1. The sorry state of the Hull on the Fire Boat. Purchased from Ebay about 6 months ago, only now just started working on refurbishing it, it was covered in car body filler.
2. After about 2 weeks of very hard work it looks much better. it is running on a Johnson 600 size motor and 6v Gel Battery for its first sail at the Cwmbran Model Society tomorrow, so I hope that is will be OK. it does not appear to be an Aeroits model as the cabins remove from the hull. Not just the Cabin tops. I will try and supply some action photo's later.
Kitshack make one as a kit, off Ebay, uses balsa chines so much easier to shape in with the bulkhead profile. The Norstar I built when I was 12 had horrible 9mm thick chines that had to be planed to shape they were so hard.
I took advantage of some nice weather to take my Wavemaster out for a spin this afternoon. She's around 58 years old, I bought her from the son of the original builder and have tried to keep it as original as possible so converted from IC to electric, repainted the lower hull, new stainless inner propshaft, made some handrails and fitted the lights. it was very dirty but has cleaned up a treat. I'm running a Darke Horse 700 with a 7.2v 4300Ah battery for these pictures but have the facility to use either one or two sticks, run time today over 30min with some to spare so I'm well pleased! it's a gorgeous classic boat.
34" Fireboat
I tried out my new motor arrangement, ( Graupner speed 600 8.4v motor with a single 9.6v battery pack as recommended by dbninja ) in my Fireboat today. A bit choppy but all went very well at just above half throttle then I began to get braver and added on the power to be met by clouds of smoke and a truly blown ESC. ( See FORUM under Hong Kong ESC ) The new Fire Monitors by Peter HS93 also worked fine using a Vauxhall Astra washer pump, I'd hope to get pics but the sudden halt intervened!
HI Roger
My monitors were kindly produced some time ago by another member of this site who was unfortunately at the last request unable to make any more. You might like to have a go making suitably scaled down versions in the method shown by Pete Harvey on his 46" Fireboat restoration on his website ( link in the 'Useful Links' part of this site ) my initial effort was to try drilling out some white metal fittings- this only proved the soft cheese is probably a more suitable material!
Water is pumped to the monitors using an ebay sourced Astra windscreen washer pump which works fine on my 9.6v setup.
Good luck
Chris
HI again
Just to mention that Monitors for the 34" boat are available separately from the 'Online Shop'section of this site. ( Don't think they are working however )
Chris
I tried out my new motor arrangement, ( Graupner speed 600 8.4v motor with a single 9.6v battery pack as recommended by dbninja ) in my 34" Fireboat today. All went very well at just above half throttle then I began to get braver and added on the power to be met by clouds of smoke and a truly blown ESC.
( See FORUM under Hong Kong ESC )
The Fire Monitors also worked Fine using a Vauxhall Astra washer pump, I'd hope to get pics but the sudden halt intervened!
Regards
Chris
My Astec 35th Scale Vosper 73' ASRL @ Creally yesterday
It has a JP Power 480 motor driving a 25mm 3 blade prop. Powered by a 6v 4Ah LA battery with a RadioLink 2.4ghz RX. and a 15A Mtronics ESC
Also a bit bow heavy until the power / speed comes on.
Happy new year to you all.
The weather having turned a balmy but gusty 9 degrees here in the sunny south. I thought I'd try my 34" boat again today.
Now somewhat lightened and with a new speed 600 motor and 9.6v Ni-Cad battery pack. she ran considerably better but is still somewhat bow heavy. As I have only restored her from an ebay purchase I'm not fully aware what might be causing the weight in the bow area but perhaps will try some weight further aft before attempting frontal surgery. Any ideas welcome.
Best Wishes
Chriis
Hi" there, " You have a very nice boat there "
I also own one like this. I try to keep the wieght from
the middle to the back of the boat. My set up is two 7.2 volt @4600mah side by side under the larger compartment lid and switch from one battery to the other. But keep them both in when sailling.! Also running on speed 600 motor. my set up keeps the rear in the water and keep the bow nicely out at speed . But also the boat should sit evenley on the water when it is not running.Try this Before you attempt to butcher your model . Good luck 👍 And a happy new year !
Here's a photo of the initial on the water run yesterday at Crealy of the Vosper 73' ASRL I've been asking for help with in the forum .
