Stanley 60 1/2 Block Plane.

I have been using an olde Stanley Model 60 1/2 block plane for many years and I recently restored the one that I am using now .

Some years ago I was given a pair of small planes in a fitted wooden box as a Christmas present from my eldest son. These were branded "Faithfull" and included one that is the same size as the Stanley Model 60 1/2, and one that is the same length but has a wider body and blade.

The small Model 60 1/2 block planes are really helpful, especially when profiling the keel and the attached keel doublers.(I used a 60 1/2 last night when profiling the keel and doublers of the Sprite Plus prototype that am currently working on

I have found them to be much easier to use and more effective than sanding or filing away the surplus wood to contour the keel ready to accept the bottom skins.

It also does a good job when profiling the stringers ready to accept the sides skins as well as being a useful alternative to a spokeshave when slicing away any excessive plywood skins after fitting.

The wider model (I don't know if this has a Stanley reference number, but it might be a copy of the 9 1/2?) is also very handy, but I have only used the two narrower ones for profiling the keel and stringers.

Bob.

Hi Chris,

I think every one of your Fairey Marine models all count as a Classic Model Power Boat and all originate from the time period that we enjoy modelling (and then driving !).

As each one is completed, it would be really good to see them individually pictured with any additional info that could be of some interest.

I have also noticed the decline in the huge amount of interest and support that the Fairey Marine boats used to enjoy, but this could all change when people get to see your diverse collection of boats that this fine company produced over the years.

Picture of your boats "in action" do not need to show the boat going very fast - especially if they were never intended to be fast (like your river cruiser), but that does not lessen their interest.

Nice static pictures are in some ways even better as more of the model can be seen in greater detail, but both would be nice to see as they are all most definately Classic Model Power Boats.

Bob.

British Conquerer.

As part of my Cold War r/c tank collection I have a 1/16 scale 3D printed Conquerer.

This tank looks really impressive and is not available any other way than to scratch build it from raw materials, or to use the available 3D plans that really do produce a very good accurate model.

Unlike yourself, I an unable to 3D print anything but I was able to buy a set of parts via someone who advertised their 3D printing services.

Whatever plastic he printed it with is VERY tough and I have been trying to improve the surface texture for months on and off (I have been away a lot this year) and a couple of the small detail parts were not printed cleanly enough, but I have been able to replace them.

Maybe I will get it finished over the winter months. I have seen others (not many) online that are finished and running well and they do look very impressive (and big!).

Bob.

I won't show any pictures of the thumb, but this is the device that chopped a lump out of it !

This is very good sharp clean cutting little plane that made light work of trimming away the keel and the doublers ready to fit the bottom skins.

The small accident was my fault entirely, I was trying to hold the frame of the boat against my chest with the left hand as I was planing it with the right hand and obviously failed to control either the boat or the plane adequately.

Not to worry, most of the woodwork washed up OK with clean cold water and so "alls well the ends well" as they say 🙄

Bob.

Suzie Q.

Drawn up by Vic Smeed and featured in the March and April 1965 Model Maker magazine, the prototype for this model was built from balsa and controlled with a single channel radio.

I bought the plans and built mine from plywood as I wanted to power it with an ENYA 19 water-cooled glow plug engine.

The super little boat 27" long model of a "typical" (at the time) off-shore racer shape proved to be another winner from Vic Smeed that I enjoyed running along with another of his Classic Model Power Boats from that same time period - the Remora "steering boat".

Both of these two models have aged rather better than may have been expected when they were first penned, and both respond really nicely to being driven fast with a modern brushless motor !

Bob

Ouch!

With both sets of stringers fitted to the hull, I thought I would start to shape the keel and doublers ready to accept the bottom skins.

After scraping away at the 18mm combined thickness of the full length keel and doublers with my various Permagrit tools, I decided to get the plane out and use that instead.

Progress was much faster and more easily controlled, but the finish was rather too nice and smooth (almost glazed) so I will "rough it up" a bit to allow the Jet Set PVA to penetrate the wood surface more easily before adding any skins.

With a nicely sharpened blade slicing through the wood, I lost concentration for a millisecond and trapped the pad of my thump between the edge of a bulkhead and the approaching plane.

The results were not too pretty and the blood stained some of the wood.

After quickly wrapping some masking tape over the wound to stop the bleeding I sponged the wood with cold water as quickly as possible to clean it as well as I could.

Now with the thumb more professionally covered with a plaster, I will venture back into the workshop (shed) to see how successful I was at cleaning the wood and as soon as it is dry enough (!) I will rough-up the smoothly planed surface ready for the bottom skins to be glued on.

