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Model Boats Website
Liked (Naval Ship) MTB741 Fairmile D 6 years ago
Liked Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build 6 years ago
Liked Education 6 years ago
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Liked Just getting started 6 years ago
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📝 Does anybody recognise this?
2 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy (
Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 40 Views · 1 Like
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As I mentioned in an earlier post Sarik Hobbies have a plan for the Grand Banks schooner but buying plans to see if they match could get expensive! I seem to recall that there was also a kit available for this particular vessel many years ago in the 20th Century or is that just an old man’s imagination 🤔. Anyway, best of luck with what sounds like a tricky restoration
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peewit
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📝 Does anybody recognise this?
2 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 77 Views · 1 Like
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It is on the Sarik website although the pictures aren’t great but the Hull is quite a distinctive shape and definitely very similar - I have the advantage of a couple of copies of the Plans Handbooks from the 20th century with better illustrations!
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dave976
📝 Does anybody recognise this?
2 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 79 Views · 1 Like
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At first glance it looks like the Grand Banks Schooner (plan no. MM962 from Sarik Hobbies) - at least the rig looks correct for that.
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dave976
📝 Lest we Forget
2 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 41 Views · 6 Likes
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Absolutely-we owe them a great deal of thanks for the safe secure lives that we have now. Today I remember my great uncle, Able Seaman Albert Hunt and all the crew, who were killed in HM S/M E3, the very first British submarine to be lost to enemy action in October 1914. RIP
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📝 Vic Smead? Vosper RAF RTTL 2754 Restoration
3 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 84 Views · 1 Like
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A video sounds a great idea - looking forward to seeing it. Best of luck with the restoration.
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Scratchbuilder
📝 Vic Smead? Vosper RAF RTTL 2754 Restoration
3 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 90 Views · 2 Likes
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Very interested to see this boat mentioned as it is one that I began building in the 1960's (until A levels intervened). I had intended to fit it with the water-cooled Allen-Mercury AM35 diesel that I had at the time but although the hull was done the engine was never installed - one of those many unfinished projects which I still seem to accumulate!🤔 The plan, MM530, is still available from Sarik Hobbies if anyone is interested in making a start as it is a nice little boat! I found Vic Smeed's designs were always great to build and I did actually finish his E boat (then sold it to a friend!).
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Martin555
📝 Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build
5 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 25 Views · 3 Likes
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Nothing really to add to the above conversations, but here are three pictures of a superbly detailed MTB variant dog boat that was exhibited at last weekend's London Model Engineering Exhibition. Unfortunately I don't have the details of which club stand it was on or who the builder was - perhaps someone knows as he deserves some recognition. I still haven't made a start on my D as Miranda is still a work in progress (very slow progress!) and my model engineering activities are taking most of my time.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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Joe727
📝 Thames Steam Launch "Miranda"
5 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 22 Views · 0 Likes
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Just in case anybody wondered, I am still alive (!) but have had a very busy couple of months. What with the birth of a 5th grandchild, the baptism of my only granddaughter plus plenty of gardening and additions to my collection of bearded iris there has been llittle time for model engineering or building Miranda’s hull, although the engine is more or less complete and just about running on compressed air. Oh the joys of being retired - no time to do anything!
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📝 wood glue
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 0 Likes
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It claims to be waterproof and I have no reason to doubt that it is. This pic is of my rather old bottle but it still works fine.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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📝 wood glue
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 9 Views · 1 Like
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Hi dennisw - I use both Titebond 3 (green label) and the Aliphatic Sandable Wood Glue which I get from Cornwall Model Boats (not the first plug I have given them but no connection, just a very satisfied customer). it is described as "quick grab, excellent sanding, shock & weather resistant, bonds porous materials, ply, balsa and hardwoods, non-toxic and non-fuming". So far it has not let me down. Best of luck with your build.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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Donnieboy
📝 Old ships
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 0 Likes
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Try Sarik Hobbies (www.sarikhobbies.com) they list nearly 1300 boat plans including the xplans you mention. I think a lot of these are the ones listed in the old MAP (Model & Allied Publications) catalogues but I don’t remember any of the names in your list. Anyway good hunting.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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📝 A little progress...
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 27 Views · 6 Likes
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Slow progress recently, partly due to snow(!) but also because I have had some engineering to catch up on. Anyway, I have cut and fitted but not completed shaping the bow and stern blocks, fitted the prop shaft and fabricated the rudder assembly. This was silver soldered using a little piece of 3mm silver steel and sheet and channel brass. Yes, the keel looks a bit of a mess in this area but I am going to cover the ply with mahogany veneer to match the planking when I have completed that, and of course it will all be painted below the water-line. I also made a rough cradle to keep the boat steady while working on it - to be replaced with a posh one when everything is done!
