Sad that their components will no longer be available - the geared motors sets - the outboard motors - propellers - shafts etc etc etc . All very useful items to say nothing of the kits they produced. Wonder how much the closure will affect the model aircraft fraternity?????????

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Definitely not only Korea - anyone for a Chow dog from China - wonder where it got its name ! Plus the Asian/Arab countries are largely responsible for the decline in the worlds Rhino population and the Chinese for Tigers & Lions which are used for medicine. Rhino poaching has got so bad they are even using helicopters .The Chinese are also behind the wholesale Abalone poaching here which is probably worth many million odd $US in value each year - totally decimating the natural stocks. Since virtually everything we buy nowadays is made in China or India how do we boycott without hurting ourselves ?
Even Jaguar and Land-Rover now belong to an Indian Company and the worlds steel production is largely controlled by Mittel an Indian company.....

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Have a photo of the buggy on my phone - bit too small though - will try and get the original from my son in Seattle - its candy apple red and pinstriped. At the moment it has its canopy on because of the rain so not at its best. Bit faded after 40years of course and has many scratches and dings - but it still goes . Still used on back-roads/tracks where you would not want a pristine vehicle........
Body was made locally - fibreglass of course - called a Badger.

Heres the small photo - just after it got stuck in the dunes - Range Rover trying to pull it out got stuck too.........

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Steve if you are going to build the Daphne as a static display any good copy shop can enlarge or decrease the size of the plan you have to suit your needs. Work out what % size you need and ask them to scan and print at that size. Even our local shop here has the ability to do so - they produced paper plans at 200% for a friend. You might also bear in mind that you possibly will want to sail the barges sometime in the future

Looking good Ron - suggest you try to find the metal (aluminum?) clamps (like the blue ones) - seem to be better made and much stronger than the plastic ones. Make sure you get the ones with the big foot though - the thin ones tend to dent the material. Definitely last much longer than plastic . Been using mine for over 10 years now - unfortunately on commercial jobs too! Does interfere with ones hobby time.........

Pity the poor novice modeler who has NO model shops or club nearby - how do you get advice other than on forums like this...........
The internet suppliers give specifications on their motors etc - but they don't give out information of the sort that it might suit a planing hull or a tug etc - and could not be expected to do so. Suppliers are also reluctant to stay on the phone too long understandably - and phone calls are expensive anyway.........
And we are trying to encourage newcomers to our hobby - sad really. Plus in this country now there is very little in the way of model boat items - what there is is very expensive and beyond the reach of a lot of people........

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At 1/67 it sounds a bit like the Will Everard kit that Billings produce. All comments are that its too small to sail well although there are some which do, however it seems only the experts get it right. The larger scale Nerys is suggesting is far better proposition for sailing and also avoids the "toy-like" motion of the small hull.
Nerys suggestion that you contact AMBO is a very good one - have spoken to them a few times at shows - very friendly & helpful.
You probably wont be able to find fittings at that scale in any event - I believe Billings no longer sell fittings either......

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Very nice car Cash - always did like Studebakers . The Hawks always drew admiration and a bit of envy in our little town. My dad owned a Commander when I was very young - traveled over 2000 miles (one way) on holiday every year in it .
Is the little blue soft-top next to the flamed hot-rod a Singer Gazelle? All in all a very interesting collection of cars. Nice Thunderbird.
I now only have a 40 year old ww2 Willys Jeep type bodied VW beach buggy - still fun though.
Looks like you had a good lot of toys collected too - make a lot of kids happy - as Nerys said its a very good thing to do.

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Looks pretty good Cash - almost be a shame to replace it . Its a standard 40mm Bofors - if you need drawings for more detail I have some which can be scanned for you.
Built in 67 for the Japanese Self Defence Force replacing the earlier PT 10 - 35m long and displaced 100tons (info came courtesy of Tamiya on the web !)

