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.

Hello, I've been given this ship and would like to refit and refloat her. I don't have any info on the ship but I plan to out fit with new parts mostly 3d printed. Would anyone have any info on the ship or maybe the time lines she represents, (1960s ?). Thanks for any info

Started on a 1m catamaran on the weekend as another design as you go project. It will be modelled roughly on the 18' Ron Given (NZ) designed 'Hustler MK2' 'A class' catamaran I restored in 1979, (pics) and so far it's progressing ok. Hull is from three 25mm strips of polystyrene laminated using foam safe contact spray. Laid the 2 blanks on a flat board with 2 4" nails through each to stop them moving, and weighted them down for a day to set. While waiting, I cut the decks from 5mm ply and shaped the bow sections. When the blanks were dry, I glued the decks on with lots of PVA glue, (which sticks foam well to wood,) and weighted them down with clamps sideways to stop them from moving. Left them for 2 days to set in my warm shed then gave the bows a rough shaping. Next was the fun part, shaping the hulls using a Surform file which creates a major mess with lots of vacuuming needed. The beauty of it is, is that the basic hulls were shaped and tapered (bow to stern) in about an hour. The laminating seams are used as a guide when shaping, plus eyeballing and straightedges. Today, while the deck sides were still parallel, I set the hulls up in the work table and routed out preliminary spaces through the deck for winch, rudder servo and radio. Tomorrow, I'll hopefully be routering a side taper to the decks, (hulls will taper bow to stern on bottom and sides) The hulls will then have to be refiled to the new shape. Shaping is done 90% with the Surform, then longboard sanded and hand sanded to the final shape, later to be completely sealed and glassed. Crossbeams are 12mm ally tube with orange conduit bored to a tight fit and epoxied to the ends, then steel saddles epoxied over them. The whole tube/saddle assemblies will also be drilled and screwed together to prevent any tendency to turn. Center beam will probably be a double like the 100% cat, (yet to be worked out). Would be nice if they could be made like the originals, but welding thin ally tube might not be feasible. JB

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!!

Bought this almost complete scratch built sprit sailing skiff for 50$. The person made every part following the instructions from a book. The model is 30” LOA with an 8” Beam. Came with mast, two rudders, one for display and one for sailing. Also two weighted hinged drop down centreboards, each a different weight. The builder had in mind to make it RC . It is white cedar and very light weight.

I bought this boat second hand about 15 months ago, built and supposedly ready for the water, but although the exterior looked good, the shafts were rusted into the shaft tubes. The model came with a transport/storage box and a display stand. I have discussed the model with Dave Metcalf (formerly of Model Slipway) and sent him some pictures and he has told me that it is one that he built - so this model is definitely worth returning to the water. Other than minor cosmetic issues, the prop shafts and tubes are the only issue. I have removed one without any collateral damage (not easy as DM had installed them very thoroughly!) and have made a start on the second. I now have to decide what to replace the shaft tubes with - the underwater fittings and the hole in the hull are for 8mm tubes, so my choice is limited. The de-luxe option is a pair of Raboesch prop shafts & tubes - but at a price - £120 for the pair, or I can use the simpler but equally sturdy tubes from Model Boat Bits, who have supplied the majority of the prop shaft assemblies in my other boats and all function well. The cost for a pair of these complete with oilers is £32.00 - quite a difference. As this is not a high powered or fast vessel, I am inclined to go for the latter option and save myself nearly £90 in the process. As a pensioner, I do not have unlimited funds available. Does anyone have any other opinions on my choice? It is a lovely model with an interesting provenance, but I suspect that the MBB shafts will be good enough - the model was originally fitted with similar shafts.

