Newbie Question
 

I am getting ready to build my first scale model. I am going to build a tow boat that has twin motors. I am wanting to have seperate motor and rudder control. What am I going to have to do to achieve this? What kind of radio do I need? The motors are going to be either 5000 or 6000 RPM electric motors. Also I am going to need to find another supplier of basswood. All the shops around here don't have what I want. I'd like to find some in sheets of 1/8" X 6" X 3'. If thats possible. Any help is greatly appreciated.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Twin motor control will require two ESC's. The ProBoat ones are a good value for the price, $40 each. Rudder control can be done with as little as one channel or as many as four, 2 flanking rudders and two steering rudders. This all depends on how many channels you have available or how complicated you want to make things. The 550 series motors can be used but they are a high speed motor that will need some kind of speed reduction. You would be better off using a larger multi pole motor that will draw less current, have more torque and turn slower so you won't need a reduction unit. The Pittman motors are a good one to use. Finding basswood in the dimentions that you are looking for might be a challange. Most hobby shops will stock up to 3' wide by 2' long basswood. Larger than that will require finding a specialty wood source. They are out there but you will pay a premium for it. Futaba multi channel/aircraft radios can be special ordered on a ground frequency for a few dollars more.

Is the boat a kit or scratchbuilt from a plan. Large flat areas can be built inexpensively from 1/8" Luan door skins. Fiberglassed over will give you a strong watertight hull and deck.

RE: Newbie Question
 

'JD,
Actually, a two channel radio will usually control just about anything, sort of, meaning one for rudder and one for speed. From there it just depends on what you want to be able to control by radio. For instance, lights, horn, fire monitor, hula-girl shimmying on the deck, whatever. The 'extras' usually mean another channel per 'extra'. Or at least a radio with more options. If you want to control each motor individually, that means two ESCs and at least one more channel (2 for the motors). So, what'cha got?
- 'Doc

PS - I wish I had a million channel radio. No idea what I'd ever use it for, since two would control just about everything I've got, but...

RE: Newbie Question
 

I appreciate the replies. I'm going to scratch build a towboat from a plan that I found. It seems easy enough to set this up. As for the wood, I never thought of some thin door panel. That would work great and go a long way. I just need to find a plan to build a barge for this thing. Does anyone know where I can find one of them at?

RE: Newbie Question
 

'JD',
A towboat! If you aren't aware of it, "TowboatJoe" has a web site that might be of interest, and doesn't mind answering questions. Ought to be able to overwhelm you with ideas! Another site is
www.vac-u-boat.com where you can find the instructions for connecting 'flanking' rudders to the 'main' rudder so don't need multichannels for control.
- 'Doc

(Naturally I don't have 'TowboatJoe's URL. It's early, not enough coffee, and I tend to lose things, sort of...sorry 'bout that)

RE: Newbie Question
 

Thanks. I'll google it and see what comes up.

RE: Newbie Question
 

While you're looking, try "RiverBill" too. Not sure of the name, my memory has never been what it's supposed to be...
- 'Doc

RE: Newbie Question
 

I noticed him on Joe's website but I haven't been there yet. Joe has a really good site. Theres alot of helpful info. I tried to e-mail him but it didn't go through.

RE: Newbie Question
 

I don't know of any one that has a kit of a barge. Barges are simple to build, large flat surfaces. I did recently purchase a towboat kit fron a guy in upstate Illinois for the low price of $75, that included shipping. He used to sell these kits years ago for about $300 but has decieded to get out of the buisness. As of a couple of weeks ago he had about 15 kits left. The hull and superstructure are vacuformed out of .100" styrene. Hopefully the kit will arrive sometime this week and if I can get the home computer working I will post some pictures. The computer at work here isn't picture friendly.

RE: Newbie Question
 

There are some at Towboat Joe's website. I guess I could get by not getting plans for them but I want to do this the right way and my math skills are not as sharp as they were.

RE: Newbie Question
 

What scale is your towboat going to be?

1/48'th- O scale, plenty of figures and other odds and ends available.
1/32'nd- nothing exact but the 1/35'th plastic model military figures come close.
1/24'th- G guage train stuff comes close otherwise 1/2" scale dollhouse stuff will work.

RE: Newbie Question
 

I was thinking about 1/32 but I don't want it too big. Maybe 1/48 is the way to go. I'm a lock operator down here in Tx so I want to build a model of the boats that frequent here. Most of them are 65' to 100' overall.

