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[John W E]

THE BEGINNING IS A GOOD PLACE TO COMMENCE

THE FAIREY SWORDSMAN

This topic and build will be aimed at those persons who have little or even no experience of building from a Plan.

In other words, they know the sharp end of a knife.   :) The plan was a ‘freebie’ plan from Model Boats magazine – I think the plan may still be available.   It is graded as skill level – Easy to Medium.    It does have a lot of information on this plan with regard to materials, build sequences and so forth. 

So let us begin:-

The first job we have to do, after we have had a good look at the plan & when we have familiarised ourselves with it – is to decide what parts need to be transferred from the Plan onto the material that we are going to build the Fairey Swordsman from. There are several options open to us, one option is to photocopy the parts that we require and then cut the shapes out from the photocopied images.  We then arrange them onto our building material.    Once we are satisfied that we can fit all the parts on, we can stick the photocopied images onto the wood.

Another method is, to use carbon copy paper (the type used in olden days :) by typists).   The method here is to place the carbon paper onto the material and place the plan over the top of that.  We then draw round the items we require therefore tracing the outlines onto the material we are going to use.

A third option, and this is my preferred option, is to use tracing paper.  The reason I prefer this method is; on other builds I have done, I have traced frames onto individual sheets of tracing paper and used these as a permanent record throughout the build.

As a footnote here – some draughtsmen show which way the grain of the building material should run.   On this particular plan, it is drawn in to represent grain but on some plans there is just an arrow showing the direction of the grain.   We take it, when we are working with a ply-wood material it is the surface grain which runs in the direction of the arrow or the indication on the plan and NOT the inner grain of the ply.

In photograph one then, I have shown the items which I use.   There are no special items involved at all here.    A plastic rule, a soft leaded pencil, tracing paper, a 45º set square and that funny curved shape – is called a ‘French Curve’ not necessary, but a great advantage for drawing curves, radius’ & etc.

The second picture you can see is where I have begun to transfer my tracings onto the material for the build which is called Liteply – this is the material suggested to be used for the keel, frames, bow and stern sections - note: little tip here; I use 4 drawing pins to secure the tracing paper to the Liteply .   I use an old piece of chipboard underneath the Liteply for support.   When I have finished transferring a tracing onto the Liteply, I only remove two drawing pins, thus allowing me to flip the tracing paper away so I can then examine and ensure I have not missed any part of the tracing out.    If I have, I can fold the tracing paper back to its original place.   I would then be able to correct where I have missed.   One more tip as well Ensure you mark and label each piece you trace so once you have cut them all out; you do not have a pile of bits – which you don’t know where they fit  :) .

On the next photograph, you will see that I have all the transfer tracings complete on the Liteply in readiness to be cut out.    Now here is another tip which I use Once I have finished tracing and transferring an item onto the Liteply I immediately go over the top of the lines drawn with a ball point pen.   I tend to use black, the reason for this is, and sometimes the pencil line fades into the timber.   Sometimes the softer the timber, the quicker it seems to fade.  However, with a ballpoint pen, the lines drawn do stay pretty prominent. 

[John W E]

Now, when I begin to cut out the frames and the keel, I do not particularly have any order in which I commence, it is normally the easiest and most accessible to remove first.   In the case of Liteply, the tools I use were a heavy Stanley knife which has a new blade, a steel ruler and a small scalpel knife.  You could, if you wished, use a fretsaw with a very fine blade, but, Liteply is quite an easy material to work with.   The material itself i.e. Liteply, is a thin piece of balsa wood which has had a face veneer bonded to it, of a harder timber, which does look similar to Obechi of a high quality and on the reverse side of the balsa wood, the cheaper material facing.   So, it seems to have one good face and one bad face and as you can imagine; it is pretty easy to work with.  Tip here too… When cutting with the grain place a steel ruler or a straight edge on the inside of the line that you are cutting.   So, if the blade does try to follow the grain whilst cutting; it runs along the edge of the steel rule.

Also, try and cut slightly larger about 0.5mm bigger than what you actually want.  Therefore, you will have 0.5mm to sand off in the end.

