Peter Cane

Ondras..when I saw the beginning stages of this ship when you laid out the rough and ready bulkheads from corrugated card I thought " oh dear what are we in for here?".... But mate!.....you have knocked me for six with the eye to detail, craftsmanship and now present this beautifully made miniature replica. You are a master at this. A joy for me to witness your hands at work. Pete

The insides of the hull and deck bottoms now have six coats of varnish on them. The decks are from balsa sheet and are now firmly glued on complete with the cockpits and the cabin super structures. The super structures on the plan call for balsa but I thought it would look special in walnut. The cabin roof is from teak I think. I have quite a hoard of this and cannot remember where I got it from. It smells gorgeous to plane down from the 6mm plank in the picture to 1.5 mm. It has that boaty smell to it. Might have come from a boat! I made a mistake with the other cabin roof. When I bent it with the bending iron I did not pay attention afterwards to check for warping. It was badly warped so went in the bin. You can see where I am building a new cabin roof frame and now I will plane down another plank with which to skin it. The mast supports on the decks are walnut. I am going to order up some nice turned brass port holes and put one each side and one smack in the middle of the cabin front. That should really make it cute. Just look at this rudder head design by the guy who designed this boat ( Flavio Faroci )... Only an Italian can design something so beautiful. I play the violin so appreciate Italian mastery! I love it. I hope I do it justice for Flavio. Pete

Well I am well and truly jarred off!! Looked at my bank balances today and some kind person has cleared me out to the last cent. I am totally penniless. Quite a large amount too. Oh well, worse things happen at sea and I am still alive to make boats I suppose. Please dont give a thumbs up for that else I won't know which way to take you!..ha ha. Pete

I am glad you like the video. Here is a little trick I would like to share. I learnt it whilst joining musical instrument ( Ukulele ) tops and backs together naturally without pin holes to hold them together!!! First off cut the pieces a little over size and using the straight factory cut straights as the joint. Squeezing the two parts together with your fingers, apply good quality masking tape to hold them together. Under pressure they will then spring up at the sides. Turn the whole over and apply your favourite glue. I use Elmer's Max. Press down in the centre and wipe off the excess glue with a DRY rag. You will find the glue will squeeze out under pressure from the tape underneath. Apply tape on top and that's it. No pin holes. Pete.

I hope this works. I am going to try to post a you tube link on somebody sailing their finished Brando like the two I am building. It is just to give you an idea that this tiny little boat actually sails really well and a lot of fun. Pete

Thanks Nils. Yes they are two little cuties aren't they. I love the build. I am a traditional archer and shoot a long bow , no sights no gadgets just me and my bow. The arrows I made to shoot with my long bow. Nils if you look at the middle picture you will just see Bluenose's nose peeping at me like a laid down dog and watching me make the cuties. I think she is trying to say...." well when are you going to get on with me again?" Pete

Onwards and upwards with the masts which I made from Port Orford Cedar arrow shafts tapered from 6mm to 4 mm at the top. I do archery as well so that was a bonus. I have built and glued in the mast step, mast holder and partner. The mast is a nice tight fit which slides in and out easily if you know what I mean. Aha...Push fit I think they say! The insides of the hulls have been given their first coat of varnish. All soaked in to begin with but I expected that. I think it will need 4 or 5 coats to be water proof. The mast box is from Western Red Cedar which is extremely light like balsa but a lot tougher. Pete

Thank you all for your reassuring comments and likes. I have passed them on to Brandon. He is now fitting the boat with railings made from paper clips. I like his resourcefulness as this is a major quality we need with scratch building. Pete

Thanks for the likes. Come to think of it I have made dozens of flying model aircraft but this is my first two RC sailing boats. Decades ago I bought a ready made RC sailing yacht and decades before that I built my first RC motorised cabin cruiser. It was called a Commorant and a small balsa kit . I was 15 then. To have radio control at all was really cool stuff. My radio was a Magreggor single channel with one button for rudder control. Proportional was only to be admired with the big boys who could afford it. So it had a rubber powered escapement as fitted to small aircraft. I had to physically switch on the motor, sail it and then switch it off by hand. Oh those were the days. Anyway, building these two charmers constantly remind me of those happy days. Here they are with their bottoms on, keel boxes glued in and mast steps fitted. The next shot is of the radio gear which is appearing by post in installments. It is good kit and so cheap now. I hope I inspire some of you to have a go at this. I am retired so plenty of time. This stage has been reached in just two days from scratch. They are tremendous fun especially if you have kids or grandchildren!! Or just plain selfish and deserve it. Girls like them too!!!! Pete

The walnut planks have now been scraped with the japanese block scraper. When correctly sharpened and set up they are most efficient. They should produce micro shavings as shown and not dust. It takes some time to get the blade like a razor. I made the shown thickness tester from a bit if scrap ply and a cheap DTI. This is the keel box made from 5 laminations of birch ply. Pete

It looks much better Nils. The other was just too thick and stiff. Plus I do not think they would have used a transparent hose. It looks great. Pete

Thanks for all your likes! I am quite enthused to get these two finished and sailing and then it's back to Buenose big girl!! I have decided from the start that I want these two babies to also be beautiful apart from practical. Instead of balsa for the cabin and rub rails I shall use 1/16" sheet Walnut but I only had 1/4" thick. So I have just spent the last hour and a half hand sawing the plank in half to save further expense. Phew!!!..I am really pleased with myself that I still " have it" in me as occasionally I suffer from lack of confidence. Mind you! If it was not for the illustrated Japanese saw with it's very thin blade which cuts on the pull stroke, the task would have been impossible. So thank you Mr Kakuri for helping me out. I will now get out my Japanese block scraper plane and show you pictures later of the two thicknessed planks and how I measured the thicknesses. Thanks for looking in. Oh! Bits of radio gear arrived yesterday in the form of transmitter, receiver and four servos. Pete

Pss I do not know whether to Skin the bottom and decks with 1/64" ply as well? The plans say to use 1/16" balsa. I don't want the bottom or deck to wrinkle up with weather, time and water so any advice will be welcome. Thanks Pete

There were two little Ducks.... Sitting in the water! La la la ...la la la la la ! My two Brandos so far. That bow inner stem post was a sod! Something I have learnt about building boats. Nothing is square. That little piece of red cedar had eight different angles to consider. Well that's the hard bit dun. The rest is just plain sailing. And please excuse the pun. Shakespete.

Were these battery started or hand cranked Nils? I like your fuel tank and fittings. I think the general view is correct in that it should be a black hose and somewhat smaller diameter but you are on the case now. By the time you have finished the engine and gubbins it will look ready to start!! Dont forget the oily rag!!! Oh the list is endless. But great fun. Pete