Hi y’all. Almost 8 years ago I posted a build log on RC Groups where I built and converted an IMEX Taurus Sport Fisherman into a police boat, simply by moving and using the windshield as a fairing, adding a light bar and police decals. It ran good, looked okay, and I gave it to my Daughter Grace who ran it twice and then it sat in my shop till a few months ago. I got it back in the water, and I was surprised at how well it ran and handled. To make a long story short, I received a Fiberglass hull for Vhristmas from Modelmast in Poland. It’s not a kit, nor is it a very popular subject, but I have to scratch build everything from the deck up including the build. I’ve done simple projects before with plasticard and wood, the most complex thing I’ve done was to build up a superstructure for my PT15 that went overboard on her maiden. I’ve decided that as a warm up, I’m gonna make the Taurus “Police” boat more…policey. First thing I did was to get rid of the rails, details, etc, in doing so I heard a crack. My glue joint was giving way!! Now, I do use a combo of filled epoxy and ca to build my boats, and I’ve never till this time have had an ABS joint come loose as long as I’ve scuffed the joint and used a good epoxy with a filler. Looking at the failed joint, I realized I used a “plastic epoxy” and upon further inspection I realized I hadn’t scuffed the joint at all!! I also remembered this boat was knocked Offaly branch during some moving around at least once. Anyway, I cleaned off the old glue, scuffed the joint and rebuked it. I’ll keep this as short as I can, cause it could get a little confusing. My goal is to make a more modern 2-4 person patrol boat. So I basically googled “police boat” and came up with a design in my head. Didn’t draw a blasted thing till I got to the cabin proper. Now, the original hatch is the entire superstructure, from just forward of the stern all the way to maybe 9 inches from the bow. I built a well deck aft over the rudder linkage using plastic for a bulkhead, some strip wood for support and reinforcement, and made up a hatch in the floor for rudder servo and linkage access. I then started to build my coaming, and halfway into it I realized it’s not going to look right, and my coaming is too short. So I got the Dremel and a cutoff wheel and went to town on the deck. I’ve been off all week, so 3 days later, I have a decently proportioned deck, sub deck/hatch and the start of a modern (to me at least) cabin. I’ll post pics, please be honest and tell me what you think. Remember her, this is NOT a scale boat, it’s the faul of my fevered imagination and Google.. Cash

I will, most likely, have to rename this Blog, at some point. In the mean time...please do not expect much for a while as she is in her very early stages. First a disclosure: This hull was built for me by another gentleman. It was delivered in a not quite completed state. Therefore I have spent the last two month working on it to get to it's present state. So.. what is it? She is one of four ships in a class that was later enlarged to around eight maybe ten members of the class. Her main armament was eight 5"/38 caliber twin turrets. She and her class namesake sister were both lost during the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal. This ship is most noted due to the loss of an entire generation of one family, five brothers. This should be enough for identification. She is being built in my preferred scale, 1/48th or 1/4"=1'. This ship was used for numerous camouflage scheme experiments and, sadly, there is little definitive documentation to pinpoint her second to last and last schemes carried. That said, my plan, subject to change without notice or reason, is to present her as she appeared following her New York Navy Yard overhaul, or perhaps as she may have appeared after repainting in Placentia Bay NewFoundland, 1942. She measures out to 11' 3" and her power plant is to be two 24 volt Buehler motors. Pictures of her and the build to follow. Wish me luck please, she will not fit in my van....

Based loosely on a couple of photos taken in Dover Harbour, Jack D was scratchbuilt with ply hull,and 3D printed deck and wheelhouse by my lad, neilw .Many accessories have also been produced by him as well as installing twin motors and rudders. At 1:16 scale,Ive fitted out the wheelhouse and built the rc controlled crane which Will eventually launch a small recoverable USV also R/c Still some detailing to complete before lake trials in late March

This is a 26 1/2” version of the Gary Webb design from bearospaceindustry.com Gary’s Emma is a sprit rig double end sloop which has a world-wide following. I built my full size Emma from Gary’s plans. The Emma Jr is also based on those plans of the frames and hull. I made changes to the design by altering the access to the servos. Emma Jr could have remained the same as her big sister but I didn’t. Gary is being kept informed of the build and he often has made positive comments along the way. Emma Jr is being designed to be sailed in shallow city reflection pools with water depth between 5-6 inches. Her beam is 8”; mast 24”, main boom 12” and jib boom 4 1/2”. I am using the sprit rig as Emma Sr is using. Emma Senior seen here in blue Emma Jr is not painted yet

Picked up a nicely laid up glass hull of the Smit NEDERLAND. Spoiler alert; it won’t be the NEDERLAND.

