Row Row, Row your Boat....!

The end is near!

well almost but i'm so much closer i can smell the pond!

Today i've been busy ( and got a lot more done in a day then i have in a couple of week straight!) adding the top rail and transom cover/hatch section...

I was originally going to do this top rail in 2 halfs leaving only a center joint at the bow and across the transom, however i had deliberately sat there deliberating on if this was the right way to carry on with this. no doubt it would have come out with no issues, but it would have cost a lot of wasted material for such an area, so i rang my old man and he suggested to scarf in the top trim rail and transom cover in sections, although not as rowing boats would have been constructed, this did make sense and allowed me to fit the parts almost perfectly without mistakes, and allowing for a little more of a pattern down the boat once its varnished.

So thats what i did i sectioned off the boat and cut out pieces to fit while scarfing them into place, the final image shows the left of the photos edge finished from sanding the rest still to do but its getting late and making that much noise is not a good idea.

i have also removed the bows raised stem, and will replace it on top of the flat with a designed flared part , and pin it through, was very worried that if i caught the stem at this point i risked ripping it off causing massive damage to the bow which would be fatal to fix once painted as during the build i have caught the stem many times and had to re tack it with super glue, fortunately every time i was lucky to not rip the stem right off, i can only thank the brass 1mm screws i put in the stem at the start for that.

lots of sanding to clean up now but as you can clearly see the end is closing faster.

I can smell the the smell of a distant launch   looks great and don't forget a video of the maiden voyage,  
Bernie.

Lot more done, added the new stem trim piece with a brass grab rail to act as a tie off to bow and stern and added more trim parts down at the transom for decorative purposes.

I've also added the oar mounts which will house a 2mm screw to keep the oars in place, at the moment I'm thinking a permanent fixture leaving only 2 screws to play with when setting up to sail, this allows the oars to simply fold back across the transom when not In use, I will make up a pair or oar holders on the transom once I've worked out the ore lengths and see if their is a clearance issue with the paddle section knowing that the paddles won't be able to turn 90 flat to lay down, subject to change but that's how this ones rolling. next up is the transom hatch which i'll make a raised lip first ( which again is decorative and will look like a luggage rack or real hatch compartment) and slot a water tight lip down inside to hold the hatch in place.

And the final post for tonight, which is the raised lip of the hatch ftted with an internal shelf to hold the hatch, a combination of this lip and further lip on the hatch itself tends to create a very water proof seal. (most of you have seen this seal on my weenip build and that was even smaller then this!) this one however is internal not external.

I have yet to make up the hatch and reason for it is simple, to get a very solid seal i need to add a couple of varnish layers to the wood, to expand it to the finished size, then i can make up the hatch to fit.

So i have made up a thinned amount of epoxy and varnish sealed it with 2 coats, and i will add a further 15 coats to finish once the hatch is made up to the entire of the wood work, sand and polish to a shine ( not full gloss this time as it will make the model look off, a satin finish would be better for scale but i do think a rough gloss would look more realistic for this scale)

Once the hatch is made up i'll work on the oars and paint work for the external..

IF anyone knows a decent source for the Water slide transfer letters in gold 5-6mm could you post links. i need some for the transom name to seal under the varnish. much appreicated

Rear hatch built today, started with a blank piece of birch ply and added a reinforced strip under the base all the way arpund which acts not only to keep its shape but to make up the last part of the water tight seal, then I've covered it with finish material, and outer boarder and the inside as rounded slats and given a couple of coats of thinned epoxy to seal.  

Nothing left to do now to the boat accept paint, final varnish coats and add the smaller brass details, hand rails rope work etc...

My next job while i start doing painting and varnishing and having days between continues work on the boat itself is to make up the Oars.

Now it took a lot of working out to figure if i could do scale oars or not, and the answer is simple. NO.

1:12 oars with a Beam of 5" between the oar locks as this boat is would mean i need scale 9' oars making them 9" long that is HUGE ( although it is to scale and looks fine) however the boat dose not sit that high in the water (lower freeboard) so i'm able to cut down the oars to a more acceptable 'by eye' scale which is around 6" inches with a 1" paddle end making them 7" total.

If anyone's unsure how to measure for true scale oars here's the maths. ( in full size and 1:12 for this project as a Guide)
Measure Distance between oar locks. Eg:- 5 foot (at full size)

5' / 2 = 2.5'             In 1:12 scale that's 5" / 2 = 2.5"

2.5' x 25 = 62.5'       In 1:12 scale that's 2.5" x 25 = 62.5"

62.5' / 7 = 8.928'      In 1:12 scale that's 62.5" / 7 = 8.928"

now round up the final number you get to the nearest 6" increment.

