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Graupner Taucher Wulf-an ongoing drama

Hi y’all. Just over a year ago a I sold off some of my hobby stash and decided to use the funds for more hobby stuff😁 The Taucher Wulf kit from Graupner caught my eye, and I thought it would be a fun build..boy was I wrong! To be fair, at the time I bought the Wulf my only scale type boat was a Krick Felix and a Robbe San Remo that I had built in the early 90s, and again a few years ago. I knew nothing of ballast as the boats I had built besides the aforementioned were race type boats, and if you said “geared motor” to me then I’m thinking of a Robbe or Graupner surface drive for fast electrics..but I felt confident in my abilities to build the Taucher. I knew that Graupner had been bought out and production move to Asia, and that the manuals weren’t quite up to snuff as I had just completed a Micro Magic from their latest production run, so I figured I could handle the build. Now as far as the kit goes, it’s pretty nice. The hull and fwd deck are one piece and molded from fiberglass and primered. The fittings and parts looked decent, and there was a lot of brass and plastic rod plus laser and die cut parts. The real problem with the Taucher is the manual and plans. There are a lot of exploded views, but very little, if any verbiage, no mention of ballast at all, no measurements, nothing. No recommendations for batteries or any idea or mounts for the batteries. The hatch is a little bigger than a large cell phone, which gives very little room to access , and it’s location leaves you no room between just aft of the motor and the rudder. In short, it’s frustrating, especially since it’s touted as an “easy build up” kit. So, halfway thru the build I shelved it before it became a Viking funeral boat. I built 2 more boats in the past year, the Neptun and a Springer tug, and I learned a lot from both of them, so I pulled the Taucher from it’s hiding spot and began anew. I will post some pics from last year, then I’ll post the most recent. I made some changes that would have been much,much easier earlier in the build, so they had to be done..so some of the pics are rather graphic and not for the squeamish🤣 Anyway, here we go, anybody with any good info on these kits feel free to chime in. Cash

5 years ago by Cashrc