Happy Groundhog Day fellow model boaters. Seemed like a good day to start a build blog after the weather we have been having here in SE Texas. From hurricanes to snow fall, now nice sunny temps in the 70's. I asked my grandson earlier this summer what boat would he want me to build next. Without hesitation, he said a cargo ship showing me a picture of a Maresk Lines container ship in a children's picture book. I thought about this one for several weeks wondering how to build a realistic replica of something that large. My dry dock isn't very big, and the Admiral frowns on large models. One morning at breakfast I was peeling my banana, and I realize the perfect boat. A quick google search verified my thinking of the perfect cargo ship. I have lived in this area all my life, and my first job was in the small gulf port town of Freeport, Texas. In the early 80's it basically only served the shrimp boat operators and commercial fishermen as well as a few cargo ships for Dow Chemical and the like. The size does not compare to the Port of Houston or even Galveston. However, in the 90's the Dole Fruit Company started operations delivering containers of tropical fruit for distribution to the US. At that time I was commuting to Houston for work, and would see the Dole container trucks on the road and would chuckle to myself "must be a banana boat in port! The Dole company just celebrated 30 years of service in Freeport, and in 2023 launched two sister container ships, the Aztec and Maya, specifically for the Gulf of Mexico deliveries. These are smaller ships which I estimate carry only about 500 containers. Since I could not find any plans on the internet for a smaller container ship, I decided to make my own. From pictures of the Aztec, I free handed a graph paper drawing of what I intended to build, and when satisfied, I produced a CAD version in Autosketch. The attached pictures are of the Aztec in port at Gulfport MS.. The Maya being built in drydock. My hand drawn rendering on graph paper, and a .PDF of the cad version with bulkhead detail. The model ship will be about 26.5 inches long with a width of about 4.5". I plan to have a brushless motor driving a 1 inch 5 bladed brass prop. Chris

This will be my first boat build at this scale, so who knows how it will turn out. I got a set of Vic Smeed's plans from Sarik Hobbies along with their wood packs for the model - I thought having some laser cut parts might be helpful. I grew up in Alness, so if the build goes well I'll probably paint it as 2757 which was based at 1100 MCU Alness/Invergordon in the late 1950's to early 1960's.

Was given the Occre kit of the “Ulises” ocean going tug for Christmas. Started the build this weekend but I reckon it is going to be a bit of a drawn-out build for a while as I have a lot going on with work and other things. I will gradually add photos of my progress… Re comment about kit suppliedpropshaft - I agree, I didn’t like the look of that one in the kit so I cut down an old one I had from something else, put the bearing back in with the addition of a touch of solder To make sure it stayed there and I added the oiler tube as well by soldering that on.

I am having problems following bulkhead curves with 5mm planks in stern area of this boat. Any suggestions?

This model was part of the yard sale find .There was a lot of parts missing but kit box had diagrams & missing parts still had cut out's so I could trace & cut parts needed.

Thirty plus years ago I built a British Power Boats co. Motor Gun Boat from the Dean's Marine kit, and sailed it all around the south of England at various shows. I sadly sold it when I was moving abroad, but never forgot the great little boat. Last December, I was shown a Dean's 63ft ASR (same hull as the MGB both in model and full size versions) which the oxford model boat club was selling as it had been donated in order to help the club raise funds. The motor (540), ESC and rudder servo plus Tx & Rx were removed by another member of the club and a little money changed hands. Got it home, and started working on it. Obviously, I needed to replace the drive and radio components, as the prop shaft and stern tube simply fell out when I picked it up - I think it was held in mainly by the motor coupling! The coaming around the deck edge had definitely seen better days and was held together but patches of plasticard. I moved the entire coaming and replaced it, with a light wooden strip to help it sit against the edge of the deck. I then turned my attention to the stern tube. I had a spare of the same size (bought a while ago from Steve at Model Boat Bits) and set about removing the mass of filler that was intended to hold it in place. Once the filler was removed, a rather large hole was revealed. At this point, I visited Dean's Marine for their Christmas open day and bought a second MGB kit, as I still wanted to replace my old one and also because the dimensions for mounting the prop shaft, etc. were the same for both the MGB & the ASR. I have followed Ron Dean's advice and added an inner stern tube support as a precaution. Just a piece of 1/8th ply held in place with microballons and cyano. Two months or so later, I now have the ASR hull ready for the final placement of the battery tray & radio gear, which shouldn't take long. I will then make a start on its sibling the MGB.

