This one was great fun!, I found a vintage (50Yr+ old) hull, Bread & Butter built wood hull, very heavy, I envisaged a 70’s style holiday boat, the type you saw on the Norfolk broads.
I’ve never seen a model boat with the wet weather gear on, so with help from my dad it was built, some coarse string applied to simulate rope edging, and thanks to Models by design some scale rubber fenders.
Really pleased with the look so far of this, its powered by a MFA Torpedo 850, and 6v NiMh moves it along nicely at a scale speed, plan to add some grab rails, cleats & navigation lights.
Next job for this one is to fabricate some hand railings, not something I’ve attempted before but will give it a go by creating soldered rods around the front, its a project thats moving rapidly up the queue, I shall be watching youtube videos over next few days before purchasing the rod.
OK ready to attempt making some rails, not sure where to start so decided to practice using an old metal coat hanger
That gave me the shape I was looking for… But was not possible to solder, there’s a coating on the coat hangers not sure what it is but it wasn’t going to solder, so some glue to temporarily help me to visualise…
Time to fabricate from brass.
Whilst I’m attempting this I wanted to add a row boat / tender on to the back of the boat, so I had Dave from Mastman (www.mastman.co.uk) 3D print me one.
Trouble is I wanted it with a wood clinker style effect, initial attempts at gluing strips of wood to the boat were unsuccessful, following conversations with John Mitchel, a good friend and long time modeller he took it away to see what he could do, well wow! he primed, glued strips of paper to the hull for the board effect, painted it in a wood effect, even added running boards and made oars! I owe him for this one.
I’ve made a stand for it to sit on, and love the way its turned out.
John’s reminded me that if I were looking to make it realistic it would likely have had a painted white hull. and a tarpaulin over, agreed but I like what I like and prefer to see a nice wooden boat, especially now he’s done such a good job.