1/72 "snowberry" corvette.. RC model conversion.

[Reckless]

alright... my wife bought this thing for me 2 years ago for Xmas... and it sat in a box till about 2 weeks ago.

the hull is built and sealed, and the RC portion of the build is "finished" .. so I'll do a quick recap up to current

paint scheme/modeling I am aiming for is

HMCS Fennel K194
April 1945
Source: Lambert: Flower Class Corvette
Fennel was one of the ten RN-owned but RCN-operated corvettes. These ten were for a time the only adequately equipped RCN Flowers, and can be distinguished from their Canadian sisters by the location of the 2pdr bandstand as well as the raised galley between the funnels


being that it follows the snowberry build details closer then the other RCN ships... and it's colors are greys instead of the weird offwhite/grey and the blue and green






IT FLOATS



IT LIVES!





and heres where I am at now... just finished securing and sealing the decks... built the base of the peice of superstructure that will be removeable to access the guts ... now I'm onto building the Coaming for said lift off peice.

I hope to have it ready for uncompleted seatrials on my Birthday (jan 29th) ... which will be basic paint, and very basic details... this ofcourse also depends very muchso on the weather .. as well.. vancouver Island finally got "winter" spent the last few days subzero and white ground...

[Slats]

Nice work on the hull strengthening / bracing and layout for RC.
You might find that 500 series sized can motor and g/box (which looks like a Robbe one), is complete overkill for this project.
Have RC'd up three of these now as turn keys for people and the best sized motor for the job of scale 16+ knots (to which these were) is around the 300 - 400 can size.
The motor I recommend for the job is this one: 360-14 motor from Electronize on Direct drive - http://www.electronize.co.uk/model_e...ics_frames.htm -Click on the motor on this link. I run this of a 6v 4 Ah SLA. Pushes the boat up to a nice clip with power in reserve for those times you need a bit of extra.

Best
J

[Reckless]

yeah it's a Robbe 1 peice unit (the motor, gearbox, shaft, prop) ... the biggest thing for building it was that I didn't have to buy anything new... the power unit, servo, rudder gear, ESC, etc all came from a poor retired springer tug that had developed more leaks then it's DIY hull was worth... it was also not a "spec" springer so I'm just gonna remake it later on

I kinda wanted to over power it, I don't intend to run it full tilt at all.. and I hate models that have to be balls to the wall to "run right", and I definately want the power "just in case" and hope I never need ;) and the Ultra MIni Con ESC has a nice low speed setting section .. so I should get a nice Propper running throttle and then hammer down emergency

and I notice that the robbe gearbox has a different sound to other gearboxes... it really sounds like an old working diesel givin'er .. and not a vibrating grinding mess.. no sound unit needed! .. LOL

I've got a 6v 4.5AH SLA in there ... and some sticky wheel weights ... I played with larger batteries but it just didn't sit right...

comtemplating smoke and lights later... but I doubt it... I kinda like it's simplicity way it is

and I'm not going for museum or show peice... there will be things not quite right with it's exterior looks to the boat I am trying to recreate ... but it shall look the part out on the water

[Slats]

I am sure it will be great.
And welcome to the Forum.
Best
J

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

I saw a tube of CA on the table in that shot you hade of the hull halves going together. I hope you do not use that on a styrene kit. Always use cohesive wherever the situation (materials) permits it. A weld is always stronger than a contact bond. And CA will fail under high shear and shock forces (collisions!).

Good sound structure within. And I'm with you -- better to many horses, than too few.

Build up the deck combings as high as you can to keep sloping water out of the innards. And cram foam into the hull, as much as space permits -- this will keep your 'sunken' corvette afloat for easy salvage if you do flood it out.

David

[Reckless]

I did initially... but if you look in the second shot that capped tube is plastiweld .. and every joint/seam is reinforced with epoxy. I guess I'll find out if I did something wrong the first time I accidently plow into the dock :(

my combing is slightly taller then the bullworks at the rear, in theory I should be able to swamp the rear deck and aslong as the superstructure doesn't lift off it should keep the water out. .. and the combing goes up to the top deck too... so even submarine impressions of the bow shouldn't let any water in...

everything is secured, nothin moves.. I can put it on it's side, bow or stern and even the battery stays in place... but only time and use will tell! .. short of being hammered and shoved under by another boat, in theory I should never have any water problems :D

[He Who Shall Not Be Named]

Cram it with foam anyway.

David

[Reckless]

haha.. yup ... soon as the's been final trimmed , I'll be throwing Foam in it... I learned with my mini go fast the hard way (it's foam filled now... )

[Slats]

Cram it with foam anyway.

David

Oh you wreck my type of fun that way.

As a veteran of more than 30 scale ships - I have never used foam and never lost a boat. That said I have seen three Flowers go to the bottom all attributed to lake conditions. So do it on this smaller model.

J

[Reckless]

that video always makes me sad :(

[Slats]

Don't be - the skipper fully anticipated its loss, although we were all dumb struck, including Pat Drake who set the mine field, as to the end effect.
Best
J

[Reckless]

so I decided to see if I could make myself HATE my lil target boat... and installed these lil *******s!



good tune up to installing all the railing posts LOL

lots of finalization that can't be seen inside the engine room... although you can see my combings, and the switchs mounted... the switchs are placed to be accessable via the skylight for the engine room .. so the superstructure has to come off alot less .. lessening the chances of breaking stuff

[Reckless]

alright... camera won't show what I have been doing today.. so ya'll will have to wait till color goes down (couple days )

but I took the file(s) to the decks to remove the planking where it's not supposed to be (atleast to the best of my ability from the various pictures and info I could find)

also went over the hull joints and a few places... again .. not going for perfection just want it to look the part as best I can without driving myself batty.

I was hoping to throw down the red antifoul lower hull/waterline.. but the weather sucks .. so hopefully tommorow

[Reckless]

Color and camo on the hull :D .. initially I was gonna try and copy a pictured pattern... decided to just wing it..

Starboard


Port


the decks are dusted with over spray at the moment... so again I can't get a pic of what I did with the planking removal and what I left on the decks... need to throw a coat or two of dull coat on the hull .. then I can take on the deck painting and start the superstructure ...some parts of the superstructure need to be painted before outter layers can go on .. needed to know where the camo was going.


*yes.. I know the prop is red.... :p *

[Reckless]

alright.. more progress ... couldn't find the colors I wanted/needed in one direction of travel today... tommorow should be more prosperous
so as it seems the front/upper deck will all pretty much be hand painted at this point anyways.. figured I'd tackle making it actually look like a boat!



something special in the mail today ...
Hunter and Hunted.... but which is which :D