The black Amsterdam is mine, built in 2004 from the Artesania Latina kit. it is powered by a 545 motor through a pulley reduction drive, and the battery is a 6v, 10ah SLA.
The kit prop was replaced by a brass one. The yellow model belongs to Peter Barlow, a member of our club, and was built several years before mine. it is also an Artesania kit.
Our club, the Ballina RSL Club Marine Modellers, sail in a tidal salt water lake in Ballina, which is on the far north coast of NSW, Australia.
Peter Fitness.
Hi, I have just acquired one of these tug boats. it is in need of some restoration. Do you know of any where I can get a copy of plans for this model please. I have been in touch with the manufactures and they basically said they have nothing for this Amsterdam model so it looks like it is going to be a job and half to restore it but it will be done.
This kit model of the seagoing tug Happy Hunter was started in 1983 by a friend of mine. Finding it too difficult, he let it lie until 2006 when he asked my son and I to build it.
After 219 hours work it is finished and sailing. it is powered by two 545 motors and a single speed controller and has 15 working lights, radar, bow thruster and crane, all of which operate. it is a real beauty, and I see Robbe have just brought out a new H H kit.
Pete
A very nice build of a great kit by Robbe. I finished mine last June and submitted a build log on our club website: shipmodelers.com for those who are struggling with details of building one.
DrRon
W165 was built by Roger Forlines, he's a member of Shelton Scale Ship Modelers R/C boat club.
This boat took six months to build and is to Scale as laid down by model manufacture, the boat was weathered to depict a long voyage on the north seas.
Also, the Jim Wilder tug, this took four months to build and has been built to look like a turn of the century steam tug which worked the San Fransisco bay area.
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.
It is a Sirmar limited edition (100) semI kit at 1/48 scale and some 6 feet in length. When he bought the model it was already constructed, but as a static model. So out came the jigsaw, Manual NOT powered.
The deck around the aft gun turret was cut to allow a good inspection of the inside of the hull. He tried to remove the bridge superstructure but this would have meant destroying it to remove. Out came the jigsaw again and cut an access hatch in the main deck.
The steering servo was fitted and attached ( by keyhole surgery ) and 2 x MFA 800 motors were fitted. Scale Prop Shop Props were fitted and the radio gear just jury rigged for her first trial. She was roughly ballasted with 2 x 12volt 7Ah batteries and she was ready for her first trials.
She sailed well with no water ingress to the hull, so the radio gear was installed properly with individual speed controllers to each motor. The results are as seen here.
The Sea Queen is an original Aerokits kit from the early 1960's. it was built by my Dad in the early 1960's. it was originally fitted with an ED Seaotter, next it had a Channel island Special, then a 15cc Gannett and finally fitted with the OS 80 which it still has fitted today.
I sail at King Lear Lake at Watermead County Park in Wanlip Leicestershire. it sat in my attic for 22 years and 2 years ago I dragged it out and gave it a bit of TLC and started to use it again and it has been ran most weekends for the last 2 years.
I ran this boat virtually all day of the Burton Model Boat Club's Fireboat day in September 2006. it is currently in dry dock having a full de-barnacle and repaint.
The hull of this model was my own design in 2004 and was sailed for 2 years, and then a new upper decks and battery system were added during the winter of 2005. The hull performed well enough but my original cabin design was too crude to keep.
The boat shown here depicts my effort to copy a 1958 ChrisCraft Cabin Cruiser at a scale of 1" = 1'.
The hull is 1/8" thick pine planks on frames with hand cut Walnut decking and 3/16" Walnut cabin sides. No epoxy or glass was used on the hull - just a good paint job.
The big change was to replace a bulky & heavy 12VDC leac acid battery with 9 AA dry cells connected in series. Bathtub testing indicated I could expect about 2 hours running time at full speed and that estimate was about right. A Dumas 12VDC motor and mechanical speed control were used with a JR XR 2 control.
The reduction in battery weight made a very large speed and appearance difference. Availability of the AA cells was an economic plus.
"BOO BOO Kitty" is a scale model of a Crosby designed Cape Cod Cat Boat.[USA] it was built from scratch at a scale of 9.04" = 1"; the model being 26.5" oal.
The dimensions were taken from a book that highly detailed the building of a real Cat Boat.
The hull is plank-on-frame with epoxy and glass cloth as the final surface. A separate and detachable fin keel was used for sailing of the centerboard model.
Radio controls were a Hitec sail winch [HS-785HB] and one servo for the rudder with a 2 channel JR transmitter.
Copying the book plans, scaling them down, and construction took up the winter of 2006/2007. The model is sailing better than anticipated on a local lake in Langhorne, Pennsylvania.