Miss Behave [COMPLETED BUILD]

Gravman

Gravman

Joined
Jun 20, 2024
Messages
172
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133

Location
La Porte Texas
This model is a 1/6th scale Gar Wood design. Apparently several were built for the rich folks to race each other. The boats all had names that started with “Miss”. The original boat is at the Clayton museum in New York. The kit is from Mack Products Legend series. I originally intended a straight out of the box build. No changes right? Ok I made a few. The kit is great as is if you want a mahogany speed boat.

I contacted the museum and was turned over to the assistant curator and she helped me with photos and other information.

The kit was double planked on plywood frames.

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Thank you, I enjoyed the planking of the deck. The kit includes black plastic strips for caulking the deck. I used these BEFORE I got a look at the real boat. As you can see from the photos the deck has light colored caulking. Fitting the strips and deck planks is a challenge to get them to be even on both sides of the center plank. I kept a close eye on the fit as I worked my way across the deck.

I used India ink to stain the center plank and cover boards.

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Next up after staining was the fiberglass cloth. After sanding I sprayed several coats of polyurethane and let it dry for several days and then buffed it out. I had cut the engine hatch into two and installed the hinges that came in the kit. I also added the hatch handles.

It was at this point that I decided to make several changes to the boat. I took off the white tape on the waterline and masked it off and painted the waterline white. I had never done this before. Tape is easy but masking an entire model takes time. I spent an hour masking for 1 minute of spraying. The real boat has tapered waterline at the bow. Spraying allowed me to duplicate this feature.

Looking at the deck of the real boat I noticed that the hinges for engine hatch were hidden. There was no hinge showing. Ok it is a small thing and I already installed the ones from the kit. That brass showed from the hinge barrel and that bothered me. So I did what any fool would do and I ripped out the hatch and hinges. I glued the hatch back together to make it a one piece. This left voids on either side of the hatch that needed to be filled and blended back into the deck. Crazy I know. I also took out the hatch handles.
If I was going to do this I was going all in.

The kit supplied exhaust was way too small. I got information from the lady at the museum about how big they were on the boat. They are huge. I got some aluminum washers and put them in my pen lathe and used files to get the correct diameter. Drilled some holes around the outside flange and presto a new set of the correct size. You can see the kit supplied version next to the new one.

There are two ports on one side of the hull for the engine compartment. The instructions say there should be two on either side but a picture taken of the starboard side shows that there are no vents on that side. To make these I used a punch block. I turned some washers to the correct size and used the punch to give me a raised edge. I had to make several to get two that were the same. I used SS aerator mesh for the screen material inside the vent. Look in the faucet section at the hardware for this mesh. Those two little vents took an entire day to make. The kit supplied were a little different.

Remember when I said this was going to be a straight from the box build? The problem was that I had a source that was willing to help me with information and measurements about the boat. How often do you get a chance to copy directly from the original? It would have been a crime to not take advantage of this opportunity. Now admittedly because of the deck caulking being the wrong color it is not correct but it will do. There were going to be other changes as well. Please comeback and see just how far down the rabbit hole I went.

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I like your metal works - great result
and a beautiful speed boat - looking like a go-cart with a lot of power :cool:
Many thanks for sharing this work with us
 
Thank you very much. This was the first model that I used metal fittings from Aluminum. I used some 0.016 aluminum sheet to cut strips for the transom clamps and edges for the engine hatch. I sandwiched the aluminum between thin plywood and cut the strips with my Dremel table saw. I kept the strips in the plywood while I drilled the holes for the pins.

I noticed that the strips on the real boat had a different number of screws per side. The center strip and the port side have 23 screws. The starboard side has 17.

The kit has the Miss Behave name as a single graphic and you are supposed to separate the letters and place them on the hull. The chances of me getting this even and correct were slim to none. I ordered some new graphics for the name. On the full size boat there are red dashes on the letters.

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Thank you, this was the first time I had access to the original boat. It motivated me to try and add details to my model. I got the seats carved out of balsa and built a hub for the steering wheel. I used a ball punch on an aluminum disc to get the dome shape. I filled it with JB Weld and stuck it to the wheel.

I did a practice run on the graphics to see if I could duplicate the red dashes on the letters. I tried for random but it didn’t work too well.

I got some new hatch handles from Wet Goose. I used Ken’s fittings for the windshield brackets too.

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Thank you, it was fun making the changes. I tried out bare metal foil on the deck vents. It worked ok but it was not going to work for all the other fittings. So I decided to paint all the fittings with Al Clad II. I top coated the fittings with their clear coat. This took away a bit of the shine but it protects the paint.

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The foil on the left versus the kit fitting
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Graman said:
The kit supplied shifter is fine. I changed it for a part from Shapeways.

The last part that I wanted to improve was at the bow. I knew what it was supposed to look like and it was a pretty simple shape.

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Shapeways
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Kit part
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Cut the part out of brass.
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Click to expand...
Good Afternoon. Beautifully crafted - love all the detail. Cheers Grant
 
I knew from the beginning that I wanted a driver for the boat. I wanted a realistic driver not a Barbie doll. I went on line and got a scale figure in 1/6th. This was just a body with no head sculpt. I checked and found the perfect person. The captain of Red October would do just fine.

I got the windshield brackets from Wet Goose. Installing them in the right place relative to each other was the trick. Once they were installed I made some templates for the actual panels. I added a gasket to the bottom edge for the deck.

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Thank you I appreciate it. Miss Behave started a revitalization of the hobby. I posted the build on another site in 2013 and through this we found out there was a park with a lake in the middle of it! The fantastic thing is that it is only about 20 minutes from Toad Hall.
The photo of launching the boat was the first time since the 80’s that I got to run a model. We used to go to Herman Park in Houston in the 70’s but the lake changed and you could not use it. It got overgrown with vegetation and was nasty.

The lake is in Sylvian Rodriguez park. It is a beautiful place and most of the time we have the park to ourselves.

I built a launcher and a road case.

Let’s see how she goes.

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