Another Newbie

[optima21]

Hi guys,

I've had a passing interest in model engineering for years and seem to be interested in smaller models, which has recently evolved into radio controlled model boats,  last week I was having a discussion with someone about paddle steamers and can remember an Edwardian Paddle Steamer kit being sold by Hobby's and remember how elegant it looked.



 about May last year I bought a solar powered boat off ebay.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/272425806540

and a speed controller that does tank steering.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/143652897932

and over the new year finally got round to seeing if they worked together


and yeah tank steering is fun, so then was put to one side to be taken up later.

and that happened this week and found paddleducks while looking at hull construction and here I am now with my first post.  The Hobbys boat is 600(ish)mm long, but Im thinking about building one 300mm long from styrene sheet, so In though it would be best to make test hull to see if it is feasable, so I cut up an an offcut of construction timber







then add some mountings for the motors, I used 3v 300rpm geared N20 motors, as the were half the weight of the motors on the second picture.



and a "deck" to seal it



and some paddle covers



and some radio control gear (receiver and speed controller, no servo required) and battery



and ready to be launched and the rough drawing I worked from



and in the water



and it went pretty well, I really like the turning circle and you can play with this in the bath, now to think about how to make one that looks something like a proper boat. The hull on its own weighed 102 grams and ready to run weighs 162 grams. I use radio control gear that works down to 3.5V so I can use single cell lipo batteries to power it which also saves weight, If I can keep the weight down I think its do-able, and hope you enjoy my first attempts.

and some of my other toys, a matchbox lorry (4.25" long) converted to radio control (the one on the right)



and a Revell landing craft which is 11" long and converted to radio control





and a couple of tiny steam engines (the bases are 5" x 3")



so I hope you guys like this as a first post and any advice you can give will be most welcome.

[Eddy Matthews]

Well I have to congratulate you on a superb first post! Some lovely models.... Well done.

Regards
Eddy

[Robert Hornby]

Excellent job on the models Optima, being a steam man myself I especially like the stationary engines. The steam trucks also look great. Well done.
Robert

[DamienG]

 

[Spankbucket]

Very impressive I must say. I too like smaller scales. Some of the boats described on here are up to 6 feet @ long which would present me with lots of challenges!

[optima21]

thanks for the welcome guys 

I've got to say Im liking small steam engines, but we call all appreciate the work that goes into models of any size (including full sized ones). my first thoughts on radio controlled model boating was to build a model of Constructo's Louise which is just under 18" long.



but to build it as a live steam model, so I thought I'd do some work on the engine and ancilliaries but so far have got the ancialliaries working. this consists of a boiler with steam dryer, gas burner and gas tank, boiler feed pump and automatic water level control. The picture below shows the testing of it and the boiler is in the middle of the picture on the left and is less than 2" long



and here is the trials and tribulations of running with an idea and seeing how it goes

https://www.mig-welding.co.uk/forum/threads/small-steam-engine-for-a-model-boat.98238/

I'll look for a copy of a summary of this that published in the local model engineers club's newsletter, and I'll post it in the steam section on here over the weekend 

I'm thinking that a small paddle steamer may be finished before this boat though