Hi JB,

I'm afraid my days of building real boats are long past. I have difficulty in finding enough strength to perform even the simplest tasks, Alice has to come to my aid for almost everything these days. I was very pleased that I managed to finish the rigging of my latest barge project a few days ago with only the slightest intervention from her -and that's a model!. Actually the only time I ever built a boat from a plan was when someone gave me a part built Wharram cat. The rest of the time I built on the old adage of if it looks right, it probably is. And, blowing my own trumpet, it always seemed to work for me.

Cheers, Nerys

Hi Nerys, you're doing well to do what you are doing still under the circumstances, and you are not just sitting in a wicker chair staring out the window. Your models are great and a credit to you, and you are obviously enjoying them. I'm the same (re - if it looks right.......) as most of my models, (boats and planes) are scratch built or highly modified kits or resurrected and improved bin jobs from other modellers.

The only model boat I've built from a proper plan, was my Vic Smeed MTB, the rest have been from drawings from model magazines. I built a 15ft delta hulled racer in the late 70s using the 'looks right' method, and powered it with a 75hp outboard. Managed to get 50mph out of it, and it handled quite well. Blew the motor up before I could refine it unfortunately. As kid we built 8ft skimmers, powered with a 10hp outboard which were a lot of fun as well.

I've enjoyed restoring 5 small boats (plus a f/glass clinker sailing dinghy for my son) and completely fitting out my Hartley from a shell, but the price of materials is getting prohibitive these days, and approaching the price of a small new car to build anything around 20ft. My 15ft day sailer for example (built 1986) would probably cost around $12,000 to build today complete. Not a lot of home building these days unfortunately due to the cost,- cheaper to buy a second hand boat ready to sail or motor.

I think we are lucky to be able to build from an idea without a plan and have it work, as many people are not as fortunate. Perhaps boating experience gives you an idea of how things should work. We have a top boatbuilding company here who started building fantastic launches, starting with a 'looks right' half model,- taking measurements from it and scaling them up. Has worked well for them since the 50s

Stay Safe.
JB

Hi Ed,

The link is fixed. The space in the URL is deliberately added to avoid some web browsers trying to stretch the page width. The gallery works a bit differently to the rest of the site (different code), but I've just enabled the displaying of links.

Thanks
Stephen

Thank you Stephen and Doug for helping to get the video fixed. It makes a big difference to the post! Ed

Hi David,
Nice model, good that she doesn't need any ballast, presumably it's because she is relatively beamy. You are lucky to have somewhere to sail her, there's nowhere open around me.

Nerys

Looks very nice on the water David, nice job👍

JB

Lockdown project or not, you have built a very nice model and I look forward to seeing her afloat, if ever they let us sail again!.

Nerys

Now it's the wait of Lockdown before you hit the water.
Looks like a neat project

Very nice job! any pics on the water?
JB

Lovely looking boat.👍

Really nice model. Well made. Looks perfect.👍

wow what a cracking job you`ve done there

Hi Cash - pity we live so far apart looks like San Reno would give Darth Vader a run for her money - pretty impressive............nice sized lake too........
One question though - where's the Road Runner ?

I don’t know where the Roadrunner is, maybe old Wile E Coyote scared him off.😁

That was just a quick test, - did have about a 5mm spacer on it, but the one I did for the plane had about 30mm. Depends a lot on how thin the material is as well and you have to allow for trimming. .5 mm would have gone around a lot better. You also have to have holes through the plug as well so it pulls around the plug.
The CKD furniture company I worked for (largest in the South Pacific) pioneered round edge vinyl covered table tops in NZ using a big German press which they modified. Germans said the thin Vinyl that the company wanted to use would not work,- took them a year of experimenting and proved them wrong. Machine used a large silicone blanket and oil heated platen.

Probably one of the reasons Red, also they were apparently trying to compete in a saturated market after the war. They upgraded the motor a number of times (as you would have seen) and a few other mods but couldn't compete, - pity as it could have been a ripper little plane, better looking than a lot of others and faster.
As you said, tandem is not conducive to families, and a lot of companies were advertising their 4 seaters as an extension of the family car. Gone a bit the opposite these days, not many making small planes now, mainly the Chinese, (probably count them on 1 hand now) The Streak would probably fit in the sport plane class these days.

I haven't run nitro boats for a number of years now Doug, same with the planes, everything has been converted to electric long ago, (all the nitro planes included.) No more mess and smell of burnt fuel in the house, no having to take a roll of paper towels and soap sprayer and wash your plane or boat before putting it in the car, and no more having to put a plastic 'nose bag' on the planes to hang them up so you don't get oil dripping on your carpet!
Re- Graupner 'Premium Line', certainly sounds like their quality has dropped, you couldn't fault them in the 70s, gone the way of all the others due to competition from the home of Oolong tea by the sound of it.

"everything has been converted to electric long ago"
Know what you mean John.
I've still got a 5ltr canister of pepped up glow fuel kicking about in the cellar.
Probably degenerated into uselessness by now🤔
Maybe I'll stick in the car or use it to start the barby😊

Re Premium line-
Belfast wasn't so bad, but had the same crappy plastic props held on with grub screws.
So she's getting threaded shafts and brass props from Raboesch 😉
On Graf Spee though I noticed a lot of resin casting faults, evidence of air bubbles and smudged detail, as well as over / under-spray in the painting and lifting of the wooden decks.
Had to inject liquid CA glue round the edges to stop it peeling ☹️😠
Best thing on both ships were the faultless hulls with double skinning!😉
One thing surprised me with Belfast though-
the recommended SLA batteries don't fit! I couldn't get them in any which way 🤔
Not to worry, they go in my 1:72 destroyer with ease 😊
BTW I prefer lapsang souchong 😋