Printable Version of Topic

Posted by: devans Dec 2 2007, 03:10 AM

Sounds like an odd title for the topic doesn't it. It fits in this case however as I'm not the original purchaser of this kit, as a matter of fact I'm at least the third or forth owner.
I will try to document what I'm doing as well as throw in some questions here and there and wait with baited breath (no that doesn't mean I had sardines for lunch) for an answer. If you haven't guessed by now I'm a bit of a wise acre and I like to have fun so don't take it seriously if I fire one across your bow and I'll do the same with you. Now for a small bit of history as to how I ended up with the ship. The last owner, a very good friend of mine, plays host once a month to the model club I belong to The Subcommittee. Yes this club is about R/C submarines but some of us do like to play with targets as well. I would go over to the shelf it used to sit on and check it for progress and at first there was some but as time went on he eventually started loosing interest in the Crockett and focusing on his other boats. On one particular day while I was looking it over he said if I wanted it to get it out of there but there was two conditions for me to take total ownership. One I had to finish it, two I had to let him drive it when it was done. I'm now working on part one and as for part two he can drive her anytime he wants. So in true warner brothers cartoon fashion the ship left the shelf so fast there was a dust cloud outline in the shape of the Crockett as I took it to my car. He also gave me a Dumas PT 109 (built) that I want to add more detail to, but thats another thread for later after I finish the Crockett.
Now, the Crockett was at about 90% complete when I got my hands on it,the hull is all but done and painted I will post a picture when I get one. The super structure is built with the stacks in place, the hand rails done and doors installed. I sent to Dumas to get a copy of their plan for the kit (the ones that came with the kit were long gone) this is when I noticed that the details that were done so far were not exactly right or at least per the plans from Dumas. So I stripped the super structure back down to the basic shape and started redoing most everything. I don't want people to think that the previous owners were dopes, the items I am redoing are just me being perhaps more nit picky than I need to be.
Note: I had a picture inserted here but upon further investigation I set up an album with all the pictures I have so far.
The pictures in my album show where the super structure stands to date. Notice you can still see where doors and ladders and such were. I rebuilt the 15 man lifeboat stowage using 0.020" styrene but I kept the rails from the original attempt. The first attempt was done with 1/8" plywood and the rails poked through the bottom, what I did was use one piece of styrene and placed the rails on location and glued them in with ca, then I carefully ground the ends flush and glued a second piece of styrene to the bottom thus hiding the ends of the stantions and cut the deck to size. The two rear funnels were next on the list. I photo copied the print and cut out the templates, glued them to wooden blocks and sanded them down to size using my disk sander. I then drilled out the tops fixed my ooppses with putty and now I have something I'm happy with. The next item on my hit list is the mast. This is something I've never done before so after a lot of thought I dove in. I want the mast to have working lights and radar, there are a lot of lights on this bad boy so I decided to try hollow brass tubing for the vertical portion and for the yardarm. I managed to find brass tubing in the diameters needed at the LHS by starting from the smallest size and progressively going larger until I met the size called out for on the plan. Now you may be thinking oh man is he stupid, that brass is going to be heavy. Well your right... (wait for it..) it would be heavy. I saved on some of the weight by only using enough brass stock to solder to the next bigger piece, in other words the smallest diameter per plan should be 6 3/8" long, but I only made that section a little over 2" where it attaches at the very top and so on for the rest of the mast. Time will tell if it was enough and if not well I'm not afraid to say I was stupid. The next installment of this thread I will go into more details on how I decided to construct the mast based on wanting to have all the lights, oh and working radar.
Before I close this session I'd like to ask anyone that has built this ship what they used for lighting, where you got it from and what part number is it. The same for the doors, did you buy or build them?
Till next time.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 2 2007, 02:23 PM

First, I saw your pictures of your USS Crockett in your http://www.rktman.com/rlh/group/index.php?autocom=gallery&req=user&user=2295&op=view_album&album=23, great pictures. From what I read and saw, you will give this model a much better home. Offten we all loose interest in some of the models we build. I like to see that you are going to redo some of this model, you'll be busy this Winter. Now before I comment on what I saw or what you asked I need to ask you a question. How accurate are you trying to build this model? Would you be happy with a "sport scale" model or you looking for a "true scale" model?

