Innehållsförteckning för September 2024 från Model Boats

Karakurt-E I first laid eyes on the Karakurt design some five years ago and immediately began to consider its potential from a modeller’s perspective. I noted how many countries with exposed coastal regions, and not just those surround the Baltic Sea, are moving towards smaller, faster, more versatile and well-armed naval units of patrol boat/corvette proportions. Why this is so is due to cost, a lengthy construction period and, also, the number of personnel required for each vessel. The design of this class, given the designation Project 22800 Karakurt (Karakurt translating into English as spider), is attributed to the Almaz Central Marine Design Bureau), with a total of 18 of these vessels having been constructed at various shipyards around the Russian Federation. Akin to the vessel’s designation of missile corvette,…

FREE PLAN During a holiday on the island of Malta some years ago, we walked along a harbour front where a few fishing boats were moored. As I am always on the lookout for interesting subjects to model, I naturally took some photographs. Having returned home, however, these photos were simply tucked away in the holiday files and quickly forgotten about – until recently when, casting around for a new project idea, a model of a small fishing boat suddenly became very appealing. After relocating these photos, my first thought was to build the hull along the lines of my ‘Ute’ model (see the February 2013 issue of Model Boats). However, these Maltese fishing boats had a pronounced flare in their hull sides, increasing towards the bows, which the Ute’s…

Steam Basics Pt. 156 Unless you’re familiar with the meaning of the term ‘operational philosophy’, you may be tempted to dismiss it as just another example of pretentious jargon. Don’t! It actually to refers to a practice that’s of major importance to us as modellers and should be factored in at the design stage of every project. Why? Well, because getting your operational philosophy right is key to the smooth running of a model at the pondside, and helps ensure both reliable, consistent performance and ease of operation. What follows, then, is an explanation of how to identify, implement and use operational philosophy to get the best out of your steam models. What does the term actually mean? Operational philosophy identifies the way in which we want to run a…

Signals OUT AND ABOUT Kirklees MBC Autumn Open Day Kirklees Model Boat Club will be holding its annual Autumn Open Day at Wilton Park, Bradford Road, Batley WF17 8JH from 9.30am to 3.30pm on Sunday, September 8, 2024. Visitors will be welcome to sail their own model boats alongside those belonging to members on the club’s lake (please note, steam powered models will need an up-to-date certificate and no I.C. or high-performance fast electric boats can be accommodated). Plus, there will be static model boats and military vehicle displays, IPMN Plastic Models will be on site, and it’s hoped there will be a number of trade stands to browse. Kirklees MBC has long prided itself on the charity fund raising raffles held at these events and, following the cancellation of…

Scratch built stunner When I first came across video footage of these old boats racing in Galway Bay on YouTube, I was immediately struck by how fast they were, and how close to the wind they could sail for 19th century sailing boats. With my interest piqued, I began to do some further research and it turned out there was much more information to be found in other videos, including one featuring the step-by-step build of a replica. During this video a book was mentioned, The Galway Hookers by the now late Dick Scott. When first published this would have cost £12, but copies are currently changing hands for up to £100. Fortunately, I managed to acquire myself a reasonably priced secondhand copy and wasn’t disappointed, as it contains a…

Reading the book The Gray Seas Under by Farley Mowat, (see Photo 1), not just once but several times over, convinced me that as a Tug Master and model maker myself I had to pay my only little (well, not so little) tribute to the Foundation Franklin – not necessarily by building an exact scale replica but certainly something along the lines of the heroic North Atlantic tug featured in the story. This was back in January 1998, although my interest in modelling goes back way further than that. As a child I was always looking at model boats in shop windows, but back then their 5 shilling plus price tags saw them totally out of my reach. I particularly wanted a Fairey Huntsman 31, kits for which were frequently…

Flotsam & Jetsam At the outbreak of World War II in September 1939 the most powerful vessels in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) consisted of the two heavy cruisers Canberra and Australia, plus the four light cruisers Hobart, Sydney, Perth and Adelaide. By 1942, after three years of hard action, Canberra, Sydney and Perth had been sunk, while Hobart was so badly damaged in 1943 that she was put out of action until the last few months of the war. When Sydney failed to return to port in November 1941 and nothing was ever heard from her or her 645 crew members again, her loss quickly came to be viewed not only as Australia’s greatest maritime disaster but its greatest maritime mystery. HMAS Sydney Like her sister ships Hobart and…

All for one, and one for all For those of you who are new to the magazine, the concept for a GP hull that could be fitted with interchangeable tops first came to me during the Covid lockdown. To try the idea out, I first built Mintanic on a hull which had a removable centre and rear decks (see the May 2024 issue of Model Boats), before then going on to create three more sets of decks and masts – these tops providing me with four very different ships to play with. The next step was to create a bigger hull, with plain straight hull sides, onto which a greater variety of tops could be fitted, starting with a disco paddleboat top (for full details see the July 2024 issue…

At the very beginning of the R/C game, c.1949-50 or so, nearly all R/C flyers and boaters built their own radio gear – for the best of reasons, this being there was almost no commercial equipment available. Consequently, even the least knowledgeable amongst them could boast a certain level of theoretical understanding and hands-on experience because fabricating items using data found in magazines such as Model Maker was often their only option open to them. Examples include ‘wave-meters’ (for crude frequency checks), crystal oscillators (for receiver tuning), and multi-range volt, resistance and current measuring instruments – homemade and much simplified versions of commercial test gear, such as the famous British Avo Meter (an item set to be featured in this series next year). Even though I started in the hobby…

OUT AND ABOUT Weymouth & Portland MBC Lifeboat Sail Day The Weymouth and Portland Model Boat Club staged its Lifeboat Sail Day in June. This was to celebrate the RNLI’s 200th year. In the past we have mounted our exhibition at The Lyme Regis Lifeboat site but, due to the proximity of our club gazebo relative to the lifeboat launching tractor, this year health and safety precautions did not allow this to take place. The decision was made to carry out our own ‘mini’ lifeboat day to compensate. This took place at Mangerton Mill Lake, one of our three sailing venues. Club members were invited to bring along their model lifeboats where possible, or ‘run what you brung’ models. We had a very good attendance with many types of models…