Russian Novgorod.

[Johnc]

Question:
Looks like motors, stuffing tubes are going to be below the waterline of the hull, is there going to be a problem with water working it way in and flooding? I know they'll (shafts/Teflon) be greased well and all, but??
As far as props spinning outward or inward i would start inward (most twins are inwards is my thinking) But, it wouldn't be much trouble to change them out and try both ways.
Wish I had the time, patience and tools to start something even near like that.
Any Idea's as far as painting goes?

[785boats]

Hi John.
A good point you raise.
But even though the shafts are below the waterline I don't expect any water in the boat from them.
The shafts are solid stainless steel. There is a sealed stainless steel roller bearing in each end of the shafts.
Plus, I will be packing the stuffing tubes with marine bearing grease (the blue stuff I use on all my flex drives) to totally seal the shafts.
No teflon liners required in this type of setup.

As these props will only be spinning at around 350 revs, I don't think inwards or outwards will make much difference. The boat will only be travelling at a very slow walking pace.
The comment about prop rotation was a bit of tongue in cheek on my part really.

As for painting.
The decks will be clear varnished with a satin finish.
The metalware will be the usual battleship grey.
Red Oxide below the waterline.
From the images I've seen, the armour plating around the edge of the deck and hull seems to be black. So I'll go with that.
I'm undecided on the funnels at this point. Some images show them as a buff/cream, or yellow colour. Some show them as black. I'll decide on that as we get closer to the finish line.
Cheers.
Paul.

[785boats]

Yesterday I decided to add the armour plating ring around the edge of the deck. Not sure if it was actually armour plating, but in the first pic below, there is a band of some sort between the deck and the waterline. I will still be putting those thick plates around the edge of the deck too.

Firstly I had to make & fit the rudder block to the stern? of the ship. Is there a stern on a round ship?

I had left the deck slightly oversize to allow for final fitting.
I wraped two layers of masking tape around the hull then sanded the edge of the deck flush with the tape.
The theory being that after the band had been glued onto the edge of the deck, and then the tape removed, there would be a slight gap all round. It seemed to work.

The band is simply a 20mm wide strip of 1/16" aircraft ply. I had to cut the strip that goes around the rudder block, across the grain, to allow it to bend easily around those bends.
I simply stitch glued the strip every few inches with a drop of medium CA glue. Removed the complete deck and ran a bead of the CA all around the join on the underside. Solid as.
It will be even more solid when the overlapping plates are added around the edge of the deck.

Here are the visuals.

The armour plating band between the deck and the black paint.
P3ZZNIqv9FP2v-fta0ZSzUBJhXZ8suh8heR5RRVe7vE.jpg

Double layer of tape around the hull to create a gap. The band partly done.
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All finished & deck removed to apply the bead all round the joint on the underside.
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A nice snug fit.
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[Jesse J]

Dang bro! You got some tenacity! Looking real good!
I think the question is more about what will reduce performance the least!?!?

[785boats]

Thanks Jesse.
I don't think I will be able to reduce performance at all. It won't have any to start with according to the information on the real one.

I asked the question to a couple of club members on Saturday about the conical coverings over the shafts. And ol' mate Graham suggested funnels. What? I exclaimed. Much too broard an angle. No you dolt, he said. Not the main funnel, but the spout part.
Brilliant.
So on the way home from work today,
I stopped at the local hardware store & found some packs of 4 small varying sized funnels. At only 5 bucks a pack, I bought 4 of them thinking that should cover the different length shafts.
Turns out I needed 2 of the mid sized ones for the longer outboard shafts, and 4 of the next size down for the other shafts.
After a bit of cutting and shaping to fit the contours of the hull, I think I have a good enough representation compared to that photo in my last post.
I've got a lot of funnels left over for future projects. :-)


They aren't glued on yet. I'll do that tomorrow.

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[Jesse J]

You could use them to funnel your creative juices!
Very cool Paul!

[785boats]

Well I funneled some of those juices into a bit more work.
I trimmed the main cabin with some 3mm pcv angle and planked the roof.
Then I decided to make the two main guns. Mainly because they will determine the depth of the floor in the barbette.
I want to set the floor up to rotate so I need a starting depth.
After sketching up some drawings & sizes, I gathered a few bits & bobs to see what would work and ended up using some aluminium tubing, 20mm conduit and some black sprinkler hose.
Just need to finish them off and make up the bases for them now.

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[785boats]

A bit of an update on the last week or so.
I made up the carraiges for the guns out of some pvc sheeting. The wheels were punched out of some 3mm ply, and the pivot is just some 5/32" brass rod with some short pieces of aluminium tube for the bushes. All held together with medium CA glue.