The next picture you will see is where I have cut all the items that I require out.   I am now in the process of starting to sand, I use a flat block of wood 10 inches long by 2 inches wide with medium to coarse sandpaper stuck to it with double-sided tape.

You will note at this stage, that I have not cut out any of the notches in the keel or in the ribs.  This I do in the next stage; when I begin to assemble.   The reason for this is sometimes when you have traced your notches & etc., and you come to cut them out, you may find they are slightly bigger.  So, to prevent this, I pick one side of the notch to be cut out to become a datum line.   Cut this line to depth and then offer a scrap piece of material of the same thickness as the frame up to it and score a line on the opposite side, thus giving the correct width of the notch.    Once it has been scored, I cut down and remove the notch and this sometimes  :) gives me a neat fit – PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT and I am still practising.  :)

[John W E]

On the last picture you will see how I am starting to assemble the keel, as per the instructions of the plan.    It is laminated using a 2mm thick central core, sandwiched on either side by 2 pieces of 3mm Liteply.   The keel full assembly is itself in 2 parts, the front part containing the bow up to the rudder shaft slot and the stern from the propeller shaft to the stern post.   You will see in the next photograph that I have the two parts of the keel assembly clamped up with various clamps, waiting for it to dry (time to view the Forum while glue dries).   

The glue throughout this construction is white PVA water resistant glue (Evostick).   Once the keel has dried and the clamps removed, give it a light sand to remove all excess glue and the keel assembly is then checked against the plan to ensure that everything lines up; slot for prop shaft angle, also the notches for the frames and also the overall length.   Once we are satisfied and happy with this we move on to the next stage which is gluing on the two cheeks over the prop shaft slot.   The method I use here is to clamp the forward piece of the keel upright on to a straight piece of wood and then glue and clamp the two cheek pieces.

Next offer up and glue to the correct markings - glue the rear piece of the keel.   Clamp this next to the piece of timber.    This is ensuring that the bottom of the keel is flat and also that the keel is straight.   Again, leave this to dry; time for another smudge at Mayhem ).

[John W E]

Once this assembly has dried, remove all the clamps, dress up where necessary to remove excess glue.   Again, check against the plan thus to ensure nothing has moved and once we are happy we move on and locate and fit the first rib.    As you can see, by the photograph, I use an Engineer’s square to ensure that the first frame is at right-angles to the bow section by clamping it whilst the glue is setting.   Also, checking that it is at the correct angle to the keel and once this has dried we move on to the 2nd, 3rd and 4th ribs.   Set aside and allow it to dry thoroughly.

[John W E]

Once this is completely dry the next thing we do is we put in the chine cheeks at the bow.  Gluing these in and clamping them and then again, ensuring that they all line up and are square with one another.    I then add the top deck at the bow;   I allowed this to dry and once dried quick sand with some very light sand paper and then I moved on to applying the deck edging.  You will see this is butt jointed to the bow deck and what I did, I added blocks of wood in the corners as in the photograph marked with a black arrow to strengthen this.  We then move on, using the first frame as a reference and checking the distance between the first frame and the 2nd frame back level with the keel.  We then check the distance between the frames at deck level, to make sure that they correspond and that the two frames are parallel with one another.


We go ahead with the same procedure for the 3rd and 4th frames, checking that they are parallel to one another and gluing them to the lower edge of the deck.   Once the glue has set, we can move on and glue the rear top deck section in.  This is again, butt jointed to the outer deck sections and also to the top of the stern post.  We glue in the rear dummy chine piece.  Also, the side chine support pieces at the rear end.   Once we have checked these are at right angles to the stern post, and have dried, we can then proceed with gluing in the chine pieces.  The chine is made up of two pieces of Obechi 3/32 x ¼ inches.  The first piece is glued and clamped into position into the notches on the frames and then allowed to dry.   If you have enough clamps you can do both sides in one go.

[John W E]

Once dry, the outer piece of the laminate is glued and clamped into position over the top of the first piece.   This is now left alone and allowed to dry for a few hours.

