RC India

Hello folks. Though a RC India member since 4 years, this is my first official post on this forum. A little before the onset of the pandemic, I'd started planning to build a scale RC boat with from plans sourced online.
The original inspiration was some memories of attending ship modelling summer classes conducted by Balbhavan 30 years ago. Those were the days of mahogany modelling still  8-)
Sourcing the plans from eezebilt.tk, got some material from Rcbazaar Bangalore and started the build. With a few hiccups in material sourcing and design and assembly being a novice, I finally completed the build in end october 2020. I shall be uploading more build pics and my experience as a first time builder. Hope to gain valuable advice from the Dons of this forum.  ;D

Beautiful  {:)}

Will you be sailing it too, or only display?

Have you had a look at this:   http://www.rcindia.org/boats/scratchbuilt-patrol-torpedo-boat-semi-scale-pt-109/

Plan to sail it soon. its a single screw 2-channel RC system

I have seen this before.VC sir's work is way above my league  :hatsoff:

As quoted earlier, I'm uploading pics of the work in progress from scratch to completion. The keel, formers, sub-deck and bulkheads are going on along with main deck fit test.

The superstructure assembly and the fit test are shown, all components are in 4 mm balsa. The motor mount and placement were tried out.

The propshaft, propeller, rudder were constructed from brass tubes, rods, sheet and 3 mm bearings added.

Putting things together, assembling a servo mount (used a different one eventually), and a cross section view.

Next up, the main deck of single sheet lite-ply was put in instead of the original two halves of balsa joined together. A 1 mm balsa skin was added on the transom for finishing and the superstructure sealing work begun.

@ddbs25,

Good stuff.

Please continue.

Regards

Nice build and detailing... Looking forward to the maiden sail

To continue, The sides were skinned with 2 mm balsa. Initially the thought was dual layer planking, but seemed too fussy and time consuming. all gluing was with CA glue medium and sealing internal gaps and propshaft was with Araldite quick 5 min epoxy. Then came the issue of sealing the exterior. the only fiberglass cloth i could source in Bangalore was a 6 oz. cloth as the chinese/HK sites were not taking orders. This was fixed with water based polyurethane, exterior grade. Required multiple coats and maybe added some weight as well.

Then, it was time for some metal bashing. Fabricating the armaments and external fittings. all assembled with brass rods, tubes, and fixed with CA and 5 min epoxy. The guns were bow and stern cannons, side pod 50 mm browning lookalikes. Silencers for the transom were made of 3 mm brass tubes flattened in a vice.

Moving on, the foldable radar mast was made out of balsa strips. The eventual radar dome was made of a aero prop fitting cone. The torpedos were made with blood collection tubes (vaccutainers) and bits and pieces of brass and plastic cones to scale. The gun tubs and railings were then prepared with plastic rings and brass wire and epoxy.

Before moving on to primer and painting, I got a serious case of nerves about the project sinking. So I did a float test in a large tub for 2 hours and reassured myself. Got together all the componentry before painting.

Then commenced the painting. Initially primer applied with Varathane all purpose white primer. then two coats of medium light grey all over and mars red below the water line. I left the deck unpainted to add some contrast. Maybe the purists will disagree but I'm ok as I know I always have that option of doing it.

The silencers were then painted before epoxying them onto the transom. the life raft was made with come black rubber tube from an old stethoscope and some toothpicks glued on liteply strips and everything held together by quick epoxy. The lifesaver rings were made out of rubber rings and painted. The color scheme may look out of place but i wanted them to be immediately recognizable for what they are.

Bringing things together, a fit test was done before assembling the inner mechanicals.

The inner mechanicals and electricals were finally put together and dry run test done. Now she awaits her maiden sailing, once i find time away from work.
Couple of pending things to be done are the anchor out of brass sheet and number painting ( ELCO PT series 586-623).

For those interested to know, the componentry used are:

1) eZrun 35A brushless ESC 9Car model with forward/reverse)

2) Avionic PRO C-2822 1200KV brushless outrunner motor

3) Avionic AV9650 25g digital servo

4) Wolfpack 1500 mAH 2S LiPO battery

5) BER-TRV1 2-channel Rx/Tx 2.4Ghz system

Beautiful workmanship. Good luck with your maiden voyage. Looking forward to a video perhaps.

From what I see here, the bar on scratch building has been raised substantially. Superb work. Please accept my sincerest compliments. I could learn a few things from you.

@ddbs25,

Not only is your work wonderful, you did something that you may not be aware of.

You woke up VC (one of the original pillars of this forum) out of his hibernation!

Regards

Always there for those who need me. Iyer Sahab, still learning from you................ :hatsoff: