Robbe Dusseldorf ~ How true to scale

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing the pictures, but I was looking at the wooden decking around the monitor nozzels, Im prettry sure the planking supposed to be seperated, like your average "garden decking", to allow water to drain through.

Ive also upgraded my boat to 12v battery, which means you can use a normal 12v car screen wash pump at very little cost, as I was shocked to see the price of water pumps for model boats ! I bought a pump off ebay for only £4.00 UK graupner or robbe pumps are £14 + [uK]

a real rip off.

There are also some good german web sites which show a lot more super detailling including a stern guide vane which does help to reduce the wash produced by the twin screws when under more than half power and so stops too much water coming over the stern and risking seeping through the rudder access plate.

[Guest]

Thanks for sharing the pictures, but I was looking at the wooden decking around the monitor nozzels, Im prettry sure the planking supposed to be seperated, like your average "garden decking", to allow water to drain through. Ive also upgraded my boat to 12v battery, which means you can use a normal 12v car screen wash pump at very little cost, as I was shocked to see the price of water pumps for model boats ! I bought a pump off ebay for only £4.00 UK graupner or robbe pumps are £14 + [uK]

a real rip off.

There are also some good german web sites which show a lot more super detailling including a stern guide vane which does help to reduce the wash produced by the twin screws when under more than half power and so stops too much water coming over the stern and risking seeping through the rudder access plate.

If you look at the site I sent people to at the beginning of this topic, and look at the scale pics.

The water cannon floorboards that I have fitted do in fact have gaps between them and are very close to true scale, except that they needed to be painted a grey/black colour.

If you look very carefully at my hull, you will see it has the scale wash plate on the back, and one thing you can't see is the bow thruster.

These pictures were taken very early in the build, just after the deck was covered in scale chequer plate.

I modelled mine on the early vessel with the rotating blue flat panel 'flag' on the side of the wheelhouse (that was made to work as well), and can just be seen behind the stbd cowl vent (the cowls in the kit were the wrong size and shape and these were reshaped commercial ones).

I had to remake most of the main fittings, the mast was made from plasticard, and was hollow so that it could be fully lit, and the radar head was made up again to scale and rotated, the fittings you can see were all remade to scale size and shape.

The fire monitors on the superstructure were way off position for scale, so with great difficulty, the back end of the superstructure was reshaped to put them in the correct position and to get the steps at the back faired into the superstructure as required for scale effect. You can also see the towhook mount, that was fully working and made to scale. The one thing I didn't do as it would have meant making a complete new superstructure, were the windows, replacing the two missing ones was just a step too far.

There was not one area on the whole build that didn't need to have some sort of modification doing to it to get it almost scale like.

I am just getting my new computer up and running, and once I have got my archive transferred across, I will see if I have some more pictures of the build.

Bogs

[Guest]

A few months ago I raided my 'Stash' and started to build the supposedley 'scale' model of the Dussedorf from the robbe kit, usual thing, trim hull, get running gear in etc.Then I was surfing for any info on the boat and came across this site:-

Feuerlöschboot Düsseldorf

After a couple of hours rooting on this site my heart sank, my supposedly scale boat was nothing of the sort, twin Becker rudders instead of the 4 supplied, the rear crane was in the wrong place (and totally the wrong shape), fire monitors in the wrong place, three windows instead of five, and the list goes on.

I am now in the process of putting things right, modified Billings Becker rudders fitted (this allowed a scratch built crane to be fitted in the correct position), central monitor moved back by about 20mm, thruster fitted etc.

So beware of supposedly 'scale' models. As is the Dusseldorf is a stand off at about 50ft., don't be fooled by all the working features!!

If anyone is about to start building this boat or is in the process of, and needs more info just contact me.

Hello bogstandard

Just about to start building Dusseldorf.What motors did you install - were the prop shafts included in the fitting kit, if not which prop shafts and couplings did you use.

[Guest]

Seguin,

After the fiasco with the Robbe gearboxed ones, they were ripped out.

I am lucky in that I am a home machinist, so I made the shafts and couplings myself, coupled to a pair of powerful but low drain motors I had in my stash box.

Unfortunately, this model is now long gone, so I can't measure it up for you, plus of course, the old memory isn't as good as it used to be.

So I can't be of much help to you on that score.

Bogs

[Guest]

What deck anti skid plating did you use. Voyager makes several but I can not pinpoint the one that you used.

Thanks,

Iran Ausely