Flower class rebuild and R/C conversion

[Davem]

I bought this kit from Beatties Birmingham on the day it was 1st released so it's getting on. It was brush painted in Humbrol enamel and each colour was a ' that will do' match.
It was at my parents till their passing and got light damage from being dusted but when I got it back it got wrecked by being dropped, then a house move basically wrote it off.
However I'm not going to bin my dad's favourite model so slowly im rebuilding it and going to do a R/C conversion just a basic forward/back left/right steer and speed control.
I'm also doing a small amount of extra detailing but not a full etch set blast as it has to resilient as it's going to sail so as we say in R/C boating it's ' stand off scale' so bear with me.









These are the only photos I've got at the moment as I don't take too many but I've just got a super phone which I will snap a few internals as it's basically ready to water test.
The frame photos are some of the least damaged items the bow was off and owing to its age most parts were detached plus I was 14 when I first built it so finesse wasn't high on my list of skills.

[jssel]

Pretty nice. Thanks for sharing

[iggie]

I have one of these part built and a platinum edition still to do. I've always fancied converting the part built one to R/C so will be watching to see how it's done.

[Davem]

Please don't copy this I'm winging it as I go and copying various builds I've seen online and at my model boat club. I'm open to suggestions as to improvements or techniques.



















Here's some internal shots I'm about to install mounting for switches and speed controllers the prop tube is epoxied and needs packing with grease to stop water ingress.

[hardcastle]

Looking good there mate!

[Gregers]

That is looking superb. I hope when I start mine it looks that good. Great work on the RC fit.

All the best.

Greg.

[Davem]

It's getting there to be frank some R/C boats I've seen poolside are rough but on the pool they look fine so I'm going down the middle and make it look presentable on the stand but sturdy on the pool. Close inspection doesn't hold up but I've another unbuilt one in the box i will go to town on.

[splash]

It’s good to see you got rid of the wooden decking that Matchbox moulded on all decks as in reality only the forecastle, bridge and parts of the aft deck were wood the rest was metal.

[Davem]

Yes I had an afternoon scraping and sanding and a bit of scribing it's not accurate but it's close enough for a working model. Now I've got my colour chart i may well restart this and put the gentry eagle aside for a while.

[splash]

I like the way you have built up the deck so that the removable superstructure slots over it to make it water resistant.

I started converting my Flower Class years ago but was stumped as to how to get around that problem, so I can now drag her back onto the slipway and start work again.

Have you thought about using a lead acid battery (the small gel type used on bikes) as she will require lots of ballast and it should give you better endurance.

[Davem]

I copied the coaming round the internals from a build i saw at a boat show most of the boats I've seen use the batteries I've shown and I had these as I've got a couple of Tamiya buggies with a charger as well. They give pretty good endurance I'll see how it does once launched and upgrade as I need. Ballast I've got plenty of as I've got an R/C sub that came with ballast blocks i won't use plus I've got some lead sheeting i can cut up and distribute unobtrusively round the hull to give a more balanced weight to it.

[gnomemeansgnome]

This is looking great, and converting to r/c is an awesome idea as well. I have a Nichimo Type IX u-boat in the ready stash that I should like to motorise some day.

[splash]

I copied the coaming round the internals from a build i saw at a boat show most of the boats I've seen use the batteries I've shown and I had these as I've got a couple of Tamiya buggies with a charger as well. They give pretty good endurance I'll see how it does once launched and upgrade as I need. Ballast I've got plenty of as I've got an R/C sub that came with ballast blocks i won't use plus I've got some lead sheeting i can cut up and distribute unobtrusively round the hull to give a more balanced weight to it.

That sounds like a really good plan with the Ballast.

Do you Know how long the endurance will be on the Tamiya battery from your club members?

It does look a neat installation.

[Davem]

I've no idea of the endurance yet but it is a very common battery type as lead acid seems to be very rare from what I've seen. I think a modern battery packs a lot of wallop now I'm learning about Lipo batteries as I need them to power the new fangled brushless motors for my water jet drive Gentry Eagle I'm fitting out as I type.
I'm editing this because I've been doing a bit of searching and it looks like lead acid batteries are obsolete I'm electrically qualified but battery technology has left my knowledge seriously lacking. The Tamiya type battery I've worked around is the right choice it will give good endurance and power given sensible charging and use.

[JohnRatzenberger]

When (or if) you have time, could you list the radio, running gear, and batteries inside that thing - it's still a goal either with the Matchbox kit or a 1/48 semi-kit I have but I've not done any real work figuring out what I need.