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Having bought the boat from e-bay, removed the super-structure (it was not very correct & the wood was poor quality) and started to sand down, this is how it looked.....
The pieces on the floor were cut from 4mm 10-ply using the Aerokits plans as a guide. The only thing that you cannot determine from these plans is the cross section. This can be got from the original Vosper plans - although this is only useful for the deck - as the convex sides and bottom of thye hull would be very difficult to reproduce in wood.
Building the super structure in my parents living room last Chrismas - can't believe I got away with it.
The glue I used is called Titebond II. It is really strong, dries quite quickly & is reasonably water proof. I use this everywhere that I don't use 2 part 5 minute epoxy.
The mast
The mast was quite tricky. In the end I was really pleased with the result. It lights up, folds down (forward on to the little stand at the front of the roof and is very strong.
Ingredients:
3 volt mast light - supplied by Westbourne models.
2 strop blocks - from Westbourne models to attach to the cleats (also from Westbourne models) at the back of the roof, when the mast is up.
5mm dowel - for the mast put it in the drill & used sand paper to get taper.
3/16 brass tube - for the bar going across, drilled at each end for the rope to go through.
small peice of 1mm ply - for the middle bit where it all joins.
Flag - from Lesro models.
Thin - 3ply - for the aerofoil shaped legs.
Thin (not sure of thickness) brass sheet - for the feet, hole drilled at each end for the pins, the front one stays in to act as hinge when it fold forward. Bit cut out of legs to make strong joint.
Plently of 5 minute epoxy, patience & cursing!
The scan below is of the original Vosper plans - impossible to read clearly - but good enough to get dimensions from. The legs are 3 foot six inches wide, as is the bar going across, excluding the light on the top - the rest can be scaled from knowing these dimensions.
Life belts
Small life belts are easy to come by - scratch building is not easy (although I have thought about modifying curtain rings) - luckily though Robbe produce a 65mm (2 and a half inch) ring - in a pack of 4. Just the right size for 1/12 scale - ie the 46 inch boat. I ordered these directly from their web site - it came all the way from mid europe in about 2 days! Worth butying a few things in one go as the postage is quite high.
Quite sraightforward to get a result that I am pleased with :
Sprayed white
Masked & sprayed red
Cut white electrical insulation tape to 15mm by 130mm and wound round in 4 places (starting & finishing on the bottom - stretching tape slightly to give good fit
Applied rub off letters - bought from WH Smiths for £1.
Light spray with gloss varnish - slightly yellowed the colour, protected the lettering & blended in the tape - all to good effect.
Small screw holes in the bottom - attached by self tapping screws from underside of engine roof.
In the official 'general view' of the boat, this is what they looked like (see 'The real boat' page on this site). Thesy also had small fixings to hold the belts in place. Perhaps I will come to this when I have finished the rest of the boat.
Decals & colours
I wanted to keep my health so I stuck with acrylics from Halfords. These may not be precise colour matches, but they do the job for me. The darker grey for the inner decks and jib was just because I liked it! The paints I used were:
Bottom of boat, red bits on life rings & monitors : Fiat racing (rosso) red - same colour as my Triumph Spitfire
Undercoat : Halfords (yellow) filler primer
Side of boat: Halfords gloss black
Superstructure & deck: Ford Polar Grey
Roofs : Halfords gloss white
Inner Decks & Jib : Rover Tempest Grey
Over the whole thing (watch out over the decals - as the slightest air bubble will reek havoc with the finish) : Halfords acrylic lacquer.
All paints are acrylic - according to the book 'Fast I/C powerboats' : "... fuel resistant, waterproof & decorative".
Two part paint should be carried out by a specialist as far as I can tell.
Making removeable & reusable cardboard 'plugs' - with masking tape tabs - for masking took a little while - but saved loads of time and masking tape later......
Tool made out of scraps and and old pencil stuck together with epoxy. Just turn the boat upside down, get it 'level' and draw round the boat - a propelling pencil or fibre pen might be better. This is not with the deck quite horizontal, the line on my boat is just about right - refer to Vosper diagram - see Yahoo group I think that is there - otherwise I can scan if you email me.
No I haven't gone mad & decided to paint it yellow - this is the coulour of Halfords filler primer. When I used the grey one previously it took loads of coats - and you could still clearly see the wood grain.
Although the I do think that the colour quite suits the boat ....
Decals courtesy of Barry at Signature Graphics UK Ltd (web address http://modellettering.com/). These are absolutely correct - per the original Vosper drawings - even the roman numerals at the back.
Barry gave a brilliant service - including making custom decals for the roundels out of the separate colours - as this this precise size and style is not available commercially for the 46 inch boat.
Windows
This is one job that I have put off as long as I could. Having failed several times with the 36 inch boat, I have finally come up with a solution which is quick, easy, paintable & removable......
Step 1
Roughly cut card (old business car ideal), put inside window hole & mark with pen/pencil.
Step 2
carefully cut out
Step 3
For rectangular windows add 4mm to the top/bottom and deduct 4mm from the sides.
Cut (I used 4mm width 1mm thick strip styrene - available from Hobbycraft & many model shops) to these lengths.
Glue with normal plastic glue (the type that melts the plastic a bit). Align to grid lines on cutting mat tio get perfect right angles.
Step 5
Insert very small seft tapping screws - not sure where to get these - luckilyb I had some already.
Step 4
Position window on model - check from the otherside for line up, should be 2mm of plastic visble inside the window hole all of the way round. Hold in place with masking tape.