Forgot I had the Optimist to re-do so I'll do a short blog on what I'm doing. I had already re-fitted the stays with solid stainless fishing trace as the original wound wire stays had frayed and had nasty sticky out bits. I had also re-joined the cabin roof which I had cut behind the mast for R/C and battery access (once assembled the model had no access to the interior and involved removing all the stays sheets and mast to get at anything,- about 10 mins work!) Now with long lasting LiPos there will be no need to remove the top for the whole day. I have two 'El Cheapo' winches to fit,- one for the jib and one for the main. Not sure how long they will last as they won't even center properly and sit there and hum most of the time. The alternative is a very expensive modern winch, around $600 or maybe a winch servo arm type, (still quite expensive). I have ripped the rudder and shaft out as it had completely seized up over the last 40 years and was spinning in the hull, (having broken the epoxy) I've made a new shaft and bushes to go back in, and will be adding a lower (skeg) and upper (deck) bush as the original had none and just sat in a hole in the ABS skeg, and the shaft tube was just held by 2 ply wedges to the inside of the hull. I am strengthening all this up, and the top bush will now support the shaft where it comes through the deck to stop any flex in the ABS. It was a very nicely made model in its day but ABS was the wrong material to make it out of, considering the weight of the keel required. If you pick the model up on its side, the hull flexes, so I might glass the inside for a bit more strength as it's getting old and probably a bit brittle in that area, (as long as polyester resin won't distort the hull) The rudder shaft goes through the deck, through the shaft tube and into a brass tube which is epoxied into the rudder blade, and through to the bottom bush of the skeg. The shaft and blade tube are drilled through before the blade tube is epoxied in place. Shaft and rudder blade are then assembled as one unit into the hull ( shaft going through everything) with all the bushes epoxied in at the same time to line them up The shaft and blade are then pinned in place through the pre drilled holes. This time I'll fill everything with grease to hopefully stop it seizing again. Might use a small stainless split pin to lock the blade and shaft as it might be easier to remove. This design also was not a brilliant way of doing the rudder, and prone to corrosion inside the blade tube. I have also re modeled my modelling room as a complete area, (was getting sick of working between rooms. Have put both 6ft tables in so now have more 'bench space'. Now to get rid of some planes!

