Rich404

Hi Flyboy,

Soak the spruce in pure ammonia for a day or two and it should be ready for bending. Then clamp the spruce in place with something and let it dry place so that it takes the form. Once it is dry, it will be ready to to be glued.

Have fun at the Rose festival!

-Rich.

flyboy4422

I got the spruce bent,now to get it glued is another trick.Ive been so busy with the balloon fest stuff almost forgot about it.We have the milk Carton regatta next weekend at west morland,I hope to have the enterprise ready for that just to float around.I dont expect to get the Dauntless ready till next year.The amonia did make it easier to bend by far ,im just worried when I sand it the wood might crack.Well its just wood,can always start over,LOL .I build my larger plane models that way too,its always a challenge to get it right.I got some lights and other detail stuff today from Tammies hobby then went over to RC Modeler to find they got flooded out by the rain storm we had earlier this morning.I could have floated my boat in there,LOL.Spent the afternoon helping them bail out of the mess,so that meant puting it on hold again for another night

Rich404

Rich404

Hey Flyboy,

If you are talking about the 49" 1/4" spruce Chine, it should not be sanded. It just has to be glued and tapered to the bottom side of the bulkheads.

I hope this helps you a bit further.

-Rich.

dauntlessfan

Hey all!

Sorry it's been a while since I've been on here. Hard drive crashed, makes me realize just how much "stuff" has to be restored on a reformatted PC[].

Congrats Rich on news of having a son. Your first? My 2 year-old keeps me very busy. She is amazed by any powerful human transport vehicles. I take her to the lake to watch ski boats launch, the freight yard to watch diesel engines switching, and to the airport to watch planes on final approach. I'm anxiously awaiting handing over the controls to the Daunless on the local pond someday.

Also Rich, I'm sure you've already considered it but your mention of using metal gears reminds me that I had a Midwest Lobster Yacht that I put an aluminum gear reduction in and it was LOUD. Not a plesant scale sound but more like a floating margarita blender on the water! It was a gear reduction designed for an electric RC plane, complete with full bearings, so I thought it'd be nice and smooth, but no. I think the hull resonated/amplified the awful sound. I ended up reverting back to a direct-drive in the end because it was much quieter. Are nylon gears a possibility or would they get chewed up by your powerful Astros?

flyboy4422

Im driving both my motors as singles with the same speed control,using traxas venom.The more you put in the system,the more it robs power and could break(KISS) Keep it simple stupid,LOL.I learned my lesson long ago while building models,had too many scale things on one of my Rc Planes which caused it to crash when the sliding canopy came off and took the rudder with it.Sorry I havnt done any building,its gettin too close to balloon fest and still have some things to do before then.Bought a Lindberg PT 109 to keep me busy while camping for a week at the end of july if it rains.Also lookin forward to getting the new Constellation from Lindberg,bought some of those cast detail parts from Ebay for it and motor kit.Just got my Pro Boat Runabout,paid $175 including shipping brand new never out of the box!Looks great on the TV!Cant wait to get the Dauntless done to display on the shelf when not runnin it.Well ship mates I needs to go out to the man cave and sniff some glue,LOL.Congrats on the baby,Hey you dont own the baby,THE BABY OWNS YOU! LOL Good luck rich,ive raised two of them,now its my turn to enjoy the hobbies

Rich404

Hey guys,

Sorry I did not respond sooner, I had much on my plate over the past week. Thank you both for the well wishes, our son is our first child!

Dauntlessfan, I think when the time comes, your daughter will be a great skipper for Dauntless!

Dauntlessfan, thanks for the comment about the drive potentially being loud coupled to two motors. I don't want a loud set upso I started looking into it further. I'll let you know what I come up with. I might just launch it direct with one motor per shaft and check it from there.I have the extra motors so thatif sheruns too hotor struggles to get on plane, the 2nd set will be on standby.If she does well direct, then I can use the motors in other boats later on. (My son will need his own boat someday!)

Flyboy, I agree it's important to keep it simple, good points! That is cool that you have a few boats in the works, they will keep you busy for a while! Dauntless in itself isa time consuming project but once it's finished, it will look great on display!

Recently, I ordered an airbrush and air compressor so that I can finish the painting on the boat. This should have been done from the get go but a lesson was learned with the Krylon mishaps. . I am going to order testors paint to finish the job. The cool thing is that Testors has all the colors needed for this job.

I will be done with classes in the next week so I'll use that time to push work into Dauntless over the summer. I can't wait to get the painting done so that the assembly can begin!