Not yet finished with deck fittings & rigging aerials but performed very reasonably. it has a JP Power 480 motor driving a 25mm 3 blade prop. Powered by a 6v 4Ah LA battery with a RadioLink 2.4ghz RX. and a 15A Mtronics ESC
ok, my first ever attempt at posting a video on here and youtube..
my Aerokits Sea Commander restored but not finished running a direct drive graupner speed 600 8.4v on 40mm std 2 blade plastic prop. battery is 9.6v 8cell 3300mA nimh. sailing Sunday 15th August 2010 at Taylor park st Helens mbc
many thanks to you both.
At this time I have no idea of the weight except to say that from what I can gather from looking at the rudder that this boat seems to from the sixties/seventies, and is quite a substantial vessel.
She is undergoing a major refit.( spent the day rubbing down the inside of the hull, and removing paint from the toerail to the carlings.
This looks like being a long job.
if its "that old" and is a 60's/70's built model that had an I.C. engine fitted..
I would recommend you "glass-cloth" the outside of the hull..
models built during this period tend to have been built with bio-degradeable glue! (cascemite/ boneglue. etc.) show it water for the first time in 40 years and your boat will revert to kit status and basically become unstuck! if the wonky glue doesn't do it then the diesel/glow fuel used in the 60's will have undone all the joints from the inside-out anyway!
enjoy your restorations and read as much as you can on here
First outing in 51 years for my 1/16th scale Seaplane tender, built originally by my father in 1953 and believed to be an Adamcraft Kit, found with a damaged hull and virtually no superstructure in the loft of their house after my mother had moved to a residential home several years ago. I had moved to Lyme Regis in Dorset where several of these craft were based and which was my fathers inspiration for building this initially, so I thought it time to try and restore her.
I had some difficulty finding plans of the ST and eventually bought and built the Deans Marine 1/24th version of this craft, which I then scaled up to rebuild the original.
Power is by a 600 motor with 2 channel radio and seems to work
well on a 7.2 v battery pack.
I've now joined Exeter & District MBC as it appears to be one of the nearest to us in Lyme and the pics show the ST on the Dragonfly Lake at Crealy.
I would be interested in any info. anyone might have as to Adamcraft as my searches have turned up very little. I believe they specified a Tacol electric or Mills 1.3 petrol engine at the time, but my memory might well be flawed as I was only around 10years old at the time.
This is my second attempt at scratch building using a a grp hull. My first boat was an MTB/MGB built on a Perkasa hull as a semi-scale model. (see All things Rc - Power setups).
This time I have concentrated on keeping things lighter but it still weighs in at 2.5kg!
I have built without plans, relying on internet photos scaled etc using "Photo deluxe" and "Photo Express".
Virtually everything is built from plasticard apart from a 3mm liteply deck.
The dinghy is epoxy resin and microballoons, ths scramble nets are Lego!
Power is again courtesy of Graupner -2, Speed 600 8.4v using lh. and r.h 35mm props. Esc is one of those 50amp ones from the far east. These are far cheaper than the Viper Marine 40 used in my MGB, but slightly heavier and less sensitive at low speeds. Current drain (in the bath!) is up to 30A but this gives a superb on the water pace of an, estimated,8mph. Battery is a 4,600 mAhr NiMh.
(A true scale speed approaching 150mph plus).
I sail it on Ullswater in the Lake district and the Vosper Perkasa type hull shape is superb in the real waves that we get there, flying over the crests and taking aboard No water!
It really looks the part as my photos would show if I could learn how to load more than one! Can anybody help with this?
Hi" there fellow model maker.
You have done a great job on your ASRL 😊 👍 .
I have also had problems in uploading more then one photo on this site ! I dont know why ? it used to be quick n easy but no more . 😯 Albert
this is my aerokit fire boat 46 inch fitted with a 600 motor 3 bladed prop 55 mm and a 12v 12 amp battery was fitted with a petrol motor when I got her for A£35.. all the top has been rebuilt the 2fire hygents work very good 2 mrtrs of water either side all lights work a good turn of speed but I can get 2 1/2 hrs on the lake the two men are not right but look ok for 10 p each at car boot gordon
I had a 12 v 12 amp battery and a 800 motor on a 35 cm prop did have a good bow wave could not see the sence of going flat out for 30 mins did not go for speed just indurance thanks gordon
Peter