I've been into the Hornblower series of books since elementary school, but it was C.S.Forester's The Captain From Connecticut that lead me to Horry. The first story published has Hornblower in command of the 32 gun frigate Lydia. I've always wanted to build a model of Lydia, but, of course, there were no kits or plans to be had. My friend and I have a 16 foot Windsprite daysailer, hull #1 of 16 built, which we named Lydia. In the picture, the 20-something girl in the 40 year old boat is also named Lydia. After starting on Constellation, i was thinking of donating or selling that model, so I wanted to build and RC square-rigger I would keep. Lydia came to mind again, but I what plan to use for a fictional ship? I decided on a British frigate and since the lines for one were in Chapelle's History of the American Sailing Navy, and getting a copy would cost under $10 US, so that's the boat I went for; HMS Macedonian of 38 guns. At 1:36 scale (like my Constellation) she would measure... Beam: 13-1/2" (34.3cm) Length on spar deck: 55" (140cm) Length of the hull: 59" (150cm) Length over the rig: 85-3/4" (218cmcm) Draft: 6.7" (17cm) w/o ballast keel, 10.2" (26cm) w/ballast keel Making her a little smaller than "Stella." Later, after I'd already built the hull, I found out Lydia, of the novels, was based on the Perseverance class of frigates. One of the pics attached shows the profile of the Perseverance in front of that of the Lively class showing how small she would have been by comparison. Actually, if I had built Macedonian at 1:48 scale (which is what the plans were) she would have been very near this size. Anyway, what's done is done, and while I don't have the ship of my fictional hero, I have a ship that was one of 16 ships built to that class. Built at Woolwich Dockyards, England, in 1809, and launched on 2 June 1810. In October of 1812 she encountered, fought, and was captured by the American frigate United States. Captain Decatur of the United States was intent on preserving his battered prize, and after two weeks floating in the Atlantic, she was repaired enough to sail to the US. She was officially taken in to the American Navy in April 1813, though she spent the remainder of the War of 1812 blockaded in the Thames River in Connecticut with United States. She was decommissioned near the end of 1828, and broken up at Gosport (Norfolk Virginia) While not a glorious history, full of battles, the Lively Class did have great histories in battle; Lively, Resistance, Apollo, Hussar, Statira, Horatio, Spartan, Undaunted, Menelaus, Nisus, Crescent, Bacchante, Nymphe, Sirius, and Laurel. Ships that fough at Lissa, Naples, intercepting the Spanish Treasure ships, and more. My model is a representative of a great class of frigates of the Napoleonic Wars, even if it isn't HMS Lydia.

Following the build of my BYMS and the restoration of my Zambezi River Gunboat sternwheeler I was looking for a new build. Obviously have been aware of the PS Medway Queen so the next project had to combine paddle wheels with minesweeping so HMS Medway Queen is now in build. I bought a 3D printer in the summer and have had lots of fun printing various trimarans, an air boat and a pontoon boat along with a rock crawler, trailers and a range of model boat fittings. The plan is to scratch build the hull and print the paddle wheels and as many fittings as possible. I bought a set of modellers plans from the Medway Queen Preservation Society a few months ago and found that some of the dimensions were getting to be unreadable as the plans have been copied many times, this was a major issue with the paddle wheel plans as I couldn't read the dimensions for the wheel diameter and eccentric diameter. After emailing the society to see if they had a better copy they mentioned they had all the original plans in their archive and I was welcome to inspect and photograph anything I needed. We were on holiday in Kent in September so added to trip to the Medway Queen and had a great day on board and examining the plans, highly recommend a trip to see her - details at https://www.medwayqueen.co.uk/ Back home I decided that 1:48 would be an ideal scale, giving me a model that will 1.18m (3' 10.5") long and big enough to 3D print most of the fittings. The plans do give enough detail when scaled to 1:48 so I produced a set of 20 body sections that were scaled and printed on orange card, transferred to 3.5mm ply and the full set of sections mounted to the build board. Currently about half the hull is planked and as I've run out of timber I've used the time to sort the feathering paddle wheels. Had to make a decision to lose some historical accuracy as the Medway Queen has 7 floats on each paddle wheel whereas mine have 8. It's so much easier to work in segments of 45 degrees than the 51.4286 degrees required for authenticity. I'll make the paddle fascias removable so I can change to a 7 float version at a later date. The paddle wheels have been tested on the bench and do feather when under load after a bit of tweaking to remove friction in the floats and eccentric rods and hub. Just waiting for more timber to arrive this week so I'll finish the planking, fair the hull and cover with epoxy and cloth. Should keep me busy for a few months!

Long time ago I built this sailboat - the real one was the winner of the Admirals Cup in 1973 together with "RUBIN" and "CARINA 3". I still enjoy the model after all these years. The only problem is: the nearest place to sail is about 30 km away.

