Many thanks for the Turnigy tip👍 much cheaper than the 20 quid Action /Component Shop version 😉
I hated wasting channels, and multi-channel sets were horrendously expensive😡 so many many 🤔 moons ago I made my own 4 function switch decoder for my destroyer, home made PCB, a few 5V CMOS chips, driver transistors and 5V 5Amp relay outputs. Pics 1, 2 & 3. Gave 4 functions Nav lights, Signal Lamps flashing, Whoop Whoop siren, and smoke unit from one proportional channel. Still seems to work 30 years later!😊

Around the same time I added a winch for the crane on the stern deck and also made a home cooked PCB with a simple forwards / backwards motor driver; again CMOS chips, driver TRs and relays. Pics 4 & 5.
Pulled in well but there was no free-run mode on the winch so it needed something like a tin o' beans on the hook to run it out 🤔 .
Lovely smelly etching for the PCBs 😆 Ferrous oxide!? Or was it ferric chloride? Never did like chemistry, I was a physics man. But it worked😊

Most of the bits were sort of 'lying around' at work😉
BTW: if anyone needs CMOS or 7400 series TTL chips I still have pretty good stock!
Nowadays it's all plug n play and such things are miniaturising so fast one day they'll disappear up there own whatsits!
Back then half the fun was doing it yourself and squeezing the utmost out of a 2 or 4 channel radio. Happy days? 🤔
Cheers Doug (AKA Rambling Man😁)

Superb! I wouldn't know where to start.

One of my first boats was an Aerokits Crash Tender powered by a Frog 2.49cc diesel. The radio was single channel, one press of the button for right rudder, 2 presses left rudder, press and hold for throttle.

What an honour for your Dad... and a proud memory for you too.

I don't think that Her Majesty understood the principle of R/C. if you look carefully, you can see that she is the lady in the pale longish coat facing right. I think that she is holding the button box of a typical ground-based TX. She almost has her back to the model......My father worked as a scientist there and met many dignatories. His POW - learned German meant that he took Willi Brandt round the site on one occasion.

I remember seeing Waverley in Sussex.

Truly a beautiful model. Electric drive? Waverley underwent extensive refit and repairs at Gt Yarmouth here in Norfolk many years ago when I saw the paddles up on the quayside. Grand old girl still going strong.

The kits are made by Palaform Ltd see website www.modelhovercraft.co.uk This one is a Griffon 600 made from deprom. Very easy to assemble. Get the electrics pack with it rather than supplying your own.

Thanks very much. I can see the bank account getting a hammering soon 😉 Cheers, Dave W 😊

Fran Oakey designed the Griffon 600 as a wooden model.
Originally called the MM600 it used 2mm liteply without any lightning holes.
It is heavier than the Depron version but will operate in rougher water and higher wind speeds. Takes the knocks better too.

That looks like a flooded road that the model is sitting on. Looks like the police there to control traffic!

Excellent thank you for sharing

some magnificent craftsmanship on display ,the one with the carved dragons is incredible doesn't look like they used any wood filler unlike some of us (me) ,well back to the whittling with the laser .

nice models.It's also great to have somewhere to run in the winter.

what a really nice looking lake ,the boats are prety awsome too.Cheers Marky

Great work. A superb example of how a scale model gives viewers a 3D view of something that exists now only in 2D images.

Brilliant 👍
Love the detailing, and on such a mammoth scale as well!
Popsicle sticks! You must have made a lot of children very happy👍😉
I've heard of others getting all family and friends to 'collect' coffee stirring sticks ...
Next model with zig million matchsticks perhaps ? 😉
Shame we will never see her under way but a superb memorial to her and her crews. Cheers Doug 😎

It's nice and fast but doesn't seem to want to turn very well. What is the rudder like is it too big and also how much leading edge has the rudder got. I used to have this sort of trouble and went for a slightly smaller rudder and cut away the leading edge and it solved my problems.