So its 9' full size or 9" in 1:12 scale.

So i've gone ahead and cut down 2 dowls to 8"  and now i have my stainless 20 & 30mm M2 screws i'm able to progress on the construction of the oars, which will be 2 parts, the main oar in one piece which screws to the linkage, and a shorter part which will be the adapter to hold the screw through the linkage and act as the handle of the oar to which the mans arms can be screwed to. this gives a much more realistic looking set of oars as well as allowing the rower to keep his hands much closer together as he should if this boat was remotely real.

Now I've said all that again its subject to change as always with projects like these but this is what i'm aiming to do.

Great wood work Aron a delightful build. 

Aron

Great work!
Have you sourced your waterslide letters yet? If you can't find them I could cut the letters in gold self adhesive vinyl, BUT it will take a week or so as I don't have any gold vinyl. Its not expensive - about £1 per A4 sheet, but will have to be ordered. Let me know if you are interested.

Barrie

Had to scrap the handle section on the oars, it would be better to make of hex stock brass as a 1 piece fitting as its a nightmare to screw the oars into place with the limited space for tools or fingers but i have no lathe here so i'm keeping it simple on this model and nothing more then a flat head screwdriver is needed.

I've made up the final linkages to the oar booms and drilled them to sit into the oar lock space with a m2 bolt. I still have to clean up the elongation of the holes to allow for a super smooth motion but for now they are pretty good in rough form.

All those weeks of guesstimating well its all paid off as you can see from the video it works! I've put the boat through all its range of motions forwards, back, left forwards, right forwards,back left, back right and left and right on the spot spin.

Poetry in motion...absolutely beautiful to watch.

Brilliant, Left Comment on you tube for you.
Bernie.

She's a blurry beaudy in Oz speek Aron.

Apologizes for the lack of progress the last week, I've taken the opportunity with the sun ( and the kids being on half term) to sort out the jungle the winter caused to the garden and entertain the kids, progress will resume once they are back at school next week.

It also gives me chance to mock up some modifications to my next project.

Right now thos all that's left is to clean up the oar, sand to shape and add the paddle end, final sanding on the hull and paint then she should be all done.

While i had the kids pool out in the garden I've done a simple float test and to be honest you need a very calm day to sail her but overall she looks good on the water and i expect will perform as well, i may need a tad of ballast in the stern but only final fitting will dictate that.

You need to forgive Bob hes had a few to many ciders in the sun and passed out while supposed to be rowing 

Blurry marvellous mate. 

As promised work continues.

Oars made today, which involved making up the paddle blank out of 1mm birch ply, shaped to a 'realistic' shape, and a slot cut down the boom, then glued in place and adding some 1mm dowels to ensure they stay!

the oars are true scale 1:12 with the oar ends, making them 8" long, if this proves to long during testing i can make new slot holes 1" further down from the current ones to make them shorter, will do a test once the varnish is dry tomorrow, i expect they will be fine at full size but i have options!

Then cleaned up with some filler on the slight gaps, sanded and now drying from a coat of varnish to seal before painting.

Barrie can you still do the gold lettering ?

I need 2 layers first being white the other gold overlay, something like image below ( ignore the back background it was only way to shw up the white) .. letters 8mm high

could you let me know if that's possible obviously send me a bill.

What's the font Aron? Its a bit of a complicated one is that. If you let me know the name of the font I will try it in white first before buying any gold. I take it 8mm if the height of the capitals.

Barrie

the fonts called Quincho script, its in paint.

Aron

I've downloaded the font. Looking at it I am not sure that my machine will cut that - its very intricate and at that size is unlikely to be successful. I will make one try tomorrow, but I am not hopeful. I can usually cut down to 5mm capitals with a simple font like Arial or Tahoma.
I'll let you know in the morning.

Barrie

Aron,

I've played about with this font now for over an hour last night and this morning, with more than a dozen attempts at adjusting the cutter head, but its far too intricate for my machine. The machine will apparently cut it OK, but it is not possible to remove the waste (weeding its called) without removing some of the letters. 
Even if I could cut it successfully, I think you would have problems when you tried to remove the transfer tape after applying the letters to the transom. There is so little adhesive surface given the size of letters and intricacy of the design, I think the letters would come away with the tape.
I did try another script font with a simpler design, but that was no more successful, I also looked at using your font in all capitals, but that's even more intricate.

