Making a bit of a start on my stretched Stiletto (more a Stilapier) at the moment, as it had been put aside while I had a play with a surface drive to fit to it, if I could get one working (see under surface drive experiment, in forum). I've shelved that idea till I can find a suitable universal for it, and have decided to use a modified cable drive instead (see under 'converting a cable drive to a standard drive', in forum) I wanted to settle on the drive type before starting fully, to make installation easier. The Stiletto has been stretched to 38 1/2" by blowing the A4 sized drawings up to AO paper size. I've left out the usual internal locking structure so as to create more room and ease of access to the internals, instead, the whole cabin will lift off, rather than a few 'lids'. All the new positions have been worked out using top and bottom datum lines (pic 1). The deck camber has been changed but the deck sheer left in. A few other mods will be made as things progress. I started by cutting out the keel, breast hook and new ply bulkheads, then cut the centers out of the bulkheads notched them for the stringers and reinforced them. I made a new universal building jig (under model framing jig, in forum) to hold everything in place, (right side up and upside down), and set everything up on it. Glued all the bulkheads bar the transom to the keel, (keel has shaft tube slot previously built in by cutting the keel on the appropriate angle, separating the 2 pieces by a shaft tube diam, trenching 2 side plates to suit the shaft tube angle and diam, and gluing/clamping them on using the building jig to hold them flat and straight. I've made a cut-out for the motor in bulkhead 3, and bent the cable drive to suit. A motor mounting plate will be made later. Cable drive will have a V brace made to suit once the angle has been sorted for prop clearance etc. Getting hard to find some modelling supplies (namely spruce strips for stringers and balsa) now so there might be some slow patches in the building.

Made the framed glass portion of the skylight. They're hinged so I can get a finger inside to flip the power switch on or off. They're made from clear plastic from some packaging, basswood, and brass wire.

My first official job, when I was 16, was working on the construction of the Baltimore Clipper schooner Pride of Baltimore. On my 21st birthday I reported on board as a member of the crew. After that I acquired the plans from Thomas Gilmer who designed the vessel, with the intent to build an RC model. After a false start then, I changed the scale and started again in September of 2010. The model represents the boat as she was when I was crewing aboard her in September-October 1981. I had a certification from the National Park Service to handle black powder cannon, so I was put in charge of Pride's guns which was handy when we went to the bicentennial of the Siege of Yorktown, what it really meant is I slept with 25pds of black powder at the foot on my bunk. I cooked right along with construction while also working on Constellation and starting a third model, until July of 2012. She was basically a static display model since then, with an attempt to work out her controls that didn't work out in 2015. Trying to set up her steering uncovered a design flaw that I resolved by moving the rudder servo forward. Life has a habit of getting in the way of my hobbies, and several changes in jobs and homes put a damper on all three models. She's pretty much just sat till now, going on display a few times, getting floated in a pool in 2019 and capsizing, which was a bit eerie considering the fate of the original. The model is 1:20 scale making her Hull length: 54" (137.16cm) Length on deck: 48" (121.9cm) Length on waterline w/o rudder: 46.75" (118.75cm) Length over the rig: 81.5" (207cm) Beam: 13.625" (34.6cm) Draft without ballast keel: 5.875" (14.9cm) Total height (top of jack-yard to bottom of keel): 61.6" (156.5cm) Total Sail area: 2,049.13 square inches in 7 sails as shown above, 2,205.13 with the flying jib. Her keel is plywood and she was planked with white pine strips over plywood forms, which were removed. The hull has a layer of 4oz glass cloth and poly resin outside, and several coats of just resin inside. As mentions she capsized in the pool when a slight gust caught her, despite being weighted to the waterline. She's designed to have a removable fin with a lead bulb making up most of her ballast, but that hasn't been made yet, so it wasn't fitted in the pool that day. Her lower masts are white pin made with the "birds-mouth" method so they're hollow and weigh next to nothing, but are strong. Sails are made of a Dupont cloth called Supplex which is a polyester that makes excellent sails. All lines will be nylon or polyester Dacron walked up from thread acquired from a sail-maker's supplier. All the sails have bolt-ropes hand-sewn on. There's no stitching to represent seams because I think it looks like crap, and it's a lot of work to do to ruin your sails. The seam lines on Pride are drawn on on with an .005 permanent marker. Originally her controls were going to be a Mega-arm sail servo and a winch servo, with the winch driving a loop. That was changed to two arm servo controlling my Semaphore-Sheeting system used successfully in Constellation for the over-lapping heads'ls. That wasn't going to work on Pride mostly because space limitations (vertically inside the hull). A friend recently launched his four foot schooner in which he used two winch-driven loops to control the sails. It's success, especially with the over-lapping jib, got me re-thinking Pride controls and reverting to the loop-sail-control system, with changes. So I'm working on the model again, this time removing everything inside the hull. I removed the motor and my homemade 1 inch prop because there's no way that little prop can over-power all that sail in the lightest of wind. The rudder servo will be moved aft of where the motor was and be accessible through the cabin hatch. One winch will be mounted where the motor was, under the engine hatch, just aft of the mainmast, and another winch will be mounted just aft of the foremast and be accessible through the main hatch. This is where things stand at the moment (June 25 2022). The pic with the gun is a 3D printed test of a gun for my Macedonian model (1:36 scale) which seems to be just right for the 1:20 scale Pride, which will benefit from 3D printing with guns, gunport lids, a much crisper name board on her stern, along with the Baltimore emblem that was back there. The last pic is the actual boat in the Pacific in 1982. I edited in the main tops'l to show the rig I plan to set. She also had a ringtail, stuns'ls, and a main topmast stays'l, none of which I plan to use. Hopefully, this approach to her controls will work out and I can actually get her sailing at last.

