Bought these two for £50! The smallest is HMS Manxman, a scratch build, 6v electric motor drive. it,s just shy of 3ft long. The second ship came to me as apparently HMS Tanganyika, however, on looking at photos of the ship bore no resemblance. it is almost definitely a colony class cruiser of ww2. Possibly HMS FIJI, Nigeria,Jamaica,or Trinidad. The two pillars amidships with the orbs are not what these ships had(?). So much work has yet to be done. The second ship is 5ft 6inches long, made entirely of wood, with a Marx Decaperm 6v Motor powered by a large 6v 10ah gel battery which doubles as ballast, along with 5 large lead weights. Transmitter is a Futaba t6exa, the receiver and servos are Futaba also. I would be interested in knowing some tips about building techniques, best materials and paints for waterproofing etc. And maybe some opinions on it,s identity as swear it looks like HMS Fiji. I have browsed some lovely builds on this site so far, and they really are a credit to you all. Thanks. Gordon

this one is the sister ship to the Anglian man of mobile marines.Used as an estuary dredger to disturb the silt by a plate along the bottom of the channel off the a frame at the back. I was dead lucky to win best on stand for hoylake model boat club at Haydock Park 2013.

This boat is scratch built on a Fiberglass Hull. The Lily was one of two ferries built in 1900. Her sister ship was the Rose.
The superstructure of the model is largely light-ply and paneled to resemble the orginal. She had an open top deck and as you can see the navigation pods were open to the weather.
A semaphore signal arm was included as radio was not yet used to communicate with each other on the Mersey.
The model is approx1/48 scale and built from a couple of photos and sketches that exist. She is powered by two 340 electric motors and controlled with 2.4ghz radio. A 12 volt battery gives the power. Both decks are individually planked.
She has sailed at Hoylake.

Bourbon Orca is an anchor handling vessel based in Bergen.
The owners and builders wouldn't let me have a set of lines, so, I designed this myself on Delftship from photos available on the web.

The hull is plank on frame, driven by twin 900 size motors off 12v. She has an action twin esc and mixer which enables her to pivot on her own axis without the need to use the bowthruster

This Flower Class Corvette should of worked out a great build (It cost enough) Once building I discovered wrong bits, bits missing instructions almost non existent, there was a diagram with everything numbered, but know of the actual parts had such numbers, but working almost blind what to you think of it...My second build?
Ship brought from Deansmarine.co.uk

This is a model of the last ship to bring coal across the Bristol channel, from Barry to Bridgwater. Built to 24th scale, hll made of polyurethane foam covered with plates made from cider cans. I intended as a prototype for 12th sale model with a steam plant for power. but thats still on the to do list.

Following the legendary Keil Kraft Eezebilt plans for a Mermaid Ocean going boat. Plans exploded to 200%. Trying to build it completely out of Plywood and Foam Board.

OA Length 710 mm, Beam 180 mm. AUW 1.98Kgs.

She carries the name 'JAYSHIL". it is a portmanteau derived from the names of my late parents.

Model features working lights as prescribed by the international Maritime Authorities:

http://www.bosunsmate.org/seamanship/lights.php

In keeping with Rules 22 and 23:

http://www.bosunsmate.org/seamanship/rulesoftheroad.php#rule23

Brushed 550 motor, Reversible ESC, 2S LiPo, Turnigy Blue Prop, Working Lights and indigenous Sound Generator unit.

Video is available here: (you may need to turn down the volume a bit as the horn is rather loud)

I would welcome any queries and/or comments on this build.

Thanks and Regards,

VC

Top Boat is the City of ELY after the II world war, with guns removed.

Bottom Boat is the SS JOHN W Brown partly rebuilt to wartime structure.
Class: EC2-S-C1 Type Liberty Ship
Launched: September 7, 1942
At: Bethlehem-Fairfield Shipyard, Baltimore, Maryland

Length: 441 feet, 6 inches
Beam:57 feet
Draft: 27 feet, 9 inches
Displacement: 14,245 tons
Gross: 7,176 tons
Capacity: 8,500 long tons
Armament: Three 3-inch/50 caliber guns; one 5-inch/38 caliber gun; eight 20mm guns.

This Boat was bought as the City of ELY Merchant ship, I am in the middle of converting it into the SS John W Brown which was an armed merchant ship built during the second world war. This ship will now sail with the grey funnel section which is part of the Cygnets Model Boat club Maidstone
It has had a complete hull respray, gun platforms built along with new radio control parts and now lights

Sometime around 1968 I found a small set of drawings, about A4 size, for Sct. Knud in (I think) Ships Monthly. So I enlarged to 1:32 scale and made my model plank-on-frame with GRP overcoat. She is powered by a 6V Pittman motor driving a self-made scale prop and 2:1 gearbox. Steering is effected via chain and quadrant as per prototype! Everything bar the anchor, anchor chains and steering chains is self-made using a variety of materials (brass, plastics, 'Perspex', and copper electro-deposited cowl vents). Recently I fitted her out with LED lights: interior, navigation and working. One might notice that I abhor a working boat looking like "Daddy's yacht" and so I apply custom dings, stains, oil spills, scratches, wear and tear to my tugboats 😀 My Knud runs as well today as she did 45 years ago and in all that time has only needed one repair to her gearbox!

HI fellow model leers.this is my latest model.Built in 1926' for the Ffyfe(bananas) family. Originally it was run on steam,but in 1939 converted to diesel,this was kept until 1957 when all the staterooms were replaced by cargo holds . She was then made into a feeder bringing eleven thousand boxes from Rotterdam to Southampton. She was scrapped in the seventies.my model of her was from 1926 the scale is approx 1/30th her length is 48 inches including bowsprit, and has a beam of 10 inch amidships. She is totally scratch built, plank on frame, all the decks are individually planked with black card in between , wheel house and all other parts are mahogany. She runs on a decaperm geared motor @ 6 volts, and the lighting system consists of 10 accommodation lights, port and starboard , wheelhouse, and both mast headlights,the large saloon skylight is also lit up with a set of disco lights on a separate circuit. The funnel houses a heavy duty smoke unit switched on by switching unit.

This Model of the J. R. More tug which was one of the very last large Steam Tugs built on the Clyde in 1961.

Scratchbuilt from the 1:48 scale plans of a sistership the F.C. Sturrock with various modifications for J. R. More. Powered by twin 12v geared motors.

The J. R. More Tug is a large tug and still exists as a Museum exhibit at the Durban Maritime Museum and well worth a visit in South Africa.

My thanks to Keith Marks who was a Master of J. R. More and the F. C. Sturrock among others for his photographs, help and interest during the construction of this model and is now a good friend.

This video was taken at the Sumner Ponds which is used on alternate Thursday by the Southwater Dabblers MBC.

Video is not very good quality but will remake with a better video.