Lew!
So many thanks for taking the time to take these pix! They are FANTASTIC and will inspire me to get on the stick and get my rigging done!!!!!!!
A definite shot in the arm. Please congratulate Jim on his beautiful "museum scale" build!
🤞😀

Ron! She's a beauty and an inspiration for my "Svea" after the tug is done! Thanks for posting these shots, the blue is very eye-catching.
👍😊

Doug!!!
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Yessir Ed!
They are all going full bore for the K-7's run during the Coniston Week celebrations starting on Monday the 11th.

Ian Lazenby, the son of Ernie, who pulled together the first turbine powered K-7 has an excellent video on the Bluebird supporters page as well. I wish I could have managed a turbine for mine, but could not justify the cost, not to mention my total lack of experience with turbines.

Unfortunately I have run into a problem with the Traxxas ESC on the K-7 so I it's going back to Traxxas soon for replacement. This seems to be an issue with them. It's infuriating!

Bet getting back to Coniston Week, it is rumored that the K-7 will try a "speed run." What that means is anyone's guess. This is a touchy subject as the engineers that salvaged and rebuilt the K-7 and the Ruskin Museum folks who own it don't see eye-to-eye on anything. I am not sure if the engineering team are even involved these days.
It will be interesting!

RN!
Although I've never worked with her in my Hollywood days, Some of my friends have. She's pretty tough and not a "walk-in-the-park." She'll give the U26 and the Hotspur a mighty fight, especially if you are serving the wrong yogurt and seltzer!!!!!
😂😂😂😂

You Guys are the BEST!!!!!
👍😊

Hello Me Hearties!

Moving along on the Brooklyn tug with a base coat on the hull and then I framed up and skinned the main cabin pilot house. Fairly straight forward builds, but as usual there were a few problems with fit, especially on the pilot house, but after all it's a Dumas kit. LOL!

However, I will most likely ditch the pilot house and replace it with a slightly different kit-bashed one from a NY Central railroad tug of the same time period. It's a tug I remembered from when I was young and my mom subjected me to going to see movie musicals. In this case I did remember Barbara Streisand taking a ride on a NY Central tug in "Funny Girl" (1968) while she belted out "Don't Rain On My Parade!" Pix attached.
Fortunately, I was able to find a set of old McCandless plans of a Moran tug with the same pilot house. I'll give it a shot.
😊

It's amazing the stuff that leaves an imprint on our brains when we are kids. In this case it was the tug and not Barbara. But, I laughed out loud when my wife suggested that I get someone to 3D print me a 1:32 (54mm) Streisand figure!
😉😂

Wonderful pix Dave!!!

They reminded me about a cantankerous old fella who lived across the street from me when I was a kid, "Crazy" George Swenson, who was a builder for Bertram Yachts. He became one of their greatest craftsmen and after a time his reputation grew so great that buyers would ask if it was a "Swenson" build.

After he retired from Bertram and moved across the street he became a foreman in the home construction industry. I was told that developers would ask George to estimate a lumber supplies list for a home build and when the build was done all that would be left when construction was complete would be a 2 foot 2" x 4."
Waste not want not.

My favorite personal experiences with George was when my Dad purchased a 22 foot Bertram runabout. But, whenever he wanted to work on the boat George would run out of his house and scream at my father about all things he was doing wrong! It was certainly a learning experience and the foundation for my love of wooden boats!!!!!
👍😉

Great build Norm!!!!!!!

A ghostly pack of coyotes patrolling my boss’s yard caught on my game camera not too long ago. It’s unusual to see them traveling in packs in suburbia, barely 40 miles from New York City!

Nooooooooooo!!!!!!! But, a very worthy recovery all the same Ronald!

It's like the old saying from my flying days...

"Do you want to see a grown man cry?"

"C'mon down to the local flying field."

😜😂

Hello Friends!
Well, in addition to getting our lake cabin re-opened this weekend, with help from the young ones (for the first damn time!), I was able to get some positive work done on the tug.

I was able to move along and get the rub rails installed, which was fairly easy. Then the fantail, which was not so easy, but fun. And then I started the removable cabin rough-in, which was straight forward in the more traditional stick-build style. The cabin roof on the real boat was steel so I'll dispense with a planking there and figure out a rivet plan to scribe onto the PVC if I can find adequate documentation.

So far, I am enjoying this build. More to follow.
👍

Welcome back Roy!!!!
👍😊

An America's Cup 12-meter style pond racing yacht; seems to be a circa 1950's design. There are members here that can be more precise. If someone goes to all the trouble to put it in a glass case it's a winner. What ever you do, don't get rid of it! Send more pix!!!!
👍😉😁

Agreed Ronald. In my rc airplane days we'd call a kit like this an ARF: almost ready to fly.
I am saving my next intensive build-up plank-on-frame for the large Nordic Class SVEA trawler kit.
I wanted to grab this particular tug as the detail work from deck up will keep me occupied. Also, the fact that it is discontinued and hard to find also made me jump at it. Kit bashing details like the deck is its own reward.
😉

Sharp work Cash! Gotta love those window frames! It's going to be a tough looking boat.
👍😉

Hello Matey's!
Pushing ahead with the deck applied, the bulwarks installed and the cap rails glued down. She's starting to look like a real ship.
Rub rails await...
😉

Well Done Men!!!!! Love this website!!!!!!
👍😊

Excellent workmanship Nick! Coming along beautifully!
👍

Whoa!!! Awesome stuff! Tasks for posting this Ed! I have to up my game!
😉😊

Good Morning Gang!
Fate would sequester me in my shop and with a sudden late day rush of adrenaline that carried me into the night I decided to tackle my own wood deck for the tug.