Hi y’all. So, the “Mystery” has maidened, and handled her sea trials with flying colors. My bench was busy the past couple of weeks with repair and minor restoration of our antique “Pom Pom” aluminum Christmas tree. We’ve had it since the 90s my wife found it at an antique store and brought it home. She still thought it was….errr…tacky, and that I was quite out of my mind, but once I had it up, trimmed, and the color wheel shining on it she changed her mind. It needed some sprucing up and minor repair to the branches, as the tape that holds the aluminum “leaves” was failing, so I used a little ca and almost as good as new!! Anyhow…I’ve been looking at the Aeronaut Pilot boat for a few years, finally pulled the trigger a few months ago. It’s a fairly well thought out kit. It’s a traditional built up hull, but all the frames, keels, etc are laser cut abs. It comes with that, hardware, metal etched parts, it’s nice. I was off today, so I started the hull. The kit comes with a precut cardboard jig for the hull, the frames have tabs and the jig is marked as to what frame goes where. Frame number 5 is also the motor mounts. The slots that are pre cut are a little too wide for a speed 400 or 28mm outrunner, but there were punch outs for the correct spacing, so I drilled those and marked them. You add the keel first, then the deck and chine stringers. The main “fun” was sheeting the hull with the precut abs sides and bottoms. The hardest part was getting the bow seam right. I tried to do it as the instructions stated, using tape to hol everything in place, but I finally had to do it by tacking the sides to the bow, bending and occasionally cursing till I got a good fit. The bottoms were just about as bad, but I got it done.The instructions do tell you to glue to the keel and stringers first, then the frames if they’re touching the sides, so I did that. There’s also use of copious amounts of Stabilit Express used to fill any gaps, etc. Thats next up. I plan to lay in some balsa for filler in places to sturdy up the hull, then I have to build the transom. Once that’s done I need to get a couple of 900 kv outrunners ordered, then I can start mounting the running gear. I plan to add lights, and this boat has provisions for a lot of lights. She’s going to take me a while to build…stay tuned!!

Can anyone help me with this issue please. Cabin cruiser 1m long; 4240 x 740 brushless motor; 5S lipo; 55mm prop. Cruised happily for 15 mins, then made noise (not dissimilar to slipping coupling) and powered down to a stop. Would then only creep along. On inspection found all three fuse holders and 25A fuses had melted, but fuses not blown. The motor was not hot, nor was the ESC. Out of water seemed to operate OK. It was suggested that the prop might be too large, and caused the motor to go out of sync after a while. So, what do you think might be happening ?

