Hi y’all. I have been eyeing a few Caldercraft kits for some time….the Alte Liebe, Sir Kay, Crumbrae and Clyde puffer have been on my radar for some time…but unfortunately I’m cheap, and the Caldercraft kits aren’t.🤣
Anyway, I had sold a boat and a kit out of my stash to supplement my slice of the Christmas budget when a club mate offered to sell me his unbuilt Portgarth tug. I thought about it, but the expense and size of the boat was a little more than I wanted to deal with. That and that brass mast! Well, long story short, after I politely turned down the Portgarth, my buddy said he had a Caldercraft Clyde Puffer he’d part with. It’s and older kit, looks like it’s all there…and the price of entry was about half of a new one. Sold!!
He was very honest about this kit. It’s an older kit, some wood parts machine cut with part numbers inked on, the upper decks are printwood. It’s missing a few nuts and bolts, and the molded hatch cover, but everything else is there , including about a half million white metal fittings, which came carded and shrink wrapped. The fittings are of pretty good quality, better than the last Deans kit I built. The hull had taken a “set” due to lying around for 20 years or so, but some tape in tension and slight heat from a heat gun and an overnight rest cured that. So, it’s time to build!!
First thing I did was to build up my stuffing box. The one in the kit is fine, but I wanted one a little longer and unplated so I could solder on a lube tube. I wanted a good mechanical fit, so instead of soldering on a tube then drilling the stuffing box, I drilled the box first, and selected a brass tube that would just fit in the hole. I pressed it in, making sure I cleared the shaft, and silver soldered it in place. I use a mini grease gun from Pro Boat that will give enough pressure to have grease squeeze out between the ends of the tube and the shaft, so a good mechanical fit and silver solder are a must.
I then cleaned the interior of the hull with a paper towel dampened with lacquer thinner, and gave it a quick sanding once dry. Caldercraft made sure the builder knew that the hull is a polyester resin hull, not epoxyglass, so I wanted to make sure the glues I use would work.Stabilit works well, and I read that epoxy will work with some prep. I made a very small batch of 5 minute and microballoons, and pick a place in the hull to experiment. Once my sample dried I tried to peel it off but it’s on there for good. Cool!! I have Stabilit, epoxy and ca, we’re good!!
I installed the front and aft bulkheads next, I drilled a large hole for the stuffing box in the aft bulkhead before the install. Once I had the aft hole drilled ( and fixed🤣), I was able to move the tube to its proper height. I then cut 2 thin ply scab patches and drilled them to fit the tube. I installed the tube with one patch aft and one forward of the bulkhead. Once I had the shaft where I wanted it, I packed up the tube with scrap, tacked it at the aft of the hull and the bulkhead with ca, and once satisfied with the fit installed the scab patches with a liberal dose of epoxy, sandwiching the tube and bulkhead together. I then filled the aft end with filled epoxy.
I built up a motor mount from 3mm abs sheet and ply, and once everything was lined up, installed the mount and a Zippkits 650kv motor.
I won’t go into too many specifics about the rudder, if you look at the pics you can see it’s a bit of work. The lower skeg is bolted to the hull by 3 screws, those were missing so I used socket headed servo mounting screws, 2 from one side and 1 from the other. I then added the rudder post and rudder, the post has a screw built in that goes thru the hull and is secured by a nut inside the hull, it’s supposed to be joined to the skeg with a small nut and bolt, but I used a brass pin glued in place. It works pretty good! Looks finicky but came out better than I expected.
The last thing I did was to add the aft deck. Now, the plans show servo bearers installed and the servo is mounted to the bottom of the bearers, with the screws coming up from the bottom. Unfortunately once the assembly is glued in place…you’ll never be able to replace the servo without major surgery. What I did was I made spacers to drop the bearers, and once I had that assembly epoxied in place I installed the deck. I can now install the servo at the right height and can replace or service the servo if needed.
That’s all for now. My next steps are the stringers for the hatch, main deck, and fwd deck.
Cash

First off, thanks for the interest and comments, I truly appreciate them…secondly, my God Gary that’s a beautiful boat!! It’s 1 part engineering, craftsmanship and art.👍
So, I spent a little time working on the Puffer, got the hull where the instructions state go ahead and paint. Not quite there yet, I need to do a little cleanup before I primer. I’ve got the breakwaters installed, the skeg and reinforcements installed, and various other hull related fittings in place.
I decided I want most of the electronics aft under the cabin, so I installed a floor. This necessitated an extension to be made up from battery to esc. I WAS going to add sound, but my sound card, a MrRCsounds unit, decided to act up and quit.,.well not quit, it’s intermittent. So, for now, she’s gonna have rudder, throttle and lights. If anybody knows of a reasonably priced sound card that has an option for steam or small diesel plus a horn or bell, I’d like to hear of it. I’ve seen the Mtroniks units, might go that route.
The pics show my esc and receiver just laying on the electronics shelf, as I haven’t mounted them yet. When my sound card died I said that’s it, and shut the shop down, went inside and made spaghetti 😁
Cash

