Was given the Occre kit of the “Ulises” ocean going tug for Christmas. Started the build this weekend but I reckon it is going to be a bit of a drawn-out build for a while as I have a lot going on with work and other things. I will gradually add photos of my progress… Re comment about kit suppliedpropshaft - I agree, I didn’t like the look of that one in the kit so I cut down an old one I had from something else, put the bearing back in with the addition of a touch of solder To make sure it stayed there and I added the oiler tube as well by soldering that on.

One of my nine-year projects is coming to an end. I am sad to see it completed in some ways, overjoyed in others. Many projects have been begun and shelved over those nine years; some are in the trash now. What is known is the 213' WMEC-168 Yocona is hit or miss whether my attempts to waterproof a static hull will be successful. So on hold or a side project. The Gunboat Philadelphia is on-going at work between shifts. PBY that doesn't Fly I will place on hold, pending possible actual flight. (That will put three aircraft inline to be completed.) The battleship North Carolina....Big. Not so complex as physically large undertaking. SO, begin at the beginning as I tell my students. I pondered purchasing the laser-cut kit from Canada, but it is just frames, deck, and pilothouse. Yes, it is 1" to one foot scale, and would match my 44' MLB perfectly, but $286 plus shipping? For me too much, I will build at 1/24th scale for now. Small enough to store, big enough to detail and outfit with running gear. My 44 MLB, is a leaky, but I am installing an automatic bilge pump. I get so much joy out of running it, and I will have the tri-fecta of MLB's 36', 44', and 52'. The 213 should be complete around the time I finish, so four CG projects in a years time, plus the Philly is a quick build. So, it is a year, year and a half plan. This will be a slow one. Non Boat picture is project that is almost complete. Kevin

Hi Shipmates, After many years I finally found one at a good price £20 plus £10 p&p on good old Ebay. I have a load of hardware sitting around, motors rudders etc. So I decided to play about with this boat. Generally it is considered a waste of time and money to do anything with these boats. So I don't expect any 'Likes' on this project, its a bit of a daft thing to do. Information about 32in long twin stepped catamaran hull, beam 9.25 inches, thin ABS plastic. First stage. Unpack and check, strip out all of the hardware, generally unscrew components, most difficult thing was removing the propeller shafts. Second stage wash hull with warm soapy water (in the Bath) and remove stickers.

Hi One & All Back in 1997 I purchased two vacform hull for a 1/72 Clyde Puffer along with the drawings from Sarik (drawing MM1410), as we have been having some bad weather of late and due to their size they started to look like a good boat to start building in the house. (just to keep warm), over the last few weeks I have joined the two half’s of the hull, fitted the motor and shaft, alone with the deck, I have made a mistake when it comes to fixing the rudder, I should have made some form of fixing that went into the hull, so that the rudder had some were to fasten to, (will sort that out later on in the build) also I need to make some form of support for the shaft as I think it will in time work its way lose, moving on, the stern deck has been started and over half has now been planked. Fred

The Hansa dinghy was introduced in 1947 by Henry Rasmussen and a kit is available from German manufacturers Aeronaut, the hull is 940mm long. Have made some reasonable progress so far and would be interested in hearing from anyone else who has built one of these kits, especially concerning the ballast. The kit contains a plastic keel, which I have replaced with one made from 3mm stainless steel, to add some weight low down. The hull shape allows for lead shot and resin to be added, as on the real boat. The kit also does suggest an added "clamp on" weight to the end of the keel, which I'm planning to do. I'll drill a small hole in the lower area of the keel and use a two piece weight that can be clamped around the keel, with a pin going through the hole, to ensure the weight can not drop off. This is most likely to be made from brass. Its the relative weight of the keel and lead shot that needs to be considered. Current thinking, is to add the weight to the keel, do a float test, with batteries and RC equipment etc on board, and then add lead shot to bring the boat down to its water line and correct trim. I have found a couple of "build blogs" on German sites, but they seem to follow the instructions and just add lead shot in the bottom of the hull. Any other suggestions or experiences? - thanks

I am pushing the boat out really early in fact in its embryonic stage for this build blog and I might regret it but hope not. It has been my dream of some weeks that my preferred build for the future would be a great looking motor sailor and the one I settled on was Inga 1v and with encouragement from roycv who has in his harbour a splendid example set the ball rolling. There does not seem to be much interest out there for this model mainly due to there being is no kits available, nor plans, nor plastic hulls being produced simply lots of pictures and of course some beautiful completed models. First step and many thanks to tiggy_cat for sending me a set of plans for this model which arrived today. They are produced by Revell and are for the topsides which is great but leaves me with one of the challenges of my life that of drawing, stealing, borrowing whatever a plan of the hull shape. I fear that if I attempt to accurately draw the frames for the hull it might end sailing sideways. Anyway as somebody once said `I have started so I will finish` interested then watch this space. Regards ChrisG

Picked this up at our first scale meet of the season early April, too much going on at the moment, but eventually managed to start this evening. The kit is over 20yrs old, was started and then put on "hold" by the previous owner. Hull is already assembled as was the observation chamber which was situated at the bow. As this "lends " itself to being lit internally, I have removed the brass observation windows plus the one on the bow and then attached some clear acetate on the back of them to make this forward area watertight. The observation chamber now glued in place, spraying to be carried out once this is dry and the "windows " can then be reinstated. Going to be a long job but looking forward to the build.

