Fleetscale News

Now available for instant download the Fleetscale Catalogue Plus is more than the Fleetscale hard copy catalogue. For a start it’s in colour and that means there are more colour photographs of Fleetscale model ships.

There is extra content in the Catalogue Plus which will be added to over the next few months. You will get a free upgrade to your catalogue for 12 months after purchasing on this site. This will be e-mailed to you as the catalogue is added to or altered in any significant way.

The Catalogue Plus is supplied as a zipped Adobe PDF file so you will require Adobe Reader 9 to view or print the catalogue. There is a free download of Adobe Reader here.

Here’s just some of the extra content that is either included or planned:

Fleetscale build articles in Model Magazines starting with S.S.Moygannon, HMS Vanguard and HMS Invincible

Painting The Hull - the paint to use and the sequence of painting and how to clean the hull of any release agent prior to painting.

First steps in building - fitting the running set, inwhales and cross braces, fitting the deck etc

Electric motors, batteries and other essentials

Customer’s models on the water and under construction.

Get the new downloadable Fleetscale Catalogue Plus now it only costs £2.85 and it will be with you in an instant when you receive an e-mail with a download link Get it here

The LP800 is a high quality Buhler motor 12v-24v, 2,650 rpm, sourced to drive larger props on our 1/72nd scale ships and some of the others i.e. Roysterer (a serious tug motor), Grey Goose, Empress, Yamato, Moygannon. They all have prop diameters of 50mm to 120mm. This motor can cope as it has a lot of torque. I have just done some tests and I have to say that 24volts is needed to achieve 2,650 rpm. As for the tests I applied a load on the shaft (with my fingers) and it took a lot to stall the motor. They are very quiet running but draw very little current. Compared to a typical 545-46 motor which drew 60amps when stalled and 12amps @6v with a 35mm prop the LP800 draws a fraction of that. See below:

12v - no load 0.12amp - load 0.25amp. 18v - no load 0.13 - load 0.27amp. 24v no load 0.14amp - load 0.37amp. Stall load 0.5amp.

With such a low current drain 2 x 12v gel batteries of 3.2 amp hour would provide hours of running when wired in series to provide 24v. Another point to make about the LP800 is that it does not take kindly to reverse running but with a shaft on either end simply turn it round. Example pictured below with our laser cut motor mounts.

Having obtained a supply of 500ml tins I can now offer Silicone Alkyd enamel paint in light grey as used on RN ships. Stuart Bolton uses this paint on his excellent ship models. He finds it sprays well if mixed 50/50 with white spirits. Caution; only mix what you are going to use fairly shortly because it has been found to “jellify” after a few weeks. Stuart masks the boot line and sprays with black acrylic, then the bottom with red/brown acrylic and finally the hull with this grey enamel. Three coats, leaving each one to harden. Never spray acrylic on to enamel. Oh, and you should use a plastic primer first of all. Link to buy paint page.

Although this is an original paint and yes, RN ships are painted with a gloss paint modellers don’t like to use gloss paint but when it is thinned 50/50 it takes some of the gloss out. The pic below shows Stuart Bolton’s Type 22, HMS Cornwall, which has been painted with this paint and finished with a final coat of satin varnish.

A note on satin varnishes; you have to search to find one that does not yellow on ageing. I was wrong in thinking that Ronseal fits the bill, it doesn’t. Stuart’s secret is Letraset. Well, not quite; it’s Letraset Matt Coat 103. Produced for varnishing over Letraset characters it is about £10 a tin from specialist print shops. I am told that it does the job without yellowing because it is not enamel based. Another one that will do the job is Rustin’s acrylic matt varnish - now tested by Stuart. It’s worth seeking out as it’s half the price of Letracoat. Windsor & Newton acrylic matt varnish is another one to consider.

Having spent several tedious days updating the website and catalogue by tidying it up and correcting errors a few months ago both of our suppliers of some fittings announced price increases. The quick way to correct this without getting depressed and suicidal was to simply increase the prices of the total fittings sets and the complete kits.

