I am 15 and new to RC groups (other than what I have read over my dads shoulder) and this is my first build thread so we will see how it goes. This Lindburg diesel tug that I got for Christmas is also my first scale model boat so wish me luck all. There are few pictures of the kit bashing I have been doing to the interior of my cabin.

I am also kit bashing the exterior of the boat to enter in to a boat show in April. Kit bashing such as the bumpers which will be made of rubber, the port and starboard lights I Dremeled out and put 3MM leds in and I removed the S on the smoke stack. here are some pictires of the modifications.

Hey cool!

Today I bought an old Lindberg Tug called the Carol Ann I think. Seems like this one is quite similar. I'll be watching and stealing ideas, so take lots of pictures.

Welcome to RC Groups!

Nice work so far and also, welcome to RCG!

The running/navigation lights were not meant to shine light upward but outward instead so to take away the dome shape of the LED you could sand or file the top of them flat and paint the flat spot (be sure to not sand them too far and expose the anode and cathode posts). Are you going to wire the lights to be operable? Better yet, is your tug going to be Radio Controlled?

I would be remiss if I did not mention one of the all-time best build logs for this tug: Salvaging a Lindberg Diesel Tug

I post the obligatory popcorn munching guy...

yes the lights will have black paint on the tops so that the lights glow out the sides and yes it will be RC ive already hacked a servo for power and will be using a 9 gram mini servo for the rudder.

here are a few pictures of my homemade drying rack

a few more...

Welcome to RC Lindburg conversions.

Larger servos make VERY good motor controllers. They have the built in F & R.

I used to keep the speed pot for setting up NEUTRAL anywhere I wanted to. A LIGHT spray coating of clear coating did not affect the PCB board of my HITECS . The rudder servos can use a grease blob on the output shaft of your rudder servos. Put enough on, so that when you push the arm back on, there is a water proof seal..

I ran every thing off of the receiver battery. Very simple & O K if there are NO WEEDS around.

They ran fantastically. My favorite was / still is the L C.
Drive shaft were small diameter pushrod wires used for servo connections. I found that the servo motor from STANDARD SIZED servos could sometimes be used as the drive motors. i depended on how long the motor shafts were, At times I would use the gears with a inner & outer teeth set . I would press the large gear side on FIRST. Then use the small teeth to slide rubber tubing onto for a coupling.

Lots of thinking & modifiying for you to do.

L C boat had cargo boxes added to it. I made them to cover all the batteries rec. servo PCB.

All is fair in small models. Enjoy the challanges.

Thanks I'm going to use the gears that are in the servo to keep the speed more to scale hopefully I was planing on running the whole boat off of 4 AA (GP1500) battery's on the receiver. I will post pics of my drive line tomorrow when I glue it in

You say this is your first scale model boat but you are exhibiting some fine talent and attention to detail. What else have you done (or built to be more precise)? Just other model kits?

What size servo have you hacked?

MiiYeti,
I have hacked a couple of 1/4 scale servoès for a very small buoy tender, and with a 0.6'' 4 blade prop on each on 6V i get a very realistic power. You shouldnt need to put a gear reduction on this with only one motor and at 4.8V Some experimenting may be in order. I am about to re-do my little Murray Stewart with a servo motor instead of the Losi one i initially used because it was too fast and overloaded the tiny esc without a reduction. the servo motor however is a bit slower rpm.
When you get it in the water you can experiment with what works, but careful you don't seal everything u^p and then can't fix it later!!

Great build you have going for this little guy! Cheers
G-O

That drying rack is sweet!

Originally Posted by RGinCanada

That drying rack is sweet!

Thanks!!

Originally Posted by Guard-Officer

MiiYeti,
I have hacked a couple of 1/4 scale servoès for a very small buoy tender, and with a 0.6'' 4 blade prop on each on 6V i get a very realistic power. You shouldnt need to put a gear reduction on this with only one motor and at 4.8V Some experimenting may be in order. I am about to re-do my little Murray Stewart with a servo motor instead of the Losi one i initially used because it was too fast and overloaded the tiny esc without a reduction. the servo motor however is a bit slower rpm.
When you get it in the water you can experiment with what works, but careful you don't seal everything u^p and then can't fix it later!!

Great build you have going for this little guy! Cheers
G-O

i was planning on using the original gears on the servo. will it still spin fast enough?

Originally Posted by Harquebus

You say this is your first scale model boat but you are exhibiting some fine talent and attention to detail. What else have you done (or built to be more precise)? Just other model kits?

What size servo have you hacked?

Ive never built any other kits. I started on a lindburg destroyer and was not happy with the way it was going so I started this kit to see if it any better. I will go back to the destroyer over the summer (It will not win I am determined to finish it)

I hacked a 44OZ futaba S3003.