The next stage is what is known as ‘fairing in’.   If you have access to a razor plane, they do help to speed things up.  My personal choice is a mixture of a sanding block and the razor plane.    First of all we shape the keel to the correct shape.   This should be similar to the roof of a house with an apex.  Care must be taken whilst doing this, and not to catch or gouge the frames.  Tip here, mark the centre line down the centre of your keel AND when you are removing material do not cross the line  - and if you place either electricians’ tape or sellotape down the edges of the frames, when you start catching this tape you are getting close to the frame.

Once we have finished fairing in and light sanding of the framework, we are now ready to begin the next stage of the build, which is skimming the hull.  This particular hull we are going to put the transom on first.  The transom shape is already drawn out for us on the plan and all we need to do is trace the shape of the transom from the plan, transfer this to the material we are going to use to skin the hull with.  In this particular case, it is 2mm Liteply.    I cut this out at 5mm larger all around than the actual drawn transom shape.   I also made sure that I had marked on the centre line on both sides of the transom.   

This transom is curved and also tapered towards the keel.  So, the method I adopted was, apply glue to the transom framework of the hull first and then pinned the transom down the centreline to the sternpost of the framework.   Working from the centreline out towards the edges of the hull and this ensured that the transom bent around the curves of the transom framework.    This was allowed to dry and then sanded so it was at the correct width across the hull and the correct ‘V’ for the bottom of the hull.

[John W E]

The next stage in the build is to apply the panels for the bottom of the hull.

Working from the centre of the keel and allowing an overlap of about ½ inch or say 10mm – these were glued & pinned in place.  To prevent distortion in the hull, I applied the two back panels first and then allowed them to dry.   I then moved on to the front panels.

If you note the front panels stop at the bow frame.   This is because the front section is going to be made of solid balsa which we will come to later on.

Also, note that the grain of the material runs from the keel to the chine – across the hull.   This is to allow for easy bending as the panels move towards the bow of the boat.

Once these panels have dried, they are trimmed so that they are flush with the sides at the chine.   We have checked that we have no uneven runs in the length of the chine as well.   

[John W E]

When we are quite happy with the bottom panelling, we move on now to panel the sides.   I started at the opposite end (the bow) this time and the bow panel are also drawn out for you on this particular plan.

So, once again, I traced from the plan and transferred to the 2mm Liteply, but, take note of which way the grain runs.  It runs from top to bottom this time and if you take a look at the picture you will see I have added a black arrow to show this.

Once I have cut this shape out (I cut larger than drawn) I soaked this piece in hot water, for about say ½ an hour.   Pinned it to the front of the model and then allowed it to dry out.    Once it had dried out, removed it from the model and then applied the glue to the framework and re-applied the outer bow skin, using clamps and pins to hold it in place. 


We carry on skinning the sides of the hull; with as large as possible panels, thus minimising the joints. I managed to do this in two panels.  It is the same procedure of clamping and pinning and allowing the glue to dry.   Once the glue has dried, we can then set about trimming the sides and the top to somewhere near size.

When sanding the sides of the hull, care must be taken, as the grain runs vertical.  If we sand in the wrong direction or back sand, it has a chance of lifting the veneer off the balsa wood and also splitting it.  So, sand from the chine towards the keel; thus avoiding the said situation of splitting etc. and once we are happy that enough sanding has been done.  We now move to fill the bow section in – with balsa wood.   In the plan it says use two solid blocks; well at the moment I do not have balsa wood that size so I am going to do it by the process of laminating the balsa blocks together.

[John W E]

As you can see, I have offered up the balsa wood to the bow and I am marking the profile of the bow onto the balsa.     I then proceed to cut the balsa 5mm larger than the marked line.   I will carry on this procedure until the full bow is blocked in with balsa wood.  Once this has been completed I then sand the balsa blocks and fair in with the rest of the hull.

You will see in the photographs how I have actually sanded this.   I started off with sanding the same profile as the hull sides and then moving on to the same profile shape as the bottom of the hull.  Then, I gradually worked in – sanding a little piece at a time – from either side until I have the correct bow profile.