The individual prices of fittings were left as they were. That did not matter too much because hardly anyone ordered individual fittings. If we did supply fittings at the old prices we would in some cases have lost money. Recently we have more modellers ordering individual fittings so I would like to state that especially in the case of Precision Controls fittings for 1/128th scale that we will not supply individual fittings at the prices on the website or in the catalogue. The prices have increased by an average of 20%. Any ship model that states “all prices correct April/May 2009″ means just that. All ship models with Sirmar fittings are now correct.

In the case of Sirmar the price of all fittings was increased by 25%. ,Some months later they reduced the price by 25%. The total sets of fittings are correct as of now. They won’t supply individual fittings, only packs.

Very soon I will be adjusting the individual prices of Precision Controls fittings and there will be a handling charge or minimum order cost. In the meantime anyone that wishes to order individual fittings will have to e-mail me and I will send them a PayPal invoice with the correct prices.

Fleetscale fittings - and that includes DS fittings have NOT increased in price and are correct throughout.

On another note if you do want to order individual fittings do not expect an instant response. It is time consuming and there are times when I am doing other things - like rebuilding/upgrading/fixing/ my computer and I may be away from the centre of things. I do have a spare computer so I can pick up important e-mails, like Netbanx orders but that’s about all I can do on that.

Here’s a pic of the Type 45 under construction using the ready moulded superstructure mouldings. They are not fixed in place at this stage but have been been loosely placed in position - not that accurately.

Barry Stevens, editor of Marine Modelling International visits Fleetscale and inspects the superstructure mouldings for Fleetscale’s model of HMS Daring, Type 45 destroyer.

UPDATE: ALL REGISTRATION AND PICTURE UPLOADING SUSPENDED.

The picture gallery was hacked into by some nasty person some months ago. I got it up and running again but was unable to find all the hacking code they had added.

This has resulted in a malfunction in the “register” as a member section. If you would like to register please send me an e-mail with your chosen user name and password and I will register you from admin.

Uploading your pictures also does not work.

We are now supplying the SM555 motor for use with our 1/128th and 1/96th scale hulls. This is a high quality industrial motor that would originally cost far more than what we are charging. We supply complete with universal coupling, motor mount and suppressors at £17.95

It’s all about torque really. The Torpedo 500 achieves it’s power by spinning at 13,000 rpm (no load) which is somewhat ridiculous when applied to a 1/128th scale HMS Hood with 4 driven props. The SM555 is a 5 pole motor drawing 1amp running on 9v-30v and will have the torque to drive upto a 40mm prop without thrashing the water like an egg beater. Scale speed, with more in reserve is what it’s about.

The superstructure mouldings for HMS Daring, Type 45, are now available and listed on the website page for Daring. The Bridge is yet to come but should be available in 2-3 weeks. Shown below is the Main Superstructure moulding and behind and smaller is the Main Mast Foundation.

Fleetscale are still selling hulls and plans at prices - in some cases - that were set 15 years ago. No, it’s OK we are not putting our prices up but some of our suppliers are.

Precision Controls fittings and Quaycraft prices went up by on average 15% recently and Sirmar but their prices up by 25% across the board. None of the pages in our catalogue show these increased prices so don’t rely on them if placing an order by snail mail.

So, the website should be upto date then? Well, not quite. Because our website is more detailed at the product level than most other shopping sites which use a bought off the shelf system, it is a long and tedious business updating every single page. You can see which one’s are bang upto date if you can find two asterisks on the bottom ” buy complete kit” line. If they are not there you can still place an online order but I will be asking you to pay the difference via a PayPal invoice. Yes, we do accept PayPal on ALL orders if required, just e-mail me. Pic below shows what you should be looking for.

The gallery has been largely cleaned of the virus. When I say largely I mean that it is ok for you to browse but when I go into admin to upload pics I get zapped by the virus. It is buried so deep into the system that I cannot  find it. That means I cannot upload any new pictures for the time being. I will perservere, and I will find it.