Hi y’all. Got a bit done over the weekend. As many of you know, I had a partial cornea transplant done about this time last year. My eye has healed, but as I was warned my astigmatism got a little worse…plus, my thin ca fell off the bench, launching a drop of ca on my glasses…I needed new ones anyway, so there’s that. Anyhow, I should have my new prescription in a week or so, but for now I’m wearing some worn glasses from about 5 years ago…so I’m working a bit slower.
The wheelhouse is supposed to be built up from precut ply sheet, and the ends of the port and starboard sides are angled so the fore and aft parts sit mostly vertical due to the stand in the aft deck. Since the deckhouses of these boats are metal, or at least seem to be, I built the house up from sheet abs. Once I had that done, I started into….the fittings!!!
This boat has a lot of fittings, most I’ve seen so far. However, they seem well made and are mostly free of any flashing and not quite as soft as some I’ve dealt with. So I did up the doors, door hinges, portholes, steps, and rails. I used brass wire instead of the “soft” wire included in the kit, as I just like working with it. The kit supplied wire is steel, and seems almost like a mild piano wire.
I’m enclosing pics of the carded fittings. I’m trying to determine how old this kit is. No real reason, I’m just curious. The kit is supplied with printwood and machines parts, no die cutting nor laser cutting of any type. Not an issue, as I’ve built several old timers when I flew rc that had printwood, and my first Deans Marine kit used printed plastic…like I said, just curious.
Anyway, I have a few more fittings to get to then some clean up on the hull, and then I’ll have the deckhouse and hull primered.
Cash

Hi y’all. Over the past week I got the deckhouse painted, then started on the funnel and oil tank. The oil tank was simple, but the funnel wasn’t fun. I was going to try to paint it up in a part red and black scheme. Now, I like to paint my parts before assembly, so that’s what it did….however, I didn’t think about the rings sliding down a painted part and the scratches they would leave…so I cut a slit into them and filled the resulting gap with a “reinforcement bar”. Completely made up by yours truly…it looked pretty good once assembled until I tried to touch up some of the paint, and it went completely downhill from there. So, I decided the funnel was going to be black with the upper ring painted in red. It looks okay, and the oil tank and funnel are now secured to the deckhouse. I need to do a touch up around the base of the funnel, and then there’s the hatch, guy lines, water tank and pilot house to do. I wanted to get more done today, but the high for today was around 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and my little heater I use was just taking the edge off if I sat right in front of it…so I went in and made an Irish stew…except I used beef this time instead of lamb.
Cash

Hi y’all. Did a bit more today. The hatch and vent are installed, the guy wires for the funnel are in place, and I started on the pilot house. As I built the house up I found the base plate was oversized. Some of the cut wood pieces were a little off, no matter, I’ll trim it. Realized after I built it up that I used the roof….for the base.🤣🤣🤣 Was having fun and freezing at the same time so I was flying low and avoiding radar. It’s okay, I have material for a roof. I also redid the piping on the funnel, as I had it, as we say in Texas, bass-ackwards🤣
I decided to paint the house instead of staining it. I wanted dark green, all I had was olive drab. I used that, and with a bit of semi gloss clear it came out looking pretty good. The inside is light brown. I still have some touch up to do, then the ships wheel, the binnacle, glazing, etc. I need to make tubes for the nav light wiring as she’s going to have lights. Not sure if I’m lighting the cabin.
I did the guy wires with very fine copper wire, then painted that black. I still have a lot more to go. A lot of the details on this boat seem to reside on or around the deckhouse. Anyway, might get a bit more done tomorrow, but I’m taking 3 days off this coming week so I’m hoping to have everything involving the deck and pilot house done by then. Doug said I’d have her floating by Valentines, don’t think that’s going to happen, but maybe by mid March.
Cash

Hi y’all. Took a few days off for my birthday, I turned 63 today. Spent some time yesterday morning and from around 730 am till about 3 pm today working on the pilot house. I glazed the windows yesterday. The kit window material was curled up and nigh unusable, so I pulled some fresh plastic from my stock. It’s a little thicker than I like, it looks good from the outside looking in, but you want to squint a bit looking in as the thickness of the plastic is apparent. I made up and painted the wheel and binnacle, and painted the throttle and voice tube and installed those. I then made up the running lights. Since the boards are on the side of the house versus on top, I used very small eyelets to run the wire thru the sides and down into holes on the floor. Looks neater that way.
The kit comes with white metal figures for the captain and one crewman. I’ve done something that’s way out of my comfort zone, I built up and painted the captain and installed him. He’s no perfect, but looks okay!!
Next thing up is the ladder, water tank and pilot house door…and I might make a few additions to the deckhouse. The kit comes with a ships cat. Boats gotta have a cat, but I want to make it plausible, i:e the cat can run around the deckhouse and get into the pilot house thru a cat door without getting tangled up in the rudder chains!! Anyway, I’ll see what I come up with.
Cash

