M.S Dolphin Mk2

This is my Vintage Model Boat which needs Restoring

Built around 1965

Nice Boat but it don't look Vintage to me, if it is vintage it was ahead of it's time.

I've had to guesstimate her age between 1960-1965 from the only document i have of her, i have searched for months talked to many people about her and from what I understand she is most likely the only one of her kind left!

I brought her in the state you see, she's never been sailed so unfinished and still a water virgin. (no signs of wear anywhere, even the shaft is a bit stiff)

Her keel is that of a straight runner, so I expect that is what she was designed for during that period as it was a very popular sport during the 60-mid 70's. she must have been popular at one point in her life as being the prodigy of her preprocessor. but i expect due to age, movements through the sport and damage they would have sustained during straight running, i doubt any are left and those that are probably could never really be restored.


She's on my list of things to do, after I finish 5 maybe 6 other builds, i will however be doing a set of plans of her , taken of the hull to ensure her design is saved through the ages

Whats the superstructure made of ?

Hold on a minute its about the same age as my pilot boat, which is it's about 50 years old. It was built along the same lines, and although my pilot boat was british there seems to be a general theme to model boat building in the years 1950 - 65. When i got my boat it was in a sorry condition, it was busted at both the Bow, and stern, it had a diesel engine in it (I must strip that down one day), and it was a free runner, i soon altered all that, and the end result you see before you now. Oh! and RR i will interested in the plans when you do them.
https://s879.photobucket.com/albums/ab356/TonyW_2010/Boats%20and%20Things/?action=view¤t=videoboat.mp4

Quote :

RR i will interested in the plans when you do them.

No Worries won't be till next year mind, i have far to much to do at present, she's lasted 50 odd years sure a few more wont matter.

You made no mention of my Pilot boat, did you access the link?

I did look, just didn't say anything until i could locate some more info on your boat, it seams that like many designed during there 60's they all stuck to a similar hull design, although without seeing your up close it would be hard to tell how many similarities she shares. The dolphin has a huge keel, most likely designed for straight running or just a entry level for the average modeller to enjoy a boat with an engine.

There is also the possibility that the hull is nothing like the dolphin's and yet based on the Fairly Huntress, which were so popular during the 60's and early 70's, their hulls were perfect bases for many models to be built off them, you will have to post some photo's of her out of the water for better comparison i think. maybe we can take it further from there, rather them my speculation, i would like to think there are more then 1 dolphin left alive from the 60's in original condition but i have my doubts.

Will Do

HI LARRY HERE , this looks lonley so will add a new image....[img]https://i.servimg.com/u/f43/16/63/18/67/p1030410.jpg[url=https://servimg.com/view/16631867/18][/img][/url]

I'm repainting the Old pilot boat currently but i will post up some photos of it when done

Here RR as promised the Pics of my Old Pilot Boat. I haven't finished re-painting it yet. It's about a metre long, and 8" at the beam. With working Radar, and navigation lights, searchlight.I yet to put Pilot flags on, and a civilian ensign on the stern. I printed of off on yellow flourescent card large "PILOT" letters, and yet to stick them on.Oh! i forgot i've got to put 2 coats of varnish on it to protect the paint, and the decking planks which i printed out, and stuck on because the old decking was crap and leaves a lot to desired.I've got a build on at the Mo, pics forthcoming.

HI its looks good so far , like the search light, must get round how to fit lighting looms.
I have a little bobby launch to get wired up.......LARRY'......

Did you mean "Loops" Larry

Hey Tony, nice boat i can defiantly see why you think they may have been the same the cabin up till the windscreen are very similar in style,but the hull is quite diffrent in not having the deck step at the front, which makes me think shes something else...

Is she a deep v or a rounder hull, its hard to tell from the photo's, i have seen this model before somewhere so its definitely not the dolphin but it is around the same age if not a tad older I think it was originally a fire boat, maybe a modified ''wavemaster'' (same front and rear section, but your is joined centrally) or maybe a sea tender (which was a pilot boat)

These are the closest i can find to what yours may have looked like if it was modified to what you have now.

That's the best i can do at the moment Tony, but i will keep looking later this evening once i get a bit longer to search around.

