A short video to celebrate sailing 3 x 1/24 scale Fairmile D's as well as a Vosper 73' Type 1 at the same time.
Graham's boats are scratch-built onto fibreglass hulls.
My boats are totally scratch-built.
it is best viewed on a larger screen in HD.
Brilliant. Best war film I've seen in years.
My mtb's of mtb 389. Built 40 odd years ago and left in the loft where it collected dust and soot. When I retired I brought it down, fitted a Graupner 700 motor in and ran it on 14.4v. It plains very realistic. Thanks for the video...👍
At last after 8 months I've finished my Vietnam River Gun Boat.
I've built this vessel using a made up fibreglass hull that pretty much measured up to the 1/9th scale with some modification that I wanted.
I will post photos of the build of the build over the next few weeks and answer any questions as they arise.
These pics show the initial hull modification underway.
Interested in your build of the Pibber River Gunboat. I have the Pro Boat version which performs well. Would like a bit bigger hull as there is not much room for normal size batteries.
Which hull did you use?
Also interested in the Patrol Craft Fast ( Swift boat)of the Vietnam era
Hellenic Navy - La Combattante IIIb class Fast Attack Craft
More great photos in this series taken by my friend at Albert Park Lake in Melbourne. These of my P28 - Ensign Simitzopoulos. Great wave patterns. These photos were all poster size in detail. I have had to shrink them to get them posted here. This boat is in my harbour.
The 1/35 scale boat is scratch-built, mainly from Balsawood and marine ply with a fibreglass covering. The guns can elevate and rotate. The radar units both rotate and there are LED navigation lights that I forgot to turn on. There is also a flashing red LED strobe warning system. It needs a little work to get the 4 LEDs a bright brighter.
My dad built this over a long period of time, starting in the '80s. The hull is fibreglass and the rest is scratch built from plastic card, balsa, ply, wire and anything else he could adapt.
Although he installed the motors, props and rudders he never completed the RC installation or tested it. I inherited his boat models a few years ago and wanted to "finish the job", getting the model on the water. After installing the RC gear and batteries over the last few months, this weekend was the first sailing outside the bath at the Valley Gardens boating lake.
Happy to report that it sailed really nicely, seems to be reasonably stable although I did restrict it to calmer times when the MTBs and faster boats weren't running !
HMS Cadiz was a battle class destroyer, laid down and launched during WW2 although she didn't receive her commission until 1946 so didn't see combat with the Royal Navy, serving with the home fleet. Due to the changeover in pennant numbering she was originally allocated R09 and later, when the admiralty decided to revert to the D for Destroyer pennant numbering she was assigned D79. To reflect this my model has D79 on the starboard side and R09 on the port side.
She was sold to Pakistan in the late '50s, and renamed PNS Khaibar. She was sunk with the loss of nearly all hands in 1971 in the indo-Pakistan war.
Scratch built from a 1975 free plan, hull is balsa frames sheeted with basswood and covered with 3/4 oz fibreglass cloth, superstructure is styrene sheet, missile launcher from balsa block, forward bofors torpedo launcher from styrene sheet and wood dowl, photo etch ladders, white metal handrail stanchions, other fittings are brass and resin, lw-02 radar and directors are from shape ways rudders and stabilizers are balsa block, you get the idea.
A very nice execution of the old Model Boats free plan. I still have those plans (somewhat tatty after all these years) as well as the MB magazine they came with. How does she sail? Best regards, Glyn
Many thanks for your kind words, I've not sailed her yet, only test tank and had to up the water line a little bit for more stability, I also scaled up the plans to true 1/96 as the plan is around 1/100, the 1/96 fittings I bought from fleetscale were out of scale to the plan, and using the 1.1 water line length noted in the magazine article.
I built this 1/125th scale Amati kit of the Titanic over two years from 2016. it has enhanced etched brass details from Minibrass. Conversion for radio control involved making the hull waterproof with multiple layers of fibreglass cloth bonded with epoxy resin as well as the installation of a drive train and RC gear. With only a tiny rudder, steering is dependent on a mixer unit controlling the differential speed of the propellors.
A favourite model boat there must have been hundreds if not thousands made.
When I brought mine there was a choice between two sizes 36in (90cm) or 48in (120cm) and then you could choose between a wooden hull or a fibreglass hull. I went for the smaller boat with the fibreglass hull. this was back in the 1980s.
Background of the boat
The boats Perkasa class consisted of three motor torpedo boats built by Vosper (UK) for the Malaysian Navy as follows:-
Perkasa 150
Penula 151
Handalan 152
This model has 3 motors, port & starboard are Graupner 600s and one 700 type in the centre runs 3 ESCs front and rear guns operate via servos, with flashing LEDs down the barrels.
Just fresh off the shipyard, this is my version of an American made Uniflite (firm died several years ago) "Salty Dog" 28. its name is a Puerto Rican slang for escapade. From the same firm who designed and made the legendary Vietnam War Patrol River Boat (PBR), this boat was part of Uniflite's recreational boats line. For this one, I utilized a fibreglass hull I found on Ebay and did the rest with Ethylene 2mm plastic sheets. it runs a 9.6v NiHm battery, a 30A Mtroniks controller, a 3-bladed 35mm M4 bronze propeller.
Scratchbuilt WW2 1/24 Scale Vosper 73' Type 1 MTB. Built in 2016, in company with a friend's 1/24 scale BPB MGB.
The Vosper hull is built from balsawood and fibreglass. The upper deck and superstructure is from balsawood. The weapons and fittings are from brass, aluminium and plastic. The 20mm and gunner can rotate.
Both Fairmile D boats 1/24 scale and are scratch built. They have both been about 6 years in operation.
MGB623 is an MGB, flying the Norwegian flag and belongs to a good friend.
Mine is MTB741. it is powered by 2 Graupner Speed 700 12V motors with NiMH batteries. The 6 pdrs and 20mm guns can rotate. it has a balsa planked hull and fibreglass skin. Decks and superstructure are also balsa. Guns are from tinplate and brass.
Excellent boats with great scale performance. I like the Fairmile Ds as they are good subjects for modelling and at static displays they always attract a lot of attention.
Video of the first start-up and test of "Sweet Sue" in dry dock. All went well ! Had two sails on water since.I built this vessel from scratch using a pre made clinker fibreglass hull purchased from Mini Steam Australia. The engine is an oscillating twin cylinder and the boiler is a 3" Centre Flue Gas Fired Vertical Boiler from "Miniature Steam". The gas tank is a 1-1/2" vertical refillable GasTank also from Miniature Steam Pty. Australia. The vessel is radio controlled with the skipper appearing to control the rudder. it has a smoke generator and a rc controlled steam whistle.
This boiler runs at around 60psi ! do you think that is a little high ? I was a little concerned by the amount of steam that is being generated as you may have noticed in the video. I can adjust the intensity of the flame inside the boiler so that a lower head of steam is generated, what do you think ?
Kevin
Hi Kevin
Yes that's what I do. I am always amazed at the power the oscillator generates and once rotating very little steam is required to maintain speed. Then again it's not for windy or rough conditions. I would try gradually reducing the pressure until the engine show signs of stopping and then increase by a couple of psi to ensure safe running. You do not need to run the boiler at its max rated pressure when the escape valve will be opening just at a level that replaces what the engine uses. Can we have another video with the steam whistle sounding?
Dave
My mtb's of mtb 389. Built 40 odd years ago and left in the loft where it collected dust and soot. When I retired I brought it down, fitted a Graupner 700 motor in and ran it on 14.4v. It plains very realistic. Thanks for the video...👍