Assistance from RC boat modelers

[Glenn Brooks]

Hello All,

Recently, I happened to ask the local Museum Board about restoring this ship model and another, to operation, and now I find myself in charge of doing so. Hmm, I can think of several ironically snarkish comments, but it’s actually a pretty exciting project.

Except, I haven’t a clue how it was built, so looking for someone with some RC “Grand Scale” modeling experience to give me some background on how these propulsion systems and RC controls are supposed to run...

Both need to be seriously cleaned up and made shipshape, decks swanned properly, etc, without destroying what I presume are dangerously delicate scantlings.

Anybody have experience with these type of models? Or how to do a proper T/I?

The two boats in question are scale replicas of the WWII German battleship Bismarck, and its heavy cruiser escort Prinz Eugen. they measure out to 1:66 scale or thereabouts, and are both 12’ LOA x 29” beam, 9” draft, 19” or so freeboard to top of mast. We basically lost our storehouse of knowledge when our Museum Curator succumbed to the virus last month...

So, Appreciate any advice...

Glenn

[NP317]

Oh my! Location?

I would first make them operational. Then attend to the cosmetics.
Then you can fix whatever you damaged while working on them! (Hopefully not.)
This will be interesting.
RussN

[Glenn Brooks]

Hi Russ, they are in Pheonix next door to the MLS right of way. I’ll be following your general plan of work. Except they are now covered in dirt from improper storage. So first I need to literally swab the decks - hopefully not with multiple boxes of Q tips... The desert sand and adobe dust around here is very intrusive. I feel it needs to be removed so as not to contaminate the inner hull or any forthcoming work. And don’t want to damage the structure in cleaning, as i don’t yet know what they are built with. Lots of kits use styrofoam for decks and frames nowadays. Acetone would be a death knoll. However, I believe these were scratch built. So I’ll probably do a proper boat survey, and hope to discover these were laid up with actual maghoney plywood and hardwood frames, so the usual marine solvents will work... Ahaha, I’ve sistered frames before and varnished a lot of teak, but nothing this tiny!

Glenn

[Andy R]

Glenn,
Regarding your question about restoring the Bismarck and Prinz Eugen, I have found the forum www.modelboatmayhem.uk helpful.
I am very slowly building a RC destroyer. It is my rainy day project, and here in So. Calif. rainy days on weekends are few and sometimes years apart.
Regards,
Andy