It is then a case of filling in the gap that is left at the stem post.  This is done with commercial car body filler – I use P38 manufactured by Isopon and it does sand fairly easily.   After we have finished dressing in and we are satisfied with the hull as far as any bumps and nicks which have been filled and sanded are concerned, we move on – beginning to fit the hardware now.

[John W E]

The prop shaft in this hull is 204mm long (8 inches long) and it is a 4mm shaft.

I took measurement from the plan from the stern to the approximate centre of the prop shaft where it exits the hull on the keel, transferred this to the model and drilled a small pilot hole of about 4mm.  Then I gradually opened this up with a rounded file.  (You will know if you have got the wrong – because there is already a hole in the keel to take the prop shaft).

Once the prop shaft is a nice neat fit, I then went back to the plan.   I made a small template out of a scrap piece of 3mm Liteply – which corresponds with the angle of the prop shaft and the keel on the plan.  I temporarily tacked this with superglue onto the edge of the prop shaft.  This serves two purposes; it gives me the correct angle of the prop shaft and also the correct length of the prop shaft sticking out of the hull.

What I did next was with a felt tip marker pen; mark the prop shaft where it exits the hull on the outside and where it enters the hull on the inside.  Remove the shaft, and abrade the area between the two black felt tip marks with some coarse emery paper.  This is to facilitate a good adhesion of the epoxy to the prop shaft.  I then replaced the prop shaft with the triangular wedge back into the hull.

[John W E]

Then I turned the hull over, and supported it – so it was standing upright.  Once I was happy that the prop shaft was running true to the centre of the hull, I sealed around the outside of the prop shaft with masking tape, to stop any epoxy running out through the hold. 

I mixed some Epoxy adhesive.   The epoxy I use has a working time of approximately 30 minutes.  I poured it in around the prop shaft and the keel; on this particular model there is a good 2mm clearance all the way around the prop shaft – through the keel.  So, this allows a good seepage of epoxy around the prop shaft and the keel.   This was set aside and allowed to harden, thus ensuring that the prop shaft did not move.

Once the epoxy has set, the next stage is to turn the hull over and remove the temporary wedge between the hull and prop shaft & the masking tape.

The next stage is to fair in with a fillet of car body filler, around the area where the prop shaft comes through the hull.   Once this had all been sanded in and the bare hull has had light sand again, we move on to the next stage.

[John W E]

Where I have not had the article that comes from Model Boats to go with this plan, to help me along with build sequences.   I do have the article on finishing the hull which came from the draughtsman who drew the plans up.

In this article it says ‘After finishing sanding with 180 and 320 finishing paper – give the whole model a coat with sanding sealer.  This is thinned down 50/50’.  That means 50% cellulose dope and 50% sanding sealer. Rub down then with 320 grit finishing paper.    Then, ‘Cover the hull sides, bottom panels and the transom with lightweight tissue as separate panels’.  These are applied with the dope and sand ‘n sealer mix.

I put four coats of sand ‘n sealer on top of the tissue mat.   I allowed it to dry for 24 hours – with a final rub down with wet ‘n dry then proceeded to the next stage. 

[John W E]

I built a stand for the model and I used very soft foam rudder to line the edges of the stand where the hull sits on.   The reason for this is, I have found that Liteply damages quite easily.   Also now we have the tissue on, I did not want a situation where I would damage the hull by just sitting it on the bench.  I obtained the shape for the ‘V’s that the hull sits in, using the profile from the frames.


Once I had built the stand, I then moved on to the next stage, which was marking off and fitting the rudder.   

The rudder was a commercial item; and this is the closest size I could get to the drawing without making a rudder myself, or, I could have tried cutting a larger commercially manufactured rudder down to shape and size.   

The procedure for fitting the rudder:  Take the measurement from the drawing – from the end of the transom to the centre of the rudder shaft and mark this onto the hull.   I drilled a ‘pilot hole’ of 2mm through the hull & through the keel.  Checking that the drill was square in both directions, vertical, the pilot hole was then opened up in size to take the rudder mounting tube.