Good day to you all. You may recall a number of comments being made and asked about model engineering lathes, I think it was late last year 2024. I said when I get time I will put something together so here it is. I have a Myford Super 7 and I think it was built in 1952. Myford have the information, so if you know the serial number, you can easily trace it. It has been used and has a couple of dongs here and there but is still very accurate and parts off like a dream, using HSS. Due to its size it would struggle with carbide. These lathes have bronze split bearings in the headstock which makes them very rigid which reflect in the machining ability of the lathe. Lathes with roller bearings in the headstock tend to lack the same stability, hence the issues with part off. I machined 4 sets of bevel gears out of ali-bronze for the steering mechanism on the William C Daldy (old steam tug here in Auckland, google daldy.com) with a bore of 1-1/4 inches finished true and parallel. The OD of the gears was close to 3.5 inches. The lathe handled the job well and it took me 40 hours to machine all 8 pieces. I also made myself a fixed steady out of 6061 aluminiun, which you can see from the pictures. The OD was too large to fit over the saddle so I had to use a boring bar to turn and part off, from the ID and OD. I can highly recommend a Myford machine as they are excellent quality, but as anything which is good quality you pay for it. I had to make a 21 tooth gear for a special thread so I turned the blank up and hand cut the teeth. It did the job perfectly. If you have any questions please add to the conversation. Cheers Ian and happy modelling.

And another project to work on. I have a scratch built "frigate " which I tried experimenting on with dazzle camouflage. Mainly constructed from balsa for the hull and superstructure made from odds and ends in the world renowned "spares box " . All worked as only a very simple 2 channel set up. I also have a French built model which I'd bought for the grand sum of £5.00. A nice little runner, unfortunately the deck never really fitted that well and continually leaked resulting in it becoming an impromptu submarine after getting swamped at the lake. As soon as it was rescued from the depths of the lake, and dried out, I had tried to reseal but unfortunately it's never been truly resolved. So with this in mind plus needing a bit of shelf space, I decided that I will combine the 2. Going to be a fun project. The aim will be to basically use the hull of the frigate as this is definitely watertight and transfer the superstructure of the "submarine" . The hull being balsa will also be lighter so when completed I should also have a nice turn of speed

The parts have arrived, let the build commence

As promised, attached are a series of photos showing the build of Thunderbolt. Its about a 1/10 scale size taken off the original plans used to build the full size which we did back in the sixties. I have included some photos of the full size version, but sadly over time, they have deteriorated slightly so the clarity is not 100%. I have a few issues getting the balance right so it will get up on the plane. Reluctantly I have removed the V drive with the electric motor now driving directly onto the shaft but as yet I haven't tested it. The dummy engine is close to the scale size of the boat so I was lucky to find it. If you go the Glen L's website and search under Gallery (I think it is) Thunderboat, you will find more photos I uploaded of the build etc. Anyway I hope you enjoy the photos as I got quite a kick out of building it. I notice the photos haven't come out in the order I wanted but they are all titled so I am sure you will follow OK. Cheers and keep modelling. Ian

This is going to be a long project, never attempted anything smaller than 1:30, so a 1:48 project is going to be fun. It all started with me finding a copy of Eric Minett's book 'The Coast is Clear: The Story of the BYMS' in a local charity shop. I'd never heard of the British Yard Minesweeper (BYMS) but on reading the book found it very interesting, especially the mine sweeping ahead of the D-Day landings. I posted about the book on here and nickthesteam very kindly offered me a Sirmar hull, all the plans and some fittings. I've just finished my last large build, the RAF Crash Tender (just waiting for the last few fittings to arrive then I'll get some pics and video of her afloat), so the BYMS came to the top of the project list. I'd contacted Barry at Sirmar and bought some more fittings and spent a while collecting props, shafts, motors, rudders etc. I've also been doing a fair bit of research into the BYMS and decided I want to build one that has some sort of local connection. As I'm originally from the East Coast of the UK with family links to the Lowestoft area I found that Minesweeping Flotilla 163 was based at Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth in 1943 and the ships of this flotilla were BYMS 2036, 2040, 2057, 2079, 2080, 2161, 2167, 2194. Additionally 2079 was one of the first ships in the D-Day Landings and has a very interesting history, so the decision was made to build a model of 2079. The first stage of model building is complete, knowing what will be built! My purchases included a set of three plans 1 x 1:48 detailed drawing of BYMS 2172 (previously designated as J972 and YMS 172)/BYMS 2253 (previously designated as known YMS 253) 2 x non-scale drawings of the YMS 419. These are very detailed and heavily annotated. In theory there should be little difference between the American YMS and the BYMS as they were all made in the same shipyards, however I have discovered an issue in both the drawings and the hull moulding. All the drawings show the topsides end some distance before the transom and that the topsides for BYMS 2253 finish further forward than for other vessels. The hull moulding has the top sides ending before the transom, however various photographs of the majesty of BYMS show the topsides continuing to the transom (including those of BYMS 2079). I suspect the America BYS had the topsides stopping before the transom, BYMS 2253 has them set further forward but the majority of BYMS had the topsides continue to the transom. The Simar moulding would be fine I was to build a model of BYMS 2172 or BYMS 2253, but as this will be 2079 some additional material will be required. So, a little bit of topside lengthening is required before the first major job of cutting the scuppers. I'll fit the rudders, shafts and motors first. Can't seeing this being a quick build but I'll update as and when progress is made.

