This boat was scratch built from Harold Underhill plans, available still from Brown,Son and Ferguson. The hull was mahogany on 6mm ply frames. The engine was a Caton from Maxwell Hemmens supplied bya gas-fired Cheddar Puffin boiler. The propeller was a two inch four bladed brass job from Rivabo I think. The displacement of the boat is 25lb- a bit of a lump to carry to the water but it does work well once in the water. She has now been converted to electric using a MFA geared 540 type motor witha 7.5ah lead acid gel cell. Looking again at this video I begin to wish I had left it as steam but there is something to be said for 'switch on and go'.
I started building the boat in the mid nineties and it has now had a repaint- it always been a favourite. This video was taken in the early noughties at Crealy in Exeter.

Hi,
I thought that my recently finished MTB may be of interest.
It consists of 49" GRP hull ply deck / superstructure. The fittings are from a mixture of ABS and metal, to give a good surface for spray painted finish.
The drive consists of twin 850 motors and twin 50mm brass props, controlled by a JetI Navy 600 on 10 cells, this setup gives excellent scale planing, but with 14 cells the performance is outstanding. I use 4600 capacity and only select the top power run in short bursts, which gives me around 20 minutes duration on one charge.
radio is 2,4 ghz so no bother waiting for a free freq.
hope you enjoy
loz.

HI ALL,HERES AN AEROKITS FIRE/CRASH TENDER THAT RECENTLY SURFACED IN POOR CONDITION.THIS HAS HAD A NEW PAINT JOB AND MOTOR AND ALTHOUGH NOT FAST IT WORKS WELL AND I LIKE IT.
I THINK THIS IS WHAT IS CALLED A ROLLING RESTO.
I SAIL REGULARLY AT GANG WERILY NR FAWLEY HANTS

Please see my previous post for the story so far. Photo 1 shows my Lifeboat with its first paintjob and on its first sea trial on King Lear's lake, Watermead Country Park, Leicestershire. Photo 2 shows the boat with its completed paintjob and handrails having been fitted bought from Speedline models which are made of pewter so can be straightened it accidently bent. Photo 3 shows my Lifeboat on its first official outing at the Midlands Model Lifeboat Show at Dudley in May 2008. My crew have now been added also bought from Speedline Models 1/12th scale as they are the best quality resin cast figures I have seen. Strictly speaking they are too moderned dressed but I like the quality so I decided to fit them. The last photo shows it loving the rough seas again at King Lear's Lake at times having 10 to 12 inch waves.
Marie (alias Mrs Froggyt996)

This is my Aerokits Solent Class Lifeboat that was rescued from Ebay as a wreck see photo's 1 & 2. This was then lovingly restored for me by Gray (Froggyt996). First he had to skin one third of the hull as only two thirds had been skinned. He then had to use copious amounts of filler to make the hull its correct shape see photo 3, instead of the stepped hull as per the original Aerokits build. He then had to put the superstructure together as it had fell apart whilst being posted to us as it had been put together with a hot glue gun yuk!!!!!! Next started the painting as shown in photo 4. Please see my next post for the next stages of its rebuild.
Marie (alias Mrs Froggyt996)

this model has a 12v marlin motor I am in the process of fitting esc and batterys old kit the gun was from nauticalmarinemodels the figures will be the modifyed
airfix 8th army 1/32 multipose figures painted in a med garb I sail at the southport model boat weather permiting

I've done it by making a removable secthion that is like a tub if water comes over the stern, and it always does if you go astern the water only goes in to it and not in to the bottom of the hull, it seems to work ok and there are several ways you can do it. this is pre Paint

example of bs631 cellulose grey matt paint, aerosol application, details in the forum on "what colour" posts

My Dad built this Fireboat 40 years ago, following the Practical Electronics magazine article. I watched as he built the plywood boat then built the discrete electronics; it was full of batteries but was great fun. I later fitted the 2-channel radio and then dad repainted it blue? its now time to give it some TLC and get it back as it should be.

Some 25 to 30 years ago I wrote to Peter Dimberlins for details of the Crash Boat following a mention of him in 'Model Boats '. Peter supplied me with data and we have been so close ever since. These and more Images are of Peter at the helm of my Steam boat' Lady Halina ' and his successfully (ha ha) steering my Crash Boat as I did not know it was so fast/ ballistic. More pictures to follow of this gracious man at the helm at our pond/ tidal creek during his momentus visit to OZ in early 2008. My model is some 30 years young and is with the third engine as the others were worn out with use ( OS35, ENYA35 now a S/C 40 a bit too much) in a 25 pound plus model, yes she is heavy. She has been re done over and over(paint resin paint resin etc) and only had the 1/8 inch steel prop shaft (yes 1/8) replaced recently. I have a "leather flange coupling"as on all my power boats and never let me down and vibration free. Exhaust system 1:muffler to a 2.tar lined tin can to a 3.small resonator (equals quiet ) More to come of my Crash Boat as a result of this gracious man and his service to modelling even to a colonial.

I rescued my PT Boat from EBAY in August 2005. it was owned by a young boy in Birmingham whose Dad had built if for him. it is an original Aerokits kit Fast Patrol Boat. When I bought the boat it had a sound hull with a few damaged fittings, which I removed. Since then I have made new guns, extended the front cabin to carry the life raft to make it look like a late World War II Elco PT Boat and added other new fittings.

I have made 6 working exhausts in brass tubing, have fitted a new open prop shaft running an Octura race prop and a Merco 61 glow engine. it still needs torpedos, guard rails around the machine gun turrets and a few other fittings. The number 349 is from an original Pacific Theatre 80' Elco PT Boat whose name in Bee Bee, which I hope to add at a later date.

I have also painted it in an original Pacific Theatre camouflage from a PT Boat book which I bought for reference and to make it look like a standoff scale model. This boat was also photographed by the local Burton Upon Trent newspaper at the Fireboat day in September 2006. I ran this boat at the Burton Model Boat Club's Fireboat day in September 2006 briefly until I broke the exhaust manifold and had to retire it early.

This is my ** version of the Sea Queen. My father owns one of the originals and when one lunch time I saw one on the ** web site I knew I had to get one.
It was to be a winter build project and work started in the autumn of 2006 and it was launched in May 2007. I was very disappointed to see the all white paint finish used on the ** advertisements and decided I was going to re-create the look of the original. Cosmetically the big problem was that the original used mahogany finish ply for the cabin sides and the ** version was just plain birch. However after a bit of staining I was quite happy with the finished colour. This was contrasted against clear coated lime wood deck planking.
Also ***a€™s bag of fittings missed out on the signature life belts so I had to make my own.

One Improvement that I did make was the inclusion of a dashboard, instrument panel and throttle slide.

The graphic on the transom was a custom cut from callie-graphics.

The supplied motor was replaced with an MFA Torpedo 850 which is a direct replacement. ( Same mount, same screw fixing centres etc ).
Battery is a 12V 7A gel cell, ESC is an Mtronics Marine Viper 40A