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[zooma]

I have been building r/c model boats since the late 1960's and still very much enjoy spending my time restoring and building - mainly classic model power boats from the 1960's period - and mainly from wood.

An awful lot of workshop hours are spent on these projects, and the joy of completing them and running them on the water makes it all worthwhile.......however, the simple pleasure of dropping an ARTR "plastic" model on the water and running it with no more effort than making sure the batteries are charged can make a nice change now and again!

These ARTR models do not replace my interest in classic model boat making/restoring, but they can make a nice change or addition to the weekend's pleasure......and the faster types (that I seem to be attracted to) do offer a lot of performance for the money.

Model Yacht enthusiasts discovered this same pleasure many years go with the DragonForce 65 and 95 models that now have a large following of enthusiastic supporters, and even have their own racing classes!

Running the fast ARTR and RTR (!) model boats needs to be done with respect for the slower scale models that may not appreciate being "buzzed" by a fast electric model, but by selecting an area of the lake that is not used by the scale modellers (who often like to keep their models closer to themselves so they can admire their beautifully detailed models) or by running at a time when the lake is not so busy (or when nobody else is around) overcomes this possible area of conflict quite well.

Hopefully others will contribute to this thread and let us know what ARTR models they run - and if they have been able to resist the urge to "modify" or improve" them with the help of a few classic "inbred" traditional boat making modelling skills!

I will start the ball rolling by admitting to running a Joysway Alpha 1000 (Inception) for the last 4-5 years and (a little more recently) a smaller sized Thunder Tigre Avanti that I have run often enough to need a few small parts due to wear and tear!

During this same time period I have flogged my restored LesRo Rapier almost to death with about 100 fast running hours being clocked up, so traditional classic model power boats probably take well over 90% of my model boating time and interest........but running the Avanti and Inception (did I mention my Pursuit?) is a simple pleasure that supplements my traditional model power boating activities really nicely and gives me a lot of fun for very little effort.

[ChrisF]

I'll post some up tomorrow Bob. I'm staying out of my son's room at the moment, where the PC is as Helen and myself have Covid.

Got it when I went with my mother to hospital.

Chris

[zooma]

Sorry to hear about the Covid Chris - typically caught in a hospital - the place where we should expect to be the safest !

Let’s hope your mother does not catch it too.

I am looking forward to your post and hope your symptoms are not too serious and that you recover quickly.

Bob.

[ChrisF]

Thanks Bob. Mother's back home so safely away from the source!

I'm over the worst but still testing positive.

Chris

[ChrisF]

The first bought was prompted by a neighbour and was a HydroPro Affinity 650mm yacht so that I could learn to sail and have something to use on the water whilst building! Later a more competitive Dragonforce 65 was added to the stable.


Wanting to try something with power I then bought a Club 500 off a fellow club member and did some racing with it, good fun! For another class I then bought the Lite Warrior, which although has a brushed motor goes well.


Last purchase was the Scott Free. Haven't used much as it's too fast for our relatively small lake. Just get it going and I have to back off for a turn and it "bogs" down.


Obviously completely different to my scratch built Faireys! Apart from a Huntress I'd have had nothing to use on the water!


Chris

[zooma]

You made a good point about not having anything to run when working on other projects - and this a a very good reason to have an ARTR to keep you active on the water until one of those long term builds (or restorations) is completed and ready to join it 

[zooma]

The problem with the various ARTR models is that they all seem to have a limited production run and even the better known manufacturers do not keep a supply of spare parts available once they have stopped making them.

Thunder Tiger made my favourite AVANTI ARTR model,  and they later re-released it with two new hull colours (yellow and green) and a new name (OUTLAW OBL) that shared the same parts,  but they are all now OBSOLETE and finding spare parts for them is proving to be impossible.

The obvious option is to fit alternative parts and modify the boats (if required) to work with third party parts - but this almost defeats the main "easy care" reason for running them !

[ChrisF]

Did you have a look through the TFL Hobby parts rudders on Noahs Ark RC?


Limited production was the case with my HydroPro Affinity yacht. It was brought out as a cheaper Dragonforce 65 but given that many parts were shared then that was never going to be viable. I dont think it lasted 12 months?