The next stage was to do a dry run, assembling the rudder tube and the rudder itself through the keel.  This ensures that the rudder lined up and that everything was square.   The only modifications I had to do at this stage was to make a little more clearance around the transom stern post to allow correct movement of the rudder tiller arm.  With this not being the correct rudder as in plan, the rudder shaft is slightly shorter.  After I was satisfied with the set up I removed the rudder and rudder tube, mixed a little bit Epoxy resin, smeared it in the rudder hole in the hull and then placed the rudder tube back. 

Tip here: when gluing the rudder tube into the hull it pays you to smear a little bit of grease in the hole of the rudder tube and ensure that you get no grease whatsoever on the outside.  This prevents any Epoxy gumming up the hole and getting into the works.

[John W E]

This was set aside and left to dry and I then moved on to the next stage of the build, which is the cabin and also the rear cockpit.    On the plans, the cabin sides are marked out, along with the corresponding frames.  As before, I traced all parts required from the plan for this assembly and transferred them to the correct thickness Liteply.  (I didn’t really I dropped a ‘bollock’ it should have been 3mm and I used 2mm oops).

Little tip here: When cutting out the windows, before you actually cut the complete item out of the Plywood, cut the windows out firstly, working from the edges of the windows in over to the centre of the windows when cutting.    This prevents the top layer of ply from splitting – well it did for me  .

Once we have cut and rough sanded all the parts required, I proceeded in gluing and clamping one side of the cabin in place to the hull.  I then glued the centre cabin former to the side of the cabin on the inside, and I also added a fillet of 1/8 square timber to keep it square.    I then proceeded to add the 2nd former to the cabin side.    Once the glue had set, I fitted the opposite side to the cabin to the deck and also to the two formers.  Checking that they were both square with one another and both parallel.   I allowed this to dry and then proceeded in fitting the front cabin window in.     

Prior to fitting this, I chamfered the bottom of the window where it comes into contact with the deck.   When I was satisfied with the fit, I glued and clamped it. 

[John W E]

Whilst it was setting, I moved on to build the cockpit floor.  This again is all drawn out of the plan for you, and just requires tracing and cutting from the correct material this time! (This is where, for the first time, I am deviating from the plan slightly – not because of a better build procedure or a better plan procedure, but, the liteply I am working with is slightly warped/twisted.   To counteract this, I glued for strips at right angles on the outside of the cockpit floor, thus eliminating some of the distortion in the plywood.

I then proceeded to fit the inner flange that supports the hatch to the cockpit floor.  I have included a photograph of the procedure I used to cut the angles at the back and it consists of a scrap piece of wood which has two parallel sides, first of all the piece of timber you want the angle cutting on is offered up to the adjacent piece of timber that you want to mate it to.   Then the scrap piece of wood that has two parallel sides is laid over the top so that it is in contact with the material that you are going to transfer the angle from.    You then draw your line onto the piece which you are going to cut, using the parallel sides of the scrap piece of timber and this gives you your angle to cut.

When the glue has dried on the sub assembly of the cockpit floor, it can be offered into position inside of the hull for any finer adjustments.    It locates into 3 slots in the forward bulkhead and sits across the aft bulkhead.   This is glued in first and then the rear transom vertical bulkhead is glued in afterwards.

You will see a photograph where I have a batten going across the back of the hull, which is clamping and pulling up the cockpit floor to mate with the transom inner bulkhead.  This I did because there was still some distortion left in my plywood.   

[John W E]

The next procedure is to work on the inner faces of the aft-cockpit.  Two support battens are clamped and glued either side of the cabin sides, around the area of the cockpit as can be seen in the photograph.   When this is dry, these battens are sanded lightly to the correct curvature of the cabin sides.

We next make a small template up from a scrap piece of wood to get the angle at the rear of the cockpit, next to the transom.   Once we have made this small template, we need to know the inside length and this can easily be found with two lengths of scrap wood which are placed on the cockpit floor and slid apart until one end touches the transom inner face and the opposite end touches the cabin bulkhead.

We then put a mark on across two pieces of timber so that they line up.  We can then transfer this length onto our material that we are going to make the cockpit inner side walls with.   Once we have the length, we take the template that we have made with the angle.  We mark the angle onto the cockpit side wall as well.

