RC Benchy

[jerry56]

Can't you just drill out the coupler....??? or would balance be an issue.

[ddmckee54]

Originally Posted by jerry56

Can't you just drill out the coupler....??? or would balance be an issue.

I could just drill it out, but I want the U-joint, just in case there are any alignment issues.

I just got the e-mail that the u-joint will be waiting for me when I get home. (It wasn't on a slow boat from China.)

[ddmckee54]

The seagulls showed up last night, and it looks like Fire Control is ready to repel all boarders.
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/pw...-no?authuser=0

[ddmckee54]

I got a little more work done on Benchy, he's VERY monochromatic right now. Apparently he didn't get the memo that the Great White Fleet sailed YEARS ago.

This is just the primer, the various greys, blacks, and other colors will soon follow.

Don

[frizzen]

Camoflage to get the Great White Whale

I assume it will, but ts your boat going to be faster than the slow boats from china?

[ddmckee54]

Faster than a slow boat from China?

Don't know yet, I don't want too much speed, he is a heavily armed TUGBOAT after all. He's got more of a high speed prop now. I'm pretty sure it's not what I ordered, but it was only a couple of bucks so it's not worth the hassle of trying to get them to send me the right one. I've got another prop on order that SHOULD be the right one this time.

Don

[jerry56]

This is going to be really fun when it's done....do you have a place to try it out...

[ddmckee54]

My back yard is a park. That park is next to what I think used to be a mill pond of some sort on the river. So yeah - I got a place to try it out. I used to run my Seaport/Harbor tug conversion there. That one hasn't been off the shelf in a couple of years. I've got some upgrades that I want to do that I just haven't got around to doing.

Back to Benchy, he's getting a proper nameplate for his transom.


It's only in primer now, but I couldn't resist seeing how the letters would look. It needs some flat white touchup around the edges, SOMEBODY tried hand sanding a couple of the more stubborn letters instead of block sanding the whole thing. And that's the result. The highlighter is there for scale.

Don

[ddmckee54]

A sneak peek, before Benchy's completely grown his teeth.



The black outline around the top of the mouth is next on the hit parade, along with the black below the waterline. The grey areas that you can see will also be painted black. The black that you see through the anchor ports is the inside of the bulwork. When everything is assembled what you should see through those ports is the grey of the pilot-house, or the turret.

Benchy is starting to need his Kodachrome!

Don

[frizzen]

Can't go wrong with shark teeth!

Hmmm, highlighter barreled cannon?

[ddmckee54]

Nope, the guns are already printed and painted. I've got to get a couple more coats of grey on the deck before it can be assembled and the turrets bolted down.

I have two turret mounted guns, one fore and the other aft of the pilot-house. A CIWS and radar dome are mounted on the roof of the pilot-house. The CIWS is also handy for chasing off seagulls Dontchaknow. The CIWS isn't completely painted yet, the white is on its' radome and the rest of it is just in primer. I haven't made up my mind yet what the turrets remind me of more... the head of an Imperial Walker, or the Fork Lift pit crew in Cars.

I'm still working out where to mount some of the additional stuff that Bench's getting. I was just going to screw Mario's feet down to the deck in the pilot-house. But under that deck is about the only flat spot where I can mount the sound system transducer - so the screws are out. I may have to glue a couple of washers to the deck and glue a couple of magnets into Mario's feet. I was going to say I haven't even started painting Mario yet, but I shot the white on his gloves when I painted the white on the hull for the teeth.

Benchy's probably going to get wet yet this season - maybe... but he certainly won't be COMPLETE.

Don

[ddmckee54]

Benchy is mostly painted and assembled, no pictures yet so I guess that didn't happen.

BUT... Mario definitely needs his Kodachrome.


When I get home, if I remember it and before it gets dark outside, I'll try to take Benchy outside and get some pictures. He's got at least a 6 foot finish - maybe even a 10 foot finish. For those of you that don't know what a 6 foot finish is, if you're farther than 6 feet away from it, about 2 meters, it looks good. If you get closer, you start to see the flaws. If I go outside I can stay 6 feet away, so the paint job should look good.

