Don't worry about the mess, I don't eather. Think of the mess and the filled ashtray as signs of high activity. Every 6 months (+/-) there is some cleaning done, but I am one of these people who can't find his things when cleaned up. So, I like it this way, basta! 

This is the place where I work out my pages, scan pictures, answer your friendly e-mails (till now nobody sent me a mad one, hip-hip-hurrah), answer spammers to f... off, draw pictures, edit the Computer Club Asse (CCA) editorial, test software and throw away what's from Microbugs, crash my system once every month, laugh with Gates' creamed face, fool around in aircrafts from FS98 (buggy because Micro..) and Flight Unlimited (perfect because not from...), etc, etc. 
This and my corner in the garage (where never was any place for a car) are the places my wife bears my presence, the rest of the house is hers. 

              By the way, wanna see Bill's creamy face? 
              I don't dislike the man, but I do oppose firmly against his 
              commercial politics. People who had to live with his first 
              and subsequent DOS versions will understand me.

 
In my garage, I have a 4m wall, arranged as working bench. There never is enough place and I hesitate to provide more of it. You know, make more room and after a couple of weeks there is a short of place again. Here you see the "Orkney Express", a Robbe kit of a fast oil platform assistance ship. This is the plastic thing I hate to work on. It is now near to finishing stadium and I hope to be ready to compete at this year's 4km rally in Damme, a small town near to Brugge. The motors (2 Graupner Speed 700) are a bit overpowered with an option of running them under 6 or 12V (6V to gain weight and speed, 12V to do hard jobs and have a big radius). I mostly overpower my boats because I like them to do tasks which demand high traction. With the motors mentionned on the plans, the boat will navigate well, but there will be no power left for traction or real speedy navigation. As usually, I can't build something without changing some things my own way. This model is destinated to navigate in bad weather, so there must be a minimum of riscs to take water. For that reason, I didn't build the windows in the lower cabin. On the bridge, I've cut out the windows, glued  a rubber strip in which I glued clear plastic. Robbe only provided some stickers to mask and paint the windows on it... YUK! Besides the badly cut and deformated parts, this windowing technique is another reason not to buy this kit. You really do have to like this boat and you really do need some higher model building skills to build this one. 

I allready told that I like to do things my own way... well here's an other example. 
In every harbor one can find these small tugboats equipped with only one or two men. These little tugs are used to push and tow river boats and big yachts to their places in the harbor and as working boats. But there are no kits of such boats, so I had to find an other approach. One day I saw the "Pollux" from Graupner and... BING! this was it. 

At the left there is a picture of how it normally should look like. 
From this dwarf toy model I kept the hull and the deck planking. 
I baught a more powerfull motor, the Graupner Multispeed 7022, which has a 7.2v motor, 
a 1:2 reduction and a more solid shaft. But the shaft is much longer than the one provided originally, 
so I had to think about repositioning it. 

The original propeller was a 2 bladed speed model, so I changed it for a 4 bladed brass model. The rudder in the kit was a flat model, but I wanted a maximum of manoeuvrability, so a peace of PVC plumbing pipe replaced it. The propulsion was mounted in an upward angle, so I can dismount it in the future and the end of the tube being above the water level, there is no risc of water intrusion. To power the model, I used an old, less performing 7.2V Nicad from my R/C cars (shown next to the hull, before finishing), cut it in two and connected the ends with some low resistance wire. The triple cells will be positioned at each side of the motor to provide a low ballast and to stay in ballance. The connection wire (as short as possible) slides under the motor. Because this battery is of a fast charging 1700mAh type, I will have a big radius and the possibility to recharge in 20 minutes. This little one can stay on the water for the whole day if I provide 1 spare battery. 
The purpose is to build a low engine deck in front of a 1 man bridge at the end. The towing hook will be mounted on the back of the bridge. The deck will be glued a little higher to provide more space to change batteries. But this means I have to build new railings... still thinking of what and how I will do this. 
And this is the result on april 15 '98. All the R/C stuff is build in and the dwarve is waiting for its deck to be closed. Next to the hull you can see the split NC battery, from which each halve will reside besides the motor. The wire had to be so long because the narrow opening of the deck makes me slide them in one after another. All the R/C electronics are standard size, so there was some trouble to get it all in. The rudder servo is a Futaba 3003, the receiver on top in the nose is a Futaba 5 channel, and the speed controller is a brand new flat 30A model from Robbe for boats. I drilled a hole in the shaft and mounted a greasing tube on it, so I don't have to dismount the shaft too often. Only the power on/off switch has to find a handy place. Because I'm gonna make a water thight system for the deck, I think of sticking it on the receiver with some 2-sided tape. I have to open the hull to put a fresh battery in it anyhow, so at that moment I can switch the thing on/off at the same time. Or maybe I'll mount some system with an external handle? We'll see when the deck is in its place. 

