Seen the video. Model looking great. I look forward to your next build blog 😀

Have at last sailed the Coromandel see video on video section. it was a bit of a learning curve in making and posting a video but got there in the end.

As I am nearing the end of the Coromandel a new boat has been started, I will put this ln the correct place this time in the building blog section.

Thanks for the advice Dave have ordered a new charger. I am always trying to make my life difficult by doing things the difficult way. 😰

HI Nasraf
I would not recommend charging your LiPo's with other than a LiPo charger. There is no safe way to charge as you do not know the charge remaining and will not know when full charge has been reached. These batteries are very particular about both the max charge voltage and also the minimum discharge voltage, and I believe they require both a constant voltage and current so a zener won't really work. Exceeding either by the smallest voltage even momentarily can cause major damage to the cells. They can become unstable and you run the risk of spontaneous uncontrolled destruction.
Giantcod (Giantshark) sell very cheap chargers as do several other UK based stores so I recommend you order one asap.
Ship looking really great, binnacle probably as you suggest but really unless you have a pic who can say. 😀

Having a bit of trouble loading pics they may be a bit big at 3 mg.so try again.

Thanks Dave, nearly there a few more details to go I keep thinking of new ones as I go along, outstanding still are oars for life boat, bollards, ships whistle and binnacle.

I am not sure what the binnacle of a ship of this age would have looked like, I am going to assume that it would have had a timber plinth and a brass hood over the compass, probably no magnetic compensation as the ship was timber built.

My chinese LI Po charger has packed up so as the battery is only 2 cells I will charge each cell separately at a constant potential, any suggestions on how many volts this should be to save me time in researching, has anyone made a simple charger with a zenner diode control ?

I have added a few pics of the ship also showing isolating switch under hatch using rare earth magnets and steel strip from secondary double glazing. This works quite well and avoids any visible catches.

HI Nasraf
Good to see another post. Seems like you are nearing a launch date. With the weather the way it is you may not need to visit the local pond, it may have come to a road near you 😀
I think you will find the LiPo gives good power and duration. I assume you have the correct charger and will not be charging the battery in the boat?
Looking forward to seeing the launch. 😀

Here are pictures that I did not get on previous post. Shows ship on test pool and ballast installn. all 900 grams of it.

Well after a long delay I have started again on getting the ship ready for a bit of sailing, when it stops raining.

Quite a lot of time spent on little bits and pieces which does not show much to casual view but main work has been to do the electrical installation and run the motor a bit. Have decided to go for a 2 cell lI po of about 2 ah. Was going to use 6 volt 2.2 ah lead acid but I have had them for some time left uncharged so not much good now also I did not want the c of g to get any higher as I was a bit worried about the stability.
The bow floated a bit high so quite a lot of ballast was required, I had to cut through front hatch to gain access and put about 110 steel pins that I ( I did not want to have to buy any lead ) these worked quite well and allowed the required trim to be achieved, these were all glued in using wood glue.
I have used a unidirectional ESC of modest current rating as I do not want the ship to move too quickly.
Still a bit more detail work required on the cabin detail at the stern and the reconstruction of the forward hatch and then it will be on to some open water.
The radio aerial is inside the rear mast another advantage of using old fishing rods. ❓

deleted this as I uploaded twice.

HI Nasraf
Lifeboats on Titanic were manually lowered, the davits were of Weylin design allowing the boats to be moved sideways on a rack prior to loading, Possibly the lack of any lifeboat drill contributed to the disaster - certainly the officers were unsure of the number of passengers each boat could hold. in any case 20 boats were insufficient - my model of the Olympic will show her with the amended complement of 48 lifeboats.
Yes we will have the Titanic finished by end of Feb. We have found someone to cut all the window frames in 3mm ply sides with a water jet. Due to receive any day. The windows will be printed with a laserjet on OHP film - looks good in the trials we did.
I will post some updates on my building blog.
Dave

HI Dave

Thanks for comments, since investigating the various arrangements of davits it has made me more aware of the problems of lowering the boats satisfactorily. From what I can remember, from the film, difficulties in lowering the lifeboats on the Titanic resulted in a considerable loss of life. Looking at the ships of the time most seemed to be manually lowered and I assume that is how those on the Titanic were done and with their size, weight and distance from the deck to the sea, would have required considerable strength to do the job. On the two modern big ships I have been on, it is all a much more substantial arrangement now, which gives a bit of confidence that it may work when needed.

I can see why making the details for your ships as mouldings, rather than in detail, is a good idea otherwise you may still be making them for the 200 th anniversary of the sinking.

Are you still on program to be complete on the date?