The masts I have made have been made from both brass and styrene. The brass masts where a bit heavier than the styrene one. But if you remember to keep the weight low in the hull the mast being made from brass will not be a problem. As for the lights... ALL of the lights need not be able to work! On this class of ship several of the lights on the mast are TOWING lights. The number lit reflects the length of the tow. The two lights on the yard arms are "blinkers" used to send signals to other ships. If you don't plan to set these up to blink or flash on and off, just model them as no-working lights. The two red warning lights at the top of the mast should be made as working lights. Plus if you use brass tube it's easy to hide the shaft that turns the RADAR swing arm.

What paint was used to paint your model? One thing to remember, the center of the mist eliminator duct is round. I got this wrong on my first Crockett.

Posted by: devans Dec 2 2007, 08:09 PM

Roger,
The vague answer to your question of how accurate do I want the model is some where between sport and true scale. My first mission is to get her water borne for next season with at least some degree of a wow factor. The hull for now will stay as is because as I stated, it's done and even painted. As for what paint was used, I have no idea I'm waiting for an answer from my buddy on that. Knowing me I will probably sand and repaint the entire boat so everything matches. I debated changing the struts from the kit one to something more along the line of your build but for now they will remain. If I have time this winter I may go ahead and change them. Thanks for the heads up on the mist eliminator duct I missed that one. I can see I will have to get better plans. Any recommendations? I just checked out the Dumas plans and even they don't say a thing about the center being round. After measuring the space I have to work with it would seem there isn't enough room to make a new mist eliminator duct per the dimensions given, decision time, cut the main funnel loose or live with the distance. For the lights, I may not do the blinkers but I do want to make the other mast lights. I plan on making the light foundations from sheet brass and using some small LED's, as a matter of fact I'll probably do all the lights in small LED's (deck lights and such). Speaking of which I found at my local Walmart a three foot string of battery operated small LED's. They have all red, all green and all white. I have yet to find the white ones. they are in the Christmas section. Well back to the mast.
Later and thanks.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 3 2007, 09:33 AM

You can take a look at this link: http://www.rktman.com/rlh/crockett2/steps/research.html. It from my website and will help you with plans and fittings. Knowing what paint your friend used will help with color match. Although I can see you giving the hull a fresh coat of paint. If you want to redo the Dumas decals, you can buy them direct from them. Just make sure you apply them to a "gloss" surface and then apply some dull-coat over top of them to remove the glass. Makes your model look real and not like a "toy".



In the picture above of your model, we can see where the mist eliminator duct was built. I have never seen one this shape ever on this class of ships. If I were you, I would remove the main funnel and the mist eliminator duct. Check the angle of the main funnel... The plans from the Floating Drydock will help you out. The Dumas plans are not what I would call "scale" but will only give you a general idea of the layout of the ship. Look through the first USS Crockett area on my website. Then look through the "extras" area. Study the pictures and look where I changed the model. Sounds like you want a happy balance between true-scale and sport-scale. It all boils down to what you are happy with.

The doors... make one from styrene and then cast the others. This is what I did. Although I no longer have the masters or the molds from the first build. I even sold the first USS Crockett I built. So now I have to build new masters here in a few months. The ammo lockers, I built these from styrene.

I understand about leaving the struts. If the stern tubes are in place, no need to rip all that stuff out. Best to leave it in place. Although there is something you need to check.



The rear storage lockers, the corners are rounded. On the real ships the superstructure was made from fiberglass and most all of the corners are rounded. This is stronger than a 90 degree corner. If you need a picture of my latest build to help you out, let me know and I'll post one here showing the details.

Hope this information helps and good luck with your build. I know you will WoW them this Spring.

Posted by: devans Dec 3 2007, 07:23 PM

O.K. so the funnel and mist eliminator duct are coming off, bummer. I realize the Dumas plans are merely a guide, I used the dimensions from that plan to locate the hand rails and to see if the main funnel fell at least about where it should and it appeared to be at close. I will go and visit the floating drydock soon. I want their new gato plan book on CD rom anyway.
You said to check the angle on the main funnel, I assume you mean the top. I know about this one, it was worse when I got it. I built up the top but the angle still isn't there so it's a work in progress.
I've spent a lot of time reading your original Crockett site and even saved some of the pictures to help, I hope you don't mind, It's answered some questions and brought up more. As this thread progresses maybe they will come out.
I know about the corners on the aft stores just haven't gotten there yet. And the doors I made all from styrene from the plan and doctored them up to look like something I'm used to seeing. I used to work in a shipyard. The escape hatch is a little on the small side but not by much, I have a gasket punch tool I bought at harber freight and just punched out the closest size and added the hinges.
Well off to go do some destruction .
Don
Quick update. The main funnel and the mist eliminator duct are off. YOU HAPPY NOW!! just kidding, I wouldn't have done it if it didn't make sense. Now for the clean up and rework. pics to follow soon.
O.K. all the cleanup is done but I have a question if I may. What is the distance from the back edge of the funnel to the edge of the super structure? I also noticed I need to put an angle on top of the stores sections. Oh joy!

