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.

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

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.

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.

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!

Good Morning Shipmates Help please - could anyone please assist me with the the lighting on a Royal Navy Steam Pinnace as shown in the picture, what I need to know is what would the location have been of the stern light ? Also would the lights at the time been oil fired or would they have been DC electric run off a steam generator - enquiring so the I get the right kind of light for my model. Thanking you in anticipation of you help Pat

You asked me to try and do a build blog so here is my attempt Started the build two day ago. This progress so! First mistake was fixing one of the stringers? In the wrong cutouts. Managed to release them and make good (I hope). I’m double checking now. I really miss having a plan, as you do with aircraft builds. I think it’s ok so far.

Classic Model Power Boats is a title that I have used for many years to describe the group of model boats that most interest me and that I remember seeing (and sometimes owning) in the 1950’s- 1970’s time period when this type of model was probably at its peak. Many of these models came from kits produced by the like of Aerokits, Veron, LesRo, Stirling and many others, but some came from plans drawn up by Vic Smeed and others from this same time period. Models both before and after this era are also included in this category if they are of the same type - ie, a model of boat powered by a motor which was (back in those days) most often a glow plug engine, diesel engine or a petrol engine, although some were powered by electric motors such as those from Taycol or the smaller types from Mabuchi. These days, most Classic Model Power Boats are powered by electric motors, not always by choice, but often because the use of ic motors is generally frowned upon and is banned from many waters due to the risk of pollution. Electric motors can be thought of as being comparatively soulless and are quietly very efficient - but lack the noise and smells that accompanied the whole procedure of fuelling-up and starting our power boats back then. Restoring and building Classic Model Power Boats has been my main interest for several decades now and I am pleased to see a revival in interest in this type model boats….although in real life, they’re never actually went away! I am hoping that this blog will attract fellow enthusiasts of this type of model boat to contribute with their pictures and share their experiences of building and operating their Classic Model Power Boats. Those that currently collect Classic Model Power Boats (and plans) with a view to building and /or restoring them all one day and those who are just generally interested in them may like to contribute too? Bob.

I have managed to acquire this model boat from a friend. The pictures that I will include as I work my way through it suggest to me (wishful thinking?) that I after many years of searching, I may have accidentally found a genuine LesRo Sportsman. Here it is pictured on my workbench - something I was beginning to think would never happen! Bob.

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

Collected this one last week, it came from the Ron Wem collection - have a look at his site as he made loads of amazing boats. I also bought the Aquataur A600 and the mould for the Broom 30 Hull. Sadly, Ron died early this year so his family are moving on a number of his boats. KoH is a very decent representation of 1950s Norfolk Broads Cruiser. The model was built about 25 years ago and needs some updating, the interior requires finishing. Have already replaced the motor and ESC as the motor started smoking when tested. Model is 1:12 and is 43” long. As with the full sized boat the wheelhouse roof slides back and the windscreen folds down to get under the low bridges of the Norfolk Broads. Here she is in her just collected state, will update as progress is made. https://www.ronsboats.co.uk/my-models

When I was at school and in my young to mid teens, I liked to read the Model Maker magazine that was current at that time. Although it was a “general purpose” model magazine that covered several different types of model making every month, I found the model boats section the most interesting-especially those about model power boats. Most model power boats at that time were powered by diesel engines, glow plug engines, two stroke petrol engines (usually ex- strimmer) the occasional rare and expensive (often hand made) four stroke engine, or steam. Some electric motors were available ranging from the smaller Mabuchi types to the larger Taycol motors and others that I don’t remember so well. It is with this background that Vic Smeed designed the Remora model power boat for use in steering competitions that were popular at that time. This may seem a little strange now, but back in the days of single channel radio, steering a model boat accurately though a marked-out course represented a worthwhile and entertaining challenge. These competitions faded away with the introduction of affordable proportional radio control as steering a model boat accurately became a lot easier as it was no longer necessary to remember the number of times the transmitter button had to be pushed to get the rudder to turn left or right. The prototype Remora was powered by a .21 glow plug engine and took advantage of the new type proportional radio control system that was to eventually make the intended use of this model boat redundant,