Nasraf

HI Nasraf
Nice to see this further detail. I made a mould for my lifeboats - 64 needed!
Interesting to see how you made the benches, again I need many but at 100 scale I will be again making a mould and casting with fastcast.
The lifeboat davits look very realistic, just wish I had made mine.
Be nice to see your finished model on the water.
Regards
Dave

Its been some time since my last post as other activities have taken priority and the detail work on the bits and pieces are time consuming

I have taken some time trying to get a bit more detail from New Zealand on the Coromandel but with not much luck. So the paint colours will my guess as the " Cromandel Steam Ship company" only had one ship and was taken over by the " Northern Steam Ship Co." in the 1890's, so it is unlikely that any record exists. There appears to no small coastal steamers preserved from the period in N.Z.

The ship had a number of deck seats these being similar to park benches I.e. timber slats on metal frames. As the timber slats on a 33 to 1 scale would be very delicate I decided to make the seats with brass frames with tinned copper wire to represent the slats. I would have liked to solder the wires to the frames, but as this was a bit above my capability, assembled them using epoxy adhesive. in total 4 seats were required 2 long and 2 medium. Photos attached in the unpainted state.

The other detail job was the lifeboat and davits etc. The life boat was built using frames and planking, the davits from brass rod and the pulley blocks from bits of scrap brass. Carp fishing swivels were used to enable the blocks to rotate. Photos of the life boat fitted are attached, the final painting has yet to be completed and darker rope will be fitted when the ship is completed.

HI Nasraf
Really coming on. Bill and I are starting to plank the Olympics and are also using 3mm planks. Correct scale would be 2mm but far to difficult to produce in the large quantities we require. We are using stick on veneer and it really adds strength.
Glad to hear someone else makes hulls with lumps and bumps just like the real ships. Prior to fiber-glass yachts hulls were not generally highly polished.
In a previous post you mentioned taking pics of some rigging - any chance you could post details or send me a private em - I am also building a Cariad pilot cutter so would welcome details.
Keep up the good work.
kind regards
Dave

Thanks Dave for your comments and suggestions on lights in another place.

Following is an up date on the construction of the Coromandel.

Time had come to consider the painting of the hull after much sanding and filling of Imperfections applied a few coats of spray primer and then satin black, it is not perfect but I do not expect that the original ship had a finish like the Royal yacht.

As said earlier I was not happy with the mast supports, so used piano wire with the mast ends fitted with cord ends glued to wire, with epoxy and heat shrink tube.

I have made a derrick winch and bridge steering gear from brass and bits from an old alarm clock bought for 50 p at car boot sale, it did not have as many brass gears as I would have liked, but enough to do the job.

The decks have been finished in epoxy varnish so should last a long time,

Various pictures are attached

Looking good. What a brilliant picture of the mast detail.
Dave

Having a bit of trouble uploading pics so here are rest.

Thanks Dave for the comments but after going to the Bristol Model Engineering Exhibition and seeing models of Bristol Channel pilot boats, was not very happy with rigging as it was all a bit chunky, so have had 2 more goes at it, one shown in this up date and another to shown later.

Also went down to docks and took a few pics of cable ends at mast. As I do not know how original boat was arranged I decided eventually to use the loop end as shown in photo this would have been an economical method and looks neat in a model.

Other work has been very time consuming in particular the decking as this is made from individual strips about 3 mm wide glued to plywood decks. Also shown is stern, rudder and prop.

Also not happy with funnel as this was not to scale so decided to make a new one from that old reliable source, fishing rods. Using the cork handle with a central aluminium tube centre I turned this parallel and then wound on a couple of layers of glass fibre and resin and the putting back on lathe and skimming. The top part of the funnel being a brass turning, as usual from old bits of plumbing.

As I was becoming a bit worried about the weight it was time to put the boat in water to see how low it would sit also to check how water tight the hull was. As can be seen there is no problem in level and some ballast will be required.

Neat bit of wire work. You should be OK to sail even in gale conditions.

Now that the hull was basically complete I added two rubbing strips and covered the outside with 2 layers of fibreglass tissue and resin and when dried sanded off the worst of the lumps that were left. As it was my first attempt with fibre glass it went a bit wrong, especially as the high temperatures in my garage gave some quick curing times for the resin.

The next stage was to start construction of the masts. As
I wanted to keep the C of G as low as possible, and my brother in law has a weakness to buying fishing rods at car boot sales, so has lots of them, I decided use bits of these for the masts. They are light and strong and already tapered. I also decided to to support them with cable stays with turnbuckles to tension the stays. I made the turnbuckles from 4 mm brass rod and 2.5 mm threaded brass rod. Other bits of detail are made from brass, mostly from old brass taps and valves, as stock brass is very expensive.

