Is it okay....?

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Plans just about finalised. Laying the keel on the weekend of 26/27 May!

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I'd love to see a pic of that!I just imagined the models clipped onto the occupants braces as they ran around re-enacting great naval battles from history!

Imagines someone with a tirpitz around their waist and another person with a Fairy Swordfish on their head...

Here you are Allan...and strangely Lady Hamilton is just about to put a Swordfish on her head.

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Martin: good news, keep a photo record of every move you make. Any advice you need , just ask.

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Duncan....

What scale is yours...?

I've got this feeling it must be around 1/20 - 31ft for 192m... If thats so, I can't put mine in the same as that would give me a model about 45ft long!

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Martin I`ve always assumed it was about 1/20-ish or thereabouts. The 1/24th Airfix Sea harriers look OK. The whole concept was decided by the the original builders who just had to make it fit a "Queen Mary" low loader. I`ve also got evidence that it had another identity before being converted to Invincible by RN recruiting bods. I wouldnt worry about the scale just make it what you can accomodate for storage and trailering. I wouldnt go above a ton in weight based on towing mine about. Use ballast tanks that can be drained at the end of the day`s sailing.

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That ballast idea is so simple and I didn't even think about that!!! I was going to use metal/sand/whatever... stupid! In terms of scale, I was kinda thinking about seeing the two of them together which I guess we still can though they won't be scaled together. I'm going to stick with the 1/40th scale- I got a good internal profile from squirting expanding foam into the Airfix kit hull though it did look like a loaf rising at the end. I'm hoping to restrict the weight to a half ton unladen. I've got some design/build innovations that should help considerably. I plan to do some time lapse photos so that you can see the thing built before your eyes as well as detail shots as they occur. I just got a friend on board (pun intended) who is a master sprayer who has volunteered to paint the whole thing for free!

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Water ballast tanks have to be baffled to prevent surge etc. make them in say eight separate sealed units for trimming,fore and aft and beam-wise, but with egg-crate style boxes in each compartment. A drain plug in each tank and let gravity empty them when back on trailer. If it is stable enough when launched just open the cocks/plugs to flood the tanks, if not half fill them before going in and do final trim on water. Be sure to flash them out with tap water every time as they will stink with the bacteria and algea from seawater and even worse with canal water. Weiles ( rat pee ) disease can be contracted from river and canal water. A touch of household bleach will kill the algea. Have a look at some of the wooden boatbuilder pages for canoes, stitch and glue ie Mirror dinghy etc methods. Your painter friend might be redundant, the last thing you want is a glass-like finish.

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Yes , same model. No , not part of a museum collection, it was hangared at The Museum of Flight for one winter(that is where it was filmed). Pity the film crew were in a rush, they could have had a sail in her during the summer but that is show-biz, deadline yesterday etc etc. I take it round regattas, airshows both model and full-size during the summer months in UK. Has been as far as Channel Islands. Planning the Continent next, Netherlands,Southern Germany, Austria and Northern Italy.

i knew i recognized it !- i was featured on that supermodels series too !- it was tight for time - i remember it well !

we featured the subs on supermodels II... THATS WAS JUST THE SAME !

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Yeah I remember the subs section. Good. Why cant they think ahead a little? Think how a moving picture sequence of the attached photo would be, the movement of the tugs etc.

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He was going to go dor the 'dull' gloss finish but I'm open to suggestions about that...

Finished the scale conversion calculations last night AND I have designed a breach loading gun that utilises the power of the humble 'banger'!

Finally, for today at least, I've re-thought the scale issue. It was being driven by how much available room I had in my back garden. In the re-think, I've moved from a 1/40 to a 1/35. Overall finished length will be just over 24ft (7.49m). The reason for the change is that the new scale will give me a beam of 0.90m- a more stable platform I think.

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He was going to go for the 'dull' gloss finish- not a high glass shine. I am up for suggestions here...

I am changing the scale from 1/40 to 1/35 as this will give me a more stable platform- 0.90m beam.

Finished the scale conversion calculations last night as well as finishing the gun platform design. The guns (assuming the design works) will breach load, be re-loadable and should shoot an impressive amount of white, plain flour from the barrel.

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Here you are Allan...and strangely Lady Hamilton is just about to put a Swordfish on her head.

Heheh - Yep that's just about as silly looking as I was imagining - thanks for the pic!

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I'll post this over the road as well but... is there a 1/35 scale rc model of the Fairey Flycather or the Fairey 111f out there that anyone knows about. It would change a few things about where I'm going with the 'furniture' on this model but its not crucial at the moment...

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After today, I'll be posting stuff on 'new build' but... Wickes (the builders merchants) just agreed to provide all I need wood wise for free- obviously stuff they'd be recyling anyway- which fits in with my ethos for this project- but hey, what a result.

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Wickes 'bottomed' out on me. Coming out of mu pocket now. That'll REALLY speed things up!...not.