I finally got everything up and running again, what a mess. Here are the pictures that I promised of the towboat.

And a couple more.

Thats awesome. Too bad he's out of them.

Sorry to hear that. If I had a vacuformer and some plastic, I'd pull you a copy. You did say that you had got some plans from Towboat Joe didn't you. That should get you started.

Yeah I got some plans. I just have to find the materials to start out now.

Since towboats are pretty much a square box type of construction, the built will be easy. In my gallery, my Oyster boat and the Albemarle are done in 1/4" Luan. Large flat surfaces epoxyed together. They were fiberglassed over on the outside and just the resin on the inside. The compound curved surfaces on the Albemarle were done with double layer planks. The ribs were done with some aircraft ply that I had laying around. Cheap and quick.

Today I stopped by an electric motor repair and picked up a leftover roll of wire to rewire my motors. Got about 1-1/2 pounds of #20 guage wire for $5. At the local electronic supply house, they wanted $7 for a 1/4 pound spool.

highspeed,

Any progress with the towboat?

Pretty slow. I'm buying the tools that I need as I go. I have already converted my plans into 1/48th scale and began to cut the foam that I'm going to use for the hull. Thats about it though. I should be getting my Dremel in within the next few days.

Are you going to glue wood to the foam or glass right over it.

I'm going to glue it to the foam.

One thing that has worked for me in the past was using polyurethane adhesive/sealant to hold the wood on blue foam. I used the stuff that came in a cartridge tube and was found with all the caulks and stuff in the paint section at Home Depot. Since then Gorilla glue has come out which is an other alternitive.

If you are talking about the Prop Shop in England. They are SLOW in their deliveries. BUT. The props have the same beautiful look of one on a Nuke sub. Fantastic Bronze that is so well finished you can shave in your reflection. My 4.5" X 5.0" X 5 blades ( 2 ) are new as new 4 years old. Price is a little more than most BUT QUALITY is the best.

Order now and they will arrive just in time.

PropShop web site gives the thrusts on the big props. they are very consertive ratings.
www.britnett.net/propshop

Give that man a cigar. I do buy PropShop props and love every one of them. I have never bought any directly from them, I usually get them from a vendor here in the states. I'm a little fearful of ordering anything from overseas, but in this case I might have to. I've emailed Simon at PropShop about availability and they have the M4's and M5's in stock but not the 10-32's (thread size). They do have the kort nozzles to fit though. One of these days I will finish one of my tugs that has a 4" PropShop prop on it, they say that it is rated at 20 pounds of thrust, can't wait to see that.