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 5 2007, 01:22 AM

Don,

Yep I'm happy... (I know you were kidding). I will get an answer for you soon. I'll be busy the on the 5th... so you will have an answer before you go to attach your funnel. I will also take a few pictures of mine and post here for you. I am glad that my first build is a help to you, thank you for using it to help you build yours. What you have done for your doors and escape hatch looks great. I am looking forward to seeing more pictures.

Posted by: devans Dec 18 2007, 01:24 PM

O.K. sorry about no updates lately and no pictures, my camera is officially dead. I'm working on some of the refinement details while waiting for the plans to come in before I commit myself to something I'll have to tear back out again. Does anyone have a source for good information (pictures, books) on the Crockett? I mean besides what Roger has put here. I've tried Navsource but the pictures leave a lot to be desired as do so many pictures deemed appropriate for release by the Navy.
Thanks.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 18 2007, 10:52 PM

No worry about not posting pictures and about the camera, sorry to hear about that. I mayself need to post a few pictures of my Crockett. I've been very busy with other things... you know how that is. My CG-54 has been taking allot of my free time. Looking for information other than what I don't have for other's here is hard to come by. I've sent many emails to crew members, then posting what I've learned on the website. I would say to follow the links I have posted and then review the plans you get. This will put you on track. But remember, no matter how you build your model... no one will say anything. It's your model and the key is to have fun, enjoy what you are doing and learn. If you can do that, then it makes the work that I put into my website worth it. Don't worry about redoing your Crockett... Good luck with your camera and your Crockett.

Posted by: devans Dec 19 2007, 08:33 AM

Thanks for the encouragement. Yeah the camera was old (1.3 mp) and hey it is Christmas after all maybe I'll find another one under the tree. As for information your right there isn't much out there, I primarily build subs and I thought info on those was hard to come by. I'm not a rivet counter per say but I do try to do my best and some times that means pushing myself towards trying new techniques and learning new ways to do things that I've never done before. Take the mast for instance, I don't have a lot of experience soldering a bunch of small pieces together like that and not having the whole thing fall apart so after some thought I just did it and it came out pretty good and it was easier than I expected. The main thing I'm not going to do with this ship is to make it baby smooth all over. I worked in a shipyard for a lot of years and ships don't have smooth hulls, there are dips and uneven spots all over the place and thats at the new construction stage never mind the oopses during the ships career. That to me is more representative of what a model should show. Not that I'm bashing those that choose to make theirs absolutely perfect and smooth. I'm looking forward to seeing more pictures of your Crockett, there won't be any updates on mine till after Christmas. Too much to do and as usual I haven't even started shopping yet.
Take care and Merry Christmas.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 19 2007, 10:29 AM

No problem about the encouragement. Sounds like you are going in the direction you feel best with. I do agree with what you said about the hull for example. Welds, uneven plates and the effects of that "smack" from time to time give the hull a bit of character. Modeling these irregularities can be extremely difficult to do and then to have them "look" right when you are done. Although these kinds of details do make the ships look more realistic, if done wrong can have a negative effect. Using a body filler like Bondo and modeling irregularities in the hull is one of the easier ways to do it. You can call on your years of experience of working on a shipyard. With the work you have done on your mast, it tells me you are willing to try new techniques that are new to you. Great Job!

Posted by: rktman56 Dec 24 2007, 12:42 PM

Here are a few pictures of my Crockett.

