I think I mentioned this model on another blog.And now it's become a Build Blog. So here we go. This model required a battery box, so I had to make some modifications.So a few cuts were required to find a spot for a 7.2-volt NMH battery so see some photos.

This might be my next Build. Note that the 3inch gun is positioned right above the toilet. Do you think they yell "CLEAR" down into the toilet. Do customers "evacuate" when it goes off? Do their toe nails scratch through the linoleum?

Hi I’ve just bought a secondhand model wooden boat looks like an aero kit sea scout 24.5 inches long it has a very old made in Japan electric motor it smells old inside the boat and the paint is heavily crazed .i would like to know my about it / age etc if anyone could help me before I restore it many thanks Kraig. it also has a manual brass rudder knob it the back

I mentioned in the Vic Smeed Vivacity forum I would do a few smaller builds while chugging through the Vivacity project; the first of these I have started (while waiting on certain components/materials for Vivacity), based on Glynn Guest's Knocker White tugboat plan from his book 'Small Radio Control Boats'. The Driving force behind choosing this particular design was the fact I had just filled my Backyard Model Boating Pond for the first time and sailed a couple of small free-running boats in it. I had already made Arcady and Bredette many years ago when they were first issued as free plans in Model Boats, so Knocker White was the next project from the book with the necessary compact dimensions to sail happily on my pond, the first of (hopefully) several small such boat projects. Here are the first stages of the build shown in the photos; 1) Paper template traced/assembled from the book - a little 'guestimation' was required as the plan was over two pages that didn't quite align... 2)Carcass pieces (deck, bottom, bulkheads, stem) marked out on 1/4" sheet 3)Carcass pieces cut out 4 & 5) carcass glued together, care taken to get as square as possible - note extra piece placed in stern to support rudder tube, making stern slightly deeper than original 6)Power train/RC components; Specktrum 410 RX, Ali Express 20A esc, RS 280 motor (was eventually replaced with an RS260 type when I clumsily broke off one of the contacts while trying to fit the battery), 100mm prop shaft/tube assembly with 25mm 3-blade prop. 7)Power train set up & tested on the bench to ensure everything worked 8)Prop tube skeg/support added 9)Prop tube epoxied in place, sandwiched between skeg support and lower skeg piece. 10)6mm ply motor mount glued into position after checking alignment. More pics and comments to follow soon, Best regards to all following this, Nick

Started the Runabout. Using my Lion Miter trimmer to cut the planks, and my block plane to trim to the chine. Then a sanding block for the final fit.

Back to the Dungeon (I like my Dungeon, very quiet) I started a new build, The Seguin. This will be a scratch build. I ordered plans from the Net. I picked the Seguin as it seemed straight forward and was designed for Steam. The keel has been laid. The Frames installed. The sub deck installed. The one by attached to the keel is to keep it from hogging. The build will be delayed, so I can process firewood for this winter. (Last Pic)

The VMW Marlin Cabin Cruiser by Robbob Preface. At the time of writing, I’ve had the construction of this boat on ‘the back burner’ since July 2022. By then I had spent about two months on and off constructing the boat to a stage where I could consider applying a glassfibre cloth and epoxy finish to the hull. However I couldn’t spend any more time on the Marlin project as I had a more important project to undertake, which was to paint, decorate, refurbish and prepare our house for sale so that we could downsize and move to a new area now that our kids had all fled the nest. Fast forward to today (mid-April 2025) and it’s taken a while to get the new house and gardens into shape and settle in, with the emphasis on converting my internal garage into a great new workshop, I can finally pick up from where I left off. Introduction to the kit. This new model is the latest undertaking by Vintage Model Works, now famous for their very popular models of the RAF Crash Rescue Tender and Thames River Police Boat kits which are based on old Aerokits and Veron designs. The Marlin is a re-working of an original Veron design by the late Phil Smith in 1953. His son Colin Smith, who was also responsible for the re-design of the Thames River Police Boat, has made some changes to his father’s design to take advantage of more modern materials and production methods such as CNC and laser cutting. The photograph below is of a prototype built by Colin Smith to give you an idea of how the boat looks in finished form. And there is also a review of the Marlin that appeared in Model Maker magazine, November 1953. The size remains at 36” and it employs the same construction method as the original. The spacious cabins of the boat makes it very easy to accommodate all the latest control hardware required, not that the original was lacking in that area even when the radio systems used valves and large batteries and the propulsion was usually IC or a large electric motor. Even the pre-production sample the Vintage Model Works kit supplied to me is well presented with a full size drawing including a pictorial construction sequence and separate pages of building instructions. All the required materials are supplied in quality ply, balsa, strip-wood and dowel including clear plastic sheets for the windscreens, and various white metal deck fittings. The builder is of course required to supply their own adhesives and paint of choice, as well as the propulsion, drive train and radio control gear. In the latter respect I will likely restrict control to throttle and rudder and not add any lighting or other features. That has already been done magnificently by Mike Turpin. Construction. As with the Thames river police boat, another Veron design, construction starts with the assembly of a box structure onto which formers and bulkheads are attached to make the basic hull shape. I will be tackling this in the first part of my build blog which I hope you will enjoy following and I encourage you to ask questions, leave comments and hopefully some ‘likes’ as I make progress. Robbob.

