Another change...

Finding model flying to be too expensive and too seasonal in a country where half the year is winter,
I have tentatively returned to model boats, with which I have always dabbled.

Some time ago, my dear, late friend, Ken Cooper, gave me a lovely old Marblehead yacht.  He'd found it in a loft of a big house once lived in by Tommy Sopwith, aviator and sailor of the English America's Cup yacht that came closest to beating the Yanks.  Ken had put a nice laid deck on it and hatches. He'd also clearly intended it for radio control as there was a typical modern tiller arm on the rudder post.
I had intended running it as a Braine steered model a la its pre-War roots, but, realistically, it would never get sailed as I have no access to a lake round all of which I can walk and free sailing demands such a pond.  So, with apologies to Tommy Sopwith and the traditionalists of Marblehead racing, I shall fit the boat out with R/C, ensuring I can get it back from the reeds, by never going near them.

The lovely lines of a Pre-War Marblehead.  50" long and 800 square inches of sail area.

Much more recently, I was given a bare, very early GRP yacht hull.  My old chum, Peter, had it under piles of junk where it had been for maybe 40 years.  All he knew was that it had been modelled on a design by Uffa Fox, the famous yacht and dinghy designer, but I could find no evidence of such.

But this week I placed pictures of both models on the sailing section of the American based R/C Groups forum and in no time received the news that the early GRP hull was a 1/12th scale model of the famous Dorade Ocean Racer and that the Marblehead was a "halfway" point 'twixt Madcap and Pocahontas, 2 very competitive designs of M boat.  The Dorade won its first race in 1931 and is still winning against fleets of much newer boats. Even in 2013 it won the Trans Pacific race outright! The Uffa Fox link was that her lines drawing had appeared in a famous book by Uffa Fox, but she had been designed by the equally famous Olin Stephens.

So, Super 60 fuselages were hung up in my son's loft and the 2 boats brought home from their overstay up there.  As I left, he gave me the mast for the Marblehead.  It just about fitted in my car.  Indeed, I have no idea how these boats will ever get transported anywhere when the deck fittings are all on and the masts fully rigged.  Peugeot 206CCs are small!

I have a huge collection of electric motors, so I will be using one to make a sail winch for each boat. I see no point in spending a fortune on a sail winch servo when a geared motor and a drum can be made so easily.

Rigging?  Haven't got a clue, so a cheap book on the topic is on its way to me as I type.

5 days away...

We are just back from a very nice 5 days in deepest Essex.  We do this from time to time for a bit of "us" time. Sometimes a boat, this time a trip south to see some family and friends.

I have always been a sucker for the Estuary.  And Essex, my county of birth and childhood, has plenty of them.  We were staying near Tollesbury, in the most charming and tiny one bedroom cottage, which the even more charming owner allowed us the complete run of, because she had a small "lodge" half way down her garden, in which she spent the evenings and in which she slept.  So bed and breakfast became cottage and breakfast.
By going to the end of her lane to the crossroads and turning right, you go towards the lovely West Mersea, or by turning left, Heybridge Basin and Maldon.

Firstly, we turned right and went to West Mersea.  I have been to Mersea island many times and was delighted to find that The Blackwater Pearl cafe was still there, largely unchanged, so we parked up  and had a toasted teacake and a cuppa there, where the cleaner girl told us which of the two main establishments we should trust for fresh seafood.  As her Dad and brother were local oystermen, we figured she'd know.  Not that we wanted oysters, you understand.  If I wanted to swallow snot covered school rubbers and tabasco sauce I could do it much cheaper.  But a bit of dressed crab is always welcome and my good lady loves her cockles.

Later that day we had a look at Heybridge Basin, an old boaty haunt of mine since the days when I lived aboard a Victorian cutter at Burnham-on-Crouch.  It is less relentlessly boaty these days almost inevitably, but the Ship Inn and the Jolly Sailors are still there, so a pint was in order in the Ship.