Posted by: devans Dec 25 2007, 11:43 PM

Sweet! I did one thing on mine a little different around the aft stores. Instead of cutting the soft patch area to allow the walls to sit below flush I trimmed the bottoms of the walls and left the soft patch intact. I was concerned that if enough water washed over the deck then it could get to the R/C gear. I'm still trying to get the hang of driving. More than once I have turned my PT boat around on it's transom.
The plans from Floating drydock came in Saturday, I ordered the ones for the Tacoma because they were 1/96 and right away I found out that the mist eliminator on the Tacoma is completely different. As are some other details but they are still usable for most of what I need. I know they were called the pirate navy because they were not standardized but oh my god.
I hope your Christmas was good and the coming new year even better.
Take care.
Don

Posted by: devans Jan 20 2008, 09:27 PM

O.K. Roger I'm at my wits end here. I've been trying to make the mist eliminator duct (a lot of my tries went to the dump) mostly based off the Dumas plans because the plans I bought don't show this. Well dimensionally it doesn't work! The Dumas plan has the length at 2 11/16", the distance from from the funnel to the turbine intake is about 2 1/16" as measured on the deck. Talk about 10 pounds of .... in a 5 pound bucket! Do you have any better info or suggestions for my problem? I think one mistake I made was I bought the plans for the Tacoma because they are 1/96 and the ones for the Crockett are around 1/192, not thinking there would be that big of a difference within four boats. By the way I had an idea while typing this and checked the actual dimension on the Dumas plan which is 1/81 scale and converted the number to 1/39th scale and the distance should be 2.080", so my placement of the funnel is good. The plan dimensions Dumas calls for on the mist eliminator duct need to be adjusted. I could still use the help though.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Jan 21 2008, 10:11 PM

QUOTE(devans @ Jan 20 2008, 10:27 PM)

Posted by: devans Jan 24 2008, 02:38 PM

Well Roger you won't believe this but... After dumping here on my earlier thread it gave me a couple of ideas and I found one I'm pretty happy with. Unfortunately it's based off the Dumas plans and Yes I know they are not worth a tinkers you know what. But so far it's coming out to look like what I think it should based on seeing similar ventilation setups on various boats. And I'm making it to fit the area I have so your reply is kind of backing up what I'm doing. When it's done and I'm happy with how it comes out I'll post here what I did step by step so that someone else can maybe benefit from my learning curve. And as for how many times something went to the trash heap, I don't really care. I didn't fail six times, I merely found six ways how not to do it. I have it on the run though.
How's your coming?
Thanks.
Don

Posted by: devans Jan 26 2008, 01:46 PM

O.K. small update. The mist eliminator duct is complete and I'm pretty happy with it. I'll hold off on installing it until the super structure is painted out. The main funnel is reinstalled and everything seems to line up really good. I cut the tops off the aft stores and did the best I could with putting in the proper roof angle, I shored up the corners with 1/8th" bass square stock so I will have something to sand my way into when I round off the corners and reattached a new roof. I've started building up the taper on top of the main funnel in order to establish the angle required. Just for grins I set the diesel funnels, the 15 man life raft decks and the mist eliminator duct into place and I'm pleased. It looks so much better. I will post pictures as soon as I can.
Don

Posted by: devans Feb 17 2008, 04:29 PM

Well the camera is still dead but I'm making progress and will post pictures as soon as I can. The gun director is done and in primer. The mast is now 80% complete. the two diesel funnels are done, smooth and in primer and the main super structure is fixed, smoothed out and in primer. I've got enough of the small detail parts done so when I'm happy with the finish on the super structure this thing should start going together pretty quick. Good thing too cause my March deadline is coming fast.
that's it for now.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Feb 18 2008, 02:02 PM

Don,? I am looking forward to seeing pictures of your Crockett.?? ?? Mine has been setting for sometime now, waiting for my return.? I've been spending my time working on my CG-54 USS Antietam!!!? ?? I will be working again on my USS Crockett in a month ot two.?

Posted by: devans Feb 18 2008, 04:35 PM

O.K. boys and girls with the generous help of Roger I have an album started and I've uploaded what I have to date for pictures. I swiped the micro SD card from my wifes cell phone and used the camera in my cell phone to do this. Some are a little blurry, sorry. I put the ones in before I started fixing things to give you an idea what I was up against and brought it all up to date. Gotta get ready to go home and the boss is in tomorrow so nothing until some time in the afternoon.
Don

Posted by: devans May 17 2008, 07:36 PM

Sorry for the long break. Things got real nutty at work so no working on the boat there and at home I had to get ready for show season. I have an alpaca farm that the wife and I own and run. Fun little creatures but some times they can be a lot of work, thankfully not too often. Since things are finally calming down at the job and the farm I will be building and posting my progress soon.
Don

