Members Harbour
1 Photo
6 Likes
Marblehead
Built in the early 70's and then refurbished during the Covid lockdown
DuncanP
2 years ago
1 Attribute
1 Photo
16 Likes
Aerokits Fireboat
I built it around 1968 and then refurbished the model during the Covid lockdown. Just recently added a working fire monitor.
DuncanP
2 years ago
5 Attributes
4 Photos
25 Likes
Truly
My wife bought me this kit for my 70th and I spent 2 years and 2 months building her to launch date. Since then added a planked cockpit floor. This was my 1st plank on frame build.
DuncanP
2 years ago
5 Attributes
Recent Posts
๐ฌ Re: Chris Craft 63' Connie
1 month ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Looks great. Well done!
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๐ Sailing Robbe Smaragd
1 month ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Pardon my ignorance but what is a blister please?
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๐ Question of the Day?
1 month ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Likewise Roy!!
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๐ Do you recognize this ship or have you ever seen it?
1 month ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Lovely pictures!
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๐ฌ Re: Todays buy. Neptun
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Still sounds a bargain though!๐
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๐ฌ Re: Launch Day - Day 9
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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No Grandad got to finish the fizz!
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๐ Final launch day
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Launch Day - Day 9
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Day 8 Nearing the end !
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Hand Painting
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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I have first used two coats of sanding sealer then 2 coats of Quick Dry Rustin's primer undercoat and finish with Humbrol enamel. The primer undercoat is available in 250ml cans and Humbrol enamel in 50ml can. I have chosen these products because they are available in small quantities. The inside of the hull I've painted with epoxy finishing resin. Overall I think the finish is good especially since I haven't got anywhere to spray without damaging surrounding areas with fine clouds of spray!๐
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๐ Day 7 Putting side skins on
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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This was a bit of a challenge. I don't know where we went wrong but we couldn't get the bow sides to meet when trying to make sure the side skins also went upto the transom sides. In the end we put a tapered fillet into the bow and then finished with epoxy putty. We used temporary brass pins to secure and had to resort to using a bit of cyno glue on places. Once the glue was dry we coated inside the hull with epoxy resin. We put 2 coats of sanding sealer on the outside of the hull sides.
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๐ Day 5 and Day 6
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Day 4 of the build
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Not the most productive day! One problem after another! I found my extra length 6mm drill bit for the prop shaft wasn't long enough. So I have now ordered a 300mm length 6.5 mm drill bit from Amazon and hoping this will do the job. I think before fitting the prop shaft strengthening pieces I should have marked exactly where the prop shaft started to enter the hull. I had marked the exit fortunately but trying to get the correct angle wasn't easy to calculate. I also found that 6mm hole for the 6mm shaft was too tight a fit hence 6.5mm. We also made up the engine boxes as per the instructions as a separate entity. When we came to fit them the tabs wouldn't line up. Fortunately the Aliphatic glue hadn't fully set so we were able to pull them apart. We then fitted one of the boxes in situ which I think will be a better way for anyone else building this kit in the future. We managed to get the front cabin roofs in place and will now have to wait until tomorrow to do the rear cabin roofs. We lost the morning today because I had to fill in at the last minute on a Guide Dog Fund Raising event with our Guide Dog Puppy. Then this afternoon we had a field booked for a free run for the puppy!
Hopefully tomorrow we will make more progress but time seems to be evaporating quickly to get it finished for next Wednesday!! ๐
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๐ Day 3 of build
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Today the cabin front was glued in place after chamfering the edges to get a reasonable fit. We made a temporary cradle to hold the hull upright which we made from some leftover ply cut outs from the Riva Aquarama kit.
The bottom skins were glued in place. This was rather tricky with the bending to shape, so I helped my grandson with this task. We resorted to using some brass nails and wide masking tape to hold the skins in place. The brass nails will be removed once the glue has dried.
Final job tonight was to glue the two halves of the side skins together and these will be left to dry overnight. The same procedure was done last night with the bottom skins.
Also my grandson assembled the rear cockpit well which will be glued to the rest of the cabin structure tomorrow.
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๐ FLYING Christine II
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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This is a build of a HA-Kits Flying Christine II which is a model of the St. John's Ambulance service boat which is used to take patients from the Isle of Guernsey (UK) for treatment elsewhere - probably with more facilities! I'm getting my nearly twelve year old grandson to build it with just guidance from myself and I assisted with cutting of the tabs off the laser cut parts on the thicker plywood. We need to get the younger generation interested in our great hobby!
The box contains all the plywood laser cut parts on varying thicknesses of plywood. In addition there is a bag of plastic window frames and plastic window inserts. There is no propeller shaft, rudder or other bits to complete the model.
Construction so far seems to be fairly straight forward and it is something that my grandson is enjoying doing. It is the first model of any kind that he has built.