I made the funnel stays from piano wire as this is very stiff and as the funnel attachment is more robust than the masts, there is no need to use turnbuckles.

The various pictures I think explain themselves.

Here are other pics I could not load all on last message.

As I said before the clamping of the planks required quite a lot of various holding devices, pic 032 shows the one used to hold the planks together at the bow.

When the planking was finished plastic filler was applied to the various gaps and the whole assembly sanded.

The rudder shaft and bearing were made next, from brass and the rudder from laminated ply attached with brass straps. The whole assy is shown in pics 034,036 and 570 also shown is the rudder servo mountings. I started with a black plastic prop but this did not look very attractive so I invested in a new brass one.

In order to make the hand rail around the passenger deck it was necessary to make a jig to drill the attachment holes for the rail support pillars. This was also used to form the hand rail from 5 strips of 2 mm plywood as the bend radius required was probably too much for a solid strip. To attach the support pillars to the deck a formed upstanding was made from laminated ply and the assy. glued to the deck structure, pics 567,589,590 and 592 show the various stages. Pic 590 shows the rudder servo and linkage when fitted.

Pic 596 shows the hand rail in temporary position before support pillars fitted.

Don't think you will have any such problem with the hull.

Your magnificent effort with 2mm lime is strong enough, my hulls are covered in balsa, cyanoed to the frames so the inside coat is really a major part of the hull integrity.

Bilge pumps - hmm now there's a thought, most large vessels have water dripping from various pipes in the hull!!

Bill's doing all the metal work at present so hopefully he will have eliminated any leaks in the prop shaft and rudder.

Wish I had bought one of those Lidl sanders - my Dremel is back with the makers under guarantee!!

Kind regards
Dave

HI Dave

I intend to cover the outside in glass fibre tissue and resin ( actually I have done it, as I have said earlier, the blog is a bit behind actual events so details will follow later )

As I cannot get to the inside and the frames do not have any clearances from the hull skinning, I cannot slosh coat with a sealant, so hope that fibre glass and paint will seal adequately.

If it leaks a bit, as the boat is only about three foot long I will be able to tip it upsde down to clear it. in your magnificent project it would not be easy to tip an eight foot long ship ( or 2 of them ) up side down or get it out of the water either. I expect that if you get leaks you will have to fit bilge pumps you will have plenty of space !

Kind regards nasraf

Looks like you are nearing completion of the hull. Apart from the plastic padding how are you sealing the hull inside and out?

Thanks Dave for the comments, your project looks somewhat more extensive than mine but will be very Impressive when finished. Together on the water they will be something worth seeing.

On to the Coromandel, as I had not built a planked hull before I just followed my nose and decided to cover in hardwood strip. As it was fairly obvious that it would be very difficult to pull the planks around the overhung stern I decided to carve this and as I got into the planking to also do the lower half of the bow with solid blocks.

I used a single section plank of lime 8 mm * 2 mm. This was OK and easy to do on sides and flat bottom of the hull, but on the curved parts on the frames it would have been better if I had bought a selection of section narrower planks.

I found it difficult to fix the planks when being pulled around the curved parts and only a pair of planks could be done at the same time, so it was quite a long job. I did not use any permanent nails in the assembly but removed any used to hold the assembly after the glue had dried.

As I went along I made various clamping jigs and it would have been better if I had thought these out a bit more earlier in the build.

I filled the various gaps in the planking with car repair plastic filler and sanded the outside of the hull.

The attached pics show the various stages and the motor installation and meccano gear drive.

Eventually I completed the covering and shaped the bow and stern blocks using a Lidl detail sander which was very effective.

HI nasraf
Looking good. All those lovely frames. Reminds me of my current project (RMS Olympic/Titanic) joint build with a friend at 100 scale, only we are building upside down. Being bulit side by side to reduce errors. Looking forward to seeing how you plank and seal your hull. Balsa/Resin/Epoxy?
Good luck. Dave

Before any assembly, the rear frames were cut above the keel to fit the prop shaft, this runs horizontally.

The 6 mm rods were inserted through all the frames to hold them in position, these rods being supported at three positions by adjustable supports and slotted blocks, from the building jig. it was not found necessary to fit the nuts along the length of the alignment rods as the thread crests prevented much movement along the rod, in any case it was very time consuming to fit the nuts and run them along the rods.

An aft deck of 2 pieces was made from 4 mm ply, which mated with the top of the frames to ensure that they were held in position. To provide even more support and alignment an additional 2 threaded rods were fitted in the aft frames.

Prior to fitting, the aft deck parts were cut to provide locations for the engine room hatch, rear saloon and mid ship access section.

