Here is pitcure of both my boats sailing on a boating lake not far from my home, the larger of the two was commandeered by my 8 year old son for a trainning mission he had in mind, which gave me an excuse to build another one, which is the smaller boat the picture, as the young captain needed escorting while getting use to his new command!
They are both made from balsa wood, which the material for the hull, it is sealed with a acrylic varnish,painted over the top with enammel paint with clear varnish on top of the paint! The superstructure on the larger destoyer is made from thin plywood, and on the smaller frigate its made of plasticard!
I got the lynx helicoptors on Ebay from "The Dorest Print Man" I think it was, which are 3D printed by him!

last pictures l posted l painted the wave princess l changed my mind and decided to go for some planking on the decks and cabin roofs l have also done a little bit of tarting up using some brass welding rod and brass tube l am quite pleased with the out come so far. these piccys are about a month old now so she has had a god rub down and given six coats of clear varnish. l will post more piccys when l have installed the windows and frames.

Boat is Scratch built 36" British Power Boat 64ft High Speed ASR Launch which belonged to the RNZAF. The launch was one of the 22 built and was shipped to NZ in 1940. it was the only one of its type in the Southern Hemisphere. Model has twin motors, ESCs, sound units etc. Has remotely switched water pump for water cooled brushless 2000kv in runner motors and remotely switched lighting. Uses 2x 2200mah 2s LiPos for drive and 1 1800mah LiPo for the pump (also a separate battery for the LED lights. Boat is built with strip planked balsa on ply frame and fiber glassed. Deck is ply, wheelhouse is varnished balsa. The colour is as it was for most of its time in the RNZAF . Took about 5 years on and off to build and finished it last year. (please ignore the time date - can't get rid of it .

This is my scratch built 36" RNZAF British Power Boat 64' HSL (arrived in NZ 1940). I actually went on board this vessel in 1968 when it was still in original form (the RNZAF having disposed of it in the 50s) This vessel is still around and has been recently re modelled (2nd time since early 70s) and I was lucky last year to have met the present owner and go on board (2nd time in 49yrs!)and take a few photos. The vessel was modified a number of times by the RNZAF over the years (air intakes, removal of the fore deck machine guns, wheelhouse turret etc so I sort of went in the middle. I found a few drawings of the type in an old mag which had side and top views plus the bulkheads and their positions, so I took them along to a copying shop and kept enlarging them until I had the desired proportions. This worked out quite well and using a few methods from other models I had built, managed to frame (ply) the hull and then fully strip plank it in balsa. it was then fiber glassed. The deck is ply, lined and varnish stained. The wheelhouse is varnished balsa with the top removable for access. The wheelhouse interior has detail such as controls, instrument panels, skipper, steps to wardroom etc but is not too detailed as it is not seen. The boat has full lighting by remote switch, lights are all LED.
The propulsion side has dual everything (motors, ESCs, sound units), would have had 3x but ran out of space! Motors are 28mm 2200Kv water jacketed in-runners (cooled by remotely switched pump) using 30A Chinese ESCs (have 5A BEC, Fwd and Rev). Twin sound units are 'GT Power' car units which have around 40 different sound selections, from Cosworths to diesels and are computer programmable (as well as manually on the unit ) for various functions. I am using one of the v8 sounds (8 cyls short in my application) which I think is as near as you are going to get to 3 Napier Sea Lions (for which there is obviously no sound available) They 'start' 'Idle' and are fully proportional in fwd and rev and can sound quite realistic (will attempt to put up a vid later).
Batteries are 2x 2200mah 2s 20c LiPos which will last around 2hrs at least of sailing (they also run the sound units) Still have a few small things left to do (have just made wheelhouse air intakes) but don't want to get too fiddly. Just want to keep it a practical model.

Model is 28” long weighs 7lbs. Hull covered with 2 oz. fiberglass cloth deck covered with 3/4 oz. fiberglass cloth and resin finished with spar varnish. Power is MACK 5045 motor and 2 6 volt x 3000 nimh packs.

Chris Craft Riva
Building a Chris craft Riva from scratch seemed a good idea.. I use three ply scrap wood costing three euros fifty cents so far.But I have in stock rolls of two inch wide veneer which I wrap around the stringers. So far it's three thicknesses thick which I feel is enough. Next stage is a hard sanding then a varnish before the 100 and things to do to it.
Any comments appreciated and ideas.
Alan

Purchased on well known auction site. Boat very dusty/dirty but sound. it is from a Robbe kit that was around about 10 years ago and has timber decking, built-in auxiliary motor, navigation lights, etc. A deep clean followed by a re-paint of the superstructure, rub the decking down and varnish, followed by a complete rub down and re-paint of the hull brought her back to a fine yacht. She is about 40 inches in length and sails beautifully and has great presence on the water.

My three latest aquisitions: a pleasure launch, a speed boat and a landing craft rigged out for the Vietnam war. The landing craft is ready to go, as is the speed boat (speed boats not my thing to be honest) but the pleasure launch will be a project. I intend to replace the upper cabin, strip the paint and maybe just varnish the hull, add some planking for the deck plus it needs all the running gear....should keep me busy for a while

Well this is the 3rd version I have made of a springer tug.

Grp Hull and this time using 2 mm plastic.
Balsa wood and again what ever I could find laying around.

The decking is just printed paper and stuck down with Varnish.

Just needs some ballast and it is ready to go.

Recently built from an Aeronaut kit, this is a 1/24th scale Pilot Boat based on a German design. Powered by two 540 brushed motors with 3 bladed brass props it attains something like scale speed. The colour is Volkswagen Bright Orange, courtesy of Halfords and the non-slip deck is acrylic green mixed with silver sand then covered with a silk finish varnish.
The boat was filmed at an illuminated regatta staged by Bournville Model Yacht and Power Boat Club on their lake in Bournville, Birmingham
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" Me Betty" is coming on nicely,varnish her tonight see how she looks in the mornings and if all is well just the hardwear to put on and the window to fit 😊

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!