At this very moment I finished my first sailing boat, the "Dolphin" from Robbe. This fast-constuction kit is for beginners, but as I never have sailed before, this will do perfectly and the price was REAL democratic. See this boat on my boats page. 
 

We note april 26 '98. The "Dwarve", my transformation of the Graupner "Pollux" advances well. Deck, front and back railing, engineroom and bridge are ready and waiting for details, finishing and painting. At the back you can see the fixed towing hook and at port-side the single sliding door is imitated. The hole in the roof of the bridge serves to turn in a screw to keep the superstructure firmly in its place (disguised as a searching light). I wonder if the people at Graupner's would recognise their own kit. Maybe they get an idea for a new 1:25th kit? Anyhow, as this little tug grows out of my hands, I begin to like it more and more and I think of naming it the "Dwarve" as it really is a small thing (36cm or 14") next to the "Orkney Express" (126cm or 49.6") at the same scale. If anyone demands for the plans: sorry boys, there ain't any. I simply used my thumb, what I remember of having seen from this kind of harbor tugs and a good amount of fantasy. Because many of these boats were constructed in the period after world war II, they were often painted military grey. The reason? Well, at that time they had to spend as little money as they could and that type of paint was easy to find in huge quantities in army stocks at low price (because of overproduction during the war). Once the borders of the railings and the deck are finished, a metal railing will be placed between front and rear railing. Next come a little exhaust pipe for the diesel, some tools and rope on the deck, some tieres to protect the sides and a rope-cushion on the nose to do some pushing. I'm thinking of making a bar to fit on the bow to do some barge-pushing which still is done on our channels nowadays. (Hey, Towboat Joe, are you watching?) 

My model building nephew asked me how I did it to make those front and rear railings. I can imagine some people are interested in that too, because of the bending and curving of such pieces. Therefore some explanation and pictures figure in my Hints & Tips pages. Click on the words to go over there. A "Working with Styrene" page is there too. 

We note aug. 1st 1998. 
The dwarve is all equipped and ready to launch. This happens on my club's show at the "Sterdag 1998", a yearly festival on the family park "De Ster", where my club has its puddle. At first some equilibration had to be done with small lead plates to get the boat levelled well. Then a very carefull tour around the basin confirmed my expectations: that little tug was very stable and manoeuvred very well. Even full speed was very pleasing and realistic. Now came the test for the big job this little one was made for: tugging. I hooked up a big vessel and towed it around. SUPER !! The dwarve even had enough power to tow a bigger ship!! It took me full 3 hours to get the battery weakening. So I got a 3 hours radius for a 20 minutes charge. At some moment it had to support some heavy waves from fast and big boats. Not a drip of water came in and its navigating image was amazingly stable. No fear to get it on the lake!! Where big boats have to stay ashore, the dwarve would have no problem at all. Don't have to say how I was pleased, hèh? That afternoon, the dwarve got its final name: "PAGADDER"; which is a name we call a sympathic little kid. And that reflects very well the reaction of my clubfriends and the public in general. Now, see some pictures of  "Pagadder": 
 

"Pagadder" equilibrated and floating for the first time. The light on the roof is a camouflage for the screw keeping the superstructure on its place.	"Pagadder" from the back, showing the tow-hook and the rudder tube.
No fear for the job. This one was even a laughter to tow. "Pagadder" eats huge tows too!	And pushing these boys to their places wasn't difficult at all. It worked like a sheepdog and its herd.

 
More pictures will follow as the finishing progresses. 

In the mean time I am redrawing the plans of the "Styrbjorn" (take a look), the oldest Scandinavian steam tug, from which you can find the site in my link list. The model plans can be distributed to anyone who wants them in the future. (But Before distributing them, I will have to ask Terje's permission). Don't ask for copys at this moment, it will certainly take me one more year to get so far. 
 
                                                     Last year damage to repair 

The "Sea Rover", yes that big black tug, had some serious damage last year. As I told before, I bought the boat second hand with a good amount of building errors. Most of these errors were corrected, except for one I couldn't see before the catastrophy happened. The hull was finished with some kind of putty for car body's. Outch !!! This product doesn't support water, so it began to crack and the boat started to take water. Now I have to redo the hull completely, but I'll have to wait for the good weather circumstances to do this. Working with resin demands an appropraite temperature (between 16 and 22°C). And because of the persisting smell, I'll have to do it outside. 
There is some work to do before we can get on the water again.