It's a Deep V at the Bow, and flat as pancake at the stern.That's the best way i can describe it till i take more pics.

Well Gents.

It's been a while since i posted anything of great interest, my absence can only be explained by the lack of PC when my laptop decided to nose dive off the table and shatter into a trillion pieces...

One new pc later and i's back so right now after finishing the Weisel MTB I'm now working on the full restoration of the Dolphin.

The first photos on previous posts show what i had to start with, what follows is what happen next!

First up a full rub down of the hull then added dope to the the hull to ensure water proof and give her extra durability from knocks, then finished up with a smooth over of P38, and wow was the hull in bad shape, so many surface imperfections its like P38 brease blocks!

Well after all that the hull is now perfectly smooth with no surface defects, seeing how this boat will be of a high gloss finish those imperfection would have shown up real bad when it come to painting and buffing!







Next up was to mod the engine mount (originally she would have had a 3.5CC engine fitted, Not happening, well not yet.....)
This babys gonna take a whooping 850 size motor way over powered but I wanna see her fly!

First up cut the engine mount for the motor recess, this is where a dremel came in real handy, earn't its keep this week that i can assure you!



Now I have kept the original engine mounts in place and created a mount for the motor to utilise them, this gives me and opportunity should I decide, that I can fit an engine at a later date.. maybe..

Next up, make a motor mount....





And fit in boat.. don't worry that universal coupling is not staying in, i have got a nice shiny new beauty coming (tomorrow hopfully!)



Right next job a stainless steal rudder, its not finished yet, it still requires shaping to the right size and style of a 1960-70 cruiser should be a oval type rudder once finished.





The hull I am painting last well near enough last, simply because the boat will be all over the place for a while so less chance of damaging a nice paint job with my butter fingers. so onwards....

Lets start planking... TonyW will get this joke

Well where do you start? oh right the fricking hard bits!...
For this boats deck planking i am using 1x5mm mahogany as the outer edge and trim detail, 1x4mm Lime as the main planking, and 1x1mm Walnut for the caulking effect, i was going to use one of two methods to do the caulking effect either, pva and black cotton in the joints or run a black marker down each plank, but with an earlier test i found this to be a very pleasing look to the whole boat, light and dark tones throughout will work very well.

so to start off with make up a jig for the bow section, I need to bend the mahogany quite dramatically at the bow and it wasn't gonna flex that easy, so start off with a jig of the bow, and using the wife steam cleaning unit steamed the wood to the form, and clamp it down, and wait for it to dry ( i did this today so the jig is currently leaning up against the radiator for a few days, i managed to bend 3 planks at the same time to the required form, so i am hopeful that once dry the wood should retain most of its shape making my life easier to get the planks down when the time comes, but to ease my build, the mahogany will be glued and pinned with brass pins once the glue drys i see no reason for the mahogany warp or prang from the deck, but only time will tell, if this does happen then plan B is to use my sheet of mahogany and cut the entire section out.. i hope not but only time will tell.



Ok todays work consisted of a bit more planking, on one of the more akwards parts its the flat face between the main deck and the upper deck, two small angular sections to ''pretty up'' i was tempted to just fill the whole section in with mahogany but then i thought a little more and thought it would look nicer to infill with the actual planking of the boat, to keep the theme running, it also works out well on these sections as they are pretty much the same size as the lower deck width, so gives me a better idea of the lower decks look.

Well here goes, the woods very dry right now so any gaps will fill once the wood expands with a few coats of sanding sealer (i've tested it on the left hand side) the rights drying now so tomorrow both will be perfect fits!

I'll let the photos do the talking, to lazy to type any more...

Small update working on the deck planking.

Today I managed to squeeze in doing one side and the stern decking, I hope tomorrow to get the port side done, then i can move on to the bow.

Just a few piccys b4 bed.

Roadrunner wrote:

I see you Have a Norstar fire tender, not that many about

Peter

Hey Peter, that fire tender is not mine, so i cant lay claim to owning one, I do believe however you are still able to buy the plans or similar on my hobby store website.

