Brought this vintage Aero Kits RAF Crash Tender for £50 from Newcastle area, it is the 34in version.
To my surprise at home I found that it had a Bullet 30 motor installed these motors were the top drawer motor of early fast electrics in the early 1980's and its the only one I've ever seen, it can run on 24v and pull around 15A giving 300w not bad for a brushed motor.
due to the power of this motor I have modified the hull under the water line with turn fins and trim tabs to reduce torque roll and improve turning stability, the underside is incorrect already as it only has one propshaft, where the original had two and I believe that both props turned in the same direction.

The Pictures here show some of the work in progress I have remounted the motor and added a speed controller rated at 24v
I have remade the stern compartment and rudder gear under it.
I have blocked windows and foamed the front half of the boat.
made missing parts and repaired delaminating ply.

Note old ply is not as good as modern, the glue is not as water resistant.

Have painted the hull and have just ordered the decals from Cornwall model Boats :-https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/cgi-bin/sh000001.pl?WD=hose%20fire&PN=becc_fire_tender%2ehtml#aB_2dFTS1_2e32

The 34in is 1/16 scale

Fitting can be brought but many are cast white metal and can add weight to the boat, I have made two water cannons and plan to buy plastic fittings from this site.

This has turned out to be a task that is difficult to assess how much effort and money to spend on a hull that has been built by someone else (say no more).
Have just finished the steps for the stern compartment.
Painted and now for the test run.
the Bullet 30 motor ran well between 14 and 18v,

I have just completed my Puffer and am quite pleased with the outcome. The components are quite good but do need a bit of fettling but this is what our hobby is about. This is my third Caldercraft build so I am used to their quality and sparse instructions.   As usual for Caldercraft you need to have your thinking cap on as the A0 plan and the 'instruction book' do not match up but of course they do expect you to have a little bit of experience in model building. it has taken me about 6 months to build working on and off over this time. it has a large hull which is easy to house the motor, ESC, RC and batteries, etc. (I installed 2 lead acid 6 volt batteries, one on each side amidships) which gives stability and ballast. Being a large deep hull it needs a lot of ballast, even in its short length.I have only tested her in the big white nautical test facility at home so do not know how it will perform on our lake but hope to try it out on Sunday if the weather is set fair. Tried her out Wednesday and she sailed really well - maybe a little more ballast in the bow but not too concerned.

Today Lulonga River steamer passed further navigation tests after replacing the ESC.(the new ESC are from HK...), working well,
The electronics work reliably, problems with stability again, but this time with a transverse stability. Since the superstructures that I built are quite heavy, and the model also has a flat bottom, so setting up a balanced position is very sensitive, and somehow I can not.
I try to stick around under the bottom of the line model, additional load.
Perhaps it will also help the exchange wheel

some more Lulonga photos (also other than the model) can be found atl) can be found at
> http://tomarack.rajce.idnes.cz/RC_model_Lulonga

Based on a footy length scow this 6" hull (ie half footy!) has 2CH RC (rudder and mainsail). 140gms (

Scratch-built paddler by Pete Smith. Model was built fom Richard Webb's MAP plans and electrically powered. Pete added a redundant IOM keel cut down to provide extra stability and the boat now performs very well having suffered the vices of most model paddle steamers. The boat is 54 1/2 ins long and 13 1/2 ins beam, plank on frame construction.