The Ship Model Forum

HI Will again lookin at your lovely model I see that she has portholes did you fit glass in them as ive got a lot to fit in my tiger an wondering the best way to go on this ?
chris

Hello Chris,
the portholes are brass and each came with a plastic insert, so you can paint it and once done, insert the plastic piece easily. They come in a range of diameters. Not sure where you are in the world, but I imported some from Croppers Models in the UK and from Float a Boat in Victoria, Australia. I am pretty sure any reputable model boat shop should have them. I had a go at making my own, but with time constraints, they were an easy, relatively cheap and nice looking addition,
Cheers, Will

HI Will im in the UK many thanks for the info on the portholes cheers I will have a look around
chris

Hello all,
I have been doing lots of small additions but have now nearly finished the search light tower. I probably committed a faux pas in that I only super glued the brass cage together. It seems very strong, but if anyone has done this or knows it will not stand the test of time as soldering certainly would please let me know....I used packing tape again for the canvas, it seems to do the job, and I put a LED light inside for a bit of fun,
cheers, Will

HI Will you say that you have only super glued the brass cage together well it should be ok as I made up the big radar on a type 42 HMS EDINBURGH from brass rod an supergluded it togeather an 20 yrs on its still ok as a freind of mine bought her an I see her quite often an that has not fallen to bits mind you I live in the uk where here its not so hot as oz but I think it will be ok
chris

1f4d
Thanks Chris,
that does give me confidence.
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I have completed both funnel caps, using brass wire and superglue, they turned out better than I thought they would. Photographs really bring out the imperfections, I had to tidy up my searchlight canvassing after veiwing the images.
Cheers, Will

Hello all,
a bit more progress on my ship - I picked it up and turned it around. The photos really bring out the wobbly porthole installation!
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A bit more than that. I started on installing the propshafts - I have made a bit of a mess as the shafts I bought are really too long (500mm) but I can make them fit; I will just have to do a lot of bracing within the hull to stop them vibrating. Alot of resin and body filler and you wont notice anything, I am sure.
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I am also finishing of the aft deck. I am making the majority of the interior accessible by having most of the deck lifting off. I will use magnets to keep them in place. I think that will work and am not sure if that has been done before or it is works. All the best,
Cheers, Will

HI will, hope you are safe out of arms reach with this virus, wow you V&W class destroyer is coming along nicely, what is the pans for the deck are you going to add wood decking and hand rails, look forward to seeing more progress pics.

Haven't done any more work on cutting out the next lot of bulkheads for my ship build , can't tonight have a branch meeting to go to for our Federal MP for Blair Shayne Neumann.


Very over cast wet weekend coming up, hope to work on the layout modules in the garage.

Take care Tony

HI Will the ship looks great an plenty of detail to see an regards your wobbly porthole installation!
well they look ok to me as ive still got to fit about a hundred portholes in my tigers hull an i had a look at croppers models for the portholes an yes in brass an with the glass they look great but they are to dear for me so ive bought plastic portholes an im fittin in me own glass .But back to your model its a thumbs up from me
ATB chris from uk

Thanks chaps,
I am really happy now that I have started cutting holes in my hull (if that makes sense). The deck is steel and will be grey along with the brown anti-slip paint you can see on other bits of the deck, Tony There is alot of detail to put on the deck, so that should be fun. Your ship is looking the part, its a big one, what are you going to use to paint it? Will that be hard given your build material.
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My model has just over a hundred portholes Chris, I love the croppers ones, they look so good and have the little glass insert. I bought them over a twelve month period from England and am glad I did even though they are not 100% accurate - I think a good or bad porthole can make or break a model. I look forward to seeing yours - given your skills displayed so far it will not be a problem for you at all I am sure.
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I finally got my custom made rudder delivered and installed - Rus FRENCH from Defence Model Supplies, Uralla NSW, built it for me and it is fantastic, will have an image soon,
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All the best is these weird and confining times...
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Cheers Will

Hello all, I am still picking away at my ship when I can. I am now going to fibreglass the interior of the hull, put some steel bracing in and add some ballast. A local museum owner, Rick, who is a genius with metal very kindly cast twenty lead ingots for me to install as ballast. Total weight of them is 20kg, so I will cut them to fit at the lowest level, right next to the keel, and seal them in with fibre glass resin. I will obviously have to float the hull and get the weight right and so she sits level. I was worried what I was going to do and Rick provided the answer for me. It will add a lot of weight and I am toying with installing half, leaving other half able to be removed; adding steel rods along the keel etc. All the deck bits are stting on the charge room desk asking to be knocked off by one of my many children....If anyone has any advice with the photos attached please do so!
Cheers Will

