I've been modeling since 1934 and I'm now 80 years into the rest of my life. In another post I wrote that I had ordered a Dumas Windy 23" kit and a new engine. Got some excellent replies and advice. My turn now for some free advice. If you do the math you can see I have been modeling aircraft, cars, trains and sail boats for 70 years. Time out for WWII.
The point of this whole message is to warn beginners away from the Windy kit. I believe I have learned a bit and have a bit of experience building from kits so this should not be much of a problem. For me it isn't but I would hate to think of someone new to kit building trying to build this one.
It's coming along fine for me and beginning to shape up. I picked it because I liked the looks. Wrong reason! I will not condemn all Dumas airboats and will probably buy another kit from them. Just wanted to warn absolute beginners away from this one.

Hey Ballgunner,

I'm in agreement and disagreement on this one. On one hand, the Dumas instructions (from what I've heard.....all of them) are really hard to understand and haven't been updated in almost 20-30 years. I got a Dumas Drag'N Fly 20 (from the late 60's) from a friend and my Fiancee was going to build it. She read the first 2 lines in the instruction and handed them to me.... The Dumas line of boats/airboats are not the easiest to build.........BUT......... My first kit was a Dumas L'il Swamp buggy. I had a great time building it.....along with all the cursing and swearing at the instructions!!! It could make a beginner stay away from boats.......or it could teach them that not everything comes easy, and you have to use that 'GREY MUSH' upstairs to get through the building. But just like all of us....once it's finished........there's always a big smile on our face as we admire what we have accomplished. I wouldn't tell a novice or first timer to stay away from Dumas as a first boat.....but would inform them as to what they are in for. There's just that certain PRIDE we all get when we build something ourselves versus buying a RTR boat.

I agree with the lack of decent instructions on the Dumas kits. Having some previous building experience with kits really helps to fill in the gray areas.

Dumas kits always seem to be overbuilt, not of the best quality wood, and sometimes confusing to build.

Keep at it ballgunner, and if you or anyone else ever needs help, you know where you can get it.

The Windy IS a nice looking hull, but it comes with the hidden price of its complexity.


If you haven't already built the pylon, an alternative would be to trace the shape onto 1/4" 5-6 ply plywood and make any adjustments needed to make it fit with the other parts. One piece verses about 12? Just my opinion

I have to agree with the comments about Dumas instructions. My Windy will be a nice hull at the expense of knowing in advance how to build almost any type of model. Dumas could be a much better line if they would invest in a laser cutting machine. The die cutting is ,to be kind, about as crude as possible. I just recently finished a Great Planes Old Timer that had die cut plywood that was almost as good as laser. It can be done. I failed to find anything in the instructions about the CG or thrust line.
I have some 1/4" ply on hand and the idea of using it for the pylon sounds good. Thanks for the idea.

This seems to be the trend with the older kits. The new scale boats, like the Chris Crafts and such, are top quality, laser and or die cut (with sharp dies).

The Windy kit you got was probably made 10 years ago. Dumas would make like a thousand kits in a single production run years ago. So the dies would tend to not be very sharp after a while.

Unless you purchase one of their new offerings, the kit will be an old one produced many years ago.

Can we say stockpile?