1/96 HMCS Bonaventure

[XFR]

Nice,

are you going to have the tail rotor folding or not ? And how are you going to power the motors ?

[NavyShooter]

Normally aircraft are connected to a 'starting cart' on a flight line to provide external power during the startup process.

On a ship, the aircraft are instead connected to ship's power.

In the case of the Sea King on RCN Frigates, we had a separate 400Hz power generation space just for them, with 3 Static Frequency Converters that would take 440V 60 Hz 3 phase power and convert it to 120V, 400 Hz 3 phase power.

The power connection cables were plugged in during helo start...which is effectively what I'm simulating with this, so I'm just going to have a set of wires running out the side of the helo running to a connection point on the edge of the deck that I'll plug them into. (Note, a lot of the spools of 'hose' on the sides of the flight deck are actually aircraft power cables.)

The rotor blades will only spin at about 30 RPM using the motor I've got (at 6V) so it will simulate the initial 'start' moment quite well.

Intent is to have the rotor blades just sit into the top of the motor mount, able to be removed if necessary for transport or replacement. I'm probably going to do something with magnets for the holding down of the helicopter itself. I'll see. This is still a work in progress!

[XFR]

Interesting, when I built my 1/48 HMS Clyde I used the refuelling hose from the HRF to hide the power cables.

With my Arleigh Burke Destroyer I hide the motor cable in the under carriage and had brass pins slop in to the deck were they picked up there power.


Keep the good work up.

[Fliger747]

Clever works to add animation. I noticed that you split the Sea King in two for printing, a very good idea. My 1:192 Missouri needs a chopper so perhaps I'll add that to my round tuit watch bill. Cheers: Tom

[NavyShooter]

I found a bit of time today to spend on 3D work.

Problem #1 that I had to solve was the rotor blades on the Sea King actually spin the opposite direction to that shown in the pictures I've posted...so I've redone the file, and will print some new blades when I get home tonight.

With that fixed, I have to ponder whether or not I'm going to fix the 3D file for the folded version of the rotor blades...I might just leave them.

After that, I still had a bit of time to play with, so I finished the design on the arresting wire spools.

Bonnie has 7 wires - and only a few of them are 'the same'.

So, some calipers and some sketch time later, here's what we have.

I'm going to print 2 of each of them I think. One that will be 'no wire' for display only.

The other set I'll do with elastic 'wire' between them.

They are on 6mm pins, so they'll be able to be switched out if I'm going to have the aft elevator in use or anything like that.

[NavyShooter]

The spools printed fairly nicely.

[NavyShooter]

Here is how the Sea King looks spinning the rotor on the flight deck:

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/oE6KLD9o1ak

[NavyShooter]

And finally, I have some progress to report on the elevators.

I got some small lab lifts in from Amazon, and finally had time today to get out to the garage to putter away for a bit and cobble something together.

Here's a first look:
https://youtu.be/Cz4mD5jaYk4

[Maarten Sch�nfeld]

Looks interesting!
In the real thing there are four rails on either side guiding the trajectory of the elevator, maybe a good idea to replicate that on the model.

[NavyShooter]

Looks interesting!
In the real thing there are four rails on either side guiding the trajectory of the elevator, maybe a good idea to replicate that on the model.

Dangit....you made me go back and do some more 3D design work. I added some guide rails...and we're off to the printer with a test set of modules.

In other news, I tried some Micro-mark window glue, and am quite pleased with the results. I've found my solution for making the windows!

NS

[NavyShooter]

Alrighty....a little update on the Bonnie.

I'm bringing her in 'as is' condition to a display at the Halifax International Boat Show in 2 weeks, so I decided to dress her up and see what 'as is' condition looks like.

I have printed and assembled the new hangar deck, which has the necessary wells for the elevator lift mechanisms.

The hangar deck is going to be a lift-in/lift-out module that will fit below the flight deck when I'm all finished, and the flight deck is going to get sliced up with 'hatches' to allow access to remove the entire module, as well as provide access to the anchor deck area, and the rudder area below the aft cable deck.

I didn't glue any of the accessories in place, in fact, none of them are really in the right spots, I just wanted to get some imagery to share with a couple of folks so they could get an idea of what I'll be bringing along to the show.

