Mikes boats

[mickyb]

Hi Lads,

I thought that I  would share a few fotos of some of my boats with you all.

The First are of my Trawler. She is GRP, about a meter long and is powered by 1 large 18 volt motor . It has full running and working lights, spinning radar, a sound card and working trawl. There is one foto into the hull showing the sound card and control board. Would you buy fish of this sailor???

The second is a Canal boat...1 meter long, powered by a very small motor but scale speed is important because she is unstable at higher speeds.

The third is my favourite, a Mirror Dinghy. This is a ply kit from Canada that builds up in exactly the same way as the real boat, ie stitch and glue. I made the radio gear sit inside a removable box( shown in the foto) so that "Buzbee"an be displayed as a  perfectly scale craft or sailed with the RC kit fitted . I extended the centre board in order to enjoy fresher breezes. This one is about 18 inches in length and over 2 feet in height.

The fourth is my present project, a Colne Smack, a type of craft used for oyster catching on a local river in the last century. This particular boat was converted to a pleasure craft by it's present owner as I have modeled it.

The rest are in the loft.....another day I think..................

I include a foto of my workshop (shed), it's amazing what I can do in it....notice the fridge under the drill bench. Excuse the mess...I have been messing around with the Tiger in there for a while now.....

[BIGMIG]

Hello Mike,

  Great looking pictures,but they are really big and slow to load on my stone age dial-up system.Any way you can shrink them down to at least 150 kb size,would really like to be able to look them over.I'm very interested in boats,and hope more join in posting their pictures.

                      BIGMIG 

[mickyb]

Hi Larry, I have shrunk them and sent them to your e-mail direct. If they are still too big, I will have to foto the boats again and change the sensitivity on my camera......let me know..........

Mike

[BIGMIG]

Hey thanks Mike,I'll go check them out now and will see how they come out.

                    Larry 

[BIGMIG]

Hello again Mike,
  Those pictures you sent in my email worked just great and loaded fast.Got to tell you that you have some FANTASTIC models.The red one (Snapper) is one killer boat,but the others to are just great looking boats also.Nice work on all the rigging and lines.The blocks the lines run through are great.You can be proud of those models,thanks for posting them for us all to injoy.

                        Larry 

[tiger205]

hi mike
        those are some fantastic models, the detail you put in to them is something to be proud of, my favourite has got to be the canal boat, i'd love to have a holiday on one of those(a real one ) how long did they take to do?

                Tony

[mickyb]

Hi Guys

My computer is playing up...I have typed this 4 times so far...every time I try to post it I lose the message...here goes again.

Thanks for your comments they always are greatly appreciated from other modelers.

The first ever r/c model for me was the canal boat. GRP hull and thin ply upper deck with small motor and basic steering gear from airplane. It took about a month to make. The details are made by a local man who worked for Airfix. He makes van signs. I made the designs large size, he shrank them down and reproduced them on clear sticky film. With a magnifying glass you can see the veins in the dragonfly wings absolutely superb workmanship.

The Mirror dinghy was my second model. It took about a week to make in all. A brilliant kit in thin ply made in Canada, cost about £50 and highly recommended by me. All you need is R/C kit and inginuity...rest is in the box. Details by the same sign maker.

The Trawler was my third and took about 4 months to make. Hull is by a real boat yard using leftover GRP when making the real thing. It was a blank that I had to cut out windows etc as usual. This was my real lesson in R/C bits and pieces and has a sound card that reproduces the caterpillar diesel and all winch sounds. I have had 2 hernia operations recently and so it has only been on the water three times. It weighs a ton, and is not for me at the moment until passed fit again by the doc. Details by same signmaker.

The Colne Trader hull is GRP, decking is thin maple planking,  and the sails are proffessionally made by a sailmaker in Brighton, all stitched panels in micro sail canvas...brilliant workmanship. No Plans for this one either just fotos of the real one to work from. I need to find someone to cast the lead weight for the keel as that is beyond my skillset. The masts are from boxwood and turned by hand, and the blocks from oak took an absolute age...never knew that I knew so many foul words...

I have a half finished Thames Sailing barge 1 meter long that has taken 1 year so far, and a beautiful finished 1 meter sailing racer "Victoria" in the loft....it has never sailed yet.

I realy love old sailing carft and working in wood most of all. You can spend ages spokeshaving a mast, its good to have an outlet for your work related stress etc.

Numerous dolls houses and Thomas the Tank Engine toy boxes about a meter long have been made too. Fotos if you want them too.

I prefer making these things rather that using them so I tend to give them away when someone visits with a nice kid.

If anyone wants any fine details of a boat or Thomas toy box  I will post fotos of the builds and suppliers etc.

Now it's tanks as well.....I've been divorced once so I have to behave a bit.......only a bit eh?

Thanks  fellas..........Mike 

[BIGMIG]

Very interesting reading Mike.I have allways been a big fan of boats,and yours looks fantastic.

                          Larry 

[[ICE]monkey]

very nice collection you have there
all the best , ice

[BREL]

nice work Mike,  great collection