The Dragonforce is an enduring design, though has gone through a number of updates. I shall be alright for parts for awhile apart from the Affinity hull.


Chris

[zooma]

Both of the DragonForce yachts have sold well and have great support, so the manufacturer is hardly likely to stop making either of them in the near future. 

There must be thousands of them sold, and their future is more or less secured if they should ever stop production, as the numbers suggest that somebody else would make a "close copy" to keep them going.  The spare parts business alone would be a very attractive proposition to a rival manufacturer.

Sadly, that is not the case for any of the ARTR power boats.


I was hoping that when Thunder Tiger re-released the Avanti in its two new colour schemes and called it the "Outlaw OBL" that it too would last a bit longer, but sadly that was not the case and the spare parts situation did not improve (they share the same parts!).

I did look at the rudder options you suggested on Noahs Ark RC.  I already run a TFL Pursuit so I am aware of the TFL range and will buy from them if I can see anything that can be adopted to suit.

The Avanti is an unusual "flattie" design in that it used a conventional prop-shaft - almost all its rivals use a "flexi-drive" system and so the rudder is usually "in-line" and often includes the flexi-shaft support. The Avanti has a free-standing off-set rudder that is a bit different to any others that I have seen to date.

No doubt I can "bodge" (in the true sense of the Bodger) something to fit when the one that I am using finally calls "time"   

[ChrisF]

Just had a look through those rudders myself. They do some nice parts including many without the prop shaft support and offset ones so I'm sure you'd find something to do the job.

[zooma]

Just had a look through those rudders myself. They do some nice parts including many without the prop shaft support and offset ones so I'm sure you'd find something to do the job.

Thanks to your link, I have had a good look at them Chris and agree that there must be something that I can use to do the job when the kit rudder assembly finally fails.....or hopefully I can do something to prevent it failing.....


The rudder blade itself is alloy and unlikely to fail, but the wear on the plastic rudder mountings is the concern and it is the weakest part of the assembly, so if I can copy these or make a suitable replacement from alloy it would allow me to keep the original design and look of the boat - something that I would prefer to do if possible.


If I were more "technically aware" I would get these rudder mounting parts 3D printed as they look to be quite a simple shape when compared with the complex things that are successfully 3D printed these days.....but alas that is not my forte, so I will probably have to revert to my own craft experience of "bodging" 

[Martin (Admin)]

Topic renamed   

[zooma]

Happy New Year ! 


Over the Christmas period my ARTR fleet gained a new addition - a Thunder Tiger Outlaw OBL.  This model was "new in box" so it was presumably either old unsold shop stock or an unwanted gift, and has still yet to get wet as the Christmas period has been busy for us and the weather has not been too encouraging either!


This model does share the same hull as the Avanti but the cabin shape has been revised (and is probably not quite as nice looking), but the yellow moulding gives me a different colour to my Avanti models (that are blue and orange) and the paint scheme (probably decals) looks very nice and makes the Avanti look positively "plain" in comparison.


The cabin tops on both models are held into the deck recess by magnets and as the hull of both models is identical it is possible to fit any colour Avanti cabin onto any colour Outlaw OBL hull and vice-versa etc,  so by "mixing and matching" it is possible to come up with some quite striking looking colour combinations with blue, orange, yellow and green to choose from........and strangely enough these cabin tops are still available as spare parts (!) so it looks like the magnets work well and very few cabin tops have ever been lost!


The Outlaw OBL shares the same excellent 2.4 gig Thunder Tiger steer wheel radio so it is quite a high spec little ARTR model.


Inside the hull the excellent black moulded Avanti radio box has been replaced by one that has a screw down clear perspex cover, and this is a bit of a downgrade as the run time on a fully charged LiPo is not really that long and having to unscrew and refit this clear cover every few minutes will not doubt become a bit of a chore.  The Avanti radio box lid has a simple "quick release" lid that makes this same task considerably easier and I would replace it with an Avanti type if the spare parts for this model had not been completely exhausted.


I am looking forward to giving the Outlaw OBL its first run on the club lake and although I am not expecting it to perform any differently to the Avanti, it is younger and should help to extend the life of my plastic "Avanti" fleet for as long as I am able to enjoy running them.