If the wood is still a bit damp, I will start to make some templates for the bottom skins using some old cereal packets taped together to make them long enough.

Bob.

I am looking forward to seeing some action shots of your Faun out on your local waters.

It is definitely a Classic Model Power Boat......and we don't get enough Fairey boats pictured on the CMPB pages.... I thought we would have seen lots of them !

Bob.

Thanks for that RodC.

I still have the original plans that I built my first Susie Q from (and the two Model Maker magazines that featured it in 1965), and one of my many future projects is to build another one!

These original plans have faded badly over the years due to the way that they were printed at the time........and they still have the original 5 shillings and 6 pence price printed on them!

Suzie Q first appeared in the March 1965 edition of Model Maker and was featured on the cover of the April 1965 edition the following month along with the second part of the build review.

I chose to build my Suzie Q from plywood and not build it as an all balsa wood model like the prototype as I wanted mine to run with an ENYA 19 Marine glow plug engine.

The plans also show the grid lines that I drew on them as I scaled it up ready to build a 36" version in the future (never got built), but more recently I spoke with Will who also produced some drawings for a scaled-up variant that may get built.

I hope it does as a 36" Suzie Q (Big Suzie) would look good and should go very well.

The prototype Susie Q was run on a single channel radio system, so it is definitely a model that is "at home" in this section of Early Radio Control Experiences 👍

Bob.

Sadly I know that feeling only too well Ed.

Old age reduces your reflexes, power and speed - and that's even before we get started with any version of Top Trumps for any physical (or mental) age related problems that we have picked-up over the years.

I still race 1/12 and 1/10 r/c cars most weeks to keep my hand to eye co-ordination as sharp as possible.......but always come home with a sense of sadness when I think about how much better I would be if I were 50 years younger!

........but also quite pleased that I can keep up and sometimes even set the pace!

Bob.

That is a good idea Ed 👍

I must take a look at that as it could come in very handy.

Bob.

My engine mounts are bought from eBay Pat and have never had any supply problems, but with the Blackpool Show coming up this weekend you could probably pick some up when you are there?

Bob.

I wore through the rubber feet on my olde Workmate EdW, but I have been able to find some new replacement moulded parts on eBay that just push-on, so it should have many more years of useful life in it.

The Black and Decker Workmate has made life a whole lot easier for so many of us since it first came out, and works really well with model boats too.

Bob.

That is a true classic EdW, and quite a rare beast.

Have you ever been tempted to fit it into a boat and give it a run to remember what it was like to drive with all those switches?

Bob.

Nice one Dave 👍

Bob.

Hi Lew,

You have inspired me to dig out one of my 1/16 scale British Chieftain tanks that I will be working on over the winter when I am not outside in my workshop working on any model boats!

This one has had most of the "technical" work done already as it has a gearbox with metal gears, a pair of "red" motors to give it a bit more power, engine smoke to use during start-up, and gun barrel flash with smoke.

The tank also has an authentic engine sound on the Clark board so it is quite well specified, but it needs some more work to complete the paintwork and the barrel wrap needs changing.

This tank does not have any metal tracks yet as I have not been able to find any to fit it with the right profile, but something will crop-up and in the meantime I will weather the plastic ones that are fitted as they work well and have the correct pattern moulded into them.

I have two other Cheiftain's that I had had for some time. They both have metal tracks and and have been weathered, but neither have the Clark board to give the correct engine sound or the red motors to improve their performance when running on grass that tends to sap the power!

Tanks are a bit like model boats insomuch that they are never really finished and can always be improved......

Your portable workbench must be perfect to take to events like your WW2 event last week 👍

Bob.

Hi Lew,

Your portable hobby work station is the "Swiss Army Knife" of small workshops.

I have never seen anything like it before, it must come in really handy when you are away from home .

Thanks for sharing it here.👍

Bob.

Record BS9 Bandsaw. (Hybrid).

As far as I know, the BS9 is the smallest model bandsaw that Record have ever made.

Although no longer available, it is a really well made little band saw that has the same build quality as it bigger BS250 brother - except that it came with a cheap pressed steel table.

The lightweight pressed steel table made this a very portable little machine that was easy to lift and move around or hide away under the work bench when it was not in use.

I had previously owned a slightly bigger bandsaw from a different manufacturer that had a heavy duty cast iron table fitted that was about the same size as the pressed steel one fitted to my Record BS9.

My suspicion was that both machines were made in China, and as is so often the case, they shared certain dimensions - including the size of the table

I worked out that the heavy duty cast iron table on my other machine could be adapted to fit this machine to upgrade it, so I made the changes and fitted the cast iron table to the BS9.

