Season's greetings,
Martin. You run the very best model boat website. Well done.
Here is a model of mine, HMS Intrepid at 1/72 scale, from when I built her in 1993. Featured a few bells & whistles, such as 4 RC LCT exiting from stern. A ballast railway was driven aft to lower the dock, rear door opend, let the tide in, and away swam her brood. Model has not been sailed in 10 years since I swapped it for an oil painting, model spending all that time at a tourist site near Auckland. This photo appeared Marine Modelling mag. June 1993 issue cover.
Pretoria Castle Hi Martin,
Pretoria Castle is finished, and has made successful voyages to Cape Town and back, via Las Palmas (least
that's what I imagine when sailing the model recently).
Photos show a working davit, with apprehensive passengers. I've even started to move the ship slow ahead, forgetting them
with lowered lifeboat still attached.
I had to build a cradle, upon which the main superstructure sits, so as to service the interior. A model of this size - 8ft.
l.o.a., requires a largish transport, and I take out all seats in my 4wdr, and slide the model onto a platform, then clamp
that lot, 'cos I don't fancy braking hard, and spearing the model through the windscreen, and impaling a pedestrian.
Now that would make your Tv news ?
The aft emergency platform hides an off/on switch. A camping neon tube throws light throughout the hull for night sailing, better, I find, than installing hundreds of bulbs. An optional extra is an MP3 player, which belts out Bert Kaempfurt's 1960's era tune " Zambesi".
For those interested in comparing liner construction notes, my e/m address is rjshopper@Yahoo.co.nz
Have fun,
Dick Hopper