We cut out the length leaving adequate height.  Then offer it up inside the hull and sand until it is a perfect fit between the two faces and then, it’s a simple method of scribing with a pencil the angle and the radius’ of the cockpit wall.    Once we have done this, we cut out near enough the angle, leaving a couple of mm’s plus.   Then, we glue it into place and when that has dried we sand it to the correct profile.   We repeat the process for the opposite side.

[John W E]

Next we move on to the cabin main roof.   In the plan, it shows that this cabin roof is planked, using 1/8 balsa planking.     I used Obechi planking 1/8 x various widths.

These were all edge glued and pinned, starting from the outside.  Once this has all dried, I sanded it to shape.

I covered this with Light tissue and 4 coats of sand ‘n sealer.  Then, when this had completely dried, marked out the main hatch in the cabin roof.  Very carefully, I cut through this with a very sharp scalpel taking my time not to split the planks by forcing the blade through, or, distorting the hatch.   I just did gentle cuts.

After the hatch had been cut out, I added that hatch combing to the inside of the cabin roof.

[John W E]

We are moving on now, and even though the hull is roughly 75-80% complete, as in hull build, we are going to move on now and install some of the ‘electrical hardware’.   There are several pieces of woodwork to be done on this operation, namely making a motor bed and a servo mounting, plus, a battery tray.

The sizes and the material used in the making of the motor mounting is all on the Plan.  It is a simple operation of making the flatbed with two triangular supports.  The triangular supports on either side of the motor bed are adjusted to suit the diameter of the motor being used.  What I did, because I was using a slightly larger motor than suggested, was to remove some material from the inside of the triangles by using sandpaper wrapped around a piece of pipe of near enough the same diameter of the motor.   To finish off, I wrapped sandpaper around the motor I was going to use to finish off the radius in the motor bed.  I lined the faces that the motor sits against with a thin rubber.

[John W E]

I have also included a couple of pictures of how I soldered the wires to the motor.  This is a tip I use when you come to bare the end of the wires, run a sharp knife/scalpel around the outside of the insulation, but, do not cut all the way through the insulation.  Twist the insulation at the end, so that it breaks where you have cut it DON’T PULL THE INSULATION JUST KEEP TWISTING IT and you will see it will break free and as you twist, it twists the strands of wire and keeps them neat.  As long as you don’t touch the bared end of the copper wire, it will remain in a tight twist and it does make it a lot easier for tinning and soldering them.

We move on now to a pretty important part of motor installation into the hull and that is aligning the motor up with the propeller shaft.  You can get various gadgets to aid this – but – personally I prefer to use two pieces of brass tubing one the same diameter as the prop shaft and one the same diameter as the motor shaft.   These two pieces of tubing should slide into one another, just like a telescopic aerial.  You have guessed it – one slips over the propeller and one slips over the motor.

What you may have to do is either sand a little bit off the keel, where the motor bed sits or pack it up with thin pieces of plywood to get true alignment.   Once happy, the motor bed is glued into position.  Another tip I use a fairly flat 1.5 volt battery – I know the voltage in the battery can turn the motor over when it is not connected to the prop shaft and once you have your motor coupled up, connect the 1.5 battery up to the motor again, and, if it turns with no struggle, you know you have a pretty good alignment.   :)

When we have finished and we are happy with the motor alignment, we move on to constructing the servo mounting tray.

If you note I have not installed suppressors on this particular motor.  The reason for this is, I do not think this motor I have picked will be in the hull very long.  Its an 'MTroniks Vision 600' and I think it may be a little bit on the 'large' side for this model and also, if it was to be a permanent fixtures, suppressors would have to be fitted.

[John W E]

This again, is all detailed on this particular drawing.   The only modification I had to do is put a crank dog-leg in the connecting rod between the tiller and the servo.  This was to facilitate the shorter (in length) rudder post.

Once I had ensured that the servo and the linkage were all set up squarely and there was no binding in either movement of rudder or servo, I glued the servo mounting in place.   Once the glue had dried, I double checked to see if there was a slight adjustment required, in other words to see if the rudder had even throw on it (movement from one side to the other).   