Model Expo has confirmed that production will soon begin on a new Midwest kit: the Fireboat, presented at a scale of 1/2" = 1 foot. To clarify, Model Expo has acquired the licensing rights from Midwest to produce all of their models. At the moment, they have 27 kits in production, with more on the way. I previously worked with Model Expo in customer service, answering model-building questions and handling replacement-part requests. Now, I am one of the model builders who assemble their prototypes—the models they intend to release to the public. With that being said, I invite all of you to follow along with this build. I introduced only a limited number of modifications—mostly to make the vessel more suitable for radio-control operation and to enhance its realism—while preserving the essential character of the original design. Many of you have probably built this classic kit before; however, this is my first time working with it. Please feel free to share your opinions and past experiences with this charming little model. History of the Fireboats This model represents a small fireboat equipped with twin monitors, a type of vessel historically stationed in nearly every major working harbor throughout the United States and abroad. Its configuration is based on a combination of plans and photographic references from several representative examples. Because of this, it serves as an accurate portrayal of the smaller fireboats—many of which are still in service in various ports today.

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.

Awaiting graphics to finish off THUNDER& METEOR so pulled this one off the shelf to resume the build. I’ll start at the beginning posting highlights so as not to take up too much time. Photo 1&2 One of the many real boats. These are iconic around Cape Cod, Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket, & other Atlantic bordering states. Photo 3 Starting the frame & keel.

For a bit of fun i decided to knock up another airboat for rescue and camera work. made from a $19 body board with a 3542 1000kv TGY outrunner running on a 4s Lipo, with a 10x6 pusher prop. Went fairly well on it's first test using only about 30% power, but needed some up thrust and rudder trim for much more throttle. Probably needs some small bottom strakes to limit the drifting tendency and make it easier to control, (did this with the first airboat which manages 30kph) Could quite easily run on 3s for more economy, as it planes very easily. I got 20mins almost continuous running at the speed in the video, (on 30%) which is more than adequate, as it would be just idling around for videos. Quick to make and lots of fun. Motor mount screws onto 4 -30mm dowels epoxied into the body board. JB https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBcKXAVqrEE

Starting the dig into the Ottawa Archives and The Great Lakes Museum in Kingston:

Saw this on my Facebook feed, and I'm a little bored, so I will try to convert one of my model boats to a deep-sea trawler. The first photo is mine. I need to rebuild the bridge layout & hopefully we will have a Trawler. To be continued, maybe.