So this gave me the measurement required for the base of the barbette with the barrels of the guns just almost resting on the rim.

I glued in the base and then added some columns around the inside of the barbette which allowed me to then add the inner wall of 1/16" ply.

Some drawings & photos show some plates around the edge of the floor in the barbette. So I cut a ring of 3mm ply and cut the sections almost through the ply but just leaving the bottom veneer to hold it all together. After using a small triangle file to widen the cuts I glued the ring into the bottom of the barbette.

It was then, of course, necessary to sit the cannon in place for a look.

The next step is to add the ring to the top of the barbette, and set up the rotating floor for the cannon.

Cheers.
Paul.

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[Doug Smock]

Very nice work as usual Paul!

[785boats]

Thanks Doug.
It's coming along.

A little bit more done over the last couple of weeks.
Made up the basics of the funnels from some 40mm pipe & a couple of plumbing adaptor fittings I had lying around.
The bases are made from a couple of spray paint cans.

I've also tackled the rear bridge deck and the two flying bridges.
All made from a piece of 3mm ply and then planked the same as the hull deck but with only 4mm wide planks this time
I also added a border strip where the stanchions will be drilled in.

It's a rainy Sunday today, so I took the opportunity to mark out all the skylights and drill the holes for them.
I'll paint the eylets the same grey as the superstructure will be, before I glue them in.
I'll also add a disk of clear plastic into them first.

Cheers guys.

The bits for the funnels.
m_IMAG0378.jpg

Loosely assembled.
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The three bridges.
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Marking out the skylights.
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Skylights sitting in place for a look.
m_IMAG0387.jpg

[785boats]

This week I painted all the armour plates black and glued them around the edge of the deck.
Also built the skylight and rear superstructures. Simply some 3mm ply with some trims added.
A bit of light oak stain for the ply and then a few coats of varnish over the whole thing.
She's slowly taking shape.

A piece of wood taped along the bridge, to keep it level with the top of the barbette, while I measured & cut the ply
to fit the curved deck.
m_IMAG0388.jpg

All glued on to the underside of the bridge.
m_IMAG0390.jpg

Trims added, plywood stained, and all clear coated.
Skylight made from perspex 0.8mm plywood, and veneer strips, added on top.
All just sitting loosely in place.
m_IMAG0394.jpg

Armour plates added to the rim of the deck.
m_IMAG0397.jpg

[Johnc]

Oh My word,

Haven't been able to keep up with your progress the last couple of weeks (in a hospital bed, neg on covid, just copd problems)

That is sharp. Looks like you have the decking "varnished"??

If I lived within a few hundred, I would probably take the drive to be there to see the maiden voyage.

I'm so amazed at what people can accomplish with ideas and have the knowledge to follow through.

[Fluid]

Brilliant Paul!






.

[785boats]

Oh My word,

Haven't been able to keep up with your progress the last couple of weeks (in a hospital bed, neg on covid, just copd problems)

That is sharp. Looks like you have the decking "varnished"??

If I lived within a few hundred, I would probably take the drive to be there to see the maiden voyage.

I'm so amazed at what people can accomplish with ideas and have the knowledge to follow through.

Thanks John.
It would be nice to have you visit our club for the maiden. But yeah. A few more miles than just a couple of hundred.

Yes. The decks are all 'varnished'. I used what I had in the paints store. Cabot's carbothane clear. It's gloss, so I will have to get some satin or matt for the final coat.
A bright shiny gloss finish doesn't look right on an 1873 period warship. At least, not in my opinion.

I have to admit, I had not heard of the term copd, so I had to look it up.
Man, I wish you all the best in your battle with this disease. Sounds like you have a real fight on your hands.

All the best.
Paul.

[785boats]

Brilliant Paul!.

Thanks for the compliment Jay.
This week the plan is to get more into the mechanical/electrical side of things.
Set up the servos & motor to raise/lower, & rotate the cannon. And then set up the ESC's & wiring for the motors.
This one's a bit different to setting up one of our EA Monos, (your P mono) for racing.
It will be the slowest boat in my whole fleet, even though it has 6 motors.

Cheers.
Paul.

[785boats]

A bit of a catch up on the progress.

I worked on getting the motor ESC & servo set up for the rotating platform & the raising of the cannon.
I also had to paint the barbette and the cabin before the final fitout of the cannon.