RE: Newbie Question
 

'JD',
Use a 'Ken' doll. All those boat drivers think they're bigger than they really are, right?
- 'Doc

RE: Newbie Question
 

The towboat arrived tuesday, not a bad kit. She is 44" long and 12" wide, twin screw and in 1/32'nd scale. Sorry no pictures yet, the home computer is still down.

I plan on doing a little kitbashing on mine to do things in 1/48'th scale and make here look similar to the John H. Macmillan Jr. I had never been a fan of towboats until about 10 years ago I saw the John H. Macmillan Jr. up here in St. Louis. There was something about that 60's era sloped back end and the bridge wings.

Here is a picture of her.

http://www.towboatgallery.com

and pull down the John H. Macmillan Jr.

I tried to post a direct link but it wouldn't work.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Whenever you can post some pics up. Do you know if he has anymore kits?

RE: Newbie Question
 

He may have some kits left , I know that he has 3 fitting sets left as of Tuesday afternoon. Give him a call.

Richard Lund
Mount prospect, Ill.
847-223-5089

The kit has the hull, deck, 01-level, pilot house w/roof, 02-deck, 02-level, 2-stacks, ribs for the hull and 2 sheets of plans. According to the plan, the kit uses 2" propellers.

Hopefully I can get the home computer up and running soon for some pictures.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Thanks. I'll give him a jingle when I get off of work.

RE: Newbie Question
 

I got some plans in yesterday from towboatjoe.com. I can't wait to get started on this.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Did you contact Rich to see if he had any left or are you going to go with Joe's plans.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Well, I checked my mail when I got off work and sure enough, Joe's plans were in. I think that I am still going to call and get a fitting set from him. I aprreciate the heads up. Joe has a very elaborate breakdown on the features, dimensions, and equipment of the barges and boats in his plans. I'll recommend him to anyone that is going into scale models of towboats.

RE: Newbie Question
 

I've sent an e-mail to don at Loyalhanna Dockyard about some Propshop 2" nozzles and props. I haven't got a reply as of yet. As for motors, I went thru my motor box last night and came up with 2 nice ones. They are 7 pole ball bearing motors but they are 24 volt with an 8 mm shaft. The 24 volt doesn't bother me because they can be rewound for a lower voltage but first I have to find my caliper to measure the existing wire size. Yes, I have been known to rewind motors to suite the application. As for the large motor shaft, it's going to be fun trying to find a coupler to fit.

RE: Newbie Question
 

How do you rewire them?

RE: Newbie Question
 

Rewiring them can be a time consuming job but you will end up with a great motor. I go thru copy machine repair dumpsters. I look for the motors that have thru bolts thru thier cases holding the end bells in place. Once home they are carefully disassembled and the wire diameter is measured in thousands (.ooo") of an inch. If the motor is a 24 volt one and you want to run it on 12 volts then double the measurement the you just got. A trip to the local electronics supply to get some enameled magnet wire of the right size.

Looking at the armature, find the top most coil of wire. Follow one of the wire ends back to the commutator. At the tab on the commutator there should be two seperate wire ends attached. This is #1, mark it with a marker along with the armature pole. Carefully pry up the tab and unsolder the wire. Mark on the pole which way the wire is unwound and unwind the wire counting the number of turns. When you finish with the pole the wire will be under the next tab, mark it as #2 and the pole it goes to. Unsolder the wire from the tab and continue with the next pole. Do this with all the poles until all of the wire is gone. Ending up back at the #1 tab.

With the new wire being twice as big as the old wire, you will get about half as many turns.

Start at the #1 tab and working backwards, rewind the armature with the new wire counting the number of turns. Be careful as not to nick or scrape the enameled coating off the wire when winding around the pole pieces. Also keep the wire tight against the pole and other wires. When coming across a tab, solder the wire to it. When finally reaching the first/last tab solder both of the wire ends to it. You can scrape some of the enamel insulation off of the wire to solder it but sometimes you can just heat the wire up with you iron to burn off the insulation.

I went looking for my calipers this weekend and no luck as of yet. I think they are in my silver construction case which seems to have walked off somewhere. When I get the home computer up and running I will post pictures of how to do it if anybody is interested.

After all is completed, reassenble the motor and test.

RE: Newbie Question
 

I got a reply from Don @ Loyalhanna and he doesn't have any in stock and he has no idea on lead time. He has one order in now that has been backordered 18 months now from PropShop. The props can be gotten with a M4, M5 or a 10-32 thread.

RE: Newbie Question
 

Thanks. I appreciate the info.