I'm quite pleased with the progress - there's still a long way to go, but getting the elevators figured out has let me move the bar along considerably.

NS

[NavyShooter]

Amongst the other jobs in progress, I decided to start the rigging this evening! My plan to include rings on the yardarms for the halyards sort of worked - I ended up having to drill out the holes in the 3D printed part as they were not open, but that didn't take long, and running the 10 halyard lines was fairly straight forward!

I've got some LED's run into the island now, and have the port/stbd running lights as well as bridge/flyco interior lights running.

Pretty pleased with the progress.

[NavyShooter]

Had the Bonnie out to the Halifax International Boat Show on the weekend with the local modeling club.

Great time - lots of interest, lots of questions, even met a gent who sailed on the Bonnie and corrected me because I was missing a door on the aft corner of the island. (I'll be fixing that shortly!)

Here's some pics from the show:

[NavyShooter]

For those who are F-Book users, here's a short video that was posted by the show staff:

https://fb.watch/iC1Pby6tTF/

[NavyShooter]

Following the show, I decided to get back to work on the hull.

One of the problems with the Bonnie model I'm working on is that the prop shafts aren't quite right. I tested the ship in a friend's swimming pool once and the props were poorly balanced, the shafts leaked, and were not proper stuffing boxes, rather, just a piece of 1/4" brass rod inside a snug fitting (but not tight, nor sealed) brass tube.

The other piece of the puzzle is that the 'skegs' that support the shafts end about 3.5" short of the end, so instead of support straight to the end of the shaft, instead there's a poorly balanced prop, with about 4" of shaft to flap around on. That's....not good.

So.

How to fix that? Can I get stuffing tubes that will fit inside? Not really. Still doesn't fix the skegs...so....the only answer I can see is to de-construct/destroy, then rebuild.

So.

I ordered a set of 15" long 6mm stuffing tubes with 4mm shafts, and a new set of props.

I've started with measuring some things...and realize that I need longer shafts than 15", but these will get things started at least in terms of fitting.

I'm going to end up having to remove the 'as fitted' skegs on the model, and replace them, and in pondering the right way to do that, I decided to try my hand at some basic 3D design - and I have been able to successfully loft/blend these together. There's still work to be done, but this is a good start.

With the Skegs made, I also made an alignment block for the shafts. This will hold the shafts in the correct alignment to each other as they are inserted and glued in place.

Lots of work left to do on this, but a good start. Intent is to glue/epoxy the replacement skegs on, then put a layer or two of fiberglass over top and blend them into the hull. We'll see how that all works out.

[NavyShooter]

Alright...so...tonight my wife kicked me out to the garage while she had a girls' supper with some of her old friends, so after picking up one of the minions from hockey, I got some quality time in the garage to look at the problem in detail surrounding my prop shafts.

Here are some detail photos showing the free-hanging portions of the prop-shafts, and you can see where they have cracked as well.

[NavyShooter]

That is the assessment of the situation....here's what happened next. I pulled out the coping saw and started cutting. It was slow going.

After about 10 minutes with the coping saw, I decided that I needed to go big...so I dug out the old 1" Stanley chisel and an 8 ounce hammer, and started tapping away.

[NavyShooter]

About 20 minutes later, here we are...both old shafts stripped out.

There is still sanding to do - but this is the bulk of the destruction completed.

With the chisel, it took a lot less time that I'd anticipated.

At the end of the evening, here's how things look. The replacement 3D printed Skegs are almost a perfect drop-in replacement. I'm shocked actually at how well this went together.

There is a small question of alignment and shaft length - I think I need to order a pair of 20" shafts, but I'll re-visit that tomorrow when I am able to thing about rebuilding her.

I am quite pleased...yes, sanding, aligning, epoxying, fiberglassing and gell-coating are all still ahead, but damn....this is looking really really good.

[Timmy C]

Man that's scary! Glad the operation went through well!

[DrPR]

Brutal!

Do you have a fairing for the aft end of the skegs/strut supports? A squared-off aft end would create a lot of turbulence and drag.

Phil