John Elsy has been building boats as long as Noah some say they both went to the same shipwright's school, the only difference is John's have lasted a little longer. When it comes to building models, John doesn't have a favourite scale or type of boat so when you see his fleet there is greys, fishing boats and small pilot cutter. But One thing which all of his boats have in common is there make up, all have wooden hulls made by the plank on frame method and he will scratch build as much of the fittings and superstructure as he can, some times it is impatience that drives this to get the boat in the water.
Here are some of his models.........
| British power boat - MTB 488
|
 This
model was built from plans purchased from
Model Boats, plan number MM1377. This boat is not for the first time builder
as there is some detail missing from the bridge section. This particular model
has 3 props which are driven by Johnson 800 fan cooled motors which in turn are
controlled by electronize electronic
speed controllers (ESC). The inner prop has one ESC and the outer 2 are
controlled by another with a switch in the signal wire from the radio control
receiver. The switch is.JPG)
operated by the 5th channel and when the boat is moving by the centre prop you
flick the switch which brings the boat on to the plane.The whole lot is powered by 2 6v 4A batteries and at full speed you get about 10 minutes duration so I can see a modified set of NiCad's been fitted to this one. |
  All of the
fittings apart from the flag, cowls and life ring are scratch made. |
| HMS Ajax (1942)
|
This
is HMS Ajax at 1/48 scale, as she would have looked after her 2nd refit which was done in
America after the Battle of Riverplate. This model took shape in the Autumn of
2003 and she was build using 2 different sets of plans, the first from the late
Norman A Ough and the other was purchased from sambrook maritime. The model has
4 props which are powered by Johnson 500 motors which are controlled by 2 Esc's,
so if you where to push forward on the starboard and reverse on the port side
you can get the boat to turn on a
sixpence. 
| Here on the water with HMS Ajax
is a superb model of HMS Nelson built by Brian Chambers of Tynemouth Model Boat
Club. To put them in some sort of scale HMS Nelson is 7 foot 5 inches long and
both are of the same scale.
|
| Pilot cutter | |
 This
model was built from a freebie plan from the
Model Boats but was slightly
modified wheel house. The model is plank on frame construction with a home
built electronic speed controller with a ZN409CE IC chip which controls a
Johnson 380 motor. This model was built for steering competitions so it
has a slightly extended rudder. |
|
| HMS ORKNEY | |
|
Built from Jacobin plans at 1/48 scale with plank on frame construction
with fibre glass skinning. This model was originally built to do the 24hour endurance race - it originally had a low
drain five hundred motor in through a 2:1 belt driven gear box driving
a 40 mm 4 blade prop - we never did do the 24 hours with it - just
upgraded the motor and took it out in force 8 gales (well scale swells in
Marine Park, South Shields).
What a good sea boat she is
|
 |
 |
The real boat was a fisheries protection vessel but wasn't liked because of the handling and was sold to the Pakistani navy and was replaced by the castle class vessel, HMS LeedCastle and DunbartonCastle. |
| Boston Blenheim | |
 |
Built yet again for scale courses from another freebie plan
in model boats this hull is diagonally planked skinned with
fibre glass and a single 500 motor through a 2:1
belt driven gear box. This model has a working winch on the rear deck and
can trawl up a good weight. This is a rough and tough little boat and is
launched from waist height and if it doesn't have water on the bridge roof
it hasn't been launched well. |
25/08/2004