ORIGINAL: subsinker
I have built two of them, one for myself and one for another club member. The short answer to your question is "no, it is not difficult at all" The long answer may be a little more complicated. It does involve gluing up wood and sanding as well as soldering the handrailings. I personally do not care for that so I use premade brass stanchions which look FAR more scale and require considerably less work. If you don't like sanding and sealing wood for the structures you could always trace patterns using the original onto styrene (which is how I build boats) and glue it together like a big model kit. I also replace all the wood with styrene so I have complete sets of patterns for the boat. I can construct as many of the Mr. Darby s I wish, just by purchasing a hull and some sheet styrene. I also highly advise using the Harbor Models running hardware kit that you can purchase. If you add up the price of the Dumas motors, and the running hardware you come out about even in cash outlay. Where you are light years ahead of the game is by simplicity, installation ease and brute pulling power. The Harbor Models setup uses Pittman 3700 motors which are far more powerful and don't need to be geared down, unlike the Dumas motors. Also, in the Harbor Models setup you have resin cast rudders, instead of the ones you must build from plywood and metal rod. Again, much simpler. Also, the Harbor Models kit uses steel coupler u-joints, similar to the cardan style (like a U-joint in a car) much stronger and quieter than the nylon and brass dogbones Dumas uses. In addition, the HM kit includes the "steering solution" and a 1/4 scale servo. The steering solution will allow the rudders to go hard over which will turn the boat on its own axis. One last thing, the HM kit also gives you resin output shaft supports and Prop SHop screws. It really is a nice setup. The boat I built with the HM kit is extremly powerful and draws much less amperage which in turns means you can have it in the water longer. I easily run this boat 3 hours before I even think about taking it out of the water. My first Mr. Darby I built I did not know about Harbor Models and used Dumas hardware. It works ok but you hear that annoying whining from the compound gear reducers. Also, you have to be pretty close to dead on with alignment between motor, gearbox and output shaft. With HM setup the u-joint does away with the gears and allows a little more misalignment.

All in all the Mr. Darby is an awesome boat and properly setup will pull an oak tree right out of its roots. I say go for it! Just take your time building it and you will have a boat you can be very proud of!

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On the Darby the only parts you have to contend with below the waterline is the skeg and the rudders. I simply build the structure using CA then use sanding sealer bought at any hardware or building supply dealer. Put on a coat, sand it down slightly, put on a coat, sand it down slightly etc. An alternative measure would be to build the structure as normally and then use Epoxy thinned out with rubbing alcohol. When the epoxy dries you can sand it down. After each method you would simply prime and paint it as usual. As for the above water structures, cabin, crane etc, I would simply build the structure and prime and paint it. Under normal circumstances it would (or shouldn't anyway!!!) get wet. An alternative to that is to do what I described in the previous post about using styrene. For me, that is the easiest and gives the best results. You wouldn't have to worry about filling in the grain as plastic has none, unlike wood. Any way you go just take your time and you will end up with a ship you can be very proud of.