Posted by: devans Aug 2 2008, 02:21 PM

Gees am I a slacker or what! I have been sooo busy actually working on the Crockett I hate to stop and post my progress, kind of striking while the iron is hot if you know what I mean. The past week or so I have been seriously motivated and I'm making some major progress. Later this coming week I will update the thread and post pictures to my album for you to either oohh and ahhh or laugh at. I'll leave that up to you.
Till then.
Take care.
Don

Posted by: devans Aug 9 2008, 08:52 PM

I have sixteen new pictures to add to my album but first I will have to resize all of them so they will load. I'm not sure I like the way they load because the newest pictures ends up in the front and is the reverse of the build. A word of advice, don't go too long between updates because it takes a while to do when you have so much to add. I'll do this in small chunks so it may be easier for the reader to back away and come back later and not have to figure out where they left off. Now for the update. Some of this for you old timers is going to be mundane, I'm writing a lot of details mostly for the beginners that may read this. Sorry.
March has obviously come and gone and I've had to adjust my schedule to be ready for a fun run my group is having on Sept.6th. It's primarily submarines but targets are welcome if we behave ourselves . When I last left off the super structure was in primer and most of the small detail parts were done. The next thing on my list was to start putting the deck railings in place and squared away, this was a straight forward job and went very nicely. I did however use new .032 brass wire for the rails but the stantions were just cleaned up and reused. One trick I did with the stantions before soldering them was to drill a dimple in the corner pieces so I had a way of attaching the rails at the corners. After I was satisfied with the way the rails came out I then soldered them on the ends to lock it all together. I also used the same trick for where the ladder grab rails meet the stantions for the ladder ways. This just makes it easier to hold the piece in place while you solder it, the other end of the ladder grab rail simply went into a hole drill into the super structure and was ca'd. Once all the rails were done I could then located and glue on the diesel exhaust stacks, again pretty straight forward stuff. with this done I then finished the last parts of the rails from the aft stantions to the funnels. Then all the lockers back aft were installed after they were painted with the base coat. Happy with this the next thing to do was to get the base coat done on the rest of the super structure and let that dry. I probably should have done this differently but.. I then noticed I had forgotten to paint the flat black portions of all the funnels and on the mist eliminator before I put them on. So in stead of taking it apart and back tracking I simply masked everything off then painted the flat black. It's not that hard if you take you time. Due to the tight radius and angles of the stacks simply taping the black area off with just masking tape would not work because it would wrinkle here and there and let the paint get where you don't want it. A good trick is to take some electrical tape and put it down on a smooth surface and cut it in about 1/8th inch strips. Be careful and keep it straight though. Then run the strip all the way around the edge of the black area, what do you know, no wrinkles. Then you just put short strips of painters tape from the electrical tape on down covering all the grey. The same method was used at the same time to do the mist eliminator. For the larger areas forward of the funnels I used newspaper taped down. Paint the flat black and let it dry a little then carefully pull the tape.

Posted by: devans Aug 9 2008, 10:01 PM

Now with the flat black done I went to work in the mist eliminator details, this is just the cross hatch work that represents the stiffeners on the filter area.
The next thing on my list was to make the antennas that are mounted on the diesel exhaust stacks. I looked at how the Dumas plans wanted it done and promptly ignored them, I did however use the length specified. I took two 3/32" diameter pieces of brass rod and cut them to length. Now the antennas are tapered toward the top which meant that I would have to some how do this for the brass rod but how? Simple, break out the poor mans metal lathe or commonly known as the drill press. Please don't attempt this if you have limited experience running a drill press, it's very easy to get hurt and if you do then I warned you and will not be held responsible. You'll want to set it for a very slow speed and put the brass rod in the chuck nice and tight. Then put a leather glove on the hand you will use to steady the rod while it spins and using a file you simply shave the rod down to a taper. This took almost an hour per piece. before you remove each piece from the drill press you will want to take some fine emery and sand it smooth but do the entire piece because you will want the paint to stick later and this will give the rod some tooth. while I was at the drill press I also needed to make the transition pieces that are at the base of each antenna. This was done with 3/8" diameter wooden dowel and a piece of 80 grit emery to hog off the wood fast and to a decent angle, then finished with a fine emery to smooth out the wood and prep it to paint.
NOTE:
I need to sign off now because I'm at work and there is a planned power outage about to happen. I will come back a little later and edit this out and continue on.
Don

Posted by: rktman56 Sep 1 2008, 11:02 PM

WoW, lots of work. Got any pictures?

