Since completing this model have started work on a new boat and I promised those following my Crash Tender build blog that I would post an update here.

The new model is a ‘Thames River Police Launch’ constructed from a kit by Vintage Model Works.

The new blog is here:

builds/view/47891

It’s been a while since the boat had it’s maiden voyage on the lake at St. Albans and I’m pleased to report that it looks really good in the water and goes like stink if you open up the throttle.

Sadly I still don’t have any decent video of the boat yet as I can’t film and drive the thing at the same time, but I do have some static wide shots from my GoPro.

When I do the video I’ll ask a cameraman mate to do the honours, maybe I’ll put the GoPro on the bow and then the stern to get some low action shots…the storyboard is already building in my head!!

These early runs were great as they showed up some minor problems that needed attending to.
I found that it needed ballasting slightly as it was not sitting on the waterline evenly from side to side so I flattened out some old lead water pipe and cut it into small sections so that I could add ballast incrementally.
I did this in the ‘domestic test tank’ and once I was happy the lead pieces were fixed in place inside the hull with some super strong double sided tape.

The ESC needed a little programming adjustment because I had forgotten to set the low battery level point to ‘off’ as I am using NiMh batteries and not LiPo’s , that was the cause of the short initial run time on the first outing…..DOH !!

The batteries are now held in place by Velcro straps on some bearers that I added, otherwise a battery change involved cutting cable ties and replacing them at the lakeside…not very practical.
The volt/amp/watt meter is also now on a proper bracket so that the display is more readable.
I have also changed the charging connection from the nasty Tamiya connector to a nice little panel mount XT 60 connector that HobbyKing sell, it comes with a handy blanking plug that I have drilled for a retaining cord.

I have also finally got around to upgrading the firmware on my Turnigy i6 radio to the 10 channel version so that I can assign the lighting to the switches properly and have the rotation of the searchlight on one of the two rotary knobs.

I can use the old 6 channel RX in the new boat….blog coming soon.

In preparation for the first public showing of my boat I have made a new display stand that looks a bit prettier than the first one I made.
It’s designed to be more in proportion to the boat and to give a better view of the hull and I have included some model-boats.com stickers that are available in the site shop and also some Vintage Model Works logos kindly supplied by Mike Cummings at VMW 👍

As a finishing touch I have ordered an engraved brass plate giving some details of the original craft.
I also found a wheeled flight case on eBay that the boat fits into perfectly without any adjustment to the existing foamed interior but I will have to re-make the mast to allow it to fold down for safety, not bad for £50 😁

The new stand fits into the base of the flight case but the boat also sits on some foam blocks for added support.

Having spent so much time adding fittings and detail to the removable cabin roofs and hatches the last thing I want is for them to be dislodged and see them sink without trace 😱!
Having used some amazingly strong neodymium magnets to hold the foam tanks securely in the rear well I was confident that they would be more than powerful enough to hold the various roofs and hatches in place so I scoured eBay for some suitable sizes and shapes.
I settled on two sizes, 25x6x3mm and 12x6x3mm and ordered 10 of each, more than I need but so useful to have in the bits box.
A word of caution with these magnets, always slide them apart and avoid letting them crash together as the impact can easily break them into pieces, as I discovered. Thankfully I have some spares !
For the engine roof magnets I made a couple of small plywood brackets into which the larger magnets are fixed with epoxy and these were in turn epoxied onto the inside faces of the engine room walls.
The mating magnets were let into the underside of the roof frame and firmly glued in place after double checking the mating polarity and orientation.
An identical method was used for the forward cabin roof but using the smaller magnets.
For the removable panel in the centre section over the motor I used a single pair of small magnets on the rear edge only as the front of this panel is held under the cabin door in a rebated part of the floor that forms the threshold of the door.
I had to fit a small brass handle in the rear of this panel so that I could pull the panel up and away as there is no other means of doing so without, I made a ‘hook tool’ from some brass wire for this purpose.
The floor panel in the rear cockpit is secured on it’s rear edge by a pair of the larger magnets, the forward edge being held down by the towing hook bracing stays.
The removable hatch in the rear cockpit floor was also fitted with two pairs of the smaller magnets let into the underside of the hatch and the hatch framing of the floor. One of the brass handles that I that had previously set into the hatch was bent up slightly so that I could use my brass ‘hook tool’ to release it from the magnets hold.
So now all the roofs and hatches are firmly secured by the concealed magnets and are easily removable without any fiddly catches or fixings and now there’s now very little chance of them coming adrift and disappearing!
The final finishing detail are the two RAF ensigns, one on the mast and one on the stern flagstaff.
The ensigns were made by Mike Allsop Scale Flags & Ensigns who was very helpful and advised me on the most suitable sizes for the 1:12 scale of my boat.
His flags are extremely well made, excellent value for money and look very realistic when flying and fluttering !!