Glue was then applied to all the parts and the assembly aligned by adjustment of the vertical supports and left to dry.

I thought that a bit more detail on frame manufacture would be useful, so attached pictures show how each frame is configured, along with the various holes in each one.

In addition to the two jigging holes, I added four others to enable the centres of the frames to be removed after the planking had been added. Jig saw slots were made on the two verticals and the lower horizontal water line. This will enable this to be removed by sawing down from the top to the two upper holes.

When all the frames were complete they were fitted to the keel whilst held in the jig.

Also the lower part of the removable section of the frame was cut away on frames 4 to 10 inclusive to enable a lower deck level to be fitted to hold the frames in position and to make the basis of the motor mounting.

The last pics show all the parts in position prior to any glue being applied.

From the information I now had I was able to produce a side elevation drawing of the ship, by scaling off the photographs using the basic hull shape that I had obtained. See picture of drg..

From this I had photo copies made at twice size and from these I made drawings of the front and rear of the ship at full size. The frame positioning I took from the original information. From these drawings I was able to draw and cut a keel from 4 mm ply.

In the stern end drawings I schemed out the rudder servo installation and prop shaft and motor geometry. As I do not want to have a very fast boat, I have only used a moderate power motor which I have geared down using meccano parts. see pictures of drgs.

I cut a number of 4 mm ply panels, one for each frame, and then stuck onto them, copies of the frame drawings with wallpaper paste. When this was dry I set about the task of cutting, on a jig saw, each frame.

These drawings had waterlines on them and longitudinal section positions, so there was a suitable reference position to ensure alignment when the hull was planked provided the frames could be held in position, so I decided to drill 6 mm holes in the same reference position on each frame and to thread 6 mm screwed rod through them and to hold them in place with nuts either side.

It also became evident to ensure that the ship was straight it was necessary to hold the keel during construction so I made a jig to hold the keel. see photograph.

In my research to find drawings of a suitable hull I spent some considerable time on the web looking for information, but not with any success. I also looked for a ready made hull I.e. fibre glass also with no result.

During my historical research I did find that attached to the Great Britain ship, here in Bristol, there had recently been opened " The Brunel institute " which consists mainly of a maritime collection of books and drawings collected by a David MacGregor. So I paid a visit and discovered a very extensive collection, along with a magnificent model of the Great Britain, they are still cataloging the drawing collection, so this is not yet available. However amongst the books I found a book from the 1920's, that had a number hull drawings included and one was for a single screw coastal steamer, that had the characteristics I wanted, so I had a photocopy made at twice size.

From this with a bit more assistance from a local print shop I was able to produce prints of the frames of the hull and to scale these up to make a model about the same length as my Fireboat and has turned out to be 33 inches long with a beam of 6.5 inches. ( This I find a convenient size to fit in the boot of a car ).

As I had still not been able to get permission to have copies made of information held in the NZ library I had another go at the government department involved, this time the approval was forthcoming. On sending the required fee, at last copies of the information they held arrived ( very quickly in 4 days, as it had to come from NZ ) Unfortunately it was only one document, but it was invaluable as it was a copy of the original surveyors report, produced when the ship was built.

This gave me the actual dimensions of the ship which showed that my hull design was actually a bit to wide in the beam but I decided to leave it as it was as I thought that the increased displacement and width would be advantageous.

I forgot to attach picture.

Having got a picture of the ship, although not very good and the front half obscured by the jetty. I thought I would look to see if I could find any other models of small coastal steamers from NZ. I looked at a number of places on the internet with no result.

I then contacted a member of the World Ship Socy. in NZ who replied with a detailed e mail on ships built in the area in the late 1900's and on a book " Servants of the North" that recorded the history of the Northern Steam Ship company. I was not able to get a copy from the library in Bristol, but there was a copy available from Amazon, which I obtained. He also gave me information on sources in NZ for maritime history.

This gave me a good back ground to the coastal steamers and another picture of the COROMANDEL at sea ( attached ) from the book.

From the pictures I determined the general hull shape of the ship and the information from the WSS indicated that it was not usual to produce drawings at the time the ship was built, but that they were produced by scaling up from half hull models. I remembered that I had seen a number of these at the Bristol museum, but on visiting there, found that all these had gone and no one seemed to know where.

During my investigations I discovered that the ship had been built in 1879 by James Holmes in Auckland and on the New Zealand Maritime index its official no. was 78374. The ship had been built for the " Coromandel Steamboat Company", as this company was wound up in 1895 I do not expect that it had many other boats. The CORAMANDEL was aquired by the Northern Steamship Company on the dissolution of the company.