Building and playing with model boats in Victoria B.C.
Coffee sticks in action. I have neglected this blog and failed to take some pictures that I should. That said, here’s the state of the build today. Lots more coffee sticks have gone into the build This picture shows the deckhouse upside down. The deckhouse bottom sides were first glued to the frame that was … Read more
Starting the Deckhouse. Bit of a hiatus while I got out the latest Binnacle, and did a couple of additions to the Binnacle Archive. The dining room table has been fully occupied for a couple of weeks by the latest mind-boggling quilt project. Anyway there is now a little progress to report so here goes. … Read more
The Coaming I think I mentioned earlier in this series that I want the superstructure to fit over a coaming around the access hatch. This so that water splashing on the deck cannot readily get into the hull. This time I first glued a 3/8 inch (10 mm) strip of plywood around the underside of … Read more
A Bitty Week Ok, I got trapped into non-boat activities, primarily Skyrim with a bow-wielding cat. But some model boat stuff happened, so I’ll do this post to catch you up on the things that did. I did redo the profiles of the superstructure and came up with this:- Which I am happy about. If … Read more
More Drawing Looking at the wheelhouse profile I had done so far, I decided that I really needed to cut a template of the sheer line and re-draw the profile once or twice more with better checks on the clearances between decks and a more realistic deck thickness. I took a walk down to the … Read more
Finding the Superstructure. Once the glue on the extension dried, I finished the cut and try session to sink the bow into place, and ended up only my normal 5 mm out. That is right up in the bow where the black paint and the anchor windlass can be arranged to conceal it, so the … Read more
Shaping the Deck. I want to put the deck into this hull without a lot of structure underneath. So the deck beams I put in are only in there with hot melt glue. I’m going to clamp the deck plywood down onto those beams to get it to curve with the sheer line, but just … Read more
Measurements and Trials The next major step in the building process on the tug is to get the deck in place. But this means deciding the size of the superstructure. I want the whole superstructure to lift off so that there’s a large hatch opening up underneath, through which I can get at the working … Read more
The Weigh In. I found all my lead pucks, so it was time to measure the displacement of the tug hull. So tape off the hole at the end of the prop shaft and fill the bath with water. Put the lead in the boat, but it still wasn’t enough to get her down to … Read more
How Fast to Turn a Propeller. I have a model tug hull with a 60 mm propeller. The question is, how fast should it turn? The starting points for the answer are the propeller pitch, that’s the distance through the water that the propeller would move in 1 turn, all other things being perfect, and … Read more