Hi y’all. Since Dickey has maidened I decided I wanted to do one more project before I attempt to overhaul my garage workshop. I’m thinking I’ll be down a month or more if I get done what I want to get done. In that vein, I’ve decided to attempt another Springer tug. Some years ago I built one before I really had ballasting down right..she ran okay, but I kept messing around with the ballast, epoxying it in, and when I tried to remove it to make changes I severely damaged the hull. So, I removed all equipment, fittings, etc and scrapped the hull. I’ve been wanting another go at it, so I ordered the Zippkits tugster, just the kit no hardware, and started to lick my calf over (old country phrase for a “do-over”) I built the hull proper per the instructions, and that’s where that ends. I’m using a 4mm shaft, the smaller Robbe/Krick Kort nozzle, and a home made stuffing box. She will be powered by my fave working boat motor, the Zippkits 650 kv outrunner fed by 2 6 cell nimh in parallel. My stuffing box is made up of a thick wall brass tube that accepts a Traxxas 4mm i.d flanged oilite bushing. The bushing is tapped in with a hammer, and I use an old 4mm shaft to make sure the bushings stay aligned as I install the other bushing. The 1mm thick wall allows me to drill a hole the same size as the brass I’m using for an oiling tube. I’ll grind down the fitted end just a bit to get a decent, thight mechanical joint. That way when I silver solder it in place it stays put and is a good strong joint. The reason I’m so picky is that I use a mini grease gun from Horizon Hobbies, I can old it in place and pump, and I get just a wee bit of grease showing at the bushing under pressure, that way I know darn well it’s full. I used part of the keel parts to fit the tube, cutting it shorter to allow me to swing the Kort nozzle hard over to make it easier to change props without removing the Kort nozzle, depending on the size of the prop. I cut an oversized slot for the tube as I use solid couplers, and with the motor fitted I could get everything lined up and tack the tube in place with ca, that way I have no binding. I don’t like using universal joint couplers unless I really have to. I get my couplers from Servo City, as they are steel, use larger socket screws, and don’t have any runout. Very solid. The kit uses a radio plate to to mount the servo, receiver and esc. I cut that down and built up a servo mount, and it’s installed on the same bulkhead shown in the manual, but I mounted it to the fwd side vs the aft as in the instructions. My deck opening is going to be different. I’m using Dubro pushrods, but good old Amazon was out of the ones with metal quick links, so I ordered the ones with nylon. I dug thru my junk box of hardware that I have been collecting since 95 or so, and I found gold!! A few Dubro and Sullivan threaded metal clevises, and some solder clevises too. I mounted the servo, made sure everything worked correctly, then uninstalled everything and gave the inside of the bow and transom and the bottom of the hull a coat of 30 minute epoxy. That’s where she’s at now. I’m thing I’ll spray the rest of the inside of the hull with clear lacquer ro finish waterproofing, then I have to make a decision. I dont know if I need to glass this thing, or maybe glass the bottom and the just seal and paint the heck out of the sides, or….I’ve also heard that some people just epoxy coat the outer ull with thinned epoxy, then prime and paint. She’s gonn be a working boat, used as an emergency push boat when needed, so she needs to last…if I can get her ballasted properly this time, that is… Cash

While doing research for my Springer/Pusher tug I discovered these drawings David Metcalf’s Motorflot Pusher Tug and I had all the materials to build it so I put the other pusher I am building aside and started on this one. I am easily distracted All the hull parts have been cut out one after yesterdays power outage, I will stat the assembly today. Pictures to follow.

As I promised here is where I am with the build of my Veron Titan Tug

This is a classic wave master it was built in the fifty's a nd a internet buy I have stripped out the rc engine and its tanks now on the research stage there are a few issues rear end smack thats had a poor repair done and the spray rails do not fit well of its history I know nothing

The original shape LesRo Sportsman is a model that had eluded me for many years, but I always liked the look of it, so when one came up on eBay, I matched the opening price with my first bid, and ended up winning it as nobody else placed a bid. It could well be that everyone else was a lot wiser than me, but I have ended-up with it and it will be a long-term restoration project that will have to be fitted in-between a lot of other build/repair work that I already have stacked-up waiting for my attention. This boat came with a fitted glow-plug engine of unknown size or type, so the first job was to remove the engine, fuel tank and silencer etc to see just how bad and fuel soaked the inside of the hull was, and then try to work-out how to dry it out and make any repairs that may be needed. Bob.

This is a build of a HA-Kits Flying Christine II which is a model of the St. John's Ambulance service boat which is used to take patients from the Isle of Guernsey (UK) for treatment elsewhere - probably with more facilities! I'm getting my nearly twelve year old grandson to build it with just guidance from myself and I assisted with cutting of the tabs off the laser cut parts on the thicker plywood. We need to get the younger generation interested in our great hobby! The box contains all the plywood laser cut parts on varying thicknesses of plywood. In addition there is a bag of plastic window frames and plastic window inserts. There is no propeller shaft, rudder or other bits to complete the model. Construction so far seems to be fairly straight forward and it is something that my grandson is enjoying doing. It is the first model of any kind that he has built. As he doesn't live near us he is here for just 10 days and we hope to get it completed by the time he goes home. The kit says use thick and thin cyno or Aliphatic glue. I have chose to use Aliphatic so we don't get little fingers stuck together! It will be slower but hope to speed up the process by starting building the cabin whilst the hull is fully curing before adding the skins - the order laid out in the instruction. BEWARE when initially gluing both halves of the deck together it says you may strengthen the joint by gluing some scrap on the back of the joint. We unfortunately chose a piece about 2mm too long so later in the build it came into contact with one of the bulkheads - so we had to trim it back! The only other thing was the instructions didn't clearly mention gluing two of the cabin bulkheads together to make one. After a bit of thought and looking at the cabin layout it became obvious that C2 and C3 needed to be first glued together. Having said that when attaching to the cabin frame C3 follows C1 (as one part) and C2 is then before C4! Make sure you use plenty of masking tape to ensure that the cabin structure doesn't get glued onto the deck! See photos So this is where we are at the end of Day 2 - more to follow! Apologies in that the photos are not in the correct sequence!