As he doesn't live near us he is here for just 10 days and we hope to get it completed by the time he goes home. The kit says use thick and thin cyno or Aliphatic glue. I have chose to use Aliphatic so we don't get little fingers stuck together! It will be slower but hope to speed up the process by starting building the cabin whilst the hull is fully curing before adding the skins - the order laid out in the instruction.
BEWARE when initially gluing both halves of the deck together it says you may strengthen the joint by gluing some scrap on the back of the joint. We unfortunately chose a piece about 2mm too long so later in the build it came into contact with one of the bulkheads - so we had to trim it back!
The only other thing was the instructions didn't clearly mention gluing two of the cabin bulkheads together to make one. After a bit of thought and looking at the cabin layout it became obvious that C2 and C3 needed to be first glued together. Having said that when attaching to the cabin frame C3 follows C1 (as one part) and C2 is then before C4!
Make sure you use plenty of masking tape to ensure that the cabin structure doesn't get glued onto the deck! See photos
So this is where we are at the end of Day 2 - more to follow!
Apologies in that the photos are not in the correct sequence!
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๐ฌ Re: Tippecanoe T37 Build
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Looking forward to seeing some photos!
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๐ฌ Re: "Sailor Sam"
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Amazing animated sailors! The chap smoking made me laugh. Well done everyone - superb
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๐ ESC For Twin Screwed Boats
2 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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On my current build which has two motors I have 2 x ESC's combined with a W-Tail mixer. The W tail mixer assists with steering as it speeds up one prop when turning and also controls the rudder where as I believe a V-Tail mixer doesn't control the rudder. The MTroniks one that I have will also handle 3 screws if required.
https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/mtroniks_wtail.html |
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๐ Getting near to completion
3 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Where do you build your models?
3 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Have you got some inside photos please?๐
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๐ฌ Re: June 25 2025
3 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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I'm impressed with your instrument panel! How did you create it please?
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๐ฌ Re: Tank test
3 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Thank you Alessandro! I really appreciate your comments especially coming from such an accomplished model boat builder as yourself. It's taking a long time but it's getting there slowly. Thanks again๐
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๐ Tank test
3 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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After our Guide Dog puppy had finished having fun cooling off in a pet pool, I took the opportunity to have the first floating test of the motor sailor Bruma
All the radio gear, battery, motors, servo and winch were in place and I was very pleased with how she floated level. Pool is not deep enough to test with the detachable keel attached. That will be for another time. Initially I will just sail as a motor sailor and then try with sails on. Still lots to do before ready for maiden voyage! ๐
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๐ฌ Re: Made some progress!
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Hi Ronald. No I'm planning to have it either running on the motors or sailing under full sail. I spent a lot of time working out how to arrange a removable keel and also planning how to get two motors, battery and a winch into the small space! Then recently I had to think how to get the electrics safely stored away. Roy recommended using two motors rather than a single one mentioned in the kit which has a gear box because apparently this version is very noisy. We also discussed keel arrangements. It is going to be a lot of trial and error! Initially I will only sail it on the motors and then do the sails later but at least everything will be in place for conversion to sail! Hope this answers your query. Cheers Duncan ๐
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๐ฌ Re: Made some progress!
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Roy - Alessandro mentioned about heat dissipation. I've used those cheap ESC's you recommended. From your experience have you found whether they generate much heat? There are two of them in one plastic container and the other plastic box contains the W-tail mixer and receiver - plus lots of spare wiring!
Any thoughts please?
Cheers
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๐ Edina Model Yacht Club "Parade of Boats" 2025
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Yes, I agree with Roy, extremely impressive! Fabulous photos and an impressive crowd of onlookers. Thanks for sharing.๐๐
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๐ Made some progress!
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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๐ Has anyone built the HA-Kits Flying Christine II Ambulance? boat
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Thank you Pete for you advice.
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๐ Has anyone built the HA-Kits Flying Christine II Ambulance? boat
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Thank you to Rookysailor and Peewit83 for your advice. I was at the rather wet show in Bury and that is where I bought the kit. I did speak to Paul but I just wanted some other ideas rather than using LIPOs and brushless motors. Useful to hear about fitting the transom after putting the servo in. I do have a small 15gm servo which from Roy's advice will probably be big enough. I just thought if it is mounted flat on the keel (as per an earlier photo) if the servo fails for any reason it will be easier to replace rather than one tucked up in the corner.
Was it the bending of the skins which was a problem when fitting?
Thanks guys D
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๐ Has anyone built the HA-Kits Flying Christine II Ambulance? boat
4 months ago by
๐ฌ๐ง DuncanP (

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Hi Roy, yes it is shoehorned into a tiny space. I think it would have to be fitted before the decking is applied! I've seen another solution in which the servo is installed on it's side along the keel.๐
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