Don

[ddmckee54]

OK, the pictures didn't take as long to re-size as I thought they would. Of course the fact that I could only use 2 of them might have had something to do with that (SOMEBODY shakes too damned much and only 2 of the pictures were usable.)


This is more or less a side view. The "smart" seagulls know that the aft turret is hidden from Fire Control's wrath by the radome for the Search radar - so that's where it's safe to perch. Of course if Fire Control turns the Search radar on - roast seagull just MIGHT be the Cook's menu for dinner. The NOT so "smart" seagull lands on the forward turret where Fire Control can do their best to repel all boarders.


I assumed that where the curves changed direction in the 3D print was where the waterline was supposed to be. So Benchy's visible teeth start there and I will ballast the boat to that level - that level is about 1 inch below the scuppers. At least I hope I will have to ballast the boat to get to that level. The designer said he had to add over 1Kg of ballast and I think he had his boat sitting higher in the water than where I plan to have mine. I haven't installed the drive-line yet so Benchy still isn't quite water-tight.

Don

[jerry56]

This is truly a fun build to watch.....

[frizzen]

Wow, that's looking really sharp!!!

[ddmckee54]

It's the first paint job that I've done in more years than I care to remember, so it's got some warts. Being the cheap-skate that I am, I didn't want pay 10 bucks for 250ml of thinner that is essentially rubbing alcohol... So I used rubbing alcohol. It worked for some, but it seemed to have affected stick-to-it-tiveness of the binder for the last coat of black that I sprayed on the hull. The crap literally rubbed off.

I threw a coat of semi-gloss water based poly on everything to put a stop to that nonsense. In the process the black rubbed/chipped off down to the primer in some places. I brushed the poly on - should have sprayed it but after what happened with the black I didn't want to try thinning the poly to get is to spray through my air-brush. Consequently the brush picked up some of the black, now the whole boat has a chipped/weathered look. I won't tell anybody that it wasn't intentional if you won't.

I've still got the interior of the pilot-house to do. I'm still pondering how I want the wheel to look. It's definitely going to be multi-colored, but **** that's a lot of spokes to mask. Most of Mario was painted without masking - and it SHOWS!

The wheel's spokes would have to be masked. While typing this I have been plottin'-n-conivin' the wheel's color scheme. As Baldrick would way - "I have a clever plan M'Lord." I'll work on it this week-end and see how it turns out. Might have been an epiphany - might just have been a brain-fart.

Don

[frizzen]

Smashing job Bawlders, but what if we tell the people all the failed paint was intentional weathering, or battle damage.

Well, if masking seems like too much work, the spokes might need dry-brushing instead.

[ddmckee54]

Frizzen:

My multi-color paint job for the wheel is going to look OK, and so far without masking. I started out with a 1/0 brush, then went to a 3/0, and finally the 5/0 seemed to work the best for me. I'm going with a brass center, wooden spokes, and a gloss black outer ring. I just need to figure out a better way to hold the part while painting it.

I tried a Model Colors leather for the spokes, but they are a little too dark. I'll have to see if I can lighten them up a little with some Model Color flat earth. I think I'll try the "glazing" technique that SpruesNBrews uses for his 1:35 scale figure painting, applying a little bit of color in several thin coats. If the color isn't exactly consistent, so what - neither is wood.

Don

[ddmckee54]

Benchy's first "sea trials", floating in the kitchen sink, did not go well.

The good news, he didn't leak... And even with my intended 12V battery, I still needed ballast to get down to the waterline.

The bad news, there's WAY too much weight ABOVE the waterline. Once he starts to roll, he just wants to turn turtle. (Probably didn't help anything that SOMEBODY added not just one but two turrets, a chain gun, a Captain, and a radome. All high above the waterline. My 12V sealed lead acid battery's gotta go, just too much weight above the waterline. When I took that out, I was able to ballast Benchy back down to the waterline and get some stability, no more trying to turn turtle anyway. I've got a 4S Lipo ordered, a 3S with its' 11.1V was just cutting the 11V minimum for the sound system a bit too close.

Don

[jerry56]

Trail and error.....sounds like you have a plan...