Made up a few more things today, mainly the deck hold and tomorrow the hatches. I just wanted to say Spencer's pond is drained, but our stupid Canadian Geese still think there's still water in it. Let's hope they head South to some nice American weather

Bit of a late start to this, I was moving ok with this till I injured my left hand. (steam burn) Had the drawings for this and some parts cut for over a year now.. Finaly got things on the move.. messed up a few times due to issue with the drawing (frames off from one page to the next) maybe I didnt read em right ! but the drawing does say its semi scale .. Bit bigger in life tha I tought (small workspace) but should be ok.. Will post more as I get on with it.. using a lot of offcuts and scrap box wood in this..

When I first posted a thread under ... a dreamproject.. I didn't realize it was the wrong forum category. So here is my built blog. I will spare you the original introduction as I have made progress which and most of you are already familiar with my project. The hull was built merging 2 methods on a simple keel plate from plywood, bow and stern structure bread and butter and hull in between 3mm planks on frame. The entire main deck is intended to be removable with a drainage irrigation system of plastic corner moulding (from a building supplier) along top of hull and flush at poop and back deck structure. The deck is made of 1/4" plywood skeletal structure incorporating midship deckhouse. Hull glassed with lightest cloth available after 2 coats 2-epoxy sealer and paint primer followed by final coat except top (above waterline) grey will be applied once I have finished doing any necessary adjustments. There have been a lot of them since I realized many inaccuracies in dims etc. I wasn't happy with. Here are photos in the progress (some may have already been posted in the original post. More a bit later next week.

The comment was passed that there was not a warship in the club. Muggin's here decided to have a go. A Drawing was found by another member, I'll just call him TC. Having built this boat in the mid 1980's with a single screw, and a variable speed controller from a car, which gave FULL speed in reverse or the alternative was a Bob's Board, I hate them things, but they work, to a degree, if you match the motor Current to the model of board. This all drove a 540 motor, this was all in a balsa hull and upperworks/cabin. Its fate was a Viking funeral, not planned, the speed control must have overheated and it all caught fire, most sank, a few remnants surfaced but it was all scrap.. Anyway here we go again. Decided on a 6mm ply keel and Bulkheads and planked in 1/2" x 1/8" Balsa with a .8mm ply deck and upperworks, details probably in plasticard and wire.

Part 1 - 7 Pictures ... Made up a Spec for something light twin screw and not to big in length. Having built and sailed this model earlier about 2014 ish... with twin 777 Brushed drive motors, it's performance was in my opinion good. But decided to lengthen the hull from abt 30 inches to 36 inch, why, I dont know, just for a bit of fun and thought the earlier version looked a bit short and sweet, and the build would be in Balsa.. Some folks frown upon this timber but i love it, easy to work, cut and sand and if tissue covered will be quite strong. First set of pics show the drawing, Drafting Film/Tracing Paper and joining of three sheets of balsa to form the deck which are laid on Cling Film, good stuff this, a lot better than the old grease proof paper. 3 x 3" sheets of balsa were glued up together edgewise on.. To be continued -

I was given this Storm Glass for my 76th birthday last month, and to be honest , I am not too sure what to make of it? This storm glass came into use in the early 1700's when sailors attached it to the mast of their ships. How is works remains a mystery, but it is believed that electromagnetic changes associated with weather patterns activate the crystals. These changes produce different patterns in the crystals inside glass tube that can be interpreted to forecast weather conditions at sea. Has anyone else ever heard of the Fitzroy Star Glass or have any idea if it actually works - or is it just a piece of "nautical nonsense" ? Bob

Boat related in the loosest sense. Created from an old Wellington boot, a takeaway cover, some plaster, a plant saucer and a coat hanger. Don't think I'll be sailing this one but it'll give the neighbours something to talk about

