This is my hms victory I'm already 1,5 years working on this boat (but also with the norske love, and the le mirage).

This is my norske love, I'm already two years working on this boat (but also with the HMS VICTORY, and the le mirage).

Guess most of you have heard of the Khetanna, Jabba The Hut's sail barge from Star Wars. I looked around on the net and to my big surprise, the search engines did not spit out radio controlled versions of this model. Which made me think, and then decide to built my own.
It is scratch build, based on a "scudder" hull, a design by Glenn G. I printed a few pictures of Khetanna from the net and used those for guidance in the process.
The superstructure is a combination of balsa and ply wood. in the Star Wars tradition, the boat is propelled by a jet propelled engine. To finish it off, a Lego version of Jabba was added for extra detail.
It was a fun and fast project to built, maybe a dozen or so evenings.
(scratch) building is my passion and only sail the boats with my son about once a month. We've got a pond near Newcastle (AUS) harbour which is pretty good (providing there's no weed in it) but the disadvantage of this pond is salt water, meaning a proper rinse of the models is needed after each sailing session. Recently we have moved our sailing sessions as well to the liberty pond in town. The model captures the audience, the vast majority recognize the Khetanna immediately.
Happy sailing.

Jeroen

This boat was pulled up from our local pond by one of the fishermen .No one has a clue how long it has been down there but must have been a very long time .So I was set a challenge to sort it out I got one of the servos working and the speed controller working OK just shows no matter how long something has been under water it can work.
I did get the motor running but as you see not wise to use.So I have put some pics on of my progress up to now to have a look at.

A few pics of my partly scratch build RTTL from Kitshack. Picked this up from Ebay as a first kit.
Has a few printed balsa hullparts but lots of templates to cut out. Plans also show lots of topside details.
Powered orignally by 2 MFA 500's and 2 7.2 NiMH with 35mm props, OK but run time poor.
Complete change, 2 400's and downsized to 25mm props, much better run time and good on the plane.
Next upgrade is to LiPo batteries.

Next build is likely to be an Aerokits Sea Hornet or Sea Breeze.

Another car boot find I payed a total of £15.00 for this I was close to walking away from it as I have just finished doing a fire boat.
Still I had to have it to think someone else may get it and make it good. As all model boaters you can never have enough .

model on the pond in the park 2 .
summer 2015
more in my photo gallery here .
more videos at > youtube Tomas Tomarack model Lulonga

model on the pond in the park. summer 2015
more in my photo gallery here .

RC model Lulonga , control with V-tail mixer (1.channel -Ailerons and 3.channnel - Throttle) with only one stick (thr)
Model of quarterwheeler Lulonga.Smilar ships sailed along African rivers, were built in the UK, France and Germany.Usually they used to be smaller paddle steamers with a little draught.

MVI 8197. More details in my photo gallery

MVI 8182,more details in my photo Gallery .

I decided to build from scratch HMS Blake, I used the Jecobin Plan for HMS Tiger 1/96 scale. This was the first ship I served on in the Royal Navy 1976 to 1979. The hull is supplied by Scalewarships.com, the fittings, Scalewarships.com, John Haynes Fittings and SIMAR; the running gear from GT Sitek.

The build is nearing completion and now requires the guardrails and the decks fixing in place.