Mississippi river Tow boat

[Tracker57]

I built this radio controlledCopy of DSC00714.JPG boat a few years back and all I can say is if you want to build a boat you should study water displacement first. This boat is 14 inches wide 50 inches long built from 1/4 inch plywood. when i was building i thought man this thing is getting heavy so after building the hull i made a float tank and put it in the water, guess what the props didn't even touch the water thats ok i still had to put a 12 volt deep cycle marine battery in it. guuss what still not enough added another 40 lbs and that got it to scale depth total weight of boat 110 lbs the scale of the boat is 5/8" = 1 foot and it will push a row boat with 2 people in it. it has working l e d marker lights and flood lighting and rotating radar antenas

[Keith_1]

Looks absolutely stunning. Well done.

Regards

Keith

[wasi]

Look very nice , also you are very talented guy to mixing up modern & traditional technology.
Thx
WASI

[chrisb691]

Looks brilliant. How does the weight of the model scale to the full size version?

[Tracker57]

I dont know I never checked but it wouldnt surprise me if it was close

[Dalboy]

The model absolutely looks great.

I did chuckle a bit at your little dilemma of getting the ballast right as I have been through it many times and know exactly what you mean.

[crowie]

Magnificent boat work sir, and over 4ft long WOW!!
Would love to see some more photos, especially some closeups all around....please, thank you.
Cheers, crowie

[Tracker57]

When I had my open house for the terragator a few people asked if they could see my towboat so I took them out to my garden shed to show them there it sat dirty and lonely so i brought it into the shop for a good clean up I will post a few pictures after it is cleaned up. here are a couple of older photos the towboat and barge combo is right at ten feet longCopy of Project2k.jpgProject1k.jpg

[Tracker57]

Got it all cleaned up,here is a picture of the real boat that this one is modeled after.Project1.jpg The boat cleaned up real nice I used real boat paint on it so it can stay in the water indefinitely. I had a bunch of photos of the build but my computer crashed a couple of years ago and lost all photos lesson learned , backup your photos to disk! On its maiden voyage the boat went way faster the scale speed and the speed controler got warm so I had to ante up some more cash and downsize the brass props from 2 inch to 1.5 inch it worked out good. now the controller runs cool and it runs at scale speed with real nice prop wash.Copy of DSC03065.JPGCopy of DSC03066.JPGCopy of DSC03069.JPGCopy of DSC03072.JPGCopy of DSC03073.JPGCopy of DSC03075.jpg I Blacked out my last name but it rimes with MisterCopy of DSC03076.JPGCopy of DSC03077.JPGCopy of DSC03078 (2).jpg

[crowie]

My goodness me Kevin, You don't do things by half sir...
The tug looks fantastic and it floats & works..WOW....
The extra detail in the tug is on the same scaling to that of your truck & terragatto VERY WELL DONE!!!
The first photo of your thread really didn't do this project justice so thank you for the clean up and beaut photos...
Cheers, Peter

[Keith_1]

Great Work Kevin