 I was delighted to see two boats go through the sea lock from the Chelmer and Blackwater Navigation, the first time I had ever seen the lock in use.

After our drink I strolled up on the sea wall for a gander and to my surprise a large ship came up the river from the sea.  It turned out to be a large tug, a small tug and a floating platform between them, which had been hired for the day for some operation at Clacton, up the coast.

It made an interesting counterpoint to the sailing barge which plies its trade in the trip game these days.

Old and new

Maldon is to the right of the above shots, but when we went there, we found no available parking place, so wended our way back to the "digs" via a very good Indian restaurant in Tolleshunt D'arcy.

And so the week progressed with visits to old friends, one of whom, my dear old pal Jimi, I hadn't seen in over 20 years as we'd always just missed each other.  Jimi is seriously affected by Cerebral Palsy, but whilst his speech and movement are difficult, his brain is sharp as a needle.  He has top qualifications in electronics design and a passion for the rock band, Hawkwind, which he combines when they tour to programme synths, design light shows and even sing backing!  When he sings, his speech is much clearer.  Anyway he was delighted to see us after all this time and we spent a wonderful couple of hours reliving old adventures.  Jimi was a regular on my boat Vanity when I lived the other end of town and we'd talk deep into the night.

We also went to North Fambridge, because I never have, despite living so close for long.  Well, there's not much there, but a couple of interesting old buildings, the distant one being my kind of hideaway.

I would LOVE to live here!

Or here!

On Thursday, we went to Maldon's Promenade Park to see what all the fuss was about.  Not easy to find, it is a delightful Edwardian park.  We stopped by the model boating pool to eat a cream cake, when I realised what was in this very unremarkable place, behind us in the car park, having a photo shoot done.

Now, come on, what were the odds of that?  A genuine Lamborghini Miura S, the only truly good looking Lambo.  Rare as rocking horse poo and worth, what...a quarter of a million or more?  In Maldon Park on a Thursday afternoon.

More anon.....

And now, even with paint...

The canal boat model got its cream two days ago and today, after well over an hour of masking with plastic tape used in the clay modelling game, pinched from VW years ago and finally found a use for, its blue.  The cream masking was then removed with success and we now have only the dark red to do at the rear and then tidying up, before clear coat.

Apologies for the typically shitty photos, but my camera will NOT take pics indoors and despite a bit of sun, the dogs will jump on the outside table if anything that smells different appears for their noses.

After all the painting shenanigans are done with and the clear coat goes on, the red oxide floors and rear roof can be done and the hull sides and bits of the bow will get matt black to simulate the black epoxide Bitumen that most narrow boats get these days.
More anon........

Nearly done, bar the paint.....

Back last year I was paid up front to make a model of a customer's friend's new narrow boat, an S.M.Hudson 60 footer.
It has had to be fitted around earners till my official retirement recently as it was too big a commitment in time to be otherwise.  In fact, I charged way too little for the amount of work it has proved to be.

No matter, tis nearly done.

In self etch primer.

The rivet work is impressed from behind in litho plate with a home made tool.  On the real boats these are entirely bogus dummy rivets made of welded on washers, an attempt to look like a "Josher", an old working boat run by Joshua Fellows.  Those of us who despise such follies call them "washer Joshers"!  But the damned things had to be on the model.

I am now out to spray its last coat of self-etch primer/surfacer to cover all the aluminium hinges I have added to the side doors.  I have also cut out the circles in which the brass portholes will fit.  This was done with a Compass Cutter set to minimum so the surface of the plywood was cut through to avoid splitting when the holes themselves were dug out with a small Rotafile in the minidrill.

That's one hobby gone!...

Today, I am just back from a long trip to Dunstable and back, delivering my Burlington Arrow project to its new owner.
With the sale of the Austin 7 Special almost instantly upon advertising it, that's my main hobby gone, thanks to the Landlady wanting me to get rid of my storage caravans from the back of the plot where they were barely even visible.