I used a rapid method that had always worked for me and was very much a trial and error experiment when I started building models way back in the day. Over time I found this type of work rewarding, especially when it is even moderately successful. I suspect it is not new to you all.
In the end the dimensions are pretty scale for a 1:32 boat, but the actual result is shall we say, stand-off scale. Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't. Let's see.

First I traced the deck plan onto some brown paper over foam core and put that on a board and set it aside. I then took a mountain of 1/8" x 1/8" x 36" balsa strip and tightly pinned them onto another piece of foam core. Out came the spray paint and I hit the exposed side of the balsa strips with a flat black. The hope being that it will mimic the tar/pitch seams of the deck boards.
Once dry I and got to pinning them on the plan; which now had wax paper over it.

And we're off to the races..every 4 or 5 boards I'd run some thin CA on the seams and move on. Once I got going I couldn't stop. Why you may ask? 1) because I was motivated to push through and 2) because my oldest daughter was using the main floor of the house (and all the wifi we had) doing a live radio play online. She's an actress.
In essence, I was banished to my shop not to be heard from for 2 hours.
😂

I used the time wisely, I think. I used every minute of that two hours.

When fully cured I will sand it smooth and scribe the deck with faux plank joins and nail holes and then stain it. I think the magic worked this time. I'll take a breather for a day and start to plan out my next moves. Well, actually I have to get my daughter back to New York City, cut the grass and watch the Masters.
👍😁

Chug!
I have some New York Central decals set aside somewhere! 😉

Well my friends, I've gone and done it again.
Through some dumb luck I stumbled upon a reasonably priced discontinued bucket-list kit that I've always had my eyes on and took the plunge. Even a blind squirrel finds a nut once in a while! The Dumas Brooklyn Tug was one of their best kits and much to my surprise it came with a very strong set of directions...unusual for Dumas in my humble opinion.

Be that as it may, it's a large (40 inches) and quite a beautiful kit. The version I was lucky enough to find was the final version before Dumas dropped it. The first version (I understand) from way back in the day was meant to be a plank- on-frame build. But it seems Dumas felt it would not sell well, not to mention the wood production problems it would incur. So they engineered a fiberglass hull that became highly prized to builders. My version is the last version with a PVC hull.

The hull is nice, but the two hull molds come with a ton of excess PVC and feel like wobbly bathtub parts coming out of the box. Very worrisome to start, as cutting the mold flanges away was not a simple task, no to mention Bondo and a ton of sanding...yes, with mask on and vacuum at the ready.
Next came a heavy inner fiberglass keel inlay, an addition PVC skeg support. Then an outer long false keel is installed with the stuffing box installation...more Bondo and sanding. Uggh.

Worrisome or not, the instructions have a tongue-and-cheek feel about them as the writer and engineers slip in comments like "no need to worry" and "now don't panic!"
Sheesh!!!!

So, after a couple of days of bitching and worry I managed to get the two halves joined and on the stand.
The next issue is the PVC deck with the basswood supports. The joining of these two deck halves was not the "issue," but the total lack of wood decking aggravated me. I want a more scale appearance, so I have to have a planked deck! As a result of my own needs I lowered the deck supports 1/8th of an inch to accommodate my planking. I did a scale deck test shot to get an idea of what I'm after.

Believe or not, the PVC hull will not be fully "true" until you squeeze the deck halves with the bass cross-members into it.
I know, it's weird.
So I will trace the deck shape onto paper and do my planking as a side project to begin this weekend. Call me crazy, but my instinct is pushing me in that direction. I am going to give it a go.

My wife, Mary is like, "Where are you going to put that one?" "In the water!" I shoot back, "then on the mantle, because it's going to be a like museum scale!" Don't you get it?" I think she's glad I have this hobby...it keeps me from pestering her for other things.
😉 😂

Onwards and upwards and more to follow.

Best -- Guy

Whoa! Awesome Start Nick!!!!!
👍😉

Thanks so much for the enjoyment of letting us follow this build Alessandro! Tis' a Beautiful Ship and obviously a labor of love! And we look forward to your next build!!! CHEERS!!!!!!!!!

Black Shoe!!!!!!
👍😊

Dang Cash!!! You're flying through it! A great looking boat and a tip-top build!
👍😀

Whoa! Chug!!!!!!!
These are amazing! Good digging! I dunno Chug, but you may have out-scaled the real thing! Great workmanship!
👍😂😂😂

Still much to do especially with sorting the Traxxas drivetrain and electronics, but getting there. I foolishly just started the big Brooklyn Tug too, so lost in the shop these days. Too many projects, but love keeping the brain working!
👍😉

Ross! Watch out for the "chain-shot"!!!!!!

😉😂😂😂