Hi Cash - is that a Stud. Silver Hawk ? Fellow in the town I grew up in had one - then traded it in on a Golden Hawk. Owned a Service Station (fuel & repairs) - had a full grown Leopard in a tiny cage on the premises as an attraction - thankfully was forced to hand over the Leopard for release into a Game Reserve........
Its a great thing you and your fellow members do - we have a group of bikers who do much the same thing for the little village of Stanford 20k odd away - many needy kids there. They ride out from Cape Town collecting toys and more bikers on the way - quite a sight to see almost a hundred bikers descend on a small village.......
Love the cars - always wanted a Hot Rod too........

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Hi Cash - pretty good so far - sure you will super detail it detail it in your usual style - as you say pity they did not use mouldings - but its a pretty old kit - first saw one in the 80's and Robbe probably felt there was no reason to update the kit.......

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Doug the Masai do actually have cellphones - one of a SA cellphone company's biggest customers is Kenya - they provide the towers etc and even in Mozambique you can buy a sim card at any old isolated store and connect quickly.
Not sure the Mongols don't either.............. They ride motor bikes a lot nowadays instead of horses & camels too...........

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Colin - hope you are better soon and getting back to the project - we really need to recruit new members into our hobby. (better half calls it my obsession......)
Was thinking its funny/strange that so many more bits are now available for model boaters plus a plethora of kits and RTR's - more and cheaper items in electronics than years ago and yet there are fewer and fewer of us.............

Doug I think Dodgy meant for Colin to look at the site so as to give a bit of guidance when needed - not for the kids to gawk at..............
Besides most of us now use the net to research things we want to know about, inspiration and the practical way of doing it.........
Its one of the things we do on this site - an exchange of ideas..........
The kids would use the net for projects for history, geography etc so why should they change their methods when building boats.......

Interesting that my own son who is in IT - who has been very much locked to screens for many years - now he has his own son is very much into practical things - and uses computers purely for work & communication.

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Very confusing when you have a MTB and a HSL with the same number. Which MTB/MGB was lost in a fire some years ago ? - thought it was 102 ?
Perhaps we are a little slacker here but its easy running in the harbour where you only have a very slight swell - and the 2nd harbour although its subject to small tides (does not dry out unlike some in the UK ) has a sandy beach and a few rocks/ramps to launch from - big enough to nearly run out of range on RC too - not enough people around to complain about noise etc either. Be ideal for running a large IC boat.......

JB try powdered charcoal - that's actually what produces the black smoke in gunpowder. it has to be crushed and powdered very well otherwise it will be "Soot gets on your eyes"

Marky you can always use the old trick of two micro switches operating from a servo to switch between the power batteries - giving you two speeds - not sure how you get reverse - sure Martin or Doug can produce a wiring diagram - that would save a few bob - keep the costs down..........Means you have to have two identical low voltage packs though.........

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As regards motors - have found lots in better halfs dead hairdryers - plenty of life left in the motors (usually 385 type)- old printers (not the modern types) . A trip to the local dump yields a surprising amount of useful items - you can always make a 2nd trip to discard the leftovers when you have extracted the motors etc. Old Fridges are a source of thin copper tube - no end to what you can find. Workers are usually friendly & helpful too I found when in the UK..........

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Agree with Martin Marky - get a minimum 4 channel - the VERY limited range of most of the Chinese type can be very frustrating and put you off RC - plus they don't usually have any speed control........simply forward & reverse.......
Howes always have a lot of RC sets on special - but make sure its one with a decent range . Ask at the time of purchase - dealers are honest and will tell if its limited range like the old T5 & T7's although a lot of model boaters like them...........They are usually OK as long as you don't sail almost out of sight.........
When you want to use it in another boat you can simply transfer the receiver + ESC and get another servo - they are cheap these days. Or if you are feeling flush you can buy another receiver etc as well.

Looking at the Howes Models advert in MB special 2019 they have 4 channel Transmitter plus Receiver starting at +-40quid (not sure of range - its a new Planet type) - mtronics esc's at 20quid - servos at 5quid...........
Their site is fairly user friendly and the prices seem to be good. others to try would be would be The Model Dockyard and Cornwall Model Boats . Hobby King is cheap too - but delivery can take a while unless its from the "UK" warehouse - mixed up deliveries are not unheard of either.........