Good evening all, I have decided ti make a start on a project of a passenger boat MS Oldenburg that operates closely to where I live (Bristol channel) and is currently moored in sharpness dry dock just across the river from me in the Forest of Dean, for winter maintenance and refit! Feel free to follow along. I shall be heading to the local hobby shop this week to gather materials and supplies. Ile keep you all updated as I progress. Hope you like the build. Skippy

Hi y’all. Since I’ve maidened the Pilot, I found myself with an empty workbench. I really like to build, as my building time seems to help me focus on other things in my life, family, work, etc. Calms my mind, I think…so I decided to build something a little smaller. I had a Dumas ST74 kit that I received Christmas 2 years ago, so I decided that would be my next build. It looks relatively simple, but that can be deceiving… So, the ST74 is typical of the newer Dumas kits. Nicely laser cut wood, expanded PVC sheet, styrene hull and molded parts, some fittings, strip and wire. You also get a full size plan view, written instructions and a booklet of illustrated building steps. The hull is a 2 piece affair, and both halves matched up well. First thing one does is to build the simple stand, built up of what looks like 3-4 mm expanded PVC die cut parts. You could use this as a permanent stand, but I’ll build something better once the boat nears completion, as it’s really designed to be just a cradle to build on. Like my Whitehall I built a few years ago, the hull is constructed from 2 halves, glued together and the joint reinforced with fiberglass tape flooded with thin CA. Thankfully this hull is a little thicker material than the Whitehall. Then it’s a relatively simple task to install the stuffing tube, rudder tube, deck and a 3/16th keel which covers the hull joint from the knuckle of the aft hull forward and up the bow. Now, this boat is supplied with a nicely made 1/8 inch diameter shaft and matching stuffing tube, but since I have quite a few 4mm props, I elected to set the tug up with a 4mm shaft and tube. I had a very long Caldercraft Fineline unit that I cut down, and used the cut ends bushing to mate with the tube. Once I had it freed, I pressed it in place and used the shaft to finalize alignment the soldered it to make sure it wouldn’t work loose. Now, this boat is designed for a 400 size motor and 4.8 volts for power. That is not how mine will be powered. I’m using the same Zippkits 36mm 650KV motor that I’ve used in boats from my Taucher Wulf down to my little Kragle. My reasoning is that this motor is deigned for tugs using 6-7.4 volts, and the tugs gonna need ballast anyway. Also, I’m not using the little white nylon prop that Dumas has been using in their smaller kits for years, as I’m running a slightly bigger 3 blade Graupner prop. Now, changing motors from design necessitated a different mount. I usually do a bulkhead style mount, and screw the motor in place thru th pe bulkhead, but this time I used the supplied cross mount. I had to Dremel off one of the legs so it would clear the hull bottom, then screwed it to the motor, and used socket headed sheet metal screws to attach the assembly to the mount. This gives me more room to make removing the motor a little easier. That’s where im at now. I also built up the rudder using 1/16 ply vs the 1mm styrene in the kit. Next up is the front bumper and rub rails, then I can start on the deck coming and bulwark rails. Cash