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Colin H
📝 Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 17 Views · 0 Likes
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Further to the above post I have just received this book which I bought on Ebay - superb scale detail of lots of dog boats including colour references etc and MGB 658 is one of the boats featured. Also apologies to the memory of L.C. Reynolds (‘Elsie’ as we knew him at school, and I bet he knew it too!) as I forgot to mention his OBE.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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📝 Education
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 1 Like
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Hi Colin
As you might have seen from another of my posts on this forum, I also had a teacher with a WW2 naval background. When the new head arrived in the mid 1960's we knew he had won a DSC but not what for. Only after I had left school and my mother gave me a copy of one of his books, which she had got him to autograph, did I find out. He had been on MGB's during the latter part of the war, on MGB658 where he rose from navigating officer to Captain before the war ended. "Motor Gunboat 658" is a cracking good read, as are his 3 other books on the coastal forces in WW2. His name was LC Reynolds and you can read his obituary here:
As you might have seen from another of my posts on this forum, I also had a teacher with a WW2 naval background. When the new head arrived in the mid 1960's we knew he had won a DSC but not what for. Only after I had left school and my mother gave me a copy of one of his books, which she had got him to autograph, did I find out. He had been on MGB's during the latter part of the war, on MGB658 where he rose from navigating officer to Captain before the war ended. "Motor Gunboat 658" is a cracking good read, as are his 3 other books on the coastal forces in WW2. His name was LC Reynolds and you can read his obituary here:
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RNinMunich
📝 Wanted 4 bladed brass propeller
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 10 Views · 1 Like
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Cornwall Model Boats have 55mm M4 four bladed brass by Raboesch in both right hand and left hand
www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk
www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk
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reilly4
📝 Fairmile D 1/24 Scale Build
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 18 Views · 1 Like
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Hi Andy
I am interested to read about your plans for a dog boat as I am thinking of doing the same (when my Thames steam launch is eventually finished....!). One reason that I am considering this is that my headmaster, when I was at Maidenhead Grammar School in the 1960's, was a former skipper of MGB 658 and I am lucky enough have autographed copies of two of his books. "Motor Gunboat 658" is a fascinating read if you haven't already come across it, as is "Dog Boats at War" with plenty of useful information and photographs - just two of the books by Len Reynolds DSC. (He rose from Navigating Officer to Captain during the war in the Mediterranean theatre and served on MGB 658 from its commissioning in 1943 to the war's end.) Apologies by the way if you already know all this!
Two questions if you don't mind - are you going to do a complete scratchbuild from plans or complete a fibreglass hull, and which/whose plans are you using? This may help my own decisions later on. I have seen that there are plenty of the appropriate weapons in 1/24th scale on the Deans website which should make life easier with the fiddly bits!
Very best wishes with the build.
Smiffy
I am interested to read about your plans for a dog boat as I am thinking of doing the same (when my Thames steam launch is eventually finished....!). One reason that I am considering this is that my headmaster, when I was at Maidenhead Grammar School in the 1960's, was a former skipper of MGB 658 and I am lucky enough have autographed copies of two of his books. "Motor Gunboat 658" is a fascinating read if you haven't already come across it, as is "Dog Boats at War" with plenty of useful information and photographs - just two of the books by Len Reynolds DSC. (He rose from Navigating Officer to Captain during the war in the Mediterranean theatre and served on MGB 658 from its commissioning in 1943 to the war's end.) Apologies by the way if you already know all this!
Two questions if you don't mind - are you going to do a complete scratchbuild from plans or complete a fibreglass hull, and which/whose plans are you using? This may help my own decisions later on. I have seen that there are plenty of the appropriate weapons in 1/24th scale on the Deans website which should make life easier with the fiddly bits!
Very best wishes with the build.
Smiffy
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Donnieboy
📝 Ranking System
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 0 Likes
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Excellent - especially love the new style insignia.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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📝 Thames Steam Launch "Miranda"
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 24 Views · 2 Likes
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1st phase complete - keel plus frames and the slot for the stern tube cut and dowelled back together. Now about to cut the bow and stern blocks and begin the hull planking - a skin of 0.4mm ply and mahogany planks on top.
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Colin H
figtree7nts
📝 Ranking System
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 1 Like
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How about dropping the military and Air Force ranks ( sergeant major, warrant officer and squadron leader , but I don’t want to upset the Marines!) and replace at the top with 1st, 2nd and 3rd Sea Lord. As a very new member of the forum it seems to me that some members have been contributing for a very long time and deserve more promotion. By the way, the correct British naval rank for the current top rank is Admiral of the Fleet, is it not.
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RNinMunich
📝 Education
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 8 Views · 0 Likes
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And I have just remembered after posting the above that the waterline models were 1/1200 scale. I am sure I will be corrected in any case! What a strange thing the brain is....