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Looking forward to a blog on the Miami JB - be interesting to see how you do it - found a whole lot of articles on smoking your boat - if you wanted them can scan & send......Never know there might be a germ of an idea somewhere............now if only I can get around to my steam drifter with its smoke unit .......but beginning to feel like Christopher Robins shipwrecked sailor who never knew where to start and ended up just sitting ...........
Have parts cut/cutting for two off Dave Milbournes Faireys - one being for a friend who is the other person here remotely interested in model boats........as well as countless half finished projects which stalled for various reasons........
In the meantime need to finish 57 perspex trophies to keep the wolf from the door......

Do you water cool the motors JB? Used to have problems with my very old ESC's from Hi-Tec, with 400 motors they were running close to the limit of 10amps on 8.4v without blowing the fuses and causing intermittent glitches. Seeing as I can never seem to connect more than 2 wires without starting a fire went for the easy option and simply squeezed the silicon return tubes from the motors into the cooling fins . No more glitches...........
Still have to learn about these fancy modern esc's............Hopefully will be doing so in the new year when some goodies should arrive.

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"How about this great looking old tug"
Looks like it might have been an Apache (indian Tribes) class tug ?
Classic again - interesting history.

Have a book on Royal Navy tugs - but the one taken over by the Canadians and renamed Foundation Franklin is seemingly not listed at all. Although in her history author Farley Mowat clearly states that her original RN name (which escapes me at this moment ) was found on the builders plaque - which also gave the date of her build - no tugs of that class were listed in that year.........Strange

"How many people knew that Arthur Lowe (dads army etc) owned this beautiful yacht (Amazon)"
Thats more like it JB - classic lines - as you say a beautiful boat - wonder how he afforded it ?

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Try water cooling the esc's next time JB - easier than fans . So save el cheapo's for the next project and glue two short pieces of brass tubing to the casing's (even if its shrink wrap). Then u tube one side with silicone tube and other end in/out - so there you are grandmother..........
But it does work and no unnecessary electric drain............
Are the cheapo's not programmable at all ?
If you don't want them can always let you have my snail mail address...............
What makes you think Im tight........

"ex one of Larry Allisons -(Oracle) toys"

Orrible JB - a giant plastic bottle - would suit Oracle however - one of the most useless systems I have ever worked with - very expensive and could not do the work done by a system costing perhaps 5% of the price - totally overated

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You will be opening a beauty parlour soon JB ............. The ladies are always searching for softer skin & less wrinkles............
Beware of too much smoke inhalation JB - imagine what its doing to your lungs - remember the Elf & Softy rules.......

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Like your build Peter - first thought that you might have stolen my quality inspector - Willy even turns his head upside down checking on things to make sure they are correct - on a cold night a week ago he pulled my body-warmer off the back of a chair and inserted himself into it - you can see the resemblance !

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Agreed Nerys - problem is everything is so relatively expensive - probably costs many times more to renew the ships than their original cost - even allowing for inflation - and in this world bottom line seems to be - money is king.........and greed reigns.
Instead of renting houses for so called refugees at exorbitant prices and paying themselves exorbitant salaries & allowances politicians should also be helping to preserve some useful things for history...........

No comment jb!

Martin your story reminds me of one funny incident - which could have been disastrous.......
A Vampire T11 came back after a run to the bombing range with a hung up WW2 type 3" rocket with a 50lb concrete practice warhead - aircraft was left in the revetments facing the length of the runway slightly to one side of it as per regulations - an armourer climbed underneath to check the connections - sure enough what was called a pigtail lead had come loose . He reconnected it. Despite all rules which prevent other trades from working on any aircraft while armourers are busy on it an air electrician climbed into the cockpit and decided to test the firing circuit- as he did so said rocket took off........armourer leapt for safety.........A few unkind words were said..........
The rocket ran the length of the runway - across a main highway (which led to the PM's farm) and landed amidst a herd of dairy cows a few miles away............ fortunately no one or any animal was hurt BUT the lady farmer claimed compensation from the Air Force as as her cows did not give milk for a week.........