Indholdsfortegnelse for August 2022 i Model Boats

Many moons ago, my son-in-law, Lyndon, bought a model motor cruiser from one of my neighbours. The boat was 60 inches (1530mm) long, with a beam of 16.5 inches (420mm) and was fitted with an unknown make of two-stroke petrol engine. Her name was Dawn Mist and the heading picture in this feature illustrates the original nameplate from her transom. According to the neighbour, she’d been built in the 1940s and, he believed, originally had a steam plant. That’s all he could tell us though, so if anyone out there in Model Boats’ land can provide some further information about her history, we’d love to hear from you. The model ‘as bought’ Photo 1 shows Dawn Mist more or less as bought (apologies for the poor picture quality but digital…

“I was delighted when 1:350 scale kits became available, and radio control became smaller, lighter and more affordable, finally allowing real, working miniaturisation of these magnificent, deadly weapons of war” I’ve been fascinated by the story and the tragedy of the whole ‘Bismarck episode’ since about the age of four, dating back to sneaking downstairs one night with my younger brother to stare in rapture at the 1:1200 scale Eaglewall model of the Prince of Wales my father had been making that evening. The agony of the four-year-old mind as it realised that this beautiful creation was too small and delicate to play with and would not float in the bath (at least the right way up), has lived with me for many years since, still motivating me now in…

Steam basics Pt.131 Having got the deck and its fittings mostly in place and established the amount of remaining space, it was time to get stuck into some woodwork. The electronics all needed hiding in some lockers, so these required building into the hull between a pair of frames, while at the same time being made both accessible and removable. I also decided to prolong battery life by fitting a separate battery in each locker, as I knew the high torque servos were going to need a fair amount of power and I didn’t want current drain from them affecting the sensitive electronics of the Automatic Boiler Control unit. So, when constructing my lockers, I’d need to allow enough space to fit a battery pack in each of them A…

A submariner’s tale I doubt many modellers would suggest tacking a submarine an ideal first project for a newcomer to the hobby, but, actually, that was how I got involved in the world of model boats. As a schoolboy, I was an enthusiastic but not always successful builder of model aircraft. I then discovered a near neighbour, a little older than me, was also into constructing working models but mainly of the boating kind. This looked to be more promising. It would certainly avoid my regular tree climbing recovery sessions or, worse still, returning home with my latest creation reduced down to a bag of bits! “It looked simple enough to build and the total cost, if I remember correctly, was 10 shillings (50p!)” This was in the early 1960s…

Having covered the completion of most of the exterior hull details last month, let’s now move on to fitting the deck details… The groups of roller fairleads, arranged on platforms around the edge of the foc’sle, came courtesy of a bollard pack from RB Models. These have diameter of 1.5mm (a scale 9”) and a mounting stub of 1mm diameter. I found the easiest way to hold these small fiddly pieces for painting was in some 1.2mm diameter holes in a piece of scrap styrene. A small blob of tacky glue was enough to secure the stubs firmly on the underside, while allowing them to be removed again easily afterwards. The mooring bollards and lifeboat davits I ordered from the Bluejacket Shipcrafters’ range, while the mooring winches I used were…

All hands on deck! Double the fun! At the back end of last year, Richard Page and I built a pair of steam powered Victorian river launches. You may have seen the article in the Model Boats magazine entitled ‘A tale of five boys’ (January 2022 edition). Well, it has taken almost six months, but recently we plucked up courage to take the launches down to our local pond in Wicksteed Park for their ‘maiden’ voyages. We made sure we arrived nice and early at the pond side before too many members arrived to witness potential failures of our boats. For this auspicious occasion we had each bought a pair of chest high waders in order that we may join our boats in the water. This would allow us to…

Crow’s nest Following closely in the wake of JSC’s recent model of HMS Starling (ref. 419), previewed in our June issue, is its latest offering, the British warship HMS Hood. While JSC has previously published a kit of HMS Hood (the last iteration being dated 2006, I believe), since its retirement from the catalogue customers old and new have been requesting a reprint. It should be noted, however, that this new kit of Hood is exactly that, a new kit! JSC hasn’t simply reprinted its original design but has taken the opportunity to make some changes and improvements to the drafting of the model, while also bringing it up to its current high standards of production, as we shall see… This new version (ref. 32), drafted in 1:400 scale, builds…

Come on, baby, light my fire! Apparently, I’m very boring. I know this because my wife has told me so! And while I’d like to think her casual, throwaway, remark was made purely in jest, on careful reflection, I rather suspect there may be more than a grain of truth in it. I recently joined the Wicksteed Park Model Boat Club and to date members have been most welcoming. Perhaps, though, when the veneer wares off and they realise just how boring I am, they will start to ignore me. Such a scenario would, believe it or not, be nothing new to me. For example, some years ago, my business partner Marion and I used to attend ‘business club’ meetings. The idea was to ‘network’ with fellow members, exchange business…

Letters can either be forwarded via email to editor@modelboats.co.uk or via post to Readers’ Letters, Mortons Media Group, Media Centre, Morton Way, Horncastle, Lincs LN9 6JR Class correction Sorry to be nit picking but, in the interest of accuracy, I feel should point a misnomer in last month’s Sterling Work restoration feature. The ships featured (i.e., the heading picture of American Shipper, and American Scout, as modelled) were not USA-built Liberty class ships but rather two of seven C2-S-AJ5 class constructed by North Carolina Shpbldg. Co. Wilmington, Delaware: American Shipper, Yard No.232, and American Scout, Yard No. 236 – both having been built in 1945. I am including an image of an ex-Liberty type for comparison purposes [see above], albeit with the later raised wheelhouse. That said, Geoff has done…