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📝 Education
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
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We hear a lot these days about encouraging the younger generation into pastimes such as model boats and model engineering and probably these issues have always been a topic for gloomy discussion. The very fact that we are still at it probably gives the lie to the gloomiest predictions. Anyway, this train of thought was brought about by a discovery in a dark corner of my workshop:
Many years ago (in a different life) I was involved in primary education and following a BBC schools tv series on Nelson and naval history the class project developed into one about ships and all things naval. One group was fascinated by sailing ships after we had visited both HMS Victory and the Mary Rose ( still lying on her side then) and inspired by some drawings of different rigs in a Model Boats Scale Special they made some simple models to illustrate them. This is what I found, along with an Airfix HMS Manxman and two of those superb 1/700 (?) waterline models, of HMS Hood and the Bismarck, these three made by me to add to the display. These pictures show all these items which have survived years tucked away among the junk in the garage! The sail models were simply made with balsa, dowel, cotton and cartridge paper for sails, and some had even started to acquire rigging and staysails before the term ended. This all happened many years ago and I have been retired from teaching for 20 years, but I can still remember the names of all the different rigs, despite never having been a sailor - I hope it inspired some of the class into modelling, if not getting involved in the real thing.
Smiffy
Many years ago (in a different life) I was involved in primary education and following a BBC schools tv series on Nelson and naval history the class project developed into one about ships and all things naval. One group was fascinated by sailing ships after we had visited both HMS Victory and the Mary Rose ( still lying on her side then) and inspired by some drawings of different rigs in a Model Boats Scale Special they made some simple models to illustrate them. This is what I found, along with an Airfix HMS Manxman and two of those superb 1/700 (?) waterline models, of HMS Hood and the Bismarck, these three made by me to add to the display. These pictures show all these items which have survived years tucked away among the junk in the garage! The sail models were simply made with balsa, dowel, cotton and cartridge paper for sails, and some had even started to acquire rigging and staysails before the term ended. This all happened many years ago and I have been retired from teaching for 20 years, but I can still remember the names of all the different rigs, despite never having been a sailor - I hope it inspired some of the class into modelling, if not getting involved in the real thing.
Smiffy
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RNinMunich
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💬 Progress 12th January
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 10 Views · 1 Like
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Hi
I was just reading your build blog and realised that I had seen a picture of HMS Dreadnought somewhere - it was taken about 1888 in harbour at Malta and shows her with decks cleared for action. I don’t imagine it will help a lot with your build but might be of interest. (My original scan is the right way up but it looks as if it has been turned upside down when I attached it.) All the best
Smiffy
I was just reading your build blog and realised that I had seen a picture of HMS Dreadnought somewhere - it was taken about 1888 in harbour at Malta and shows her with decks cleared for action. I don’t imagine it will help a lot with your build but might be of interest. (My original scan is the right way up but it looks as if it has been turned upside down when I attached it.) All the best
Smiffy
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Colin H
📝 Just getting started
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 12 Views · 1 Like
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Thanks Chris, I shall just have to abandon B&Q for Homebase; I do like the 10% discount they give to the oldies like me on a Wednesday though. Every little helps as they say! All the best.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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Donnieboy
📝 Just getting started
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 9 Views · 0 Likes
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I am sure they are, but my nearest Range is either a 40 mile round trip in the car or more than 1/2 a day there and back by bus (free with the good old bus pass of course) but then a long walk to the shop. One of the hazards of living in the countryside I suppose. All the best
Smiffy
Smiffy
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📝 Just getting started
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 10 Views · 2 Likes
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Good point. Here is a picture of the clamps I nipped to B&Q to buy yesterday before the snow started. I really wanted more of the smallest size on the right but they only had one. The set of six larger ones were cheap enough but the springs are a little strong for my arthritic hands - in fact I have to use both hands to open the largest ones! The toolmakers clamps have gone back in the workshop (I am building Miranda in my study indoors as I don’t like sawdust getting on my machine tools - don’t tell the boss!) I do have a couple of the scissor type clamps that Chris mentioned but have found it too easy to put too much pressure on delicate joints and they are quite heavy so have to be supported so that there is no distortion as the glue dries. They are called “Quick-Grip Handi-Clamp” and are known as “curved bar clamps”. All the best
Smiffy
Smiffy
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Baggie
RNinMunich
📝 Just getting started
6 years ago by 🇬🇧 Smiffy ( Master Seaman)
Master Seaman)✧ 10 Views · 2 Likes
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Hi - like Ron I am just getting started (again) having come back to model boats via model engineering. I built several as a teenager in the 1960’s including HMS Cossack, an E Boat and the tug Bustler,all from MAP plans and so where in the garage there is the unfinished hull of HMS Kent. As a break from constructing a 3 1/2” gauge steam locomotive I built the twin cylinder oscillating engine for the steam launch Miranda by Basil Harley (first published in 1983) so thought I had better build the launch as well. With regard to clamps I have been making use of toolmakers clamps from my workshop, as you can see in the photo of the keel and hull formers, but need to go and buy some sprung ones that are a bit less fiddly! Pictures attached are of the beginnings of the hull and the engine.
Smiffy
Smiffy
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Baggie
RNinMunich
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