Innehållsförteckning för September 2025 från Model Boats

The Lysander is a sailing cruiser with a gunter rig. Designed by Percy Blandford, it was first shown to the public at the 1963 London Boat Show and went on to become one of the most popular home-build marine plywood designs of the 1960s, as you could build the 17ft double chine hull in a standard size garage (with the doors open). In terms of practicality, it was certainly advantageous to be able to dry out the hull on the beach while sat on its twin steel bilge keels, although compared to a fin keel, these bilge keels did somewhat compromise sailing performance. The simple nature of the yacht’s design, however, made it one of the first trailer sailers, as the mast and gaff could be stowed within the boat’s…

One thing that seems to come up in conversation frequently on the pondside is the issue of the wide-ranging selection of threads we find on our model engines, boilers, pipework and auxiliary bits and pieces. Many of us don’t necessarily want to source every steam plant component from the same manufacturer so we’re quite often faced with different threads in a single plant, but the biggest challenge by far comes when we start mixing in older pieces of plant. I was faced with this dilemma yet again only recently when working on the restoration of a Stuart Turner steam plant that had probably been built in around the 1920s (see the Boiler Room instalment ‘A Long-Term Project’ featured in the June 2025 edition of Model Boats). This project included three…

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 Leopard can’t change its spots! I think the labels have got mixed up somewhat regarding the model purporting to be HMS Leopard built by Denny of Dumbarton on page 11 of last month’s issue. The model shown is certainly not that vessel; in fact, it’s the German Graf Spee – the torpedo tubes on aft deck are a dead giveaway! Having spent a year of my marine engineering apprenticeship with Scotts’ Shipbuilding & Eng. Co Ltd at Greenock in the fitting bout basin on HMS Puma, sister to Leopard (photos of which I can share), I can definitely confirm that shown is not HMS…

OUT AND ABOUT Glasgow Richmond MBC Regatta From 11am to 4pm on August 17, the Glasgow Richmond Model Boat Club will be holding an Open Day Regatta in Richmond Park, G5 0BJ. Attractions will include a free to sign up to Steering & Docking Competition, awards for Best Model Overall, Best Kit-Buitl Model, and more, plus an ‘Old School’ Boat display. Visit the club’s Facebook page, listed under Richard Glasgow Model Boat Club for more info. If you are within striking distance, please do try and get along and show your support as, sadly, after an enormous amount of hard work and planning, the club’s July 20 Warship Open Day event had to be called off due for safety reasons due to weather warnings and torrential rain that weekend. Barry…

In the December 2020/January 2021 issue of ‘Model Boats’, under the title of ‘Transferable Tech’, I outlined a way of adapting a model helicopter brushless esc (electronic speed controller) for forward and reverse operation of a model boat using BLHeli software. I rounded off that article by explaining that all I had left to do was to fit the power train of motor and esc into a suitable model boat and try it out, and that has now finally happened… The model Towards the end of 2019 I purchased a 1:72 scale Revell plastic kit for the German lifeboat Hermann Marwede from a well-known auction site (readers of the above mentioned article will have seen a picture of a similar model I build some 12/13 years earlier), with a view…

I began building model powerboats in the 1960s/70s – and then stopped for about 50 years! Until, that is, my unfinished 1970s’ Aerokits’ Swordsman turned up in a friend’s garage during the 2020 Covid lockdown and he encouraged me to finish it. My pals at Bournville Radio Sailing and Model Boat Club explained what I needed to do to make it go fast – and fast it certainly went! I needed something more sedate. So, I decided on the African Queen. Unfortunately, the popular Billings Boat kit was out of stock at the time, so instead I opted to build my own version based on the Deans Marine Victoria & Albert fibreglass hull. The real Queen The African Queen is, of course, the riverboat featured in the 1951 cinema classic…

To complement its successful CB90 H LCP (Landing Craft Personnel) fast assault boats, first introduced in 1990, in 2019 the Swedish Navy added the CB90 HSM, also known as the CB 90 Next Generation, to its fleet. Measuring in at 16.3m in length by 3.80m in beam, with a hull weighing 18 tons and powered by Scania 900hp diesel V8, drive is provided by two water jet units. These boats can reach a maximum speed of 45kts, with a 30kts cruise speed, even in moderately choppy conditions. Although the design was originally intended for patrolling the coastal waters of Sweden and its numerous islands and inlets, the CB90 HSM features improved seakeeping, weapons (a Trackfire remote gun system), sensor systems and updated ergonomics for the crew of three and twelve…

Having decided I wanted to build a model paddle boat of some kind, I went scouring YouTube for inspiration and came across footage of this monster, slowly crawling up the beach, supported by 100 paddles. It really has to be seen to be believed – so I suggest keying ‘Military paddle boat’ into the YouTube search engine to view the video yourself. At first, I wondered if I was looking at a scene from a remake of the old James Bond film Dr. No – but no, Naveatek is an actual experimental vehicle/craft, capable of delivering loads such as tanks onto a beach. The prototype featured in the clip, measuring 42 ft (13m) in length, 28 ft (8m) wide and 17ft (5m) in height, is apparently half the size of…

BIBER MIDGET SUBMARINE SPECIFICATION ‘Biber’ is the German word for beaver and was the apt name chosen by them for a one-man midget submarine developed in great haste during early 1944. It was designed to attack coastal shipping, in particular the Allied invasion fleet that the Germans knew would soon be coming. Said to be highly influenced by a captured British one-man submarine, the Welman (see Flotsam and Jetsam, January 2025 issue), it was a more advanced craft intended to overcome the Welman’s shortcomings, but it introduced some shortcomings of its own that led to its almost complete lack of success in action. Biber background The impulsive and charismatic Korvettkapitän Hans Bartells of the Kriegsmarine was spurred into action to develop a German equivalent of Welman W46 captured at Bergen…

Maid of Sker The original Maid of Sker now sits in Bischof Pioneer Park in Nerang, Southeast Queensland. She was built in 1884 by Evans, Anderson, Phelan and Company, Brisbane, and serviced Brisbane, Southport and Nerang, carrying cargo as well as passengers. 1:24 scale plans were purchased from Float-a-boat in Victoria. I originally intended to build the model for radio-control, however at the moment a static display will have to suffice. The hull frames are 6mm mdf with a single layer of walnut planking, with the entire hull then epoxied. The hull plating is self-adhesive aluminium tape, with the rivets formed by rolling a small plastic gear wheel on the reverse side of the tape prior to application. The paddle wheels and superstructure are all made from evergreen plastic, while…