Bit of fun with a video camera on my restored 1960's fireboat at my home club St. Helens MBC. had to be really carefull with the throttle and rudder sticks so the whole lot didnt end up upside down due to the camera position...
34" fireboat built 1965 restored late 2009 by me
running graupner 8.4v speed 600 on 8 cells (9.6v).
love the way the boat is in and out of shadow and sunlight throughout the video
I had always admired the lines of 1950s American wooden runabouts and built this Aerokits model when I was an apprentice at Jaguar Cars and it had stayed in my loft since completion nearly 40 years ago. Recently dusted off and upgraded with a Graupner Speed 500 and Mtroniks 40Amp controller and P35 prop. Seen here at Knightcote Boat Club on 25 October
Original 1960s boat aquired this summer from the family a deceased former club member in scruffy, non running but basically sound condition. Was petrol powered at some stage and still had original vintage mechanical speed controller from a later electric power set up. Restored with two (secondhand) MFA850 motors in tandem driving a new single 20 in M5 shaft. . Using a 50 Amp Tornado speed control and plastic X55 Graupner prop.
Sprayed (Volvo) Flash Green Metallic with orginal decks stripped back and restained (using tea bags!) and relaquered
Planing gently on our club sailing water at Knightcote, Warwickshire on 25 October
The weather on Sunday was great here in Peterborough and the perfect opportunity for the first trip out since restoration work was finished. The boat with ballast is very heavy so help from a few friends at the boat club was much appreciated! Performance from a pair of original Decaperms isn't earth shattering but good enough to give a nice scale performance, I might decide to upgrade them over the winter but haven't worked out what the best option might be so any suggestions based on your own experience would be appreciated. Thanks for looking, Roger
Hi,I run my solent at about 3rd power most of the time,normaly just the trim on the hand set is enough ,the mfa 800s with the props I said will give you plenty of power if needed,,at the Cwmbran show I used the solent to tow my Arun around for best part of a hour and still had loads of power let in the battery,and thats running a 12v 12amp lead acid battery,Both motors are run through a single 60amp controller with 15 amp fuses feed each motor...did try plastic props in the 35 and 45 size but found I got reversing problems,,my solent weighs in at 23.3 kg all up and afloat
cheers
Owen
HI again Roger ,good tip for getting boats to the water,I now use my carp fishing trolly,its great for it,can get a 54" Arun and a 48" solent on it with there bits and bobs and just wheel it all to the lake,bought mine off ebay for around ÂA£30 mark
These two boats were refurbished by Kalamunda. The first is a Lesro Sportsman and the second a NorStar Wave Rider. The Sportsman has a Graupner 700 on 8.6v and the WaveRider a brushless motor. The on board camera was arranged by Kalamunda and other video shot by Ianed57. The water is at Crealy, Exeter, the home of Exeter and District Model Boat Club.
It is indeed sad and these videos remind us of happy times spent there. We srtuggle to find a suitable alternative. As the old song says-'You don't know what you've got 'til it's gone!'.
Just completed , not exactly origonal but not too far out. On the pond for the first time today after a rebuld, and very happy with it I am. Graupner kit, Don't know the builder, but when bought it was yellow! it just had to be put back to red. I didn't like the green deck, so it became mid-grey (gloss rubbed down to semi-mat). Powered by 3 Graupner 500 motors. Working radar and lights (worked from a key-fob, not transmitter). Sailed at inverleith Pond, Edinburgh. Home of Edinburgh Model Boat Club.
I have seen this boat operating on the water, it is a work of art, the detail is superb, the speed is I am sure
a very close scale down of the original boat.
I have rebuilt this from a damaged ex IC model. Borrowed a plan from a club member and managed to reconstruct the missing bits. Originally used a fast electric car type brush motor with 7.2 v nicads. Worked ok but nothing spectacular. Recently ventured into brushless and LiPo. Tried an inrunner but ran far to hot and not veryt fast. Changed to an Outrunner (mork torky apparently) and nearly took off! (it is a seaplane tender but should stay on the water!) The LiPo is 11.1v 2800MaH. I use a Graupner Ultramat 16 charger, don't use other than a dedicated LiPo charger and ESC. Battery misuse can result in pyrotechnics, so beware. initialyy tried a two blade racing prop but have changed this to a 29mm 3 blade brass prop to slow down the speed. I have also added more lead and will advise the final weight once I have tried the model on water. I sail with Crewe and District MBC at Boundary Park, Nr Knutsford in Cheshire.
My first post on site as a new member !
I can't take credit for the building this Deans Marine kit, my father did that some 15 years ago but as a static model. When he passed away the ship came to me and a few months ago I decided to make it seaworthy.
She used a standard MabuchI 540RS motor geared down using two 6v lead acid batteries - and runs for hours !
The pictures were taken at Peterborough Area Model Boat Club during our Sunday meet. I'm thrilled with it, very realistic at over four feet long, smooth and very manoeuvrable - Dad would have loved it :-))
I have a dozen or so RC boats, mostly vintage Aerokits and Veron, just bought my first Fire Boat to restore - more to follow I hope. Thanks for looking, Roger
Aerokits Sea Hornet and 34 Fireboat. Took 30 yrs to finish !
I began these kits when working overseas in the late 70s and never got to finish them off but a chance meeting members of Knightcote MBC in Warks this summer rekindled my interest and have readied both for their first run in the New Year at the club which I'm planning to join..... John Saunders
Following a significant amount of restoration this old and original Aerokits 36" Fireboat was rebuilt from a wreck to a nice, working model. A full (new) white metal fittings kit provided all the deck clutter. Like my Sea Commander, featured elsewhere on this site, I have considerably lightened much of the internal structure. it's powerd by an 800 electric motor and runs on 12v. Performance is OK with 2 channel 27Mhz radio. Perhaps the best bit is a superb triple V12 sound unit (speaker under an additional hatch behind the wheelhouse). it sounds great on the water although someone did wonder why, having gone to all the trouble to remove the old unsilenced I/C engine and go for a quiet electric unit, why then add the noise back??. The pic of the boat underway has the battery externally in the rear compartment whilst doing sonme tests. it runs at Warminster Model Boat Club, Wiltshire.
This Sea Comander was another disaster, rescued from fleabay a couple of years ago as a 50s/60s bare shell. Whilst the hull was basically sound, the model needed considerable surgery. I resisted the temptation to cover it in modern fittings and have kept it original looking. Power is an electric 800 motor on 12 volts with 2 channel 27Mhz R/C. Performance is reasonable, particularly as I have lightened the original internal structure considerably. A big 7AH battery lasts for ages but for speed I use a small 2.5AH one. Owner sails at Warminster Model Boat Club, Wiltshire.
Interesting thought. I don't think there was a specific finish and most of the advertisements I have seen for the kits in period were of course in black and white. The only consistency in the various advertisements appears to show the boat with very light colour (white?) hull sides and the cabin roofs in the same colour. Deck, windscreen surround, handrails and cabin sides are in a light wood finish. The lower hull colour is dark and I always assumed red or blue. Not much help I'm afraid but it does look good. Peter
These are the first shots of the first completed Crash Tender 94 made by Grahame Palmer to show the quality of Mike Cummings NEW 46inch. Kit. The kit took 1 year to make up and later I will send details of the Power set up we have chosen. Grahame Palmer. Phoenix Marine Model Club Surrey.
