Model making is all about “Less is more”

Living on the top most floor of a DDA flat in New Delhi and far, far away from the nearest seas, Boat Modelling is a far cry. More so when a water body suitable for the hobby is a rare commodity in the place I live.

As a seven year old, the monthly visits to the harbour to watch MV Haryana sail in and sail out of Dar-es salaam the Tanzanian Capital's harbour and later followed by an on board tour of INS Delhi had left me with four and a half decades long burning ambition to build ships. but destiny had other plans for me and I ended up an Architect building houses.

The flame kindled once again as late in my life as 2010 when I happened to be at Port Blair. When I returned, I was building RC boat models when ever I had time to spare. The urge saw me build a 75cm long single rotor Coast guard vessel complete with a gun that could fire and throw a small projectile about 12feet away. Later I built small 35cm long INS Shivalik with twin rotors. This was followed by a 48cm long single rotor cruise vessel. Another 24cm long twin rotor Shivali class frigate is in the pipe'line. The latest which I describe here is a single rotor 180mm long River Pilot Boat christened 'BARATANG PRINCESS'.

If there is any thing common and unique in the models I've built during the last three years, is the fact that they have been built in perhaps the least cost and overheads. Extensive use of electronic and domestic waste have been made use of. Rx and Tx modules, gears and motors from old broken RC toys have been used freely. The Ludwig Mies van der Rohe concept of "Less is More" just added zing to the RC sting. The smaller the vessels were the more challenging it became to make the "sea worthy"

Sifting through the 'kabard', read resources, in my shack a few days ago, I found a television remote handset which had failed a long time ago. It had the shape of a boat and I thought I should accord it a farewell from its mortal existence to one of warmth and immortality.

So this is one project built all inclusive in less than 200 bucks... The pictures say it all and I hope you enjoy the picture essay as I sift for a water body where I can sail the boat...

The Preps:

A defunct remote handset for the hull. Open up the remote and remove the pcb and key pad.

Making a RC Pilot Boat for less than 200 bucks... some more pictures.... All about the preps.

Some more Pictures.... Progress through the day...

woah! cool.... can't wait to see what it'll look like once it's done....

Making of "Baratang Princess"... shaping up... the scans of the remote case come handy as I work out the cabin shell... pls also refer to the 2nd image of my first post...

Great work mistral... following...

Thanks aniket210696 ... we r almost there... Time for basic buoyancy test, RC trials and final cosmetics... All I wait impatiently is for the day I sail it in a water body...

Hope you liked watching as much as I like building this craft... Thanks every one.

Thanks arun.sreelakam

so when are you posting the video?

@ aniket210696, hopefully soon.... as of now the few water bodies near by are out of bounds... I'm planning to visit India Gate soon after the children's exams are over. There are water bodies there... hopefully, I'll be able to test the boat there...