Hello Rob,

Yes I am still interested. Would it be possible for you to email me some more photos of the GRP Fire Boat as I probably deleted them when it looked like I had missed the sale. it would seem I have the very plans you speak of, so I am Ok for those. I have never seen this Range Safety Boat before and I have got plenty of photos of the build so I may even put them on the Model Boats website, just to bore the pants off people!!! Sorry to hear about your loss and in all the turmoil that creates, thank you for keeping in touch.

I shall have a look at the photos if you can send me some and we shall take it from there, if that is Ok.

Cheers
Steve M.

Hello Rob,

I have had a look at the plan you found at My Hobby Store. You would not believe this!!!! I have had a plan of this very boat, for about the last 15 or so years! it is the same Vic Smeed one but where normal plans are in black ink, mine is in blue, almost like a blueprint drawing. I recently purchased a boat from ebay and have become very friendly with the seller, who lives close to me - (someone who obviously went to the same model building school as you!!!) His models are absolutely wonderful. I managed to talk him into building the Vic Smeed boat for me and he is well on the way. He has the hull built, the motors, shafts, rudders and propellers all fitted, it is really taking shape.

One thing puzzles me sligtly, the superstructure is formed by the hull formers which come proud of the decking; even the windows are cut into these formers. Basically, all one has to do is put a roof on, between the formers and build up the engine air vents and the superstructure is complete. There is quite a large well, roughly half the deck area, aft of what would be the engine room. There again the well is bounded by the hull formers, so it is not possible to build it in the wrong place. As you said there is no superstructure on the hull of your friends boat, is it possible it may be a different boat, perhaps?

Anyway, thank you very much indeed for your exceedingly kind offer of the hull and not only that, but to meet me halfway as well. I do not need 2 of the same boat so I have, very reluctantly to decline your offer. I would have thought your buyer would have wanted it, as it would make an attractive addition to the Fire Boat.

As an aside, I see you live near Bedford. My Brother in Law is the Landlord of "The Swan" public house, in Flitwick. A strange name for the pub, mI thinks, as it is not near any water but is slap bang next to the railway and Flitwick Station.

Once again, thank you very much indeed for your kind offer. I am only sorry I was "pipped at the post" by the buyer of your Fire Boat.

Cheers
Steve M.

Hello Rob,

I am guessing your man took full advantage of the sale; too good to miss really!!!

Cheers
Steve M.

Hiya Rob. Glad to hear you are feeling better. if you come up the M1, and take the exit after Watford gap services, that is the M42. Just drive about 10 or 12 miles along, and to will come to a roundabout at the end of it. if you go round to the right, you will see a big layby on the island. There is a sandwich & tea bar on it. That's the place. Our meet may have to wait until next week, as work has gone insane for me in the last two days. But will let you know. Cheers, Dave

HI Rob, I just wondered if you were feeling any better yet. I have looked at the map, and as you are coming from Bedford, then about mid way between us is the western end of the M45. There is a big lay-by with a buttie & tea bar on it (or there used to be). This is about an hour away from each of us, so that would probably be easiest. Kindest regards, Dave

HI Rob I have now got fixed up with a boat, but it's been great speaking to you.

Colin

Sorry, I am coming from Kidderminster, as I said in my last message. Postcode DY10 3AT. So, I will have to have another look at the mapbook to see where to meet.

Let me know when you are feeling better,

Get well soon,

Dave

Hi. Her you decided to sell yet,it's my birthday on Wednesday and will have a bit more cash to hopefully buy one of your boats,would you email me on colind67@btinternet.com if you will without going thru M.B

Best regards Colin

Hello Rob,

I understand completely that I am second in line for the boat. That really is not a problem! I believe I may have stated the same, in a previous e-mail. I am still interested should your man choose not to go ahead with the purchase. I would also be very interested indeed, in the RAF TTL, particularly at the larger scale. I am thinking, the plans would be pretty Important, as if I remember correctly, the upperworks are more complex than those of the Fireboats. it is a shame it has to change hands, linked to such a loss.

I shall await your further message but I should be very suprised if your man does not take advantage of your sale.

Cheers
Steve M.

