Setting one shaft in place and holding it there with some painter's tape I was able to see what relationship it would have with the drive mount and it seemed to lining up very nicely. Superman agrees! Coffee for an early Sunday morning. Who's kidding, this is boat building right? It is a prerequisite! I like the new location of the shaft and I was making all attempts to ensure both were coming into the hull at the same angle...
This "looks" good. Again not having worked on a cruisers from the groundwork up, Just going based on what looks/feels right and what I remember from Battleships. Pretty sure everything is relative. Except of course the water line at the stern.... must have been rum involved there.... wow.....
I think that looks pretty good.... although I miss my old camera, took way better pics. Anyways back to work!
I think he's got it! I think he's got it! Very pleased with how this is coming out. Tacked them in with CA and kept the tape on so they don't move so much. You can see the bottom of the rudder there as well.... looks like it can just come lose at anytime. Will try a repair on it, if not will have to try and make a new one.
Damn I miss the old camera.... the shafts look the part. I will have to drop the mount in and get a idea of how close this coming. The Shafts at this point are still in with just a little CA. The port Shaft had to be redrilled out as it was at an angle that was too extreme and I wanted both to match as much as possible.
With a little adjusting this will even out quite nicely. The shafts appear to be the same width as the mounts, so this looks extremely promising and I now move to the next step. Glassing in the shafts.
Sorry for the unrelated photo.... Hal Jordan has been witness to the entire process, and at one point wanted to get into the Graf Spee. So since he was at my feet, I thought I would snap a quick pic off. He is the mascot for the fleet after all and will probably be around for the whole thing.
I used part of a sheet rolled up to stop the flow of resin (although I must admit In the nice weather here, this will not take long to dry. I used parts as well around the shafts and in between. Trying to get it flattened out a bit to see if that will be a good spot for the rudder servo. (those with a sharp eye will see Hal's head resting on his paws... he fell asleep.... jez it's hard to find good help)
Sweet. Already hardening up. It will be nice nice and solid and cut down on vibrations... Also hit the deck (or what remains of it) from top and bottom.... I may just get rid of the deck completely... start fresh. hmmmmmmmm I'll give this the night to cure and then get rid of the excess fiber and resin. Took the tape off hte bottom and the holes sealed nicely for the shafts. looks great!
Craig, where'd you find a coffee mug with my picture on it? Out of curiosity, who'd you get the cruiser from? It has some odd looking construction methods in places.
Hey Tuggs! Yes congrats on the "mug" shot! I got that from a friend at Christmas time... she knew I liked Supes. He does rock! I am not one hundred percent sure where the ship hails from.... I am fifty percent sure. I have a hull I cut out from Ralph. Then there is this one and the one I purchased with all the other ships. This might be John's old Spee. In fact now that I think about it, it seems right. the other is decked and has a great superstructure ready, the shafts and rudder are in as well, but it did not get skinned. Hmmmmm. I will have to have a look at that one more closely. See if it is the one I should finish first. :blink: I already had this one on the water, but, it was running very slowly. Hence the refit. I will see how it goes. God. Now I have to look at the others....
Brian and I both had old cruisers that were running way slow. Brian even changed motors with no real improvement. I cleaned out my stuffing tube and put in new grease, and that did the trick big time. The channel for the ESC is set to stop at 45% of max 'throw' on the transmitter! If you haven't already done it, try it
Hi Craig, I saw your notes about missing your old camera because it took better pics... not sure your complaint is warranted, because the image quality of this one is pretty sharp. The one thing I've noticed is that you might be trying to photograph too close to your subject, which is why the centers of some close-ups are out of focus, but the background is sharp. Try holding your camera further back or manually selecting your focus point to be the center, if your're using an autofocus. All camera lenses, whether a digital or manual zoom, have a minimum focus distance, which sometimes can be mere inches and other times is feet. Hope this tip helps, and was what you were referring to with this camera's image quality. Yur ship build is looking fantastic; way further along with your boat than I am with mine!
Hey Craig, it looks great!! I had the same feeling when I gutted Scharnhorst and redid the entire thing, finally made it feel like it was my own. I wish I had seen this earlier cause I have a suggestion. Take a couple of pieces of gun hose, 1/8 inside diameter and cut them to the length of the dogbones. they squeeze over the end of the drive shaft and the gearbox shaft and help align the shafts/tubes. Makes it nice for placing the stuff. J
OT: when taking close pics with an auto-focus camera it sometimes helps to put something small in a contrasting color in the center of the image to give the camera something to focus on. Here are some 1/72 A-Wing pilots I did several years ago. The watch battery was the only way I could get the shot. http://s24.photobucket.com/albums/c49/Kun2112/?action=view¤t=DSCN0387.jpg
I wanted to thank everyone for their advice about the camera.... I just miss my Canon ... it took excellent pics... but I will check the settings for sure.... perhaps my photos will improve! Also Yes start posting your builds! I may need some suggestions as the build progresses. Thanks also for the compliments. Continuing the build today and this evening. First. I wanted to see how well seals were holding and if there were any spots that leaked.
Found a spot! Actually it's ok. That's from where the rudder post should be.... I did see a couple of spots, so I will go over the hull again and when I paint around the shafts it will more than likely (forgive the expression) Seal the Deal!
Here's the product of my labor to this point. I am pleased with the outcome for sure. It is a solid seal and only a tiny bit of the shafts in the interior are uncovered. Just what I wanted.
HeHeHeHeHe Lined up perfectly. Almost no bend in the U-joints at all. I did have to modify the mount to lower it into the hull and get it even to the shafts, but, it was worth it. Got excited here. Was wondering about clearance and the dark resin spot was where the servo was before... looked like it would fit back in the same place.