Although this made the machine much heavier (and so not as easy to lift and move around) it added to its stability and allowed the fitment of better quality guides to the table when needed.

The other machine was then retro-fitted with the lightweight pressed steel table from this BS9 and was passed-on to someone that could make use of a lighter weight machine.

My BS9 bandsaw is a true hybrid that I have enjoyed using and the smaller size bandsaw blades that are 1578mm long ( 62 1/8") are still freely available from a number of good saw blade suppliers and custom blade makers.

One of the pictures shows the machine with it's heavy duty table inclined to 45 degrees and fitted with a simple jig to cut triangular section hardwood strips.

Both pictures show the machine with the non-standard heavy duty cast iron table fitted and a high quality work guide. The grooves also allow the more secure and accurate retention of other fitments.

This has been a perfect machine for cutting bulkheads and any other parts that I have needed when either building a new model from plans or when scratch building or restoring older models that need new parts making.

It is also remarkably good at producing smaller sizes of strip that can be handy when custom sizes are needed ...or when I run-out and find that I can make the size I need without having to wait or order new stock.

The machine can run with narrow 1/4" blades (ideal for cutting tight curves), 3/8" blades (best suited for cutting most model boat components from plywood or hardwood), and 1/2" wide blades (best for ripping and cross cutting).

The number of teeth per inch (TPI) available ranges from 4TPI to 24 TPI to suite every application (and more) than I have ever needed .

Bob.

Hi Will,

I will look forward to seeing the pictures of your two Swordsman (SwordsMEN?) boats.

.......cant get enough Swordsman models.

I may be making one with a slight variant and call it a Sword Fighter ...sounds better than a Fencer!

Bob.

I think you will like the 30" size Chris, as it looks perfect with your chosen outboard motor on it.

......in-fact I think it probably looks better with the outboard motor on it than it does without it....

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but with or without an outboard motor, I think this could be quite a good fun boat and the blunt nose will makes its secondary use as a recovery boat very helpful too.

The 30" size should also make it a lot more useable for 12 months of the year too.

Bob.

LesRo Rapier.

Just spotted this LesRo Rapier for sale on eBay today.

Anyone who fancies restoring a Rapier may be interested in taking a look at this one that is for collection only in the Staffordshire area.

I restored my own LesRo Rapier from a far worse example than this, and it has been a superb model boat to own and run and has become the boat that I have driven and enjoyed the most.

Bob.

Fairey Swordsman.

There have been surprisingly few pictures (none!) of this really nice Classic Model Power Boat on here so far, so I thought I would add this picture of one in action.

I built my first ever r/c model boat was built from an Aerokits Swordsman kit in the 1960's and I always loved the way that it performed.

Alongside this is a picture of the type of Launch Link radio control system that I used to control mine at the time .

Both are classics IMHO 🤓

Bob.

That's interesting Harry, I didn't know that your Jotika Sea Commander suffered from the infamous Sea Commander nose dive.

I tried moving the battery position during the testing on my Sea Commander and it didn't seem to make much difference to the bows digging in. If I turned RIGHT into choppy water the bows would dig in where ever the batteries were placed.

At the moment I have gone back to running with a pair of batteries mounted side by side in the engine bay and it works well.

When I run with the batteries under the cockpit floor the boat ran with the bows quite high in the air - but they still dug-in when turning RIGHT into choppy water!

With the keel chopped away (like yours) the problem has disappeared - maybe my strakes are helping?

I am still running with the two layers of roofing lead behind the rudder post - maybe that is helping too?

Bob.

Thanks Fogwall,

That is a nice picture of the MacGregor Digimac 111, three stick radio that I was given back in 1971/2 when we lived in Exmouth.

It looks just like it did when my wife gave it to me for Christmas that year.

I also had one of the "new" Futaba radio sets that came out in the late 1960's, I remember that mine came with a pair of 17M servos. The "M" was thought to signify that it was waterproof for Marine use?

It also came with a pair of linear servos! Rather than having a rotary output, the output arms slid backwards and forwards.

The linear servo was not an idea that lasted too long as Futaba dropped them quite quickly in favour of the rotary servo that has since become the standard for all servos that come supplied in radio outfits since then.

When you look back at these two early proportional radios, the modern radio case shape has become much nicer to hold - both these two early sets were quite narrow in comparison.

I think the manufacturers were still thinking about the single channel radio cases they had been using before making these early proportional radio sets?

Bob.

The first Christmas that I enjoyed with my wife was in December 1971 and she bought me a McGregor 3 channel radio set to use with my Susie Q that I was just completing at the time.