The picture gallery is being targeted by someone for some reason I know not. it will be back up as soon as I have fixed it.

The code that resulted in a re-direction to a website that immediately installed a fairly mild virus has been removed and the website is now almost fully functioning again in as much as you can browse the whole site but the order system has broken and online payments cannot be made. In the meantime if you would like to place an order send me an e-mail to ray(at)fleetscale.com with your requirements and I will send you a PayPal invoice which enables you to easily pay online with any credit/debit card.

Update: The payments system is now working. You can still pay by PayPal if required, just follow the instructions above.

Although I say it was a fairly mild virus it was alarming in it’s actions. The more dangerous malware would have been installed if anyone had clicked on the box that popped up saying your computer is infected. It immedially installs XP AntiSpyware 2009 which tells you if you run it that you have hundreds of rogue viruses on your computer. The only rogue virus at this stage is XP AntiSpyware 2009.

It then tells you that in order to remove them you have to buy the paid for version. If it is anything like AntiVirus XP 2008 you do not in fact get anything for your money. This is theft and is illegal but they get away with it anyway.

The main fleetscale website has been attacked by hackers today who have inserted a piece of code somewhere that will install malware on your computer.  Basically it will pop up a message saying your computer is infected. You will then be invited to download some software - at a price - that will remove trojans and malware from your computer.

 Do not fall for this, do not pay any money. it is doubtful that you will receive anything for your money. probably the only virus/malware you have got has been put there by this nasty piece of software.

It is easily removed by malwarebytes which you can download free of charge. I have removed it once today and once yesterday. The world wide web is full of criminals preying on the unwary and there may be many, many websites that have been infected in this way. As soon as I discovered the situation I disabled the fleetscale.co.uk website until it can be corrected.

Fleetscale have always concentrated on producing the finest quality hulls and fittings. How the modeller powered his model was something we assumed he would know best. That is not always the case, however, as there are new less experienced modellers  on the scene.

In addition to that if we are going to offer motors and running sets we want to make sure we can offer the best available for the model in hand.

To that end we have sourced some very high quality motors. The first of these is a motor especially suited to models with large propellors. Ships such as the Type 45 or the RMAS Roysterer tug. The Roysterer has a prop diameter of 70mm. No point in expecting a 500 series motor to turn that. The picture below shows the Buhler motor selected for this particular model with a 500 series motor in the foreground for size comparison.

The picture below shows the motor and the Roysterer prop and shaft

The current consumption of this highly efficient motor is in the order of 3 amps. maximum revs are 2,650rpm with a high torque output.

The Type 45 Running Set is now available price to be advised very shortly. All I can say is that the 60mm left and right handed props pictured below are to scale and beautifully made. In fact all our props are to scale for each ship in our range. They are made by Sitek and are the best. George Sitek took over the Radestock range of props. This quality does not come cheap and the props for the Type 45 will cost £50 a pair. They are worth it too.

Where appropriate fittings come ready assembled. First picture is Type 911 Tracker and below that the Signal Goalkeeper.

The Type 22 Super Semi Kit is now available for purchase online on the main Fleetscale site. Other ships that were not available for purchase online have now also been added. They are: HMS Grey Goose, Empress of Asia, HMS Liverpool with more to come, and many others have been upgraded as part of the project to provide a downloadable catalogue.

I have over 130 pics of the stages in building the type 22 in 1/72 scale. They will  become invaluable to those new or less experienced modellers who would like to build a modern warship. Now we are able to supply all the main superstructure parts there’s no excuse.

Have a look at the pics in our gallery . All 130 + pics will be uploaded in the next few days - it is time consuming so I can only tolerate doing a few at a time.

Accurate detail moulded into the deck parts

Superstructure parts laid out on the three part deck with lower bulkead moulding off the stern and helicopter superstructure assembly offset.

Centre Deck Section

But of course these parts are not sitting exactly where they should be in either height or lengthways but the pictures do give an indication of how building a Type22 is now much easier.