Anyhow back to planking today i did the port side of the lower deck and started work on the bow, i have to say i'm pleased with the way my jig worked out for steaming/shaping, the planks, after popping them out of the jig they retained most of there shape and i was able to flex them into place reasonably easy, i've also had to create a bow section to give the illusion of thickness due to the bow not coming to a point, it rounds off, i've also had to create a curvature around the cabin using flat sections of strip as there was no way i could bend the strip into that tight of curve, my attempt resulted in the wood twisting to and extreme where it was not possible to keep it flat enough, this is simply due to the thickness (5mm) and bending width ways was just not gonna happen, i'm pretty pleased with the result tho, once sanded, and varnished i think it will look the part.

Anyhow more photo's cos i know you boys like that.















RR

And the planking saga continues...

Its a long haul and once the decks done I still have the cabins upper deck, I must admit once you get on a roll its rather therapeutic, I would have had the deck finished this evening but I ran out of pins so now awaiting the delivery of more, there was me thinking 200 was going to be enough (although I must have bent about 20 with my kack handed hammering)

I've also fixed the gaps in the bow section using the old method of pva and sanded fillings making a paste and rubbing it into the gaps ( this is really a much cheaper method from using different wood finish fillers, and is normally and exact colour match.









RR

My oh my that's some beautiful woodwork. Me, I'm scared to death of working with wood.
I can but look on in awe!

The trick with working with wood for anyone is to measure twice (or more!) before you cut, and take your time, think out your plan of attack and have a clear idea of what your trying to achieve, make jigs, make many templates and make sure you have the right technique and tools for the job.
You will be surprised what you can learn on the net about basic wood working skills and with a bit of practise can achieve.

With this is mind you should be able to produce something very pleasing but be careful especially since strip wood is no longer cheap to purchase, I know of a supplier who stocks me with my strip wood needs, but in total cost so far to plank the deck and then to plate the cabin with mahogany (still to do), has cost me £70 near enough, that's a really rather expensive although worth it so making mistakes with your strips is not wise any more.

Well today so far i have finished the deck planking, yet to sand it smooth yet, thats done near the end this way any marks while working can be sanded out rather then denting a nice finish there will also be rubbing strakes on the boat after shes painted which will finish the deck edges to the hull, so next job is to plate the cabin.

Started on planking the super structure this evening, i was tempted to use a veneer but given the large window apertures it would be such a waste of material given the cut-outs that would be needed, so i'm going with the stripwood, which once sanded smooth and varnished you will barely be able to see the seam lines.

Anyhow starting with the hard bit first the front, given that the hulls deck was never perfect, nor was the cabins fit to it there are rather large gaps around the cabin to the hull in some places upwards of 4mm, which is enough to spoil the boats look, no amount of fillers will fix those gaps and give a strong enough surface for the years of wear the edges will come under during general use.

this small section took me nearly 4 hours to get right, however i did make a cock up and had to pull it off and start again, uff at least it wasn't 3rd time lucky!









RR

Another nice example of craftsmanship on this forum well done RR.

Little Update of work so far,

Yesterday i sorted out the cabin roof, to give an overhang of 1.5mm, once the planking on the cabin is on this overhang will only be 0.5mm, i needed this done before i could plank the cabin so i knew where the roof line would be and so i also have a straight flat edge to work down from.

so using some 2.5mm 1/4 round over pvc plastic strip, i applyed it around the cabins roof, and then using p38 filled the gaps to creating the new roof line, although its not sanded yet and wont be until after i finish the planking. you get the jest of whats going on there.

Now back to planking, i finished the front of the cabin and am currently working on the starboard side, its slow progress as i have to continually cut small planks to fit not only the shape of the deck but in some areas the parts are very small and fiddly to get in place and fat fingers don't help.

I wont be doing much for the next day or so, being my birthday today i'm going out to get drunk so tomorrow will be hangover recovery!















RR

Well today i finished the starboard side of the cabin's plating, its been a long haul the parts are very small and tedious which is what is taking the time, not that i mind.

After the initial plating , the side was sanded with 120 grit to a reasonable finish surface & the windows sanded to there final shape with the dremel finally then given a coat of sanding sealer, and sanded with 600 grit, then given a 2nd coat of sealer.