Mike can be contacted at: scaleflags@outlook.com or by telephone on 01476 573331

They are hand made from a fine and flexible silk cloth that behaves like a real flag even in a slight breeze and are easy to fix with diluted PVA glue. The smaller flag was fitted to the lanyard on the mast as described in the supplied instruction sheet.
The ensign on the stern flagstaff was very carefully formed and glued so that the flag was not fixed in one place and could rotate around the shaft of the flagstaff as this piece screws into a brass fitting on the rear deck and this will ensure that it will always find it’s own position.
A small brass ring was formed and glued to the flagstaff below the ensign so it would always stay at the top and not slip down.

So, all hatches battened down, flags raised and ready for action.

That’s just about everything finished now barring any trimming and ballasting required and is ready for it’s maiden voyage.

I hope that all of you that have been following my blog have had as much enjoyment reading about my build as I have had in the building and finishing process 😁

And a big thank you to all that have contributed so much with encouraging comments, suggestions and advice 👏 😍

The switch panel and wiring loom was made, tested and dry fitted a while ago and so it only needs securing to the bulkhead with four fixing screws, the two NiMh batteries were strapped down to the bearers with cable ties as close to the chines as possible and the XT60 connectors mated.
I have read that placing the heavy batteries as far away from the keel as possible improves the handling, all other heavy items are centered along the keel for symmetry and should help the boat to sit evenly in the water. I’m not sure if I will need to do any ballasting, hopefully the maiden voyages should give me an indication.
The prop shaft was greased and fitted, and with the prop, thrust washers and lock nuts in place, the clearance was adjusted and locked with some Loctite so the motor could then be installed.
The initial motor alignment was made with a solid coupler which was then replaced with the universal joint, I took the precaution to grind a flat on the motor shaft so that the locking grub screw has better grip on the shaft.
The grease tube was then fitted to the shaft clamp and secured to the side of the switch panel.
The ESC was fixed to the back of the bulkhead with another couple of cable ties and the input cables, again XT60 types, and the three pole XT60 motor connectors mated.
I have also fitted a Turnigy in-line volt, amp and watt meter in the circuit before the ESC so that I can log readings in case of spurious fuse blowing issues or unexpected battery life problems.
The water cooling tubes were then run from the water pickup, through the ESC and then back to the transom ‘exhaust’ outlet, all water connections are fitted with spring clips to ensure water tight connections. I have used quite a large bore silicone tubing to ensure maximum water flow and made sure that all bends are kink and compression free.
The R/C receiver is fixed to the rear cabin wall with some Velcro pads for easy removal, the two aerials were fitted in some plastic tubing at 90 degrees to each other as recommended for 2.4 gig systems and as high above the waterline as possible.
The receiver is connected to a separate 4.8 volt NiMh battery via a changeover switch that also has a charging connection and LED power indicator, and I have also fitted a battery voltage indicator, just because they are cheap and convenient although the R/C system that I have has telemetry that reports RX voltage as standard.
The battery charger I have chosen can handle the 16 cell series configuration of the drive batteries and so they can be charged in-situ when the main power switch is toggled over to the charge position.
The RX and lighting batteries are charged separately.
All of the servo and lighting switch cables are routed through the hull to the receiver through pre drilled holes in the bulkheads at high level for neatness and to retain the integrity of each compartment just in case 😲!!.
The servo and cables and the water cooling tubes are strapped to a supporting bar between the bulkheads for neatness and security.
With the TX switched on first, the RX is then powered up and the main power switch toggled to the ‘operate’ position, the ESC then gives a reassuring series of bleeps that confirm that all is well.
The ESC was set up using a Turnigy programming card specifically for that model of controller and if required I can tweak the settings once the boat has had a few sailings.
The last things to do now are to fit some strong magnets to hold the hatches and roofs down securely and then finally raise the RAF ensigns 😁

After test fitting the hose ends to establish the correct lengths the hoses were trimmed to size and the fittings were then glued into the hose ends with some epoxy.
On the real boat the hoses are arranged to lay on the tops of the foam tanks and they are supported on the stern coaming by a bronze hook.
I formed this hook from some brass sheet so that it holds the hoses firmly one above the other, this was primed and finished in gunmetal grey and fixed to the coaming with a couple of brass rivets and a spot of epoxy.
For a bit of extra security I cut some large diameter heat shrink to form some bands around the hoses to hold them together.
So now the hoses are all finished and I think they look really good, I’ll probably re-polish the brass fittings and apply a light coat of lacquer to keep them nice and shiny at a later stage 😎

The remaining hose fittings are the male & female connectors and fortunately require nothing more than drilling to take the four short brass ‘turning handles’ which were soft soldered in place and then filed to length.
The suction hoses themselves proved far more difficult to make to a satisfactory standard and after several experiments with different gauges of copper, steel and stainless steel wire I found a 1.25mm galvanised ‘garden wire’ that proved malleable enough to be formed into a long coil spring that when covered with some black heat shrink tube looked OK.
I used a length of 8mm diameter aluminium tube as a former and hand wound the galvanised wire tightly around the tube to form a spring. This was a painful process, quite literally, and caused blisters on my thumb and forefingers despite wearing protective gloves 😭
The springs were then stretched out on the rod to space the coils evenly and then drawn through the heat shrink tube, and then a heat gun used to shrink down the tube onto the springs.
While the newly formed hoses were still warm and pliable I put them on a former with the correct curvature and applied a little more heat and then left them to cool and set.
The hoses were made over length so that, when finished, I could trim them to the correct lengths to fit into the rear well of the boat with the fittings attached.
See part 4 for the final assembly...coming soon.

