This is Brian Clewes Hovercraft on a frozen Boundary Park Lake in Cheshire UK.
Our resident cob swan and his wife were sat on the ice probably hoping we had brought some feed. They don't bother us and we leave them alone. I should have filmed them taking off later, not an easy task on ice for one of our largest birds.
The hovercraft has two brushless motors and uses a LiPo.
Somebody was either disillusioned with model boats or impecunious to the Nth degree because he let me have this BRAND NEW Ripmax Tomkat complete with Motor, ESC, brand new steering servo,action man driver,decals and instructions for a brownie with a bluey postage.
Not my usual type of model but will make a fun change down at our 'postage stamp' lake (?)
An old favourite from my hovercraft phase. Runs really well on land and especially water. Although no reverse, it will auto-rotate on the hover, so when pointing in the desired direction on with the propulsion with the brushless motor and away she flies.
Realistic in operation. Looking a bit work worn now. Could do with up-dating with Lipo batteries which would make it even lighter. Seen here with lift motor running with skirt inflated. Steering
interesting, with twin air rudders. Must get some videos of the action.
It's a learning curve to operate a hovercraft.It's fun to watch them drifting in a turn and then trying to go in the direction you want them to go.Lots of fun.
This is my latest build she is all scratch built.
She is based on a Robert Allen tug built in Cyprus.
She has two 800 motors on belt drive with 70 mm props.
Actually I knew it was Andy 😉
Just another example of my usual pathetic attempt at humour😁
Wonder if John has since made a vid of her Sea Trials?
Or is she just 'TOOO Nice' to risk in the wet stuff 🤔
Cheers, Doug 😎
A challenging project 10 years ago. Scratch built model of theSRN3 built under licence by the US for use in the Mekong delta against the VC in Vietnam. Very light construction with liteply.
Two ESPs control brushed and brushless motors for lift and propulsion. Motor tube ball-raced at each end with a 9x6 pusher prop. Realistic performance and sounds like a turbo prop. Tricky to control in anything stronger than a light breeze. Best on water.
😆Hello everyone. I’m a relative novice with 3 projects on the go at the moment. Project 1 is a Riva Aquarama, which stalled at the stringer stage. Project 2 is a smaller Riva Aquarama which stalled at the planking stage. Project 3 is an Aerokits Sea Commander, photos to follow. Kit delivered Tues last week and spent about 4 hours on it so far. Keen to hear of any motor/shaft mods anyone recommends. Thanks
Building a German Police launch right now and thought that the radar scanner components were a bit 'heath robinsonish', so decided to see if I could make an alternative unit.
Photo 1 shows the Radar scanner parts obtained from MMB (ebay) for the princely sum of ONE POUND !!!!! plus 28p postage, and construction is of a medium soft resin that isn't prone to breaking or splitting when shaped or drilled, and a short length of 2mm brass rod becomes the drive shaft. This particular unit has a 44mm sweep bar but there are many other sizes available
Photo 2 shows the drive motor which operates on voltages between 1.5 and 6v, ideal for the control driver which is the next item. Available from saih.tan on Ebay for under 7 pounds, and if the motor is mounted on a removable bracket as I have done, this unit can be used in several models without the need for major 'surgery', the motor and radar shaft being connected with a short piece of rubber tubing
Photo 3 shows the receiver driven radar motor speed control which operates from an auxiliary receiver channel and takes the motor voltage from the main receiver supply, thus obviating the need for a separate supply and switch.
This unit is available from www.mr-rcworld.co.uk and costs a staggering 14.50 post free sheesh !
I must add here that I am in NO way connected to any of the suppliers mentioned here, but just though some other modellers may be interested in 'home brew' accessories and suchlike.
The seats are all installed and soon it will be time to sand, but with temperatures of -21C in the garage shop area where the power belt sander is located, the job of sanding will wait a bit.
Does anyone have a suggestion for a small outboard motor?
1/35 Scale model of the La Combattante IIIB Class Fast Missile Boat of the Hellenic Navy.
The boat is scratchbuilt. it is 1606mm long. it has 2 brushless 720Kv motors and NiMH batteries.
The 76mm guns can traverse and elevate. The 30mm guns can traverse. Both radars rotate and there are LED running lights.
these are the motors and gearboxes in the boat .They look in rough condition but after cleaning ,greasing etc run ok .The sapce that has been used for the battery seems to havebeen divided int o4 for some reason.I am trying decide what battery I need for this
The motor units are Robbe EF76 with fitted gearboxes, rated at 6 - 8volts, superb units and very reliable, did you strip and clean the gearboxes as well???? were the photos taken before you cleaned the motors???
The battery space looks to have been fitted with 4 x 6v 4ah batteries, probably giving 6v drive power, might have been 12v. is there an ESC fitted?? that would give us the final key, apart from the red and black wire in the 4th photo is there any other wiring???
Cheers
John