Posted by: devans Sep 2 2008, 05:49 PM

I was just coming back to give a status report , I remembered the last thing I left off with was a planned power outage. Made it through that O.K. I've been taking pictures as I go along so I have plenty to add to my album. First I have to resize them. I still have lots to do and basically three days in which to get it done. Her maiden voyage will be this Saturday and I plan on getting pictures of that as well. Some time very soon after Saturday I will get to working on the resizing of the pictures and finishing the thread.
Till then stay tuned campers.

Posted by: devans Sep 13 2008, 08:48 PM

Well I've resized the pictures I want to add to my album but for some reason the board wont let me upload. I was hoping to be able to do a step by step with pictures to finish but hey that's life in the fast lane.
From where I left off: I painted the antennas and when they were dry I installed them on the smaller funnels. The next thing was to figure out the Pelorus, I've never seen one but with the help of some pictures Roger turned me on to I was able to make them on my wood lathe. Now most of you, myself included, would normally make a master, mold it and make the required number of parts. In this case two, but remember I'm on a time crunch and I can make both pieces from wood faster than the mold and cast method so I did. I mounted them to some brass rod then applied paint. Once dry these were installed.
Now I need to finish the mast, when I last left off on that it was just a basic shape. I took some flat brass stock and cut out the light foundations. Before I started putting them on the mast I measured the lights I intended to use and using a hole punch put the holes in for the lights. Now for the fun part, soldering the pieces together. It took a few attempts and I had to walk away a couple of times but it all finally came together. I did some clean up and sanding of the brass and painted the mast. Once it was dry I started installing the lights. At this point I noticed a modification I will do later to the bottom of the mast where it mounts to the deck. The brass tube I used will have to be taken out and a larger diameter put in. The wires are too tight where they exit the bottom of the mast. Live and learn. I soldered the ships bell to the mast and installed the radar assembly minus the drive motor for now. Like I said I just need it to run at the moment.

Posted by: devans Sep 14 2008, 12:26 AM

The next set of details to go on were the fire fighting equipment. My friend I got the model from had bought some pretty nice valves and some fittings so I figured out a way to put these to use. It is a departure from the "T" setup mentioned on the plans but it looks pretty good. My friend had also made up some foam nozzles that are all the same, I used all four of them for the time being but I do intent to go back later and change two of them out to what the plan says. I next made the mounts for the life rings, mounted the rings then applied paint. Once dry they were installed.
Another item that will be changed out later is the motor boat. It's supposed to be a 13 foot Boston Whaler carved from wood. again time is short so I used a boat that was pretty close to the right scale, it doesn't look too bad but I do want to take a crack at the Whaler. The boat davit needed a better hook than what was put on it so it was replaced. I wanted to have an anchor point for the davit hook that was at least some what realistic, My friend had put two eyelets on the deck so I took some very fine twisted wire and swedges and made a rigging sling between the eyes. I looped the hook on the wire and restrung it on the davit. This pretty much completed a vast majority of the detail work, only a very small amount left to do and now it's the Thursday before the Fun Run. I've had all my batteries on the charger and my radio that I plan on using as well so I start working on setting up the receiver and servos and such when I notice that my brand new radio isn't talking to the receiver. I try a few more times to pair the tx and rx but nothing. I decided to call a buddy of mine so that we can put our heads together and make sure I performed the setup correctly which as it happens I did so we made plans for me to go to his house Friday night after he got home from work. I get there and we played around with my radio for a little while and determine that something is wrong with it and it needs to go back to get fixed. Thank god for warranties. He had an extra radio just like mine so we set his up and he let me use it on Saturday. Everything worked very well, we even managed to get the aft gun servos hooked up so it could be moved back and forth. Neat! Saturday finally gets here and off I go to the Fun Run. Now the fun run is primarily a submarine function but surface boats are welcome too. At some point I notice the lake is pretty empty so I get my friend and walk down to the lake. I hand him the radio, he got the maiden voyage as part of the deal for giving me the boat. Off went the Crockett on the lake looking very nice and behaving as it should. We did figure out that the motor setup my buddy installed was not enough for this boat, one motor feeding a gearbox setup to both shafts. It was to say the least a bit sluggish. The gear box will be removed and another Dumas 6 volt motor installed. That should give her the right amount of oomph. I was a little surprised and quite please that the Crockett was very well received at the fun run by my fellow modeling enthusiasts. This made me quite happy!
For now I will stop the thread here, I will try to get the pictures to my album and as I get the mods done I mentioned I will try to update the thread with the results. Thanks for putting up with this drawn out build thread.