So I made a bracket from some aluminium angle to mount the motor & ESC onto.
I cut the base out of the barbette and connected the shaft of the platform to the motor/gearbox shaft with a flexible coupler.
A bracket was also fashioned for the servo that will raise & lower the cannon and fixed to the underside of the platform as this needs to rotate with the cannon.

It appears that the original ship would only raise & fire one cannon at a time. So I just connected the rear of them with thread through the floor to the arm on the servo.
When the servo is operated the cross arm would pull the rear of one of them down, raising the barrel. The other thread would just go slack as that side of the arm moved up.
Obviously operating the servo in the other direction would raise the other cannon.

Here's a few pics.

Brackets, servo, motor/gearbox, added to the underside.
m_IMAG0399.jpg

Thread passed through the carriage into the barrel of the cannon.
m_IMAG0404.jpg

All fitted, and also a 10A ESC for the motor.
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All finished.
m_IMAG0405.jpg

Front view showing painted cabin also.
m_IMAG0402.jpg

[785boats]

Not much to report. Unable to draw very much time from the 'Time Bank' lately. (
But I've put together the bollards & the air intake cowls.
The bollards are made from some wooden dowel and some pvc sheet.
The cowls were a bit more expensive. But a funny story.
I needed a cowl of 35-37mm with a 16mm riser.
I had the riser in the form of some plastic microjet irrigation tube that had been lying around for donkey's years. Sweet.

But to get the right size & shape for the cowls I headed off to the supermarket with a trusty little 150mm ruler and started measuring the caps on small deoderant sprays, shaving cream packs, ladies personal product type of packs etc. Lord only knows what the other shoppers were thinking when they saw me doing this.
But the ideal candidate ended up being a small Dove, spray moisturiser pack. Perfect in both shape and diameter. Just a bit long, is all, so I only had to cut them down a bit.
So I bought 4 bottles of it for about 2 bucks each, stole the lids, & gave the lidless bottles to wifey to do with them what ever they do with spray moisturiser.

After cutting down the length, I drilled an appropriate size hole in them finishing off the holes with a drum sanding bit in the dremel tool
The pipes were cut to the correct angle & shape and glued into the cowls.
Rosin core solder was used to make a ring around the lip of the cowl and also on the riser just below the cowl as seen in some images of the real boat and other models.
A bit of filler to fair in the pipes to the cowl and then they were painted in grey primer.

Once I cut them to the correct length and angle to match the curve of the deck, I'll paint them in their final colour.

Here's some pics.

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[785boats]

Again, not a lot to show for this weeks efforts.
I've mounted the main bridge and the flying bridges permanently.

To get the two flying bridges level and at right angles to the centerline of the ship. I taped them to a piece of straight wood then marked out the positions of the posts . Then removed the bridges to drill holes through the deck.
The posts were cut from some 4mm carbon fiber tube.
Then everything was epoxied in place with the wood brace still taped to the flying bridges.
The 30 minute epoxy gave me plenty of time to get everything set up straight, square, & level.

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[Jesse J]

Nice Paul! Your work bench looks like mine when I am elbows deep in a build!
What are all the holes for?
And what scale is this again? I think some scale Russians are needed..

[785boats]

Hi Jesse.
About time I had another cleanup on the bench. But when I put everything away, I can never find something when I need it.
All those holes in the decks are for skylights as per the original ship. See the pic below.
I'm just waiting for the eylets that I've ordered to arrive so I can ream the holes out to the right size & fit them.
The scale is 1:48

novgorod_2_129.jpg

[785boats]

Hi guys.
I've still been chipping away at this project when I can find the time.
The most recent developement is the final painting and installation of the smoke stacks and the ventilators.


The eyelets arrived the other day so I installed those too after fitting a piece of clear plastic into them.
I put a drip of CA in the back of the small ones to hold it in place and it gave the plastic a 'frosted' look.
Fortunately, I think they look better than plain clear.
Still have the 6 larger ones to do yet. Also the port holes around the main bridge.
Anyhow, here's a few pics. The camera angles make it look as if things aren't vertical, but they are.
Cheers.
Paul.

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[Jesse J]

Hey Paul, how was maiden voyage! I keep looking for the video.. help?

[785boats]

Sorry man.
No maiden yet. Things have stalled out a bit over the last month or so. Work commitments. And now l'm on holidays down in Tasmania for a couple of weeks.
Should get back to it in a couple of weeks time.
Cheers.

[Jesse J]

Ok, whassup? Need some vid-ee-oh! Cmon mate, you can do it!?!

[Johnc]

Agree with Jesse, been fowling from the beginning of build (12/20 or so)
Hope health is all OK to finish the project