Two years ago, while participating in one of our clubs events, A club member, and a friend, had gifted me a classic DUMAS Chris Craft Cobra. It was a welcome gift. Yet plagued with problems , right after another. It was basically broken out of the box, and marginally not safe to drive. IT plowed water, rode low, and was a death trap, when going into reverse. It would and flood, eventually sank. And almost two years later it was fished out by another club member, and took three weeks to restore. It became my daily driver 6 months ago, and is officially one of my best running boats. It become known as the "Phoenix," because it basically came back from the dead, and was returned as a much better boat. It's got some kiddy' up, and is 4S ready. ON 3 S. I'm skirting 30 MPH, from a 2000 KV. motor.

The build history is unknown. We don't know who the original builder was. Only that it changed owners at least 4 times. ME being 3 and 4. It was basically , the boat came back to me , after I was the one who lost in the first place . NOW, it's resting on my table, fully restored. THE photos , were of the restore process, and the first day back in the water.

The last photo, was "She's back."

THE video was TEST drive one.

Stunning weather most model boaters would be jealous of. Warm, but not hot! Very gentle breeze. No rain! But not many showed up. Wait 'till the summer comes" No complaints about it being too hot for model boats!

Anyway, I wanted to get back to my trawler with another video. This time on board with my old GoPro. Had some issues with the battery packs slipping inside the hull. I'm going to remove the one for the lighting as I don't use them anyway. Then I will add some fixed ballast in the bottom. The video with the camera (and waterproof housing) on the top of the pilot house made the boat heel quite a bit. Going to try for some more on board videos in the near future on my other boats.

Got the 4 minute YouTube link here:
I hope you enjoy it!

Lew

Had a large moment of enthusiasm yesterday and fitted the jet unit and associated bits. Then it was time to wet its bum for a test. First off, the jet wouldn't suck water without pushing the stern down slightly, (as I expected due to the boats' light weight.) I added 300g to the stern and she was away😊 Happiness filled I were😁!. Reversing bucket works very well (even though it's a bit of a blob on the transom). You really need one if you don't want to go forward forever, trying not to 'sail yourself into a corner'.

I Need to waterproof the pushrod holes in the transom but the bellows I bought are too stiff and compress too much, so I'll have to come up with another method, (probably some deflectors for a start. Only a problem when in reverse with a bit of throttle on. Plenty of power with the 2s I was using, but motor is rated 12-24v so it would scream, -even with a 3s. I'll start with 2s and see how it goes. Might have an initial blast on the lake this week if all goes well, although I'd like to finish the deck bits first.

Just waiting for some Voltage regs to come so I can complete the electrical side with the fancy bits.. The mechanical and electrical sides are as good as done, Grahams timer is working perfectly, with the water pump and air pumps hooked up (going to install a VReg on each one plus the smoker).

I built this 1/125th scale Amati kit of the Titanic over two years from 2016. it has enhanced etched brass details from Minibrass. Conversion for radio control involved making the hull waterproof with multiple layers of fibreglass cloth bonded with epoxy resin as well as the installation of a drive train and RC gear. With only a tiny rudder, steering is dependent on a mixer unit controlling the differential speed of the propellors.

Aeromarine Laminates Predator 21 hull with HK 2630kv brushless outboard and Turnigy 120a w/c esc. Waterproof metal geared Servo and will have 4-6s lipo when completed.

NOW SOLD

Bought these two for £50! The smallest is HMS Manxman, a scratch build, 6v electric motor drive. it,s just shy of 3ft long. The second ship came to me as apparently HMS Tanganyika, however, on looking at photos of the ship bore no resemblance. it is almost definitely a colony class cruiser of ww2. Possibly HMS FIJI, Nigeria,Jamaica,or Trinidad. The two pillars amidships with the orbs are not what these ships had(?). So much work has yet to be done. The second ship is 5ft 6inches long, made entirely of wood, with a Marx Decaperm 6v Motor powered by a large 6v 10ah gel battery which doubles as ballast, along with 5 large lead weights. Transmitter is a Futaba t6exa, the receiver and servos are Futaba also. I would be interested in knowing some tips about building techniques, best materials and paints for waterproofing etc. And maybe some opinions on it,s identity as swear it looks like HMS Fiji. I have browsed some lovely builds on this site so far, and they really are a credit to you all. Thanks. Gordon

Photos for Nasraf:
As promised, close-ups of the hatch seal. The rim attached to the deck is 0.5mm mahogany. The inner skin of the drop cockpit is two strips of 0.5mm mahogany glued together. The outer skin and cabiln are made from 1.5mm mahogany. The curve was formed by plank bending soaked mahogany strip. The channel is filled with Vaseline to ensure a waterproof seal.

The way that I do my hull plating is......to use printer paper about 90gsm, and divide the hull up into approriate lines horizontal and vertical to represent the plating once the hull is sanded and smooth of course.
then cut the paper into the sizes that you need to represent the hull plating.
then thin down waterproof PVA glue so that is like double cream and then to represent the plate joggling lay each piece onto the edge of a steel rule so thar about 1/8th is overlapping and then run your thumb nail along the edge of the rule this will give you a joggled edge, repeat if you need more than one joggle per plate, have a practice first and see how easy it is.
then just stick tmen onto the hull using the PVA glue remembering to overlap the joggles ( I like that word). Easy peasy.
once every thing is really hard and dry ,give the paper two or three coats of the PVA all over and it dries like glass.