Hi all, I started a new build during Christmas and I'm just about ready to start painting the haul so I figured its a good time to get the build log going. I've had this kit for about a year now, purchased from Bauer in Germany along with with the recommended equipment including their Schottel Drive system. The plan is to have the two Schottel drives, a bow thruster, one working Anchor (possibly two in the future of off the same winch), a sound system, two working radars, working spot light with pivot in pitch and yaw, always on nav lights and interior lights, RC working main winch and manually operated bow and side winches, tow separate working fire monitors able to rotate individually, possibly a smoke generator and final an auto bilge system This comes to a total of 18 RC, unfortunately I only have 16 available so we will have to see what ends up in the ship. So far I have the drives and bow thruster all fit and ready for assembly. I then built up the frame work and made the holes for the fire pumps and bilge. then had to build the lower deck house so I could fit the deck in the right place on the ship. Once the deck was dry fit I cut the scuppers then glued the deck down. I then set to work making the deck splash proof by installing and extending the kits coaming. I also add a drop floor under the aft hatch that I'm hoping will allow me to keep the water that gets on the deck from leaking down into the haul. Now I've got the Bulwark stanchions and handrails just about complete. I also started work on some of the deck items as I need the locations to work out some of the modifications I'm working through. I hope to start painting the haul soon, I'm going to try brush painting this ship as I was able to find some nice paints at an Art supply store and I don't have much access to a place to spray paint in the winter. I do think I will spray on the primer first and hope it helps absorbed some of the brush marks.

Picked this up at our first scale meet of the season early April, too much going on at the moment, but eventually managed to start this evening. The kit is over 20yrs old, was started and then put on "hold" by the previous owner. Hull is already assembled as was the observation chamber which was situated at the bow. As this "lends " itself to being lit internally, I have removed the brass observation windows plus the one on the bow and then attached some clear acetate on the back of them to make this forward area watertight. The observation chamber now glued in place, spraying to be carried out once this is dry and the "windows " can then be reinstated. Going to be a long job but looking forward to the build.

I haven’t done anything on my builds since before last Christmas for various reasons but am looking forward to starting again in the next couple of weeks. I’ve been working on a number of builds for some years and not finished one yet! Main reason is that I reach a certain point, maybe something I’m hesitant about, and so start another! Which is the reason I’ve got five on the go. I’m building all the classic Faireys; Huntsman 28, Huntsman 31 and Swordsman 33 and a rarer Huntress 23 with a stern drive and longer cabin. Also a River Cruiser 23 (the one and only full-size build was a prototype was based on a modified Huntress hull but with more freeboard which disappeared) and I have the plans drawn up to start a Fisherman 27 motor sailer and a Faun 17 river/lake cruiser. All builds are at a scale of 1:12. The River Cruiser and Huntress are further on as they have had lake trials with the others being at the painting stage which I will be taking up again soon. I use a Hitec Flash 8 Tx and Rx’s and Hitec servos with Overlander brushless motors (even in my slower models) and HobbyWing Quicrun and Seaking ESC’s along with LiPo batteries though will probably use NiMh in the Fisherman and Faun.

So I recently obtained a partially built 1/16th Model Slipway Tamar lifeboat. This is my first build of a vessel this big having previously built an Aero-naut Mowe 2. It wont be a blow by blow account but I shall try to put fairly regular updates on my progress. If anyone can help with the correct size of lettering for the transom name and where I can obtain wheelhouse name plates from I would be very grateful.

I bought this kit about 10 years ago from a German model shop. It is definitely old-school, with great detailed plans, detailed stock list, but no instructions beyond a couple of paragraphs. I have not built a model in 20 years but was very active in my youth 50 years ago. I find that my skills have deteriorated and this will not be a great build, but it is enjoyable solving the problems and figuring out how to build this thing. It has a plastic hull, a very nice plastic fitting set, but the rest of the kit is wood, with many pieces which have to be cut from printed sheets. Luckily, I have access to a wood shop with jigsaw and sanders. I have fitted out the hull, added the motors, and started the superstructure. Stay tuned for further progress, I hope.

Has anybody built this recently? Just got the plans so any advice/help will be much appreciated. At 86 it's years since I built a model!!

Almost water ready, just the front railing to add and "bob's your uncle" Beautiful boat to build and an ideal scale to my mind. This is the James Bond boat as seen in "From Russia with Love" so lots of pictures on the internet for the finish detail. I'm usoing a simpke set uo of 600 brushed "can" style motor with 40amp ESC and a 7.2 v nimh battery and after the pond trials I'll let you know if that is powerful enough