Just had a look. I seem to remember from the site that you live in Hartley Whitney. The halfway point would be the services on the A4 19 at Cirencester. it's about 1 mile away from exactly halfway, so that would be ideal for me. Let me know, my friend.
Cheers, Dave

Hiya Rob. Happy new year to you. Sorry to hear you are not too good. if it's any consolation, my degenerative spinal condition is getting rather worse than it was & I can't walk without my sticks now. Ho hum.
Don't worry about the 40 meg receiver, as I use all 2.4ghz stuff, and you may get a few quid extra for it.
I live in Kidderminster (DY10 3AT) , I will check on the map to see where halfway is. My mobile is 07938527139, so when you feel better, just give me a few days notice, and we'll get together.
Wishing you health, wealth, & happiness for the year mate.
Kindest regards, Dave

HI Rob. Hope you had a nice Xmas,I wish you a very happy new year,the boat I would love it,but at this time of the year money is not in abundance.

Good Luck with your boat

Hiya mate. Thanks for the message. I hope you had a good christmas. Yes, I will have it. I take it that it includes everything bar transmitter (& maybe receiver as I use 2.4ghz). Shall I come to meet you somewhere for the swap? I am away with family until the 4th Jan. But maybe the weekend after. Let me know. Hopine you all have a great New Year.
Kindest wishes. Dave W

Rob. Would you consider £150 I would love your boat,I am hoping you will play Santa Claus.

Colin

Rob. Have you sold your boat??
Colin

HI Rob. Thanks for contacting me,at this present point in time £250 is bit to high for me at the moment,but I do appreciate you gave me first refusal, I think the others interested in it will probably buy it

Colin

Hello Rob,
Thank you for getting back to me regarding the sale of your Fireboats. Absolutely no pressure at all regarding the sale, and as the boats are particularly fine, I do not blame your family for wanting to keep them. Having had a second look at your photographs and the latest news about having won "best in show" I suspect they would be out of my league in any case.

I is a great thame that Kit Shack went out of business as they made kits of both my favourite boats, the RAF Target Towing Launch and the Fireboat. The beauty with them was there were larger sizes available, unlike the Veron RAF TTL which was stock at 28".

Cheers

Thank you Rob.

HI Rob. I have not heared from you in almost a week, so I am assuming you have sold them,if that's the case I am very disappointed with.

Colin

Not a problem. Take your time to decide. I know how hard it is to be parted from ones work. Let me know when you do.
Seasons greetings to you & yours,
Kindest wishes,
DAVE

Thanks Rob. I live in Leicestershire and sail with the King Lear model boat club.

Colin

Hiya. Just a quick line to ask what sort of figures you were looking at for each boat. Knowing my luck, well above what I can afford. I have seen all sorts of prices from £40 to £300, so hopefully, I won't need to lie down 😉
Let me know when you can.
Kindest regards,

Dave W

HI Rob. Did you get my message.

Colin

HI Rob. I do like the look of No2

Colin 👍

HI Rob. They both look very nice, could you tell me what kind of offers are you looking for, also where is your location.

Colin 😑

Sorry about just getting back to you,but been very busy the last couple of days,yes I have got your photos thanks

HI Rob. Do you still have the boats,if so do you have you some photos please.

Cheers

HI Rob,

Sorry to hear that you are selling your boats after all this time.
Could you give me an idea of the figure that you're looking for, I've started so many projects and not finished them, I'd love to have a completed model to give me inspiration. Could you also send some pictures please.

Regards

Bill

Thanks pm

I am not going to be very exact on colours and shall use some flexibility in what I can get, but will take your advice on 2 shades of grey for deck etc.

I have already got decals and waterline strip but there are various widths, so as you suggest I will chose one that looks the best.

On deck fittings I am using some lattitude as I have made them from brass I.e. cleats and twin bollards in place of fairleads as I want to attach a protection bumper on bow, as I am not that good at steering and end up running into pool side, that does not do the woodwork much good.

I have also made the net retention rails in brass but I do not think that this would look very nice with a brass finish so I think I will do this in black just for contrast. I have also made window frames in thin brass sheet and hand rails also.

I am going to coat all brass finish parts in 2 part epoxy varnish and will do hull in it ( providing it does not attack colour paint ) I will be testing some before doing this.

As for the RAF and cleaning, I did the second part of my national service at Mountbatten 1961/1962 and was never aware of any great activity on polishing front, but it is a long time ago now and perhaps my memory fails me and I was not involved in operating the boats.

When I was there we had RTTL's, RSL's and Pinnace's it was an operational station and Maintenance Unit so there was always something to do. There were 3 types of RTTL all except one were powered by twin RR Merlin derivatives, one of these was an experimental boat with a light alloy hull in place of the double planked standard build. The other oddity was an old boat with 3 Napier Lion engines, the only boat I had a long ride on down the Cornish coast until one of the engines failed. On this boat it was not much fun for the engineer as there was no telegraphic control of the engines, so he had to ride with the below decks, they were made of sterner stuff in those days!