Hi everyone. Back with a new build. I figured that I would use the hull I have laying around (from a Graupner Commodore) to build the boat I enjoyed as a kid. Our family boat that was a kit boat built by my father in the early 60's in the Yukon. She is a Glen -L Marine design called the "Gung Ho' She is 28' in length. My fathers boat was powered by twin Grey Marine Fireball V8's. That is me as a boy sitting on her bow on the lakes in the Yukon. Then in Prince Rupert, BC at the yacht club. Following are her study drawings. Our boat was not build exactly the same you may notice. More to come of course. Will be working on setting the hull up for twin rudders, etc. I will resin the cabin when the weather allows. Then build the upper windscreen and roof. Of course work on the interior of the aft cockpit as well. cheers and welcome to 2025.

Pert was a Robust Class Royal Navy tug that served in both World Wars in several ports along England's southern coast and flew the Blue Ensign. She was constructed by J Thornycroft and commissioned in 1916 then broken up in 1962. During both wars she carried a Navy QF HA 12 pounder gun which was promptly removed at the end of hostilities both times. Her paddles were independent, driven by two double acting steam engines generating 1000 ihp each. She was 178 feet overall, 36 foot beam, 56 feet across paddle boxes, drew 12 ft of water and displaced 1023 tons. My scratch built pond model of Pert was started in September this year. She is 47 inches loa, displaces 40 lbs, is "stand-off scale" at 1:48 and is radio controlled. Her hull was assembled from one inch thick polystyrene in the bread and butter method then carved and "rasped" to shape. The finished hull was sheathed in grocery store flyers and a water based varnish then painted with ordinary indoor/outdoor paint. Most of the deck is glued up or soldered from cardstock, foamcore, spruce and brass wire. The paddle drive motors were purchased from an auto surplus store and were initially designed for window openers . They turn at 180 rpm and draw 2Amps when loaded. Although I own two Spectrum transmitters, Spectrum does not sell a an ESC capable of driving a 12Vdc brushed motor so I elected to buy from a newish RC manufacturer, Radiolink which had the system and parts at a reasonable cost. We shall see how that turns out. The paddles themselves are the simplest design I could build and for that I make no apologies since only a vary narrow part of the paddle is visible when in operation. As I said, stand-off scale Resources were mainly a precious few photos but I chanced on four thumbnails at the National Maritime museum in Greenwich and these have proved invaluable. Additional information is apparently available in the reading room but this requires either personal, or hired researcher, attendance. At present she rests on a drydock module on my Scale 7 (7mm to the foot) model railway but once spring is here I will trim her out at the pond. After a three month build, and almost finished on the build, I broke down and bought the four plans sheets from the museum print service. Cost me more than the entire build! But I have decided to build her again, this time more accurately and build those paddles out of brass. 1. (The paddle motors are in stock (2024Dec29) $10 each at Princess Auto, London, Ontario SKU:9102179) The photo below shows a number of 12Vdc geared surplus motors and other goodies like 12Vdc windshield pump motors for draining our ship's bilge. 2. (The paddle motors are surplus stock intended for auto side widows but are only one hand, as in left and right. Flipping it over to drive the other paddle would cause the gear box to to be high. I had to disassemble one of them to make it right handed or LH depending on your POV and had to remove a plastic keying notch) 3.(The motor gearbox has a long steel square threaded shaft protruding about 4 inches on which it was easy to mount a 2inch length of wood dowel) 4.( The complexity of the paddle is fake ... so many projects so little time. The Westbury Feathering Paddle Wheel from Model Engineer is so appealing but it's a hobby in it's own right. I copied the illustration by JDW and pasted it to my paddles ... sketchy, eh? ) 5.The motors are intended for a duty cycle of about 50% which is 5 minutes on, 5 minutes off. After 30 minutes of running they get quite warm, not enough to boil water but a little uncomfortable to hold. All the same, I get easily bored after 30 minutes driving around the pond.