Trumpeter LCM 3 - radio controlled

[Peter Gillson]

Hi
Following on from my postings on the latest aquisitions thread I decided to start one on this build.

A total impulse buy and build - my Tiger project is put on hold before it really started! The idea is to add radio control into the LCM and play with in on our pond.

The main kit is this one from Trumpeter. Italeri also produce a version, the reason why this on was chosen is that according to some reviews of the kit it is slightly deeper so there should be a little more room to fit the RC equipment.



To add a bit of 'life' to it I also bought this crew:


Yes, that is how the kit arrived in the post - minimal packaging!!

The next stage is to head to my local model shop for the R/C gear and see what small electric motors he has, if any.

It is a very long time since I did any R/C - aged 20/21 I has a Tamyia Roughrider 4wd off-road r/c car and then an internal combustion PB Alpha racing car, but those were both kits so this sort of convertion is a new challenge to me.

Peter

 

[Ian M]

Had a mate that did one of these. He built a truck as the pay load and had the radio gear in that. The battery was in the rear over the motor and reduction box.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Gary - thanks for the links to the video.

Ian - my first thought was to do something similar with a pile of crates, but a trawl of the WWW resulted in a couple of blogs which will be a great help. One of which seemed to get all the radio gear in rear of the craft. I suppose it will depend on how small the servo and speed controller are, and the number of batteries I will need to run it.

Here are links to those sites.
Pat's conversion
Rc/junkie's conversion

Peter

 

[papa 695]

Great idea Peter, I will pull up a chair and watch this one.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Welcome aboard Ian.

This arrived in the post today:


For just over a fiver they seem good value, no idea just how good they are but since this is just a fun project and I don't expect to spend a lot of ime running it I expect they will do ok.

The props are a lttle too big so I have ordered a pair from Cornwall model Boats which cost twice the price of the above set.

Tomorrow I'm off to my model shop to check out radio gear.

Peter

 

[JR]

Not too late for a front row seat Peter, so will slide in before the Rabble Massive turn up.
Looks fun, hope your not going to scare any fish.
John.

 

[Deleted member 6559]

An ambitious project Peter. It will be great to be able to actually play with the thing.

 

[Peter Gillson]

John - welcome to the front row - I'll try not to splash you. I'm sure my stickleback will survive.

Peter - it will make a nice change from pushing putty, and the kit itself is quite a simple build

Peter

 

[Jim R]

Hi Peter
Most interesting. I look forward to seeing how you go about it.
Jim

 

[Peter Gillson]

Taking a bit of a break from sculpting I have made a start on fitting this one out.

The firststage was to drill a couple of holes for the prop shafts and fitting the 2 motors. The motors are mounted on small blocks of wood , the fun part was getting the slopes right so the centre of the motors are inline with the prop shafts.



The next step os to fit the 2 rudders.

Peter

 

[boatman]

HI Peter can I come aboard sir an regards R/C get 2. 4 gig as I have just bought a 6 channel set for my Norfolk as 40 meg is on the way out an you doin a nice job on the lcm very neat motors fit
chris

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Looks like it's really going to move Peter! I envy your skills.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Chris - welcome, a bit daunting having you aboard! Yes, 2.4 is the option I'm going for.


Peter - hopefully it will go straight and level and not just round and round. Not a lot of skill, mostly blind ignorance and luck - as you can see from the blobs of araldite - no overly neat but hopefully waterproof.

 

[boatman]

Chris - welcome, a bit daunting having you aboard! Yes, 2.4 is the option I'm going for.


Why is that Peter im nothion special we all build our models to our best abilitlities an we hopefully enjoy it that's the main thing an you are doin fine more pics please an r/c just a 2 channel or what ?
chris

 

[Brad9826]

Hi Peter, some years back now there was a programme on sky discovery shed with Mark Found, who presents the Supermodel series' . One that springs to mind is actually in the HMS Fearless series where ha has the modern equivalent to your lcm, where they did what your doing, however, I don't know if it's available on anywhere, in which case this post will be of no use

As well as the two large model build series he has also produced two episodes that cover the Dortmund (?) model show, which is very eye opening and I think the original series he produced detailed his build of his garden railway. Well worth catching all of them to be honest.
Anyway good luck with the build.

 

[boatman]

HI Peter did you get a R/C 2.4 gig for this LCM ? an did you get it set up to the RX as they have to be binded an in some sets it can be hard to set up as my one of my friends had a job to set his up I had the chap in the model shop do mine an you can now get micro servo's just right for a model like this
chris

 

[Deleted member 4539]

I'm watching with interest.

 

[Wookie2486]

Peter do you mind if I join John in the front row this is gonna be interesting.

Marty

 

[papa 695]

Nice work with the motors.

 

[Peter Gillson]

Evening folks

Brad - I think. May have caught some of tht series, if it is the one I am thinking about he had a working helcopter on it!

Chirs - a visit to my local model shop has resulted in my buying a 6 channel r/c set! A bit OTT but the 2 channel options were some of those trigger hand sets designed for cars more than boats or a Futaba set. The 6 channel set was only £3 more than the Futaba, it comes with a second receiver which may be useful since if this works I may have a go at the slightly smaller LCVP.

Welcome Ralph and Marty

Ian - thanks, I am quite pleased, the prop and motor shafts look aligned.

I have added the fittings for the 2 rudders - simple vertical tubes out of brass, fixed with Araldite:



For the rudders I used the kit parts glued to 1mm wire. I was not convinced about how strong the join would be so I used some thin metal (ex tomato paste tube), wrapping it around the rudder and the plastic and wire.



Now I an just waiting for the speed comtroller to arrive before I can start to fit the R/c in place .