Hello,
I purchased this kit for myself for Fathers Day this past June. This is actually my first commercial kit to construct, as all others in my harbor were scratch built. Since retiring my Beaver Tug boat some time ago, actually, it got sent to the scrap heap, my harbor has been looking for a replacement. At 24" long, this fits well with the other models I have made. Also, my Admiral (wife) won't allow anything larger.

The kit comes with all the wood for the vessel, railing, metal stanchions, other cast metal details like horn, lights etc. What it does not include are the running gear parts including stuffing tubes, props shafts and rudders. I held off purchasing this additional kit because I had been gifted a Dumas Trojan some years ago. While the Trojan was not very well built, I was able to remove many of the running gear parts from it before sending it to the scrap heap.

As you can see from the pictures, I have already constructed the hull skeleton. The pieces are removed with ease from the die cutting. I did have to use a hobby knife on some of the more thinner frame pieces to avoid breaking them, but for the most part everything came out clean and with minimum cleanup.

As far as instructions, they seem to be lacking. There is a 33 step, 2 sheet written instruction sheet, a parts I.D. sheet, along with a full size drawing of the boat exterior showing locations of the hull and superstructure details. There isn't a lot of visual details, so you must read the instruction text, and figure it out for yourself. To Dumas' credit, they did make this disclaimer in their write-up that instructions are minimal, and recommended for more advanced modelers.

I am at the stage now, where I need to plank the hull. The planking comes in 4 - 1/16" plywood sheets cut to fit the curvature of the hull on each side. I have never planked a hull with plywood before, only with strip wood. The ply seems to be sort of stiff, and will not conform to the hull without some serious bending and clamping. I need to ask this question, or maybe search other build blogs as to how to best accomplish this task.

Can thin plywood be wetted, (or soaked) in water so that it becomes more plyable and easier to clamp while being glued? or will this just warp the hull once it dries back out!
Hopefully, I will find my answer after searching the blogs, or a fellow follower will provide the answer. 😊

That's all for now, hope you enjoy reading the blog.

Thank you all for the likes, as well as the link to the other build post with photos. I need to look at this on an actual computer rather than this cell phone screen when I get more time today.

Wow. eleven days goes by fast when you are having fun! First I want to thank BarryS for the
link to the other forum and build blogs. A Picture is worth a thousand words, and a hundred pictures even better!!!

After reading the forums and looking at the pictures, I gained the confidence that planking with plywood could be accomplished if I took my time and was careful. I initially thought about just carving the lower bow section from balsa, but decided to actually add some sheet balsa, gluing to the bottom of the stringer, and adding some sheet to the keel for gluing support.

Before gluing any of the planking, I clamped the initial bottom plank matching along the keel from the stern to bulkhead #3. With this fitted, I then marked along the top of the stinger inside the hull with a pencil to make the cut line for each piece. once cut and re-fitted to the hull, I glued each bottom plank starting from the stern and working to the number 5 bulkhead.
Once that had dried, I then glued and clamped both sides to attach Bulkheads 4 and 3.

Now the fun began.😐 The plywood needed to be formed more closely to fit the keel toward the bow. I carefully clipped away the ply with diagonal cutters on each side and smoothing with sandpaper until I got the desired fit on each side. Then glued both sides down, and held the foremost part of the bow with a well placed tie wrap.

The second sheet plank was done in a similar fashion, dry fitting the sheets with clamps, marking the stringer line, and cutting and sanding for a smooth fit before gluing in small steps from stern to bow.

This now completes steps 7 of 33 on the Dumas instructions.

Well I guess I'm getting better with posting sooner! The Admiral informed me that I needed to clean up the dry dock because we are expecting some upper brass (daughter) and a few V.I.P's (grandsons) later on this week, hence the urgency of getting this post out sooner.