Good morning everyone, this will be a slow build although looking forward to the challenge. Firstly though I'm needing some idea's/expertise at the start. This will be rc with 2 x motors plus of course rudder. The centre prop will be either fixed or free spinning. However, unfortunately when I opened the box I found that the "arms" for want of a better term which the port/starboard propellers are attached to are solid with a nipple on the end to afix the blades to being as this is intended to be a static build. Likewise the rudder, however with some patience I can cut out the fixed rudder and get this to operate with a servo. The issue is with the propellers , has anyone got any advice on this please. The only video I've seen on utube of a 1/400 scale Titanic shows the props in situ and working but didn't go into detail as to wether the "support arms" were hollow in the first place and tubes threaded through or they were solid as in this case and they had to be drilled out. Alternatively I could bypass and run an external tube but I believe this would look messy. Hopefully the photos will show you my quandary. Thanks in advance folks

After the success with the A class catamaran, (glass on foam) I was looking for something new to build using the same method. I've been wanting to do another model of one of my full sized boats, so thought the day sailer would be a good subject. Model is 1m long. Made a sandwich of 4 x 25mm foam sheets on the 5mm ply deck cutout, glued with foam safe contact spray. The area around the cockpit was only glued round the edges, as 2 sheet thicknesses had to be removed later. The big foam sandwich was shaped by eye with a Surform file when dry, using the laminate lines for reference. The full sized boat had been measured previously, and everything scaled 20%, and lines drawn on the foam as a guide also. Once I was happy with the shape (checked side to side with cardboard templates) I glassed the hull with epoxy resin and 5 oz cloth. I rolled on a thick layer of resin before the cloth, to help with filling the pores of the foam. Hull had 2 further coats of resin, sanded between coats, then another 2 with fairing powder mixed rolled on, the 2 more thick fairing mixes squeegeed on, (imperfections filled as well). Each coat was sanded back to eventually hide the weave and leave a smooth surface. LOTS of sanding !-orbital sander, finishing sander, block sanding etc and some Surforming of any high spots in the resin. Next job (yesterday and today) was clamping the hull to the bench for cutting out the cockpit, (clamps go under blocks with cutouts screwed to the bench with a cross bar for the deck, and hull on foam blocks) Cockpit was cut out using a jigsaw with a short medium blade, and finished to the lines by drum sanding and blocking. The deck and 1st lamination came away as one piece, and the second lamination was cut down to with an extended snapoff knife set to the depth, and then picked out easily in large pieces due to no glue in that area. Cockpit is now 50mm deep, with a nice flat bottom, ready to either epoxy thin ply round or glass it then lay ply. The deck will be glassed eventually as well. Centerboard case top will be routed out to drop a complete case unit through, (as I did with the cat) Transom is also 5mm ply, epoxied on before glassing, (which links its' edges to the hull, otherwise it would only be a foam strength joint) Next I'll have to knife some epoxy between the laminations on the centerboard case, as they obviously had no glue previously. the whole case will be ply sheeted and braced. I'll leave painting till last, as the hull will have a lot more done to it yet ) rub rail, coamings etc) This is where it's up to at the moment,- more to follow. See pics of the full size boat, and some of the detail I hope to add to the model. Boat was built in the 80s, took me a year to restore it, (including removing a full width outboard well.) JB

Hi everyone, this will be a log of me building a Tippecanoe T37 kit, the first build I have ever done. I'm already pretty far into the build by now, but I figured it would be nice to start a log in case anyone else wants some pictures of the build process. My first impressions with this kit are very impressive. The folks over at Tippecanoe look like they've done a great job of including everything you need to build a nice RC sailboat. I purchased the racing upgrade version and also got the mahogany veneer deck kit.

Hello all! Before my two week sojourn out to California starting tomorrow... Here she is, all 31 inches and 4.8 pounds of 3D printed 1/10th scale madness. And the questions are starting arise after more than a few hours spent in research. How to get her to plane even close to scale? 1) EDF? Probably not, actually I don't think even a 90mm fan, (which will, in fact, push a faomy jet) will ever get this boat to plane. 2) Prop? Maybe with dual 6s and a killer motor, monster cooling etc. But, nowhere near scale with a big prop hanging out the back. 3) Turbine? probably yes, but way out of my league in mechanicals and $$. There will be tons of head-scratching my quickly balding head on this experiment. This is going to go on the shelf for the long haul as my freighter needs finishing and the big Sterling Chris Craft Corvette is screaming at me. But, off to Cali for now...I will drop some pix from time to time of our travels. Best to all!