Another Lulonga

[Tomas Krejci]

At one of the foreign internet  sites I saw  photo of model of the quarterwheeler Lulonga for the first time.
The model I really liked at first sight… truth be told .. was so ugly, until it became nice - indeed .!
The main  question for me  was fetch some plans for model building at least.. and I had (and still have) Fortunately, a friend in Australia, which collected  boat plans from around the world .
He owned fortunately  again     the original plans for Lulonga, and he just sent these plans to me

To complement - Lulonga is a river in Equateur province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is about 200 km long from its beginning at the town Basankusu. There, after confluence Lopori and Maringa arises Lulonga River, which flows as a left tributary of the Congo River near the city of Lulonga

[Tomas Krejci]

Hull construction
When selecting a model, I solved how  I will build model. and what materials I can use.
Into account came superstructures made from toughened sheets of general purpose polystyrene (GPPS)and the hull made  by  the combined construction of plywood, balsa and GPPS, which I finally chose, as most feasible for me… e.g  classic scratchbuilt …
Main hull of a model has a simple boxy shape and flat bottom, passing through a small radius to the perpendicular sides. Bow already has a rather classic shape ,aft ends angled planes. The two side surfaces are run on the front side paddle wheels, on the middle surface, which is moved back against the sides, is placed the rudder . The fact that the paddle boxes are recessed into the hull contour, reduces aft displacement so as to be expected, and I have to take this into account.

[Tomas Krejci]

For sure I therefore increased the overall height of the the hull on the side of about 1 cm. (Against height on the plan).First I drew the desired shape of the ship bottom plate  at a 4 mm sheet of plywood, which I saw up  by hand jig-saw.As I said, the sides of the hull are perpendicular and passes  by a small radius on the flat botom.For easier and more accurate shaping of this transition, I did  glued   the wooden rods  Ø10 mm to the bottom to  both sides  on the  edge of the plywood by polyurethane adhesive.Using this construction it is therefore necessary to adjust the width of the bottom part with respect to the final breadth  of the model.
As the next step, followed by a similar manner,is  sticking straight sides of 5 mm balsa. Roundwood thus created  an elegant and easy transition, that you did not have to tediously grind.
The next step was to glue the bottom of oblique transition to paddle. To achieve symmetry transitions I stuck through the entire width of the hull transverse balsa wells.
The next step was to glue the bottom of sloping transition to paddle boxes . To achieve symmetry transitions I glued balsa plank across the entire width of hull
> foto 001> foto 002 <

[Tomas Krejci]

The next step was sticking the false deck with the nose pieces.
The  edge I Increased  with  shaped balsa pieces and glued balsa planks to the rear part of a hull , which forms at this time such a strange pendant.
> foto 00 3 <> foto 004 < The middle part was taped together all parts cut off

[Tomas Krejci]

Then I simply plastered the bow by balsa chips
> foto  005 <
Followed gluing transitions and grinding.> foto 006 <> foto 007 <
As the next step I reinforced wooden hull with one layer of thin fabric from glass fibers with epoxy resin > foto 008 <

[Tomas Krejci]

To harden the balsa hull I used heavily diluted Epoxy by nitro cellulose thinners . After the thinner  dissipated , the resin hardened  for about a week, but eventually solidified to general satisfaction ... and the hull has become not only stronger, but also resistant to the  water.
. Followed by grinding fiberglass and the first major cementing by nitro - base cement  , and of course ... further cementing grinding, cementing , grinding.
Then next layer by  proper white  surface this time ,grinding ,tamiya putty, grinding.. surfacer ,
> foto 009 <> foto 010 <

[Tomas Krejci]

I then proceeded  the bonding of bulkheads on the board , reinforcement and construction of the paddle boxes .Next step was  sticking on of the deck cut mahogany plywood 3 mm (> 011 foto <) and sticking  of partitions (> 012 foto <> Photo 013 <), again PU glue.

[Tomas Krejci]

Construction continued sticking the both sides at the stem  (PS 0.8 mm > foto 014 <), shaping the upper split false deck, and gluing sideways of engine house . (>  foto 015  <) and seal ceiling of
paddle boxes (>foto 016 <)

[Tomas Krejci]

Then again ... spray spray putty, sanding ... (about 5 times so again. Still a little.). Meanwhile,I prepared new fashioned  false sides of the paddle boxes ( 1.5 mm PS) I cut  them out  ,painted finally black and screwed into place> foto 017 <,> foto 18 <,> foto19 <..

[Tomas Krejci]

I finished planking the bow from the inside and put  the primer white coat . (>foto 34 <> foto 37 <)
After several cementing  and grinding I finally sprayed the  hull with dark red color,The upper part of the bow remained white (the final is the black colour)


 
Continuation until next time,  I have to  translate next part of  text.
Excuse me for errors in translation, sorry, it's not easy for me ..

[derekwarner_decoy]

Hi PD's......very quick building & looking very good Tomas....& your translations are perfect and make enjoyable reading....thank you ....just keep them coming .....Derek 

[Tomas Krejci]

Thanks, Derek,
                        but this construction took me over  three years. 

Unfortunately I was not able to build a model every day, plus I had not  solved the wheel  drive .  first set of  gearboxes I had to reject  as unusable. Only after  purchasing special  geared motors  I  continued in further building. I was also delayed by the problem with some details. So currently the   building slowly  continues.

time is running faster than I needed

 sincerely   
                        Tom K.

[Eddy Matthews]

The model looks very nice Tom, I'm looking forward to seeing your progress....

Regards
Eddy

[Tomas Krejci]

Hi Eddy,
             greetings from cold winter Europe now,

 Next part I put to new link at  > paddlewheels -drive systems< ,

 as I want to write about my way to exotic paddle wheels ....

 but the final part ( details and commissioning) I intend to describe here again.

 but it is still the long haul   

 TOM K.

[LARRY W]

 Hello  Thomas,
        Your build is good ,   what paddle wheel set up are you using .?..
             i have LUNGONGA which is waiting for a paddle set up ,  tryed to build them as shown on plan , but failed .
          commercail ones to expensive but will get there one day...... larry...