Quite happy with that, and, its now time to construct the main battery box, this again – all sizes for the materials came straight from the plan.  When happy with the fit, glue it and screw it into place.

[John W E]

Now we move on to the only bit of ‘hardware’ construction and that is for the hatch catches.  These were made from an old piece of stripped brass, which I salvaged from an ‘old’ alarm clock a while ago, a piece of 4mm tubing and 2 pieces of brass rod.    I did all the soldering for this with a 25 watt electric soldering iron.   Yet again, there is a picture of the catches.   Funny enough, the most difficult thing to source was a spring, it says on the plan, SPRING FROM A TYRE VALVE INSERT so the car has two flat tyres now with now valves.  :)   These two catches were fitted to the rear cockpit hatch and also the cabin roof hatch.   With that bit of hardware finished with, the next stage now, is to make with scrap pieces of balsa wood, all the luxury fittings – the four seats – instrument console for the steering wheel – the cabin door – the air intakes on the side also the cabin top grab rails.

The stage I am at now, I am putting an undercoat on.   I have left this out of the build because the topic of finishing and painting has been well covered on this forum by people with far greater knowledge on the subject than myself, and, another way of looking at it - my skills in painting have been classed as 'I come from a school of art run by Ray Charles and Stevie Wonder' doesnt that say a lot for my painting skills. 

There are a couple more photographs to go on this Forum of the finished boat and I DO HOPE THIS ENCOURAGES SOME PEOPLE to have a go and build from a plan.

I have thoroughly enjoyed building this.   Please keep it in mind, that it is built straight from the Plan.   I have not amended any building techniques or building sequences.

Also, at a later date, like all good films I will put on some COCK up photographs - oooops I put that bit on wrong.

HOPE YOU HAVE ENJOYED THIS BUILD.

aye
john e
bluebird


The original plans came from Model Boats Magazine - I believe in about the year 1852    The plans and article in the Magazine were written by our very own FLJ.    I have just had a quick check on the Model Boats website and am unable to locate the plans, so, I dare say, if you ask in a nice manner - our very own FLJ will possibly be able to supply the plans.   I only have the article also written by FLJ for finishing the hull.

[FullLeatherJacket]

Here's one I made earlier.........a LOT earlier!




Bl00dy g00d show, John! Much better than the original article. 

Martin13
I think SLEC list the Liteply in these sizes, but I guess carriage to Oz would be a bit of a problem. I also seem to think that your Customs won't let anything wooden into the country (which rather scuppers any holiday plans I might have had!).

FLJ

[John W E]

Hi all

I am near enough finished now, just need to give her a coating of satin varnish.   I have had in the bath for 'sea trials' bit concerned, is a NiCad pack supposed to get that HOT you can fry bacon and eggs on it 

Ive awaiting a new motor which is on its way, plus prop - these are those that are recommended on the plan.

I had a disastrous week-end really - whilst I was doing the original posting, I thought I would be a clever person and put it all in word first - along with photographs with captions and soforth.  When I came to actually download it all, I had all the documentation but the photographs were nowhere to be found in the folders.   To cut a long story short the computer, over the week-end spat its dummy out - so I downloaded a 'freebie' Spybot - it spybotted the computer all right - I have lost the lot all my build files for all my models, the lot! never to be seen again I am thinking - bummer.

Nil Disparandum!

Anyway, thank you all once again for the kind comments etc., but, what really will make us all happy on this Forum if a newbie comes on here and says 'Look what I have made - through the help of all the members on the Forum'.   That will be the day, we can all give ourselves a pat on the back.

aye
john e
bluebird

[John W E]

Well, Ive stood at the 'freezing' lake today, to give her a test.   I must confess, I chickened out and changed the prop from an S45 down to a smaller 3 blader  :)  I gave her sea trials and she is QUICK!!!! Very quick and very manoeuvreable 

See for yourself 

aye
John e
bluebird
(glad to be back in the warm!!!!)

[Martin (Admin)]

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