Will,

I built a 4.5m long type 42 destroyer in 1/32nd for a successful attempt on the Guinness world record for distance travelled in 24 hours in 2002 as seen here with my main helpers. The model weighed over 300lbs when ballasted down on the water but I did not fix any ballast in it permanently, preferring to use 6 pint milk containers filled with gravel which fitted neatly in the spaces between the internal plywood keel and bulkheads. I would strongly advise against permantely fixing any of the ballast in the hull as it will make it more difficult to move the model around and substantially increase the risk of causing damage to the model or the surroundings. Keep in mind also that there will eventually be a lot of delicate fittings like guard railings on the finished model that can easily be knocked off if the model is too unwieldy when putting it in the water etc. The second photo shows how I cut hand holds in some of the bulkheads so that there was no need to hold the outside of the model when lifting it from its trailer and taking it into the water.

I would also suggest that you would be best to get all of the practicalities of fitting the RC gear sorted and working before doing much more to the inside of the hull as coming back to it later on may need you to undo much of your good work so far. Have you sorted what motors you are going to use and how they will be mounted and where you will put batteries and Speed controllers? Similarly for the rudder and steering servo and also the receiver. Sorting these now while you have as much access to the interior as possible will avoid any problems later.

Many thanks for the sound advice. I loose fitted some of the ballast that would be needed and my goodness it was extremely heavy and yes I would definitely damage it trying to move it. I live in a remote rural area with no real water nearby and it will spend 99.9% of its time out of the water so I will definitely not fix any ballast permanently. Its for that reason too that I havent really done much to install any of the radio gear and just been enjoying the detailing. But you are right and I need to address the running gear. I will fibre glass the entire interior, and install the rudder servo and motors, and work out what batteries I can put in and then ballast. The motors I have were recommended by someone sailing a similar sized vessel and he said they do just fine. The lead ballast should be really good as its low as you can go in the hull and there is alot of weight up top.
Cheers, Will

Hello again,
I am slowly adding detail to the upper decks and lead ballast. I did a ballast test with all the lead I have so far, about 10kg or so and realise I will need at least two to three time that much to get her sitting in the water,
cheers, Will

Hello again,
I have been mucking around alot with the painting - wow you are never 100% satisfied with it are you. As my hobby shop is a four hour return trip I had to make some choices regarding the shades of grey. I got a lot of help in the V & W section of this forum so I think it is near enough. Please let me know what you think,
cheers,
Will

Looks good to me. But what really matters is whether you like it!

And no, you will never be totally satisfied.

Phil

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A collision at sea will ruin your entire day. Aristotle

HI WILL long time no talk but ive just had a look at your ship on the water an
it looks great an its funny but we are sort of neck an neck in our builds if you
remember i was an still am building HMS TIGER C20 in 1/72 scale an i hope you
dont mind ive put a couple of linkpics on my tiger for you to see
all best chris
https://ibb.co/ByHcY85
an here she is in the test tank an she passed all her tests am now getting ready
to fit in all her eletronics an motors an ESC's an batts
https://ibb.co/7jYLbqc
ALL THE BEST CHRIS

Hello Chris,
its great to hear from you, I was wondering how your build was going - very very impressive build. I love your ballasting tank, fit for purpose. Please keep me updated if you can.
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My build is going well, in spits and spots. I managed to finally fibreglass the whole interior, and those shots in the pool showed how much ballast she will need - do you know how much weight yours requires?
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All the best,
Will

HI Will nice to see you are still building your ship an regards wheight in my tiger when
she was in the test tank it took about 25 to 30 pounds to get her down as the hull is
very bouyant but in gonna try some lighter batts an fit on a half an inch x hal an inch
steel bars an they will be bolted onto the half an inch keel on her bottom of her hull
an here they are in the linkpic an when they are on they wont be seen so no worryies
on that account
https://ibb.co/gWkwvbm

AN here in this linkpic they are just for now held in place against the keel with clamps
an in my opinion they look quite nice an not just a lump of lead like ive seen some
boaty guys fit on their boats
https://ibb.co/JnvPMWt an Will do you still keep in touch with tony mullar ? as he been
in a very bad way in hospital since 2nd of may an only just now home
chris