George Argiris sent me
pictures of the "before & after" of his
recently
finished Chris Craft Corvette.
George states that "I
bought the boat off ebay. It had been built in the 60's and
actually sat in the salon of a real Corvette called Gadget. The
paint was crazed and cracking, the varnish was weathered. Some
of the hardware had broke off. The running gear was old and
dated. I was able to locate new and unused hardware from the
60's on ebay. They sell resin kits for these boats, but I had to
keep it original. I'd say 1-10 the models shape was a 4."
"The before boat was in need of repainting, re staining, re
varnishing, re fitting of hardware and running gear. The boat
now has 14 lights (including hollowed out running fixtures with
hand made lenses).
Any
light fixture that would be hard to get at, has a aluminum tube
going to it, so I can easily change a blown light. There's a
sound module, distribution panel, 12v battery, cooling fans,
twin Johnson 390s, speed control, in deck L.E.D. battery power
read out ( I put that in so I could drive the boat by me and
check how much juice is left in the battery). I also made custom
curtains and blinds, hand made foam padded captains chair, real
rubber deck steps, custom swim deck and ladder, etc., etc, etc."
The boat also has custom curtains with scratch made blinds, wood
details, canvas soft top with the aluminum tubing, and (not
shown) a scratch built hard top. The boats 1/11 scale, so I can
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dollhouse
miniatures (1/12) for a lot of detail stuff. Bell, fishing pole,
scuba gear, etc."
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"Here's the rebuilt stern with scratch swim deck and
ladder with real rubber step pads ( these are through
out the boat). Directors chair, and real cloth flag." |
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"Here's the finished bridge, with redesigned instrument
panel (back lit) and scratch built captains chair ( I
covered the seat with vinyl after laying down a layer of
foam padding). All new windows with scratch built wiper
blades were added. Dash has real miniature sea charts
and a bottle of Cutty Shark. Also a built lighted range
finder. Not to mention the padded captains foot locker
for extra gear. Bottom left shows a hint of the surf
board I made out of scrap balsa, and to complete the
cockpit, a ships bell." |
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"Below deck is where it gets trick. Ram sound module with 4"
speaker is stuffed up in the bow,
Harbor Models distribution panel handles all the different
voltages ( 3, 4, 6, 12v) and keep them all in check, and cool
with the built in fan). Electronic speed control to the left,
and 12v battery sits in the middle. If you look close
just right of the distribution panel on the deck, is a 12v L.E.D.
meter that reads battery consumption. I drilled little holes in
the deck and pushed the three lights up to deck level. Now I can
run the boat by me and see how much juice I have left. To the
left of the two Johnson HC970s you see two aluminum plates. When
these plates come in contact with two on the cabin top, all the
lights come on. I did this to keep from having to have a bunch
of dangling wires when I pulled the top off. There's also
another cooling fan to the right."
If
you have any questions or tips you may need,
you can email George at:
george.argiris@mitchell.com
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