Well, what a lovely day it is today and here is a pic or two of my Boston which I built several years ago - I had to rebuild her recently that was due to the plasticard I used for the bulwarks had perished and when I picked the model up the plasticard bulwarks cracked and fell apart, so I have rebuilt with wood. Plastic was from the 1980s when I built the model.

I hadn't built a model of any sort since I was 15 years old and that was a control line aeroplane with a glow worm engine. 45 years later and regressing nicely back to my teenage years, my wife bought me (reluctantly!) a RC Boat Kit - Mowe 2. I had been wanting to build again for many years, but children and family and home situation did not allow.
So, over the cold Autumn and Winter Months I carefully put my spare nights to good use, rather than watching night after night TV box sets and re-watching the entire James Bond movies, not once but 2 or 3 times....
Anyhow after 3 months...the finished product. I should have started a blog but didn't know of this site until a few weeks ago.
Not a brilliant finished job, but a satisfying one, and it sails nicely on Bushy Park boating lake in Kingston-upon-Thames.
Now o nto bigger and more complicated things...a Fairey Huntsman 31.
This time I'll do a blog....👍

my first graupner carina named "juliette" under attack by crabs 😁

here is my 2nd Graupner Carina ( after the 1st one I just wanted to built another one and Ebay supplied - again- a 'barely started' set.
Taking apart the glued wooden parts was a bit of a challenge. However, the previous owner used cheap glue and all the parts could be dismounted without any damage.
(will post more pictures of the rebuilt )

Here's my "juliette' my 1st Graupner Carina from the old days !
|I bought her in a 'barely started condition' and took everything apart. Built her up step by step> (will post more pictures later)

This is a first try at a simpler quieter smoke unit. I used the smoker box/element off the Heng Long tank/car smoker unit with a 40x40 5v fan (the fan being voltage controlled by a 5v UBEC and the lot being run by a 2s Lipo (with a y splitter for the fan UBEC and the element using JST leads. Doesn't smoke that well as I had broken then repaired the element previously, but the other one I have smokes a lot better, and has a better type of element (possibly a newer version) Some photos etc on the smoker discussion. Unit is almost silent (the noise you hear is the camera and outside noise, as the window was open)

This ship was a lightship tender named "Coeur de Lion" that was armed and drafted into the Union during the civil war to counter blockade runners. This model is scratch built and is inspired by a paper model designed by Magnus Mörck. A sidewheel steamer equipped with the typical walking beam machinery, it was rebuilt to carry three guns. A line of iron plates along the gun wales added a measure of armoured protection. After the war it was returned to lightship service. On my model the paddles are independently driven, mainly because I have a Robbe Navy F14 transmitter with twin sticks. The walking beam is operated by a servo modified for continuous rotation. The original ship towed a barge that flew an observation balloon and could be described as the first 'aircraft carrier' the fifth picture shows the barge I have made - I hope one day to emulate the real thing by raising and lowering a suitable balloon. I have included some pictures of the rest of my paddle fleet.The 'Rachel Erin' is a freelance sternwheeler 'quarter wheeler' tug that uses a worm drive to the paddles. She does not steer well. The last ship is an enlarged version of Graham Goodchild's Santa Anna.

This is one of the limited edition Sirmar kits that was produce in the early 1990’s.this model was made by a friend of mine who’s a dockyard fitter and turner it was made about twenty eight years ago. Based on a tug that I worked on in and around Portsmouth harbour. This model has a working voith unit opening engine room skylights. Working lights, removable deck hatch to get at the unit like the real boat, the superstructure and gun whales are made from plasticard. The fender was made by a friend to the same type as used on the tug. The wheelhouse is copied like for like. The towing hook is copied from photos and slips like the real one. in all my years I haven’t seen another one like this . Sirmar made twenty numbered hulls as kits .

This time I want to show the process after removing the now sanded hull. You get a first view of having me removing the frames and starting to fill lead into the wooden hull. in the last photo, you can appreciate the benefits of removing all frames from within the hull. The surface inside the hull is ready for further processing.

I am continuing to try to learn the way this forum is properly used. I want to publish here my photos of the construction of my sailboat Carina from scratch that I am publishing here. I will limit myself to photos that are useful to get a general view of the topics I am publishing

Trying to learn to use this forum properly I am publishing a video that shows an experiment I did to find out how fast the stepper motor could turn. I am using in my model of the sailboat Carina 2 stepper motors like the one shown in the video to work as a winch to control the position of the sails in a system solution where I am realizing this my own way to implement the sheets as shown on the original sailboat Endeavour. This requires my sheet control system to control the length of the sheet of the mainsail i.e. over a range of 8.3 meters. This requires the drum which is turned by the stepper motor to make 21 full turns. Details will be published in my report from scratch of building my Carina.

no longer available from Harbor models given to me by Norm Rusinow
oar propelled East Coats Dory