So what do I do now in my limited free time?
Well, there's still the model aircraft flying, but that rather depends on having a suitable model to learn to fly on.  The ready made trainer needs calm airs, of which we have had none all Summer and the more durable trainer still needs a set of wings to be finished. Clearly I won't have that airborne this side of Winter, despite the forecast of an Indian Summer.
As Winter does his deep approach I tend to go internal and take to the scenic modelling, till Spring is sprung, but I can assure myself of finishing the Super 60 trainer by then, in the hope I can start flying as soon as the Sun comes out again.

Meantime the shed needs Creosoting before the bad season and the weedkilling needs completing around it.

Since people seemed to like the shot of the Italian Job coach last time, here it is finished ready to go off for casting.  Biggest pattern I've ever done.  .................But, it seems the new computer hasn't kept the bloody photo, so you'll have to wait till I get the first resin casting back from Mr. Francis.  Thanks, Digitalia!

An hour at "The Field"

Every so often, on a nice day, I pop down to the local model flying field.  I'm not a member, but they don't care as I don't fly yet.
There's usually good banter and it was a nice afternoon.

The usual suspects were there, three of whom were flying.

One chap had a petrol engined (30 cc.) aerobatic type thing...huge wings, massive rudder, blah, blah, but the engine really wasn't pulling many revs.  However John flew it for the chap and it seemed to circulate at a nice speed to my way of thinking, but kept "dead sticking" before time, so got put away.
By contrast, another chap was already aloft with one of those Almost Ready To Fly jobbies, which many are sniffy about , but which get a lot of people flying quickly.  Both his aircraft had electric motors, something much more common these days and almost silent, which keeps the retards at the fishing lake happy, if anything actually does.

Then John got his own huge aerobatic thingy out of the car and started assembling wings on Carbon Fibre spars, connecting servo plugs, etc. etc.  It looked very like the petrol 'plane, except suddenly he just jumped up, turned the motor on and off it went.  By no means silent, but the bigger electric motors in these large models sound like well silenced engines.
He put it through the aerobatic schedule smoothly and efficiently and landed perfectly, with a nearly flat battery.   No mess, no wiping down old spent fuel, just turn off and disassemble.
There's a lot to be said for electric model aircraft, but I do like an on-song engine.

The big problem with modern electrics is the LiPo batteries, which aren't exactly cheap and can be very fussy, nay dangerous on charging, discharging and even storage.

But, I hope to be joining them soon so I can learn to fly again.  The only time I ever flew R/C was with a 2 function model microlight, which I bought for just 50 quid, because it had Skyleader radio gear.  Something I'd always wanted.  It was powered by an unthrottled PAW 19 diesel and screamed to full height before the engine cut and I was able to circle it down to a perfect tricycle landing...twice!  On the third attempt, covered in oily diesel fuel, my thumb slipped off the stick and it nosed in.  Later swapped for work on the front wing of my Jag XJ6!

Meanwhile back at the bench...

The master model of the Bedford VAL Legionaire coach in 1/32nd scale. It is, of course, the one in the original The Italian Job film which ended with its back end see-sawing over a cliff.  This made in Ureol and filler.  The basic shape is there, but windows need filling and detail added before it can be cast in resin.

Solvents, depression, etc....

A friend and fine modelmaking colleague, Iain Robinson has written a very important and interesting post on his superb blog about the link between solvents and depression, lethargy, loss of mojo, etc.

It's officially known as neurotoxicology and is a fact.  of course how it may affect different individuals changes from person to person, but the number of complaints of the above symptoms I see on forums must be a little more than simple burnout.

Please read all Iain's latest post AND the very interesting and informative comments to the post on :-
http://iainrobinsonmodels.blogspot.co.uk/

I think you may be alarmed and surprised.

I think, fortunately that I have got away with it so far, though my periodic depressions may well have coincided with a larger than normal exposure to solvents.  If I had half a memory I could maybe make the correlation.