Sir William Wallace - Second build

[Talisman]

Looking really good Eddy, where do you find the time? Think i need to reset my alarm for earlier in the morning to try and keep up

[Eddy Matthews]

The weather forecast for tomorrow morning is excellent, so I've spent the day temporarily installing the RC gear and getting batteries etc charged up. Sadly I've only managed to get the stern rudder hooked up, so I'll  have to lock the front one in position for a quick test. As the boat has independant drive as the real one did, I doubt the rudders will really be needed anyway...

So hopefully if all goes to plan, I should have a few photos, and maybe a short video, of it's first sailing by tomorrow afternoon.... Then we'll see how it handles and wether the motors are powerful enough?

Eddy

[Talisman]

 

Hope all goes well for you Eddy.
Look forward to seeing the pics
Kim

[Eddy Matthews]

What a glorious day - Perfect weather, just a gentle breeze and blazing hot sunshine....

The SWW performed flawlessly - It took 14Lbs of ballast, so I know all the diecast vehicles will be fine on the deck. The motors had more than enough power, which was one area that I was concerned about! And even though it only has the stern rudder connected at the moment, it turned surprisingly well....

So I'm absolutely delighted with it's first sailing, now I can continue with the build knowing that everything works!!

Attached are two photos and a short video - The video is taken on a stills camera so the quality is poor, but it gives an idea of how it went....

Regards
Eddy

[Stuart Badger]

Congrats Eddy!

Can't wait to see it finished!

Stuart

[Talisman]

Ditto Stuart's comments.
 

Thinking about the mixer Question Eddy if you left everythin controlled independently i.e. each rudder and each drive on separate channels she could be great fun to play with rather than having a computer doing all the fun stuff... might even be possible to have her 'crab' sideways while on the move , now that would make for impressive docking.

Great update your well on your way now... You might have time to fit another build in before paddler day?
  

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks guys,

To say that I was delighted by it's performance would be the understatement of the decade!

The throttles were seperate, one on each stick, and the rudder (only stern rudder connected at the mo) was on the right stick - So tank steering. That was confusing enough for most people that had a go with it!!

I do have a mixer that I might try next time I put it on the water - The problem is that it's only designed for older PWM radios, and will only work on my PCM set if I put throttle and rudder on the same stick, it just does nothing if I have the normal throttle on the left stick and rudder on the right.....

There's absolutely no chance of me starting another build before paddler day Kim - It's unlikely the SWW will be complete by then, though it should look a lot more like the real boat than it does now!!

Eddy

[djcf]

Eddy,
SWW hull looks well on the water, going to be impressive model !!   

I love the wakes from the wheels... looks like a lot of weed rising up in that lake ready to entangle, though!

She must be very stable with that beam

Clark

[Tug--Kenny]

Well done Eddy. Looking very stable in the water.

ken

[amdaylight]

Eddy,

Looking gooooood!!!! Great job so far, now finished it.

Andre 

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks again guys, it's always good to get a few comments, good or bad.....

Don't worry Andre, it will get finished - I've been working on it today, got the bridge painted white, and made a start on the deck planking.

Eddy

[amdaylight]

Oh I wasn't worried, just a little tongue in cheek teasing It really is looking good. You might think about make one end the bow and the other the stern and only have one ruder that works. All of the ferry's that I am familiar with lock the front rudder in the direction that they are going. If the rudder gets caulked to one side or the other the steering engines can't over come the force of the water on the rudder and this is way more than your average servo is designed to handle. Backing up at a slow speed for a few minutes is OK but running for a long time is going to eat battery power as well as put lots of strain on the servo at the front of the ferry.

Andre

[scotfriend]

Hi Eddy,

well done, congratulations will it be finished to the paddlerday?

regards Hans

[Eddy Matthews]

Thanks Hans,

I don't think it will be complete by Paddler Day, but it will have all the basics, so it will be on the water!

I'm currently planking the decks which is a long job! Hopefully I'll have some updated pictures early next week.... Nothing will happen tomorrow as it's club day in the morning, and then the F1 GP in the afternoon!

Eddy

[Eddy Matthews]

A few photos showing the deck planking on the SWW - In these photos, the planking is just lying in place, it isn't glued down yet and still needs some final shaping to fit correctly.

I had intended to do the deck with individual planks, but then I stumbled across some fibreglass deck sheets from Orion Mouldings http://www.wearboats.com/ and that is what you see in the photos. Okay maybe not as good as a properly planked deck, but still a pretty fair result - And since the deck will be covered in vehicles, there will be plenty to take your eye off any little imperfections!

The only difficult part was cutting out the circular turntable on the aft deck - Cutting a circle in fibreglass without smashing it to bits is a little tricky!

Eddy