggering the wire helps so much when threading stanchions.





Nothing is fixed yet and the handrails need shortening going down to the lower deck. I'm happy with how things have turned out.



Remade the bow set to get a better fit.



This has been the shape I've been following throughout.







The weather is getting milder here in Tokyo so painting can get going soon.

Cheers,
Phil