If you can find a sign maker with a more upmarket machine, they may be able to cut the letters for you, but I think even they will struggle.

Sorry not to be able to help.

Barrie

It's fine Barrie I appreciate the effort tho I will attempt the sorce something else's

Aron can you print the script you need on decal paper and shoot a coat of clear over it, you can place it where you want with a a bit more clear to seal the edges.
This is how I do all my names etc.

I'll have to experiment with that as the name was to originally be sealed under the final layers of epoxy, vinyl seals fine,  I'm not sure how it will react, I'll take a look over the next few days and see. 

Good suggestion to get brain gets going 

Its been a little over a month since any progress was made to finish this, but thankfully the weather has turned to a heat wave giving me the perfect opportunity to get the boat painted and the varnish coats finished.

Today i've cleaned up the hull with a final rub down of 400 grit then to 600, masked off all the wood, and given the boat & oars 3 coats of white primer then 8 further coats of white gloss.

I'll leave the boat for 24 hours to harden up before removing the tape, then another week to let the paint harden off fully before commencing to rub down any over spray under the tape, then i'dd add the final 10 coats of varnish and finish with flattering off all surfaces and final polishing.

Then all that needed is a bracket to hold Bob in place so he can row his boat  

After letting the paint harden up for 8 days, today i cleaned up the paint work on the hull, removing any run marks and flattering the paintwork. 
This leaves the boat ready for final varnishing to which after its a light rub down and polishing to finish. this should give me one clean flat coat all over the boat making it as one so i'm able to pull up an excellent polished finish without seam lines.


I am still considering if i want to high gloss the finish on this boat, i've played with the oars today and pulled them to a semi gloss finish which actually looks very nice on the paint surfaces, i'll have to rub down to the semi gloss finish on the boat before polishing so i'll look closely then if that's the finish i want for this boat, if its not then it only takes a rub down with t-cut and metal polish to bring up the glass effect.

Its always hard to judge what sort of finish the boat requires given some scales, usually my boats are some what larger so full gloss finishes work well, but its known many boats look better in a satin/semi-gloss finish for scale appearance.

For those like me that do a lot of paint work on boats, its always hard to justify spending upwards to £8 for a 500ml tin of paint knowing at times it could take 2 or 3 cans to finish the job, ( this is based on buying halfords brands , although their colour range is far greater, and the use of 'plasticote' brands) so over the last few years I've been experimenting with cheaper brands of car paints.

This time i opted for primers and gloss paints ranging in price from £1 to £2, to which in this instance i've found to give me just a good of coat as a branded can from a reputable dealer. 

The harden off time still takes a week, but it is rather hard after 24 hours, but dose have that tacky soft feel to it, i guess if your painting over several days this paints ideal as a quick rub down and respray will not effect the overall finish.

My advice to people is to do test runs on paints with scrap material first and see what effects or side effects can occur. so far touch wood this paints held up well to a decent rub down and for £3 in total to paint the boat its also a very cost effective solution to those who have to keep within budget.

Well I'm pissed off.... Applied the varnish first coat set fine, 2nd coat started fine then went all tits up....

One side of the boat started to crazy the paint, clear reaction to the expoxy not being fully set, now although that is the cause I'm left scratching my head as to why the other side of the boat didn't react. Oh well guess tomorrow I'm sanding all the paint work down and restarting...

Don't you hate it when that happens, I'm just lucky it's a grp hull not a wooden one which can forgive such a balls up.

shortly after my rant post i ran some thiners over the crazing, and with some 600 grit under the tap in the sink i've managed to remove 99% of the crazing without damaging the paintwork.

i'll have another brief go again tomorrow once everything has harden off properly then attempt varnishing again, i think i've been lucky and the 2nd coat of epoxy reacted with the first, it hasn't seamed to touch the paint which is pure blind luck!

again i'll look tomorrow once everything dry and assess from there, with a bit of luck another coat of varnish and 24 hours between coats rather then 2 may be the answer ( again this is probably due to the humidity and temps fluctuating with the welsh rain!) 

touch wood this problem is resolved!

Damn I know exactly how you felt been there done similar too many times

I think i might have got away with murder lol

I've given the side of the boat another light rub down this morning and then one coat of varnish. 

I have a couple of spots where the crazing has appeared again, but i'll give it 24 hours between coats now, with rubdowns between which should remove and cure this issue.

sadly this i think is one of those odd problems that just happen as the other side of the boat, after 3 coats has still not reacted. 

