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Building The Crockett, First Impressions
Iran Ausley
post Aug 28 2006, 01:32 PM
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After visiting Rogers website many time in the past, I acquired the Dumas Crockett. I would like to share some of my observations. In my particular kit the wood quality was quite poor. The plywood was separating in the sheets that had the hull formers. It was very nice of Dumas to replace the several of the die cut plywood sheets although the new sheets were not too much better than the originals. The instructions are very scant. I am not sure of the date of my kit. It is very possible that this kit is an early one and perhaps Dumas improved the quality somewhat. It's nice that Roger was able to sift through them and come up with an improved building plan.

I built up the hull and found it very difficult to follow the instructions that Dumas provided. I put planks 1, 2, 3, and 4 on in the opposite order. As it turned out, it made planking much easier for me. However, the planks meeting at an imaginary line past the keel was very deceptive. I decided to add a piece of balse along the stem of the keel and shape the balse into a crude shape of the cutwater of the bow. This gave me a visual reference as to how to run the planks at the bow. The sheer knuclke came out quite nice and I think it will look good once painted. The hull has been glassed and yes it took a bit of elbow grease to smooth things out. I also used two coats of resin.

The deck turned out to be a little larger than the outside dimensions of the completed hull. A little trimming was necessary to get the deck to conform to the shape of the hull. Perhaps due to the two sheers not spaced properly when attached to the frames.

Happily, I am past what I hope is the difficult part and am looking forward to the rest of the build.

My first question for Roger and the group. When assembling the rear hatch where the Bofors mounts, is the frame section under the hatch discarded or is it used to maintain a camber in the hatch itself.

Looking forward to some discussions on this build,

Thanks

Iran Ausley
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rktman56
post Aug 28 2006, 03:08 PM
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Iran,

Thanks for the comments. I wish you well with your project... As for your question, here is what I did:

Here is a picture of when I was building my rear hatch/aft breakwater

When you build the rear access hatch, G-1, G-2, and G-3 should be cemented to the hatch so that they overhang the hatch 1/16". Then you cement G-5 in place then build up the little side lockers with G- 6, 7, and 8. At this point you will cut the vertical storage dividers from the 1/16 ply strip and cement them in place on G-3 and 5. These will help keep the camber in the hatch.



In order to gain better access to the rudder linkages, I removed a portion of the top frame under the hatch. I left about 1/4" of the frame intact to support the hatch. I would not remove the frame top until after the hatch has been completed and you can determine that the frame top is NOT needed.

PaintChip is working on his USS Crockett kit, I would like to know what his thoughts are on this?!?


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Roger

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"Over the years I have spent nearly all of my money on my Harley-Davidson, my model boats and women. The rest of it I just wasted!"


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PaintChip
post Sep 5 2006, 12:04 PM
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Overall I'm not impressed with the Dumas kit. The quality vs price is bad and once I started building I found that the instructions were next to worthless...much less the 2 whole plan sheets that really didn't give much instruction or elaboration on the details of how things should be. Add to the factor that to really complete the kit one is reccomended (by Dumas) to buy the deck hardware and running gear that matches the kit.

My hull turned out warped...so I'm going down the premade fiberglass hull route now.. The brass couplers for the prop shafts were crappy quality...the screws to hold them onto the shaft didn't fit into the holes on the couplers...Dumas replaced them. Then the last straw was that I had one of the prop shaft supports to break under absolutely no stress. Roger sent me a spare of his and Dumas finally sent me a couple more.

The way I was going to put the 40mm mount on my model was to add a 4 small "plates" under the deck at each corner to hold the hatch level with the deck and then use 2 screws to link the hatch to 2 cams (my terminology might not be right here) that I could turn to lock the hatch down and hold it in place. The idea for that came from a Lindberg PT boat model that used a similar method to hold the superstructure to the deck...worked pretty well. I may rethink my methods though now that I'm rethinking the whole hull..I might make the rear hatch a bit bigger (encompass the 40mm mount and part of the rear deck vs Dumas' 40mm mount only) and disguise the cam screws with rope coils or something else.
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Iran Ausley
post Sep 9 2006, 09:35 AM
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I just received my plans from Floating Drydock and made a few observations about the position of the prop shafts. It seemed to me that boats/ships with two props never placed the props on the centerline of the rudders. With an offset, more rudder authority can be achieved using the prop wash. Unless my measurements are off, the prop shafts should be approx 1 3/8 inches from the centerline. Also, the scale size of the rudders appear to be less than 2". Another point is that the tip of the prop hub seems to point to the bottom of the rudder. Since I have not put in the prop shafts yet, this seems like the thing to do. Also, I am going with the 1.7" Prop Shop props. This is slightly under scale, the scale size if the prop is approx 1.85". The 1.7"props have a 3/16" shaft and I will be able to use the Dumas stuff. The Dumas stuff was a sizeable investment and I hate to set it aside. I will definitely make new struts per Rogers extras section.

Any comments??

Iran
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rktman56
post Sep 9 2006, 09:59 AM
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Iran,

Do not get too tied up in trying for an "exact" scale in your running hardware. I would tend to bet that your measurements are NOT off. I will have to dig out my plans (I have the same ones) but I remember I ran into a problem with the rudder placement also. But with my model I could not move the rudders because when I changed my runnung gear from the Dumas props, I had already mounted my rudder posts. Changing the size of the rudders to a "smaller" size can reduce their ability to turn the model. But off setting the rudders, you may improve this ability... and still allow you to run the smaller rudders. IF you use eparate controllable props (a speed control for each prop), using smaller rudders will not be a factor at all!

Using the 3/16" shafts will allow you to use Dumas oilite bearings for your A Struts. biggrin.gif Make sure you tighten the new porps up tight (after you paint the hull, and use locktight!) wink.gif

Don't worry about your "exact scale". Build what you are happy with. Unless someone gets out a ruler and measures, no one will ever know. And IF anyone does say that the running hardware is wrong, just tell them you modeled your USS Crockett after it into dry dock for modifications to it’s screws and rudders! biggrin.gif


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Roger

Model Marina Web Master and Discussion Board Administrator

"Over the years I have spent nearly all of my money on my Harley-Davidson, my model boats and women. The rest of it I just wasted!"


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