There will be a final sand at the end before the varnish coats go on but the sealer brings up the colour of the wood along with giving the protection the surface will require for its life.

The next few days will consist of the lower deck of the cabin being planked as the main hulls deck and then the port side of the cabin.

Well less talking more photos i hear you cry!

Back to the grinder i guess, last few days i've been working on the port side of the cabin, and the complicated rear section, still left to do is the lower cabin deck area and sand the windows out with the dremel.

just a few photos keep u guys happy, more once i get a few more hours free but this weekends a blow out on work as its a big show weekend

More planking .... when will it end!?

Well last few days I've not had much time to finish the cabin, but its nearly there, I've also created a working hatch, which will conceal the finger lock which holds the cabin to the boat.]













RR

A beautiful job.....

Progress has been a tad slow this past few weeks and will be even slower for the next month or so as i'm in the transition of moving house so just an update to the nearly finished cabin, what remains to do will be the window frames pending if i can get hold or create some rubber seals, or if i go with full frames, sanding and painting the roof and the Ariel.

The hull is still unpainted due to the bad weather as i am planning to use 2 pac epoxy paint for the hulls finish and this requires better weather and humidity then we have at present.









RR

Hi,

I have been following your buildblog and am interested to know whether you have added,

in addition to the plan drawing, the rear window construction? Mine is at present wide open

down to the inner hull and rudder area and I see that you seem to have constructed a window?

Are there any further pictures please?

Seascout....

Hey boys and girls, Work on the dolphin is on hold..

Reason is very simple, weather...

I'm at the point with this model to get the hull painted, however as most know i need a good air temperature (20 degrees +)
So until i can get the hull painted, there is very little i can do to the model.

However, i have been looking recently for 2 pac epoxy paints, but sadly I've yet to find any in small quantity's (less then 5L)
so if anyone knows where i can get 1L to 2.5L tins from in a range of colours (green, red, blue, teel, white, black would be preferred) i really would be appreciative of links.
Reason for looking at 2 pac epoxy paints, is the finish, my father has a racing boat made of wood built nearly 50 years ago.. and it was finished in 2 pac epoxy white paint, it took years of engine wear and knocks bumps etc and still today its as white as the background on this screen and no signs of damage to the wood under the epoxy.
For my cruiser i believe this finish would be much easier to look after as well as protecting the boat long term, where as sprays will do the job but touching up nicks and scratches/scrapes become a pain later.

suggestions welcome here.

Until i can get hold of either 2 pac epoxy paints or until the good weather starts coming in, this projects on hold.

Until then.... i've recently started on 2 other projects. which i will blog..
One being a pair of canal boats from mobile marine models and a restoration project of a beam trawler which i purchased at a recent show that needs a fair bit of TLC.

Certainly looks good Aron.

Weather is finally here...well actually my supply of 2 Pac epoxy Varnish! after months of searching around for the finish I wanted I've located some 2 pac varnish.. i got it from Rustins paint supplies, and wow great stuff to use goes on like water so applied with a rag!

Plastic Coating 1 litre (scroll down)

Now the wooded deck and cabin have had 10 coats of this vanish which took me 2 days to apply, the finish will be done later which will be lightly sanded with 800 up to 2000 grit paper then buffed to a polish at the same time i do the paint work.

There is still a way to go on this project, but again I'm not one to rush as most know, so updates will follow more as I progress i would like to think I'll have this boat finished by the end of summer however my optimism may be well.... optimistic!  But until then enjoy the photos.





















Honestly I thought the photos would show up better with the flash, I think tomorrow if the sun holds I'll take some outside so you guys can see it in better lighting conditions.

Smacking almost 2 years since I made any head way with the dolphin.. 

Well since the wee nips finished & the classics all repaired and ready to go, I'm gonna aim to get this one closer to completion, or at least a bit more progress. 
In the last couple of days al I've done is rub down the deck and added the rubbing strakes to the hull, nothing major yet, but its come to a point where I'll like to see this model get a sail by the end of the year with some luck even if its not detailed inside yet.

So anyway this is her present condition...

I look forward to your usual excellent work Aron.