Of a summers evening the sound of the RR powered RTTL coming in across the Plymouth Sound was was very evocative.

I had lots of rides on RSL's outside the PLymouth breakwater to watch aircrew doing their dingy drill. Also lots of miserable winter mornings trying to start the single cylinder diesel APU to do the DI's on the radios.

Unfortunately I never saw a Fireboat as they had gone to another place by the time I was " Getting Some in "

HI nasraf
rescue net retention rails white, jury out on hand rails, but most popular is a metal or alluminium finish, although I have heard they where brass, which would be fitting with RAF?
Deck and cabin sides where 2 differnt shades of grey (I found out after painting mine!), I am sure HS93 on this forum knows the paint colours, I got mine from him supplied from original sources, deck was darker than sides, and was in a non slip finish, not gloss. I just used a roll of different width white waterline markings available from most model shops, and picked one that looked the best.
If you buy decals where most are from, becc model letters, they do A Fireboat kit, but in some old stock you dont get the 3rd rear number, check on this before buying, and you have to get the depth markings seperate 😟
Barrys model lettering ( I think?) will do a bespoke set, but again not the depth markings they are too small for him to do, but a little expensive
cleats etc are grey, same as the deck colour
But...itysd your boat, so you may want it to be personal to you, hope that helps

I am now getting near to painting my boat and have a few questions on finishes for it.

In general there is no doubt that the hull should be black with that below the water line red with a water line in white.

What is width of water line?

The deck appears to be generally grey.

What were the finishes on hand rails and rescue net retention rails ? I am tempted to paint them black to give a contrast to the white cabin roof.

Were details such as cleats, fairleads etc metallic colours ? I assume the originals were manufactured as castings in non corrosive materials, as such were probably dark brown.

Any guidance would be appreciated.

The book is 'Fast Boats & Flying Boats' by Adrian Rance. Ensign Publiications 1989 of 2 Redcar street Southampton SO1 5LL isbn1-85455-026-8 bar code 9 781854 550262. Has to be long out of print. I have seen the book for sale on ebay at a not too cheap price.It has sooooo many pictures of the fast boat types, Speed record boats, MTB, MGB, MASB, Seaplane tenders, the BOAC tenders and data on boats constructed and my hero Aircraftsman 'Shaw', ( where we have been to his many sites in the desert(s) of Jordan & WadI Rum & seen his memorial & seen 'The Seven Pillars Of Wisdom' & he is still revered by the people of Jordan today. The Vospers, Scott Payne , Peter Du Cane, Thorneycroft, Crash Boats/Fire Boats all are ongoing develpoments in a link of like type vessels (small, special purpose,very fast , good lookers, somewhat light construction, hand made of wood types) and now gone.See ya Lyle.

some of the info sugests that they where left like that during the sea trials ,when they where handed over to the RAF and they where then painted.

have you got some info the number of the book you have the inbor something number

Peter

Well I will also have a go at this. The British Power boat Co of Hubert scott Payne were very much a natural wood finish type of boat finisher and a book on him called Fast Boats & Flying Boats has a colour shot of a natural wood cabin boat finished by that company as well as many natural wood areas used in boats as a finalglitzy finish, in his many products. As he and Vospers were not too paly in business why would we expect that Vospers would not continue to make ANY wooden finished (without paint) boat/cabin/structure look pretty spiffy and a great advertisment to their ship building, against any opposition, ( they even polished the brass cowl vents on their WW2 MTB's and MGB's prior to delivery to the RAN). Hence, I would suggest the original wooden finish cabins on the Crash Boats would be stunning with natural grain 'colour' ( why not a mahogany) and with a very very shiney marine varnish overcoat to protect the grain and glint mirror light to be a stunner to look at as an advertisment to the professional style and capability of the boatbuilding firm. My thoughts. Lyle.

Hi.all first old timer here.never built a boat before,until my friend from a long past came to see me and try to help him with a submarine he was having problem with.after sorting it out
he suggested I try and build a boat.so after he routed out some mags he had,I came across a boat called the vigilant,so we had a go.we decided to make her 36"L by 8"Beam.Runs on one 12 volt SLA Bat/two quanta props 45mm.
She is now working fine,with rotating cannon,rotating radar,port and starboard lights,and firing dummy torps.she runs on two 540/1MFA Motors,a sea sprint esc.she also has a smoke unit.She is very unusual as we have installed Lego men as the crew.It has been built from all balsa wood and my fist attempt at fiber glassing the hull.we think it is a good fun boat and seem to get plenty of interest.We sail her at New Brighton on the wirral.
Anyone wanting more info can contact me.thanks for reading.