Using pin vice, drill 1mm holes about 1mm from the outside edge through the palstic and wood - quite tricky to get right.
Same kind of principle for non regular shapes, although these are made over the cut out peices of cardboard.
Just mark 2mm inside the edge & make the frame on top of it.
Masking tape keeps everything in place as you work.
Painting comes next.
Windows are cut from clear plastic & stuck on from the inside (with the frames screwed to the model ideally).
Step 6
This is the bit I really like. Using a 1/4 curved carving chisel (I bought a set of 10 of these from the pound shop for £2 - I'm sute there is a contradicion in there somewhere) chop off the corners.
This is really easy to get right, no more uneven corners - or ages spent sanding/cutting.
Not forgetting the ones behind the wheel house.
Starting to look the part.
Just sprayed.
On the real boat these opened ......
Just used brass rod & brass tube - stuck with 2 part epoxy in stages.
Scratch built fire monitors
Ended up sratch building my own fire monitors. I did start by building the Ribbe ones - which go up and down as well as swivel, but was not completely happy with the result (no fault of Robbe - theirs is a high quality product & easy to make).
Made these from brass tube, brass sheet (cut to the profile on the Lesro plans, the end of a wooden golf tee (! - may also use a couple of these to represent horns on the wheel house roof - look at one sideways & you will see what I mean). I just used a standard 40 watt soldering iron & electrical solder - not as hard as it looks.
They do move in both directions, but I have put a screw in the top to fix elevation at 45 degrees. By inserting really small brass tubes in the nozzle, I can get an 11 foot range using a small 12 lead acid battery (yet more weight) and one standard (£9.99) orange Irvive water/fuel pump for each monitor.
Left : masked & yellow filler-primer undercoated Right: painted & almost ready to go on.
The pumps I have used. Cheap & reliable Irvine fuel pumps - about £10 from most model shops. Does not interfere with the radio on my boat (unlike the real car hooter I put in - which causded the fail safe to kick in & cause me to be 'recued' at the funday).
The rather useful pulley set from Robbe used to convert 90 degree servo movement to 270 degrees - and it works - yo may just be able to spot the monitor moving in the video on the Fireboat web page - see links page.
Tried taking water feed off the engine cooling, but this only worked when the engine was running & gave poor performance. Finall took the plunge & put two intakes - one for each pump in the bottom of the hull with great results. The boat still went like a rocket!
Cutting a slot in the water intakes allowed me to get these on really tight with a screwdriver - without damaging the boat, or the intakes - inside or out.
Working Jib
I have now got the Jib to rotate using the Robbe F14 radio control and am very happy withb the results. The winch has now been linked up to raise and lower the hook.
Short video shiowing the workings. Click the play button above.
Have now fixed up the lifting arrangement for the Jib & Kaptain Mike (from Robbe - yes that is how it is spelled) offered to demonstrate .......
Working / Moving search light
Light now rotates - just need to wire up the light. Video below.
Robbe F14 - Radio set up
The Robbe / Futaba F14 radio set that I bought from Westbourne models has been really excellent.
I have upgraded to get another 8 channels - which are controlled by the panel that I fitted in the top left module bay - see picture. This requires a decoder in the boat. It can be a bit confusing on the Robbe site - but the decoder in the picture below (8042)is compatible with this module and is about £35 less than the other decoder - which comes with leads, which I dont think you need if you are just going to plug (up to) 8 servos in.
I also bought the offial tranny tray - which is a really nice piece of kit - lightweight, has a small compartment for small bits and bobs, enables one handed operation and comes with a rain cover you can use while it is raining. The tray is a good place to put the transmitter down while starting the engine - where it wont get wet, scratched or kicked in to the water.
I know that this is not the cheapest transmitter on the market, but I do like the tray shape, the expandability, the fact that the arial goes at an angle and the sheer quality. You can get a twin stick to put on the left - perhaps if I put two IC engines in the 36 inch boat ......
This module (Robbe 8039)gives the following:
4 rotary knobs - that make servos move through normal 90 degree travel.
3 three position switches - move servo through left, centre and right
1 sprung switch (top right) which in its centre position puts the servo in its middle position, moving left and right when the lever pushed up and down - does not stay up or down when you let go - I have used this for the hooter.
The decoder plugs in to one of the spare channels in the reciever (6,7 or 8 - assuming 1-4 are used for the sticks). It can only be used for powering servos as far as I am aware. Robbe refer to this as a 'multi prop' - where 'prop' relates to propotional I guess. The 'multi swich' modules and decoder set up is where the idea is to switch things on and off directly from the unit I think - although a relay unit is required for anything requiring a lot of power.
I have effectively got myself to a similar place (although with a lot more weight), by mounting (£1.50 from Maplin) microswitches next to servo horns to turn things on and off. See pick below.
These rather useful pulleys from Robbe (part number 1598) allow you to get 270 degrees movement from a 90 degree servo. It takes careful mounting, but results are great. See my monitor page to see how I did it.
Fittings & Misc
I scoured the internet many times to find a 6 inch (1/12 scale) person for my 46 inch boat. Again Robbe came up trumps. Althogh he is a bit doll-like, Kaptain Mike (their name, not mine for him), he is water proof, fuel tollerent, and has wire inside him - so that he can be bent to shape.
I looked out for 6 inch GI Joe's on ebay (they did make them in the early seventies) - but with no luck.
For the 46 inch boat, I either made the fittings or got them mail order from Westbourne Models - I just phoned up and described what I wanted.
For the smaller boat, I got the "official" white metal, set from Model Slipway by mail order. I have included their picture, parts listing and link below.
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