I have absolutely no idea why one side would react when the other didn't both sides were treated exactly the same and at the same time in the same way. its very peculiar! 

i'll let the varnish harden off on the paint work for the next 24 hours but i'll flip side the boat in a couple of hours and finish up the last 8 coats on the wood ( i know the wood will not react its had 8 coats already) 

but other then that i think i just got away with not stripping the boat back to base for a respray!

varnishing on hold due to weather change again ... humidity control is vital during this process, fortunately the epoxy allows for touch up and new layers years later with no side effects, more to come as weather improves!

RR

A work of art mate.

Some apology's about not posting sooner it slipped my mind, but I actually finished this project several months ago, and then it went on tour in my Fathers hands for the start of the boat show season in Cornwall.

but as you can see the boats all finished, i do actually have one last job which is to secure the rower to the boat but its a not a priority as the boat will never hit the water truth be told ( its far to small flat clam in a pool is only option) although it would only be a hole, a rod up his bum, and a little brass ring on his arms to secure to the oars.

but as you can see from the photos, the boat is finished, and works flawlessly as the video shows its range of movements, from forwards, reverse, spinning on the spot both to port then starboard and also rows forward and back in a direction.

Very pleased with this little boat, one of the more challenging i've done in quite some time. although looking back i do wish i had built this in 1:12 scale just to give me more room for scale detailing and other options, but honestly this is a very quaint unique model which i hope many will aspire to. or just appreciate for the engineering and technical aspects.


Anyone interested in the overall cost to build this it came in at a whopping £130.

anyone interested in buying it price is £1000    just kidding..... or am i 


RR


Enjoy guys.

I'm lost for words. What a awesome build. A work of art.

Indeed a work of art Aron. 

I’m sorry this video have taken so long to upload, my dad has had the boat in his possession almost since it was finished with the intention to sail her but 2017 was a bad year show wise to which she didn’t see the water, however this year seams to be going great and this is the first year where video could be taken thanks to my brother while my dad operated.

It’s a short video but it shows the boat working cleanly, only faults are the driver! ( my dads first time sailing her, she’s only ever been bench and show table tested.)

you are a torment, you no I want to have ago at this but unable to do at the moment. may be soon . 
looks fantastic on the water , reminds me of the invisible man series on tv   excuse my bad humour.

david

We left bob off the boat for one simply reason....


Dad forgot to take him with the boat when I was packing it up so he’s currently sat on top of another boat so he doesn’t feel to left out!

It’s a shame bob isn’t rowing in the video as he works rather well and looks the part on the water, just one of those things.

I can't believe how long this has been running, and I have literally only just seen it 5 minutes ago...………….I've had a quick skip though it Aron and it is absolutely beautiful...…….going to sit down after tea and have a good read...…..

I look with my eyes bloody shut...….god help me.

I swear during this build once the model stopped fighting me and things were going together I felt like an evil genius!

You missed this build Neil, I’m surprised I thought this may have been one you be interested in since it’s all “advanced electronics” although that’s the beauty of blogging, that you can go back and read them anytime!

I have to say this happened to be a very challenging model to build, I literally had no plans for it, and I have to do a lot of guess work with trial and error, now if I was to have built this biggger ( like most people do) I wouldn’t have had half as many issues, servo locations for a bigger model would have hidden full size servos under the seat entirely with the vertical rod poking through a hole and the pull servos could have been located and fully hidden in the bow, under the breast hook, but you all know I love a good challenge and building this with micro servos and the limitations of size really did push the boundary’s on what could be achieved on this model.

I have actully in the works a plan to build a 2nd one in action man scale size (1:12) to which I plan to make it a two man rower using full size servos, that boat will also be a clinker styled boat but due to its vastly bigger size I do plan to build as per a real one with full exposed frame etc Etc...
Which will give me better oppertinity to improve my original into an almost exact replica..

That i expect will be a build for 2019 As once the urchin is finished I’ve promised a cmb for my brother...

Keep watch tho I may start it early depending on how the cmb goes!

The workman ship of your interior wooden parts is incredible. As we say here it is eye candy.

Apologies for posting to this old thread but this is absolutely amazing.

I have previously built a number of power models and have been contemplating a row boat.
Now I am sold and am planning a scratch build rowboat.

Just a question, please. I don't seem to find an answer to anywhere and the youtube videos never show the controller.

With the servo setup like this......which channels are used on the Tx to do what and what is the micro controller used for?

Thanks