Hi y’all. Today I tackled the water tank, ladder, chains and chain rollers. The water tank is pretty easy to build up, you have a rectangular block that the upper and lower braces attach to, those are glued to the deckhouse and pilot house, plus faux tubing and valves. The aft nav light is located on top of the tank. First thing I did was to do a light sanding on the block, the sprayed it with clear…more sanding, 2 coats primer, then paint. When I drilled the hole for the nav lights wiring I had to drill all the way through the block, that allowed me to have the wiring enter the deckhouse just under the tank. Everything went well but I misjudged one piece of the tubing and had to do it over.
The ladder is simple, hardest thing is to get the holes drilled true for the attaching posts.
The chain was interesting. The hardest thing was, after the rollers and all were in place, wrapping the chain around the central drive roller, as the guy wires made it a little cumbersome. Got it done without breaking anything, so that’s a bonus!!🤣
The forward window had a flaw, wasn’t glue, but I couldn’t get it off, so I replaced it. It was bugging me…and as Stephen pointed out, the funnel is in the skippers line of sight so I figured he needed a clean windscreen….
The pilot house is essentially done, minus touch up and roof. Hobby Lobby, a chain craft store here in the states, supposed has small 12 volt bulbs for doll houses. I might look into that, as I’d like to do a low light “warm” effect for the pilot house, and the Control Hobbies module I use for lights will hit it with 2 cell lipo power, so that might work! I’ll check it out.
Oh..need a cat bowl in the house too….😁
By the way y’all thanks for the comments…this is the most complicated boat, as far as details and fittings, I’ve attempted. I’m out of my wheelhouse here, so I appreciate the support.
Cash

Hi everybody. Decided to do a bit on the hull today. I cleaned up a few minor issues and installed the bulwarks supports, then I primered her. The first coat of primer is the best, as it shows up in stark relief anything I’ve missed filling or sanding. I then applied a second coat. Then I broke something!! There’s a support, davit, whatever it is up front in the bow. I literally forgot it was there, and had laid the hull bottom up for primer. Well…it bent, and when I bent it back, it broke. I ca’d it, noticed it needed straightening, and it broke at the joint. Not one to accept defeat, and because, like Iron Man, I’m all sorts of stubborn, I drilled both ends with a small bit, and glued it back together with the inclusion of a brass pin. That did the trick!!
I did the hull paint, and realized once I was done I had painted the bottom the wrong color!!🤣🤣 To be honest, I’ve done that before. It’s matte black, make a good base for the red. On the plus side, I used Frogtape to set the water line, and even with the rivet detail I had a good, sharp edge on the paint. So, if I get any time in the shop tomorrow, I’ll paint the upper hull black then once dried I’ll mask for red….
Cash

Hi y’all. So, the weekend after my birthday went a little south. My daughter Grace started feeling bad, then my wife, Teresa, picked up a nasty cough and felt bad also. I picked up a couple of Covid tests, Grace called it, she tested positive. Teresa tested negative. Up to this time I felt fine till about 4 in the afternoon, started feeling a bit rough. Went to work Monday, had enough by lunch and hit the clinic. I popped the test for FluA. Teresa went to our doctor, when the tests came back she tested negative for both Covid AND flu!! Anyway, I didn’t go back to work till Thursday, feeling better. Never had a fever but for a little 100.1, mostly had chills and such. I felt good enough to do a bit on the Puffer Wednesday and a bit today, adding to what I accomplished Sunday.
I got the hull paint quaked away Sunday, need to touch up the waterline a bit but turned out okay. The Puffer has a couple of upper deck inlays that are printed with deck planking lines and such. My problem is the lines are too dark and thick to look good. I tied sanding a corner to lighten the lines up but the ink just smeared and stained the wood. So at first I was just going to paint the main deck, teh decided to install the overlays upside down and just have “bare” wood fore deck and upper deck. I had already painted the main and bulwarks gray. So I glued them down…and then decided to stain them. I think it looks okay, will look better to my eyes once it gets hit with a coat or 2 of semigloss. My next steps are to paint the upper bulwarks rails, then it’s time for winches, rails, masts and the hatch.
Cash

Hi y’all. Well, we WERE going to run boats at Josey today, but we got a ton of rain Friday night and Saturday morning. This morning (Sunday) we showed up, it was muddier than we thought and the wind was cold and blowing right in our faces. So, since we had very few to show up we called an audible and went to breakfast….
I got home and did a bit on the pilot house. I decided I wanted a “warm” lighting for the house, I found that using a 12 volt clear bulb would give that effect, as the SXM module I’m using for lighting is supplying 2s power.
Since all the nav light and the house light cables run down thru the floor of the pilot house, I decided to do a screw attach for the roof. This way, if I lose a bulb or such, I can remove the roof and effect repairs.
Cash