The black Amsterdam is mine, built in 2004 from the Artesania Latina kit. it is powered by a 545 motor through a pulley reduction drive, and the battery is a 6v, 10ah SLA.
The kit prop was replaced by a brass one. The yellow model belongs to Peter Barlow, a member of our club, and was built several years before mine. it is also an Artesania kit.
Our club, the Ballina RSL Club Marine Modellers, sail in a tidal salt water lake in Ballina, which is on the far north coast of NSW, Australia.
Peter Fitness.
Hi, I have just acquired one of these tug boats. it is in need of some restoration. Do you know of any where I can get a copy of plans for this model please. I have been in touch with the manufactures and they basically said they have nothing for this Amsterdam model so it looks like it is going to be a job and half to restore it but it will be done.
I rescued my PT Boat from EBAY in August 2005. it was owned by a young boy in Birmingham whose Dad had built if for him. it is an original Aerokits kit Fast Patrol Boat. When I bought the boat it had a sound hull with a few damaged fittings, which I removed. Since then I have made new guns, extended the front cabin to carry the life raft to make it look like a late World War II Elco PT Boat and added other new fittings.
I have made 6 working exhausts in brass tubing, have fitted a new open prop shaft running an Octura race prop and a Merco 61 glow engine. it still needs torpedos, guard rails around the machine gun turrets and a few other fittings. The number 349 is from an original Pacific Theatre 80' Elco PT Boat whose name in Bee Bee, which I hope to add at a later date.
I have also painted it in an original Pacific Theatre camouflage from a PT Boat book which I bought for reference and to make it look like a standoff scale model. This boat was also photographed by the local Burton Upon Trent newspaper at the Fireboat day in September 2006. I ran this boat at the Burton Model Boat Club's Fireboat day in September 2006 briefly until I broke the exhaust manifold and had to retire it early.
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.
This lifeboat was a part-kit from Metcalfe Mouldings, being just a bare hull and superstructure. All the detailed work was scratch- built by my son and I did all the drive and electrics.
It is powered by two 540 motors through a single water-cooled speed controller and the props are about 35mm. My son and I sail it at our club water at Knightcote in Warwickshire. it is now about 4 years old and, (touch wood), pretty reliable.
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.
The boat has no name as yet, it is scrach bult from two photos. I found in a loft as usual. it is about 25/30 years old, she is powered by a darke horse 785 turbo with a 2.5 to 1 gearbox and two 9.6 volt 3700maH NiMH bateries and a 50mm 3 bladed prop, sailed at our local lake.
The boat is far from finished and is not to scale as you can see, but for a first time build it looks pritty fair out on the water. Just one last word, many thanks to all the members of the forum for all your help.bit of a muck here lads the photos were in the loft,the hull I bought for £30.and every thing else is scratch built.
