Brave Borderer ships badge

IainM · 26-09-2007

Hi folks,
I am scratch building a 1:35 Brave and would like to make up a display board for her to match others I have made.
My problem is that, although I have a B&W pikky of the badge (cropped from an old ships postcard) I have no idea of the colours used. Also it would be nice to have a better quality image to play with.

Can anyone help please?

Here are a few pikkies of the current state of build:

Iain

**Bunkerbarge** · 27-09-2007

That's not an easy kit to take on as a scratch build and you have made a superb job of it.

Is it R/C or static?

IainM · 27-09-2007

Thanks for your kind comment Richard :-)
It's not that hard to build once you get your head around compound curves but there is a surprising lack of meaningful detail available and I have made much use of photographs with a degree of interpretation.
It is R/C and has working lights both navigation and signaling controlled by home made RC switchers, working radar based on a modified SD200 servo and, when I have the dosh, a sound set up from JJC.

I decided early on to go for the simple drive option with a single home made ball raced shaft and tooth belt drive that would give me the ability to tune the performance. The Motor is an MFA Torpedo 500 but I have made room to go up in size if necessary. It currently runs on 12 volt NiCad or NiMHs with a separate 3 volt pack for lighting.

The hull (GRP) dates from the early '80's and was surprisingly good vis a vis thickness and freedom from warping, all of which made life a bit easier. This pretty much set the scale at 1:35 which was fortunate since there are many plastic figure packs in that range that can be modified to add a bit more realism.

Initial 'sea' trials proved promising and she popped up on the plane no trouble at all after some modification to the transom flap to reduce the gap between the flap and the knuckle of the transom (bit like flap fairings on aircraft). However we'll have to see how that changes when all the top hamper is installed!

I have a complete set of build photographs but hesitate to post them 'cause my rate of progress is disgustingly slow these days !! I have been trying to promote some interest on the SFMBC web site with an 'under construction' article but perhaps the ether is already saturated with stuff about Perkasas.

Iain

**rjwood_uk** · 27-09-2007

very nice so far Iain!

i will do my best to find a colour refference for the crest.

have you seen this scratch build one?

http://www.harrowmodellingsociety.co.uk/picsbarnet.htm

**rjwood_uk** · 27-09-2007

well i have found loads of other crests which give you an idea one what most of the colours are, but i cant find a picture of this crest so what colour the flying fish was i dont know!

maybe a bit of artistic license?

IainM · 27-09-2007

Thanks for those badges Richard and for the link.
As you say I may have to exercise a bit of artistic license

That model by Peter Stern is really quite something

Really gives me something to aspire to - I can see that my planned finish date has just extended

Thanks again.
Iain

**rjwood_uk** · 28-09-2007

no problem.

something i read on another modeling forum:

"Don't try to be as good as the people here. Try to be as good as YOU can, and use the folks here for inspiration. I've learned more from seeing the things that bob, bob, another bob and many others are capable of, than I would ever have considered possible before. There are some real magicians with stuff here, and lots of the little bits of tips and ideas have made my models better by leaps and bounds."

nice little piece of advice!

hope all goes well. keep us updated!

Richard

IainM · 18-10-2007

Recently the build process has been concentrating on manufacture of the detail bits and on trying to get the right motor/battery setup.

I gave it a test run with a big Johnson motor and a 12 volt NiCad pack. I have no idea of the motor size 'cause the numbers on it don't appear in the mfg web site listings. However it is a brute of a thing with two flux bands and its heavy as well. This went OK but in truth it was really a bit fast, especially on the turns and she sat a bit low at the stern.

I changed for a one size down Johnson (a single flux band) and left the battery at 12 volts. This draws around 1.5 amp free running.
A pond test proved interesting, with a slight improvement in performance but just not getting up on the plane at all (see below).

I then checked the transom flap setting (approx 1.5deg down) and twiddled the bottle screws to give around 3 degrees up.
The difference in performance was remarkable! She no longer seemed to be struggling, the break of the bow wave had moved back to around level with the main mast and the forefoot was well clear of the water.
Whoopee ........

At this setting the motor was drawing around 3 to 3.25 amps.
Further adjustment of the flap position didn't seem to improve things so it stays at 3deg up at least for the time being.

With the change of trim at high speed I'm getting water into the hull, apparently through the rudder tube. This is one of the plastic moulded ones and the rudder stock is a bit of a loose fit. Clearly a liberal application of silicon grease is not enough to make the seal given how the stern tucks in at high speed. So the next wee project will have to be a tailor made one of brass and if ingenuity makes an appearance, I'll also fit a wee stuffing box on the top end. I'll also increase the tube length a bit (3 to 4 mm) so that the rudder linkage just clears the deck beams.

The next step will be making up a new NiMH battery pack with subC cells to give me greater amperage - probably 3.9amp if I can manage it. Much will depend on the weight though.
I plan a 'saddle tank' design with the pack distributed across the hull bottom. This will give me greater scope to correct the trim by moving the pack backards or furrat.

When I get all this done, I'll start fitting the detail stuff; deliberately left off up to now for fear of damage during all the poking about in the bowels

Coming on not bad although I say so myself........
Iain

zoedog1 · 10-11-2007

Iain,
Your model looks great, luv the pic's. I'm also building the Brave Borderer but to 1/16th scale. I posted a thread in june 2007 asking for information on BB as I only had the Model Maker plans which showed very little detail. In the meantime, using these plans I started contruction of the hull using marine ply and had no end of trouble in getting the chine line correct as per the plans.
Well I gave up and the Mark 1 hull now lives high on a shelf in my workshop. I have now started the Mark2 version - the reason being is that I managed to get hold of photocopies of the original Vospers Ltd drawings including hull lines which clearly showed that the Model Maker hull lines were incorrect by a long shot. I figure that if I am going to the trouble of making a model of this size, I want it to be as true to scale as I can get it.
The original BB had its Transom flap set to 3 degrees and was found to be the optimum setting.
Keep up the good work, there are too few modellers that build BB but many Perkasa builders. keep me posted

Martin from down under (Aussie)

IainM · 10-11-2007

Thanks Martin - your kind comments are much appreciated :-)

I am slowly progressing with all the detail bits now, having more or less sorted the motor battery stuff for now. Mind you I was talking with a bunch of model shop guys the other day and they fielded a suggestion that I am tempted by i.e. why not use a brushless motor, given the tremendous improvement in power to weight ratio. They were suggesting a 40 size equivalent- direct drive with a 30 or 35mm racing prop. Ho hum. I shall investigate when I'm a bit more flush with cash I think.

In the meantime I have posted a more complete set of pikkies on the SFMBC.net site in Gallery 16 which I'll keep topping up.

I envy you your drawings!! For detail I have been working from photographs with a dint of scaling and some heavy interpretation. Not really sure I've got it right, but ......
Did your drawings give any indication of deck coloration? From my one colour photo it looks like a darker grey than the hull.

I can well appreciate your problems with the chine line. Some considerable time ago I built a 1/16th scale Vosper Admirals Barge and eventually went for double diagonal plank on frame (as per original) using 0.5mm marine ply for the planking, cut over wide. That was not easy and its a simpler hull form too. Mind you it resulted in a very light but tremendously strong hull.

Thanks again and the very best of luck with your build.

Iain