The next piece I tackled was the bulkhead connector to which the assembled hose is connected.
This is not a particularly complex piece but I had to engineer it’s attachment to the bulkhead to allow for easy removal.
As with the suction pickup I added four short pieces of brass as turning handles to the ‘cover cap’ for the want of a better description, this cap would be undone to reveal the male connector of the pump intake and the cap would have a retaining chain. This chain would presumably be attached to the bulkhead in some way but I needed it to attach to the base of the fitting.
I drilled a hole through the spigot on the cover cap and formed a loop from some brass wire for the chain attachment. Similarly I drilled the base and made another wire loop for the chain attachment there. I didn’t have any suitable chain so I thought I would have a go at making some by winding about 20 turns of brass wire around a piece of thin brass rod which I then cut through lengthwise with a hacksaw to produce some brass loops. These loops were then flattened, linked and closed to form the chain and a short length of the finished chain attached to the fitting. Very fiddly work and a test of the eyesight 🤓

As mentioned, I needed to make the fitting easily removable without using screws or a threaded stud as it needs to be removed without tools to allow the cockpit floor to be lifted out.
To achieve this I put a 3mm thread into the rear of the fitting and then threaded a piece of 3mm brass rod to go into that.
I made a retainer to go into the bulkhead that would provide a friction fit for the hose connector.
This was made from a short length of 3mm I/D brass tube set into another short supporting piece of 4mm I/D tube and a piece of 14 swg brass plate, all the parts were silver soldered together with the 3mm tube protruding the plate by the thickness of the bulkhead. The 3mm tube was cut crossways to form some ‘fingers’ that will grip the 3mm shaft of the fitting. To provide extra grip I used a piece of rubber sleeve and a small pipe clip over the ‘fingers’.
This piece was glued into a 4mm hole in the bulkhead with the end of the tube flush with the bulkhead.
The hose connecter is then pushed into this retainer with a firm friction grip but is easily removed without any tools.

Definitely getting the hang of working with brass now 😁
Still not inclined to buy a lathe though 😜
The remaining fittings should be a lot easier...I hope.

One of the distinctive features of the RAF fire boats are the suction hoses in the rear well of the boat, and they were something that I was keen to reproduce with some accuracy. They have been very successfully modelled by others and there are some fine examples of their construction on this site and consequently a wealth of tips and ideas on how to make them and I have shamelessly taken the best of them to make my own.
The key elements are, of course, the fitting at the hose ends which probably would have been originally made of cast bronze or brass and machined and jointed to couple together to form the complete hose.
To replicate this in anything other than brass would not be doing justice to the model, and as you may be aware, I have a brother who is also a skilled model maker, and he has a lathe and has previously made some excellent brass fitting for me.
I started by studying the few photographs of the boat and some drawings supplied to me by Mike Cumming at Vintage Model Works and I made up some engineering drawings, one for each fitting, and emailed them off to my brother. I also ordered some 15mm brass bar to be delivered to him for the fittings and once he had approved my drawings, set about machining the parts.
A while later the parts duly arrived in the post and they were excellently made exactly as my drawings and so I then set about adding some more detail to them.
I only have one set of these fittings so I can’t afford to make any mistakes and ruin them 😱
The most challenging fitting to be tackled was the suction pickup into which I wanted to inset some stainless steel filter mesh, so I carefully measured and marked off the areas of metal that needed to be removed.
With the piece in the drill vice I cut a series of holes which were gradually enlarged, and then the remaining metal removed with files to form the square apertures.
The collar of the fitting was then drilled to take some short brass rod ‘handles’ which were soft soldered in place and then filed to length.
The stainless steel mesh was cut to fit inside the fitting with the join concealed behind part of the brass. The circular end cap was made by pressing the mesh into a piece of brass tube the same diameter as the inside of the fitting using a piece of brass bar as a mandrel.
After thoroughly cleaning the fitting with some wire wool the mesh filter pieces were finally epoxied in place.
That’s the most difficult piece out of the way, much to my relief.
One down, four to go 😁

I had previously assembled and primed the anchor, having added a little additional detail to the white metal castings, as described in a previous blog update.
I subsequently added some plasticard pieces to the arm of the anchor to thicken it slightly so that I could fit a small brass shackle as a finishing detail.
The final paint finish is Tamiya gunmetal metallic to match some other deck fittings.
The anchor is held in place on the foredeck by a small double sided adhesive foam pad beneath the anchor base and the mounting pad it sits on.
The base and arm is also retained on two other mounting pads buy couple of ‘staples’ that were formed by heating and bending some thin Plasticard rod into shape and they are just a push fit into some holes drilled into the mounting pads.
The fixings are quite secure but as with many other items of deck furniture it can be easily removed for maintenance or repair.

Sorry this is not a particularly exciting or interesting post but the next will be the suction hoses and fittings which were quite a challenge and will hopefully be a great deal less boring 😜