-Rich.

flyboy4422

Went out to the man cave and did some work on the enterprise,put some side panels on and some steps.This is hard to do if you only have the basic instruction sheet without full size parts pics.I finally got the Dauntless ready for sheeting also,that wood finally gave in with a little amonia.The Balloon Fest in Tigard is next weekend and my schedule has been filled again with costruction of the drivers stand for running our Bajas(www.oregongroundpouders.webs.com) at the festival.Seems like there is no rest for the weary for a couple weeks.I get done with that and I have to ready the trailer for a week long camping trip,then when I get back I have a reunion that night and county fair the following day for more Baja action.Clark County the weekend after that then state fair for three days.Might be able to work on it during the week,LOL.I have an air brush too,its a badger that is now 10yrs old and sprays like new still.Dont buy cheap junk,get the good stuff the first time.I spray alot of pactra paints 50/50 with very good results.Keep on building,cant wait to get mine done

Rich404

dauntlessfan

Here's an interesting rendition of the Dauntless on FleaBay right now:

Three props, three Novak Super Rooster speed controls, rudders on a pulley setup....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...tchlink:top:en

Type 120589677035 in the FleaBay search box if the link doesn't work.

flyboy4422

Yea I saw that Dauntless,never seen a baby blue one before.Im still waiting for my show season to calm down a little so I have some free time,just drove my meyers manx type Dunebuggy in the Hillsboro 4th of July Parade.I did get a little free time but i got lazy and slept today trying to catch up from last weekend Balloon Fest In tigard.My Daughter flew in one Balloon and I was crew chief for another for the weekend along with puting on demo show of the HPI Bajas.Its 11pm right now here in Oregon and Im still looking at stuff on Ebay.Guess I might have time in the morning to start sheeting the bottom,seems like I just get going and something else pops up to take me away.I got my lindberg pt109 1/32 scale friday,so I now have a project while im camping at the end of july.This is my second,it will be powered with dual motors this time.The old one had a single 05 elect car motor with the stock gears,made too much noise.Hey on the dauntless I used some gussets to pul those nose pieces together,It works great and made the nose stronger.I tell ya though,im a airplane guy trying to build a boat that has very hard to understand cheezy instructions,I just hope it turns out good.Till Next time,Keep em floating!

Rich404

Hi Dauntlessfan,

That's a good looking boat. It seems to be pretty well built and the current price is still low soIt's a good thing the guy put a reserve on it. I really like the rudder pulley system on the boat. It is interesting that he has it set up for triple screw.

Right now I set my scopes on another boat on e-bay. It is a large scratch built boat which is something i'd like to research and really add to after Dauntless is done. Hopefully the price will stay reasonable and I will go for it.

-Rich.

flyboy4422

Well rich I stepped into the soup this time!Got a phone call from one of the fair promotors,he wants us to run our HPI Bajas at the upcomming fairs.This includes 6 shows per weekend for 6 weeks or more then travel to Klamath falls for a show then to cresent city.Damn,seems a little much!I told him local shows only,so it puts the boat on the back burner for a while.Oh almost forgot,we are getting paid $250 per show.Maybe enough that I can finish buying all the detail stuff for the Dauntless,Lights ,ect....It got pretty HOT today here in portland,so Im sitting here in front of the fan wanting to go build but the man cave is just a little to warm for me.I still have to clean the grass out of the Bajas from Balloon Fest .Hey here is the web site,(www.oregongroundpounders.webs.com) there is some pics from monster jam and some of our other shows we did,my bug has the skulls on it as does my 5b

Rich404

Hi Flyboy,

That's an awesome hobby man! And being that they are offering you some $$ to do shows, that's even better. Have fun with that!!!

Hi Captains,

Work resumed on Dauntless. I spent the other evening sanding down the cabins. This weekend I am going to continue sanding and re-prepping the cabins for paint. This time I amgoing to use an airbrush so hopefully everything will go smoothly.

As long as I don't get pulled to do other things, Ishould have the cabins prepped by the end of the weekend.

-Rich.

Rich404

Hi Captains,

Yesterday, I had a good opportunity to acquire a new boat. It is an 80 inch long cruise ship that was scratch built in the 1950's.Thisshipwas made from shipbuilders blueprints and took over 1000 hours to complete.During it's time, it was on displayin a museum and was alsothe ownersRC ship.It needs a minor restoration and the builder left off some of the fine details such as wood planked walkways & mast rigging & such, so I will be more than happy to research and fill in the details.

This is also inspiring me to stopnit-picking on Dauntless and "Gitter-Done".. As I work on Dauntless I will do some research and accumulate all the details on the cruise ship. Just after winning the ship on e-bay, I found vintage postcards on the bay and bought them. They have some of the fine detailinfo that i'm looking for.

I had made plans with a local nautical museum to display Dauntless on loan which they are very willing to do once it is complete. While she is on display there, I will have the cruise ship to run. Once the restoration is done to the cruise ship, perhaps they might want to display it as well. Then I can rotate the two displays.