This was an unusual set that actually had three joysticks !

The two regular positioned joysticks for throttle and steering were in the usual positions, but a third joystick was positioned below them and would have been perfect for adjusting the trim control flaps fitted to the transom.

I can find no pictures of this radio - can anyone help?

Bob.

It certainly looks bigger "in the flesh" than it did on the drawings Will, that's for sure.

This is going to be one chunky boat!

Bob.

You are spot-on with your observation Will - mine now drives like Harry's does.

It turns nicely into the turns (left or RIGHT) and leans into them beautifully.

My Sea Commander is now running with minimal keel left on it - the same as Harry's 👍

Bob.

Thanks to Phil who I contacted via his site "Phil and Shauns Single Channel and Vintage R/C Page", I have been able to find some pictures of my first new radio control outfit, a 1966/7 Launch Link radio.

It may look like a simple black painted metal box, but when I first saw it in my local model shop window it stood-out against everything else with is shining gloss black enamelled metal case and the bright white Launch Link FLC logo.

The on/off toggle switch next to the top mounted output metre looks pretty basic these days, and the over-sized pointed lever to adjust the steering trim was also quite industrial.

I don't remember the servos being much good, and was the reason why I eventually sold it to buy my next new radio.

The choice was between the new OS Cougar or the new Futaba.....I chose the Futaba set with the 17M servos.

These days my first radio control outfit looks very basic and simple - but I would love to have another one now, working or not........or maybe even find one in good cosmetic condition and ask Phil to convert if for me to 2.4gig?

Bob.

https://www.mccrash-racing.co.uk/sc/propo.htm

Hi Phil,

Regarding peg boards - I really do know all about the problems of getting the pegs back from the previous user.

I started and run the local 1/8 scale rallycross club (for several years) every Sunday on our under-used pitch and putt course (with the full permission of the local council who were only too pleased to see somebody actually using it for something!).

By then, we also had 40 meg frequencies available as well as the 27 meg frequencies, so our peg board was considerably bigger and so we had a lot more pegs to offer.

We always ran 10 heats, and every heat had 10 cars in it, so we had 100 racers competing (plus several reserve drivers hoping that a driver that did have an entry would need to retire, so they could replace them!).

To turn around two qualifying heats and then start the knock-out finals with promotions for the top two drivers up to the next finals group took some slick organisation to finish the race meeting at a decent time!

Imagine the frustration when I could not start a heat because one (or more) drivers that should be in the race heat (that was being held on the start line) could not find the correct peg to clip on their tx ariels !

Finding the last user of the missing peg often caused drivers to "complement" each other quite vigorously as races were not permitted to start without all the drivers present (other than those with notified car or engine failures), and no driver was allowed on the drivers rostrum without the correct peg attached to his tx ariel .

Those were the days...................

What a relief it was when 2.4 gig radios became widely used - it made ornagising and running those busy race meetings so much easier !

Bob.

Hi Phil,

Regarding peg boards - I really do know all about the problems of getting the pegs back from the previous user.

I started and run the local 1/8 scale rallycross club (for several years) every Sunday on our under-used pitch and putt course (with the full permission of the local council who were only too pleased to see somebody actually using it for something!).

By then, we also had 40 meg frequencies available as well as the 27 meg frequencies, so our peg board was considerably bigger and so we had a lot more pegs to offer.

We always ran 10 heats, and every heat had 10 cars in it, so we had 100 racers competing (plus several reserve drivers hoping that a driver that did have an entry would need to retire, so they could replace them!).

To turn around two qualifying rounds of heats and then start the knock-out finals with promotions for the top two drivers up to the next finals group took some slick organisation to finish the race meeting at a decent time!

Imagine the frustration when I could not start a heat because one (or more) drivers that should be in the race heat (that was being held on the start line) could not find the correct peg to clip on their tx ariels !

Finding the last user of the missing peg often caused drivers to "complement" each other quite vigorously as races were not permitted to start without all the drivers present (other than those with notified car or engine failures), and no driver was allowed on the drivers rostrum without the correct peg attached to his tx ariel .

Those were the days...................

What a relief it was when 2.4 gig radios became widely used - it made ornagising and running those busy race meetings so much easier !

Bob.

Funny you should mention reverse fitting the black crystals Roy.

I remember some model yacht sailors coming into our local model shop and telling me that they had doubled the number of 27meg frequencies that they use at the local lake by running one complete set of crystals in the correct way......making another set of frequencies available to those that reversed their crystals.

Their claim was that this allowed twice as many yachts to sail together !

Bob.