Ahoy
here is a few pictures underway and display of my 1978 issue Lindberg PT-109. I had this old boat for 32 years for power nothing to get excited about. not to much into speed but she goes fast enought not enough to raise the bow out of the water. I didn,t use the kit motor it was to much of a toy its design was primarley used for pool opperation. there for I replaced it with dumas 6 volt electric motor useing the kits reduction gearbox they give you. at the time of the build I had no forsight discard it, perhaps in the near future Iwill scuttle it and use 2 direct 6 volt motors the gear reduction slows down the speed pretty much if you use scale speed it is good for cruiseing at 6 knotts. the gear reduction has been coated with grifite grease as long as I had this old relic there are no wear on the gear teeth so she is good to go untill I decide to scuttle this old gear box. Here are a few attachments of this ols sailor
This boat was scratch built from Harold Underhill plans, available still from Brown,Son and Ferguson. The hull was mahogany on 6mm ply frames. The engine was a Caton from Maxwell Hemmens supplied bya gas-fired Cheddar Puffin boiler. The propeller was a two inch four bladed brass job from Rivabo I think. The displacement of the boat is 25lb- a bit of a lump to carry to the water but it does work well once in the water. She has now been converted to electric using a MFA geared 540 type motor witha 7.5ah lead acid gel cell. Looking again at this video I begin to wish I had left it as steam but there is something to be said for 'switch on and go'.
I started building the boat in the mid nineties and it has now had a repaint- it always been a favourite. This video was taken in the early noughties at Crealy in Exeter.
32" RAF Fire Tender being restored by Salv Bambino
HI all. This is an, RAF Fire Tender 32" that was given to me 30+ years ago by a friend who was going to scrap it. it's been stored in my garage loft all this time. I am about to start the restoration of the boat but havn't done any modelling since I was a youngster.
It has no running gear but was originally powered by a nitro engine, I am hoping to convert it to electric power, the problem is I have no idea what type of motor to use or what length prop tube or prop sahft is required, I don't have any drawings or information about the boat. I am presently cleaning and rubbing the panels down so that I can re glue most of the joints as thay are mostly starting to come loose.
Will post some more photos as I progress.
Dave, I have removed the prop shaft because it was bent and the resin around the prop tube/hull was cracked it was also worn quite badly. I need to purchase a new tube and prop shaft once I decide what motor to fit, I can then decide on the length of prop shaft. Thanks for the info.
HI Shambi, if you need a drawing or other info about the 34ins Fireboat I have plans and drawings etc that may help,if you need anything just get in touch with me via a message on the site, (Fireboat himself knows me well)Regards Pete D (Fireboatfunday Organiser)
My first post on site as a new member !
I can't take credit for the building this Deans Marine kit, my father did that some 15 years ago but as a static model. When he passed away the ship came to me and a few months ago I decided to make it seaworthy.
She used a standard MabuchI 540RS motor geared down using two 6v lead acid batteries - and runs for hours !
The pictures were taken at Peterborough Area Model Boat Club during our Sunday meet. I'm thrilled with it, very realistic at over four feet long, smooth and very manoeuvrable - Dad would have loved it :-))
I have a dozen or so RC boats, mostly vintage Aerokits and Veron, just bought my first Fire Boat to restore - more to follow I hope. Thanks for looking, Roger
gearbox fitted, tested today with 8.4v graupner, running on 19.2v nimh. GPS Data logger installed, measured at 14.63mph, sound like a jet turbine!!, and this video was the slower of the 2 props tested.
Improvements with gearbox, motor is stone cold (it is water cooled, but was still hot as direct drive) , quieter, longer run time, esc cold, now able to upgrade from 2 blade 40mm prop to 3 blade, and possibly 4 blade, amp draw much less. Video taken at Newsham Park, Liverpool. Handling is now difficult, as its going way too fast, but its great fun! and might go faster, with the motor thats been fited tonight, watch this space!!
well that was the distant memory of brushed motors!, way back when we had gas lanterns instead of LED's 😀
Unfortunately I cant remember the ratio, I think it was 2:1 from memory. it was later converted to brushless. Has not been run for two years since the bigger brother fireboat came along. I keep thinking just put a brushed motor back in it, and have plodding speed, it looks silly doing all that porpoising, and the bigger brother can give me my speed fix 😁
Maybe a little more bow weight would stop the problem , my Spearfish used to do that all I did was put lipo length ways and it stopped , but yeah if your happy with the bigger being the faster then go for it 😊
46 Inch Crash Tender Rescued From E-bay By Peter Harvey
46 inch Crash Tender rescued from E-bay. Currently in the process of total restoration and have had to scratch build the entire super structure. Have fitted a Merco 61 engine with tuned pipe (the noise is awesome).
Have gone for it with the radio control- - employing a Robbe F14 plus an extra 8 channel module with decoder. So far extra controls are : each monitor (scratch built using brass pipe & sheet) left & right (using Robbe pulley set to give me 270 degrees travel), two Irvine water pumps, (real car) hooter, winch (using gearbox from Maplins) and movement for jib and search light.
Hull started out as polystyrene foam and plywood. Started July 29,2006 and in the water by Aug. 11th for sea trials. Detailed over the following 18 months.
The model is powered by 12vdc using Graupner Speed400-2.33:1 gear drive, and the small Graupner Schottel drives #1761. Separate ESC and Steering control for each drive.
The Lighting is 3mm LED cast into clear, or tinted, polyurethane lamps.
It sails the Pacific Northwest, USA, homeport Portland, Oregon.
It is a Sirmar limited edition (100) semI kit at 1/48 scale and some 6 feet in length. When he bought the model it was already constructed, but as a static model. So out came the jigsaw, Manual NOT powered.
The deck around the aft gun turret was cut to allow a good inspection of the inside of the hull. He tried to remove the bridge superstructure but this would have meant destroying it to remove. Out came the jigsaw again and cut an access hatch in the main deck.
The steering servo was fitted and attached ( by keyhole surgery ) and 2 x MFA 800 motors were fitted. Scale Prop Shop Props were fitted and the radio gear just jury rigged for her first trial. She was roughly ballasted with 2 x 12volt 7Ah batteries and she was ready for her first trials.
She sailed well with no water ingress to the hull, so the radio gear was installed properly with individual speed controllers to each motor. The results are as seen here.
John called this model "Nancy Dancer". it started of with plans from 'Nexus Plans Service' for Vic Smeed's 'Vivacity'. John used the hull only plans and created everything else himself. it ended up LOA 49" with a beam of 17". With the 12VDC battery the weight came to 23 1/2#.
Because of his basic 'Sedan Cruiser' he designed all the mechanicals and electricals beneath the main cabin floor, including the battery. There was quite a bit of detail put into the main cabin - unfortunately not shown in the photos - including a galley, eating area, furniture and the helmsman's station. The scale is 1" = 1ft.
This hull is plank on frame using 1/8" pine planks. Below the waterline there's epoxy & glass and above there is just epoxy. All the brightwork, cabin housing & decks is natural Cherry with a clear urethane finish.
The power is a Dumas 12VDC motor with a mechanical speed control. The bottom photo shows that he added a 2:1 gearbox to the motor and ran it in reverse to increase the prop RPMs. He also included a constant running fan to cool the motor due to the confinement of the space.
The single propellor is 2" - 2 pitch - 3 bladed bronze. As on all his models he used a 2 channel JR XR2 75 mhz.