-Rich

joe31hat

My Feedback: (5)

So Rich where's the pictures?

Joe

Rich404

Hi Joe,

Here is my latest aquisition. She is 80" long, 11" wide and 22" tall. The SeaWasp motors are pretty sought after as well. The set up is very old school. Her name is Matsonia.

-Rich.

Rich404

Hi Captains,

Today I worked on Dauntless. More sanding. The bad Krylon is sanded and she is prepped for paint. I have to do 1 0r 2 small epoxy touch ups, sand, then I can clean all the paint dust and she is ready for tape and spray. This should all be done soon.

-Rich.

12skipper

Hi Rich,
I saw Matsonia on e-Bay and thought that must be the boat Rich is after so I did not bid. I am so glad you got her. How are you and your new son getting along? I hope you didn't spend the "Pamper" money on the new vessel. Are you going to start a new forum thread for Matsonia? If so, I can hardly wait for the new "History lessons" to begin. Well I have got to go to bed. Sailboat regatta at Lake Redman, York County, PA. Sunday. Before you hook up any power be sure to polish the motors commutators.

Chuck

Rich404

Hi Chuck,

Thanks for being a gentleman and not raising the bid even higher! She was a pretty costly boat, but she was well worth it.

My son and I are getting along great! Fatherhood is such an awesome experience!

I made sure not to use the pamper money to buy Matsonia but I told my wife that he is going to enjoy sailing it when he is big enough.

I am going to start a new thread on Matsonia. Unlike Dauntless this cruise ship is going to be a lot easier to find information on so it shouldn't be very challenging finding information on it. Just afterthe auction I was able to get some detailed postcards on her. To boot, someone already wrote a book with many pictures about itand her sister ships. Whenthe thread is started I will be sure to add her history when the thread is started.

Great point about polishing the commmutators!I will be sureto add that to the checklist!I am going to go over everything before firing her up. Who knows how many years ago she was last ran.

So, I'm impatiently waiting for it to arrive. Hopefully it comes in one piece..

Dauntless is in full swing so updates will come in soon!

Have fun at the regatta!!!!

-Rich.

dauntlessfan

Yup I saw that boat on eBay too and knew it had to be the one Rich was wanting. Glad you got the winning bid!

Rich404

Thanks Dauntlessfan,

There was a bidding frenzy on it at the end andwasn't sure ifI wouldwin it..I was holding my breath..

I bid on the ship for the craftsmanship but now I find that the motors aresupposedly AWESOME..and valuable..This really makes the package a score..They were the fast scale motors of their time. When Dauntless is done, I may "try" out the SeaWasp's in Dauntless direct to see which moves Dauntlessbetter, the Astro 25's or the SeaWasp's. I will use GPS toclock Dauntless atfull speed...The faster motor combo will stay in Dauntless..

I have a pair of 12V Pittman's that would likely do well in the cruise shipmaking her less thirsty for longer run times, so we'll see. Th builder seemed to have set up the cruise ship nicely but she might be thirsty with those motors..

I'm going to set up the battery combo in Dauntless/Matsonia to be interchangable. Dauntless is fine with less runtime, because she will be quick but the cruise ship should be able to cruise for longer periods of time..

Matsonia is my birthday present...

-Rich.

Rich404

Hi Captains,

Today I did something that I never done since being on this forum, float Dauntless.

I set up a testing tank to float the cruise ship and while I was at it, stuffed Dauntless's prop shafts with Q tips and floated her. Her bow isnaturally heavier than her stern without the gear but then I put a 5 pound battery in her stern and her bow picked up but her stern sank a little past the water line. When the RC gear goes in, she will be properly ballasted.

Today I gave myself a crash course in airbrushing. Tomorrow, I am going to tape her cabins and apply the white paint. Then, the gray will be added next week. I CANNOT WAIT TO GET HER TOTALLY PAINTED!!!!

Here are those pictures for fun.

Enjoy!

-Rich.

Kmot

My Feedback: (24)

Ohhhhhhhhh, so this is where you hang out!!

Rich404

Hi Tom,

Yep, this is where most of the posting happens..

Hi Tom and Captains,

Dauntless's cabins are taped and are ready to be sprayed. On Sunday, the white Paint will be complete. During the Week, the white will be taped and the Gray will be done. By the weekend, I will hopefully start on the creme.

I am going to follow the instructions given to me by Don Marshall and paint the entire interior creme. This willinclude allof the walls, etc. Most of the furnishing will be varshished mahogany but some cabinetry in the galley, pantry and heads will also be creme. .

All of the paint that will be used to finish Dauntless will be by Testors and Model Masters and will be airbrushed.

Afterwards, interior/exterior installations will begin as well as the exterior varnished half round trim.

I'm not out of the woods yet, I forsee little details being made and added until next spring/ summer.

-Rich.