Found this Dense block of foam, floating in local Ashton Canal, whilst sailing other boats with my brother, whilst rescue a stuck boat from the reeds, in 1996 was temporarily on the dole at the time, struck by her Landing craft shape on turning it over plus realised I could carve it like wood, later using my bits box, after carving a couple of box shaped groves, for battery, motors and rc equipment, literal rammed a prop shaft, and rudder shaft through hull, and fashioned some balsa sheet into superstructure suitable camouflaged , I had a "US Army Vietnamese River Craft" of sorts and with its 1 1/2 to 2" thick Hull virtually unsinkable, hence its name :-). Here she is in 2000 sailing at Ethrow Park. May in the future alter her superstructure, she makes a handy towing barge for both mine and my brothers Tug Boats, and if rc left connected can even act as rescue boat if they pack up or get weeded up :-) - Have delete this from You Tube and replaced with slightly clearer version, but it seems to be still working here mysteriously, may cease working eventually, new version above :-)

Purchased this from Ashton Model Shop at it closing down sale, what a sad time that was, been used using it man and boy, Airfix kits were 2 old shillings 10NP to 12s and 6d (62.5NP) Boeing Superfortess, mind you pocket money was 5/- (25p,) then when old enough got a Paperboys job 13 shillings a 6 day week (65NP), extra for Sunday. Back to the TID she sailed brilliantly all session at Ethrow Park. That is until run down by my Brother David's yacht, even though I'd moved it to what I thought was safe distant, power giving way to sail etc, when he tacked straight into her, tried to dodge but TID not the fastest of the mark. He swiftly got the rescue boat out and after two attempts we got it back, a quick rush to parks gents and a blow over of ESC and receiver with electric hand drier, soon had her running again, but still need a scrub to rid her of lake silt :-)

Saw the plans of 'Farmont' and could not resist the challange of this model. First problem was where and how to creat a removable cabin and decided on having the whole top removable other than the forward and aft decks. I also realised that the plans were simplified so a bit of research on Google revealed pictures of the real things for sale and some indepth pics of the boats being constructed. They omitted the bow breaker for ease of modelling but short cuts are not in my vocabulary. it is also difficult to visulise where all the stair cases go, so going online helped clarify this. I opted for a plank on frame construction covering the hull with a single layer of fibreglass and using lite ply and plasticard for the cabins. The deck planking was marked out with pencil before varnishing. I also wanted the boat to be fully lit and both radars to be operational and counter rotating (looks better from a spectators point of view). Completion date sometime in 2015, watch this space!

built this one after the first one was stolen which has turned out for the better. Has working fire monitors,anchor,bow thruster,sounds,searchlight,lightsand a bloke on the back having a wee, which in turn acts as a bilge pump to tell me there is water in the boat

100% scratch built model of the Toronto harbor Fireboat. Been in the making for almost five years now. When finished it will be RC and have water pumping capabilities. Toronto Fire Services are celebrating the boat's 50th anniversary this year and appear to be interested in my model. The boat will be powered by two Dumas six volt motors geared three to one.

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

Following the legendary Keil Kraft Eezebilt plans for a Royal Air Force Crash Tender boat from the 1950's.. Plans exploded to 130%. Trying to build it completely out of Foam Board.

Completed model should be around 27" in length.

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!

Built out of house guttering to a scale equivalent to model railways HO the layout is approx. 4 x 3 ft. Mounted in a wooden frame and provided with a protective see through cover it fits into the car and can go anywhere. it has been an on-going project to build RC boats to suit. Those used at present are commercial products (loa 5" (125mm)) with simple two channel two prop drives - not proportional but with forward and reverse and by operating one or both props plus reverse steering is OK. Battery life limited to 6-8 minutes with similar recharge time. Built largely from scrap and odds and ends the project cost well under £80. The idea is/was to have several units and link them together to make a large layout!

RTR minI electric speed boat with proportional 2CH RC. 280mm loa (11")

Good boat and fast. Watercooled brushed motor. Normal problem with commercial mini-boats is lack of proportional RC but this is fine. Battery life about ten minutes - low freeboard and takes on water but electrics/RC have proven resistant to regular swamping!

Mantua models 'Amalfi' Scale 1:35 Length 400mm. Fishing boat converted to 2 CH RC. Sails well, freeboard a little low but ok. Nets detactable for heavier weather sailing!

Photos show her on home 12' dia. pool but she sails well on boating pond. Runs for 20mins. on 4xAA batteries all in.

Original kit refurbished from a car boot purchase. 2 CH RC. Tried to retain orignal type features only with few extra fittings.

Taycol Meteor motor contemporary with boat controlled by servo operated resistance with sweeper arm on servo to reverse polarity at approx. midpoint.

Motor not powerful enough and max. speed disappointing so am planning to upgrade wiht more modern gear.