A fun project to hopefully bring a smile . Picked this up for the grand sum of £2.99. A "bit " unsteady afloat, however some ballast will sort this out. Initial problem is trying to make a suitable hole for the prop shaft in the ceramic. Think I need to invest in some new drill bits as taking longer than I thought it would. More to follow

I have now started to build this Mountfleet (Model Slipway) Kit. Firstly I decided to sort out the power system. 2 x RE540/1 geared motors (6:1). The propshafts supplied with the kit and the 4 blade brass props, also supplied.

I just posted a video on how to modify a Bruder figure to look more realistic on YouTube. This also can apply to other figures that have flexible joints as well. The YouTube link is below. Lew Florida , USA️ https://youtu.be/TvrWWmZOI-U

Never mind

Hi y’all. After building the Caldercraft Clyde Puffer, and taking a break from building for a few weeks, I decided it was time to crank up my bench again. I had originally started on a kit that I got in a trade, a Deans Wacht Am Rhein…this boat had been started some time ago, probably a good decade before I got my hands on it, and it’s been in my kit stash for a good 5 years or so now. The original builder got the rudder and tube installed and the aft and mid deck in place, and some bulwark detail. I was working on a motor mount when I decided I just didn’t want to deal with masts and rigging at this time. At some point I’m going to finish that boat…just not now. I’ve had a Graupner Krabbe Ton 12 in my kits stash for a bit. It’s the second version, when Graupner reorganized and sent the kit production to Asia, probably KYmodel. Same people who did the SAR rescue boat and the Taucher Wulf did this. It’s a nice little kit, well made, instructions are somewhat between the Tauchers “guidelines” and a Billings kit…better, but not quite there. Now, I know I said I didn’t want to fool around with a bunch of masts and booms and rigging, and the Krabbe has that in spades…so I decided to make something different. I thought about a slightly different take on a Kriegsfischkutter, or maybe a fishing boat to yacht conversion…but, I decided on a simple tug. Basically a 1930s or so diesel or converted steam tug, something smaller that you might see in the Great Lakes. With that decision out of the way I went to work. First thing I did was to make up a 4mm shaft and tube. I used a Caldercraft Fineline tube that I had stolen the shaft from. I have a small collection of tubes and shafts, and a very few that are complete. Anyway, the kit uses a 3mm unit, and that’s just an odd size. Nothing wrong with it, just most of the props and fittings I’ve seen are for 1/8th, 3/16th, 2mm and 4mm. The 3 mm props and such are just harder to get…so I made up the tube by cutting down the Caldercraft unit to the length I wanted, and using the bushing from the discarded end I built up the tube, and added an oiler. I then took on the task of choosing my power plant. The kit comes with a motor, a knock off of a Mabuchi RS380. My experience with these motors is that they make good model boat anchors. My first SAR that I built was completely stock, and I ran it on the recommended 6 cell nimh pack. After I had the boat completed and had about 6 good runs on it, she went dead in the water at Towne Lake. We retrieved it, and the motor had gotten hot, and the brush holders had softened from the heat and the brushes were not making contact….never again. I was thinking about my usual outrunner brushless, when I remembered I had a brand new MFA 2.5 to 1 380 sized geared motor in my possession. Went with that. After making up a mount and installing the shaft and tube I did a test run on the bench. At full chat, but no load it’spulling 0.07 amps on a 3 cell lipo. Once that was squared away I used part of the motor mount/radio tray combo to mount the rudder servo, got the rudder mounted, and started to make up the deck houses. One nice feature of this kit is that the deck slots into a groove in the hull. There are under deck stringers that are laser cut in the kit, once installed they give the deck a slight beam to beam curve. I used the kit parts to make up the aft coaming and house/hatch, and built up my fwd deckhouse and coming from plasticard. I then built up the wheelhouse using kit components..however, I built the deck and house “inside out”, i.e I’m not using the printed “decking” side as I’m probably going to paint the deck and house vs staining them. That’s where I’m at now. I think the wheelhouse, as built looks a little too tall. I might leave it as this is supposed to be a small, River or Great Lakes tug, not an ocean going boat, and in some of the pics I looked up to get an idea of how I wanted her to look, some of the real boats had tallish pilot houses. I might cut it down about a half inch, but haven’t made the choice yet. Once I make that decision I’ll finish up the house and start figuring out details and what job this boats going to have… Cash