After getting the first two sections of planks on the hull, the instructions switch to gluing the deck down onto the hull structure. In preparation, the small tabs on the bulkheads are cut and sanded to match the crown of the deck as seen in the first picture on the right side compared to the left. I marked with a pencil and then cut with a razor saw.
Since the deck is in four pieces, I placed the outer decking on the hull, and marked where the inside cutout for the inner deck would be, and made sure my glue didn't go past these marks. When the outer deck was dry, I cut most of the bulkheads through only leaving 2 on each side uncut so the inner deck could be glued. When that dried, I cut the remaining bulkheads to remove the inner deck with the bulkhead bracing glued to the bottom of the inner decking.

chugalone100 asked what glue I used. There is a picture of the brand which I have used for the past several builds with very good luck so far. My models are stored in the garage, which is not humidity controlled, in Southeast Texas as well ☀️🔥, and I haven't experienced any delamination of the glue on the previous models. This brand also has a level III glue in the green label which claims to be waterproof. I will switch to that when this runs out. The remaining pictures show adding the #4 planking on the sides and rear, as well as adding the #3 planking to the rear. The #3 side planking will need to wait until after the VIP's visit.

Well, starting back after the clean-up has taken awhile longer then expected. That, and the 47 days of triple digit heat in Southeast Texas hasn't helped, however I did manage to get the final planks installed and formed the solid balsa bow block. Since there is no sanding or painting inside, I had to sweat it out in the outdoor shed😴! Attaching the planks at the bow created a problem since no clamps were able to secure while the glue was setting. I therefore used brute force and secured the planks with a well placed screw or two into the balsa bow block. This worked quite nicely, and the screws came out without an issue.

The top of the deck is next on the agenda with the bulwark base and bulwarks. The stern has three sections which are glued together, and then filed to form a slope towards the rear. The wood material in the kit for these parts was not the best, and some of the pieces had to be glued back together, the die cutting process actually crushed the plywood. After assembly and forming the slope, it was glued to the stern of the boat along with the bulwark bases.

The bulwark nose block on the bow is formed out of a solid balsa block. The kit came with a pine block for the solid pieces, however I decided to go with the balsa for ease in cutting and shaping. I cut the long upright bulwark sides in half for better attachment. I also used super glue to get a quick hold since there was limited grip for clamps.

Once both bulwark sides were in place, I used painting tape to eyeball the slope between the stern bulwark and the bow. Then using a marker along the outer edge of the tape put a cut line. Using a very new and sharp x-acto blade, I carefully scored the lines edge to get a nice smooth groove, and with additional scores of the blade finally cutting through the plywood.

There are a few more odds and ends left for the upper deck, and then final filling and sanding.

I just posted her in my Harbor, so I guess I need to finish out the blog.

The last posting showed the hull completed and ready for paint. Finishing the superstructure was straight forward gluing up everything except for the very top plastic roof, where I installed magnets so that it could be removable, and a small video camera can be place within to give a captains view. The black cube within the cabin is the camera. Hopefully this will give some interesting video on the water.

Now the hard part, putting holes in the completed hull for the prop tubes!!! I soldered 5/16" brass tubes at the proper angle to flat brass plate and epoxied to the hull both inside and out.
The prop shafts are 1/4" stainless steel threaded for the props. I purchased 5/16" to 1/4" oil lite bushings for the water end, and at the motor end of the tubes installed ball bearings within. The prop shafts needed to be machined down slightly so that the ball bearings would slide onto them. There is a picture of my milling machine (drill press and file). Chuck in the shaft, and lightly hold a file against the shaft and a block of wood while the drill press is turning. Checking frequently for a perfect fit.

Installing electronics, motors, and wiring. I chose to operate the rudders using two smaller servos connected to the same channel via a "Y" connector, as there was no space for a larger one with the linkage to connect the rudders together. Seems to work well, at least in drydock.

Hand rails and upper pilot house details were part of the kit. All other detail parts, port holes, doors, fire hoses are from Harbor Models. The stairways between decks are scratch built using styrene bits.

I used rattle can primer paint on the inside and outside of the hull to seal the bare wood. I painted the color using acrylic hobby paint, and sealed with rattle can clear, giving it at least three separate coats for a good waterproof seal.

All in all it was a fun build, The quality of the wood within the Dumas kit was not optimum, but it was usable.

This past Memorial day weekend the Admiral an I went to the local park “duck pond” for the first outing with the Little Shelley Foss.

The Admiral insisted on a photo op with the tug in hand before its maiden voyage.

The tug run very well and I was quite pleased with the performance despite running into exposed logs, as the pond is shallow due to lack of rain the past few months!😎