I always thought these models were weight-sensitive—- I’ve seen or read about a lot of models that ended up overweight, floating too deep as a result. I would have thought that lighter batteries than gel cells would be recommended......

When I first built mine, I used a 6 volt 7ah gel cell. It still needed weight to sit at the water line.

Greetings fellow R/C inmates!

Many moons ago, I crewed on two 44' USCG motor lifeboats at USCG Sta Tillamook Bay on the Oregon coast (Garibaldi)...44379 and 44409. We also had one of the last of the old 36' double-enders as well.

In January 1980, while at Surfman's School at Cape Disappointment (also known as Coxswain's School), we actually rolled one out by Buoy 10 where the Columbia River goes into the Pacific Ocean. BMMC McAdams (aka "the living legend" and the man who wrote the book on surf operations for the CG), was at the helm and I was her engineer. 20-22' surf with about another 2-3' of wind chop on top of that. This was in January, 1980...man, WHAT an e-ticket ride! Upside down for about 12-15 seconds and then we popped back up. She (44379) never missed a beat and relatively minor damage. LOL...worse part was cleaning up the engine room as all that bilge slop ended up ALL over the place! Ahhhhh....fond memories...

More to the point...I have the Dumas 44' MLB kit and most of the running gear to RC it. It appears, however that the #2022 6v Speed Control and the (suggested) #8812-2 2 Channel Radio Control w/ two servos have been discontinued.

With this being my first foray into the R/C world, can anyone suggest a replacement for the speed control? The 2-channel radio probably isn't an issue, but any suggestions on appropriate servos?

Thanks in advance!

welcome follow hooligan,, (a few of us are here) the dumas 2022 servo operated speed control is now vintage tech.. modern ESC's plug directly into the rx.. if running dumas motors a pair of marine ESC's and a 4 channel radio would be the simplest way to set up.. is it the wood or fiberglass hull? over the years I have seen several 44 models built to run in full surf conditions..

BENDMAC- The simplest solution for you is to go with an ELECTRONIC SPEED CONTROL to control both motors at the same time. As for the steering servo, any standard servo will do the job. And for the radio system, I agree with the notion of a more than two channel radio, so that later functions can be added, if you wish.

Now before anyone jumps all over me, Yes, I am leaving the web address for M.A.C.K.PRODUCTS for him to locate the above mentioned equipment.

www.mackproductsrc.com

As for the items I have mentioned check the SPEED CONTROL BUTTON for Model #7320T. The RADIOS BUTTON FOR Model #7217 for a 5 channel radio, Model #7029 for the servo, and Model #7191 for steering linkage. For the power for the model press the BATTERIES AND CHARGERS button for the batteries and multi-charger and adapter plugs Model #7006.

Hope this helps.

Thanks, TG and Frank...appreciate the input!

I've ordered up that speed control and a 3-channel radio with two servos...think that will do the trick.

Mine is the wood-hulled model...a bit tedious planking that hull (especially when it came to closing the hull up) but finally got it done, leveled and sanded. Being as I crewed on one, I want it to look good.

Again, some newbie questions and comments:

1. Dumas says to apply a couple of coats of "surfacing resin" (Sig, K&B, etc.) No real model shops here in town...is there something at a big box hardware store (fiberglass resin, perhaps?) that will accomplish the same thing? I couldn't find any polyester resin to do the inside, so went with some epoxy-based stuff to strengthen the hull and add some water proofing.

2. The Dumas instructions are a bit vague as far as the positioning of the bronze struts and rudders and the angling of the shafts and stuffing boxes. I ordered the running hardware kit, which includes those items as well as the right and left-hand pitch props. Do any instructions come with that hardware kit for proper placement of those things? Or am I going to have to "Coastie" it and just make it work? :-)

I'll be adding a few "personalized" details; I have a TON of detail photos I took when I knew the 44's were on the way out. This includes replacing the kit antenna mast on top of the cabin with the pivoting main mast that was on the actual boats. This was deck-mounted behind the coxswain's chair, in front of the towing reel. We'd lower that when we put the boat in the boathouse; it actually laid across the towing bit at the very back of the coxswain's flat. When it was up, it locked into a bracket on the roll bar over the coxswain's flat. Something else I'll build, along with the chain link safety wire on the back of it. LOL...like some chain link fencing was gonna stop a big ol' tow line if it broke...!

I'll also be scratch building a salvage pump barrel; this mounted to the left of the tow reel (looking aft) on the coxswain's flat, and adding in two hatches, one on the aft survivor's compartment and the other that was left of the coxswain's chair that led down to the front compartment and the engine room.

Looks like the Yahoo Groups for the 44' has gone away, so no joy there...sounded like a wealth of information. Somewhere in one of these forums, I saw some postings about a gent who went the extra mile, adding lights, a siren/horn, etc. Any idea who that might be?

Thanks again!

BENDMAC- Look at post #69 in this thread about the info.

We were able to hear retired USCG Admiral William “Dean” Lee give a perspective on his years in USCG here in Pewaukee, Wi June 27.

Once yearly before the 4 th of July, our church Spring Creek celebrates all the armed services and invites a military leader to address the turnout.
His speech starts at 47 min 15 seconds in the Christian service.
Earlier part is a lot of songs to inspire patriotism.
(You may recognize the one singer who helped the Bucks become MBA champions)

Admiral Lee commented about the “special Magic sauce” that made these 44’s one of the most seaworthy in modern times (lead near the keel). I share the link for his great talk.
He has some great mix of serious and humorous stories for those who want to hear.

June 27, 2021 - Amerifest - Speaker: William "Dean" Lee (1 hr 36 min 11 sec)

Jim

Building this Dumas 44' MLB has been a real learning experience for this old dog...learning how to work with the wood models, getting up to speed on things R/C, etc.

I wanted my model to be as authentic as possible in the construction (I crewed on a 44 on the Oregon coast in the late 70's) and the paint scheme is uber-important to me. The biggest challenge was actually finding the correct paint. Pat listed some "conversions" from FS 595 to Model Master paint, but since Testor appears to have gone (or is going) out of/curtailing their hobby paint business, getting hard to find the right colors.

Couple of resources for others who might find themselves in a similar boat (lol...pun intended!):

1. http://https://www.modelshade.com/; this is an online conversion tool that allows users to convert colors from one brand to another...like from Testor to Tamiya or Vallejo, etc.

2. Since I don't have close access to a decent hobby shop locally, since none of the big box paint stores do FS 595 colors, and because the automotive paint places wanted to deal in NOTHING less than 1-qt. quantities (and spendy at that), I found https://www.lvppaints.com/ in Dallas, TX does the trick. They have a a complete listing of every FS 595 color. I went with acrylic...2oz bottle w/brush for $9.95, pint cans for $29.95, and 4-oz or 12-oz aerosol cans for $9.95/$14.95 respectively. I was able to order every FS ##### paint color that Pat specified (including Spar, which is always a bear, for some reason) with no issues. They do ship by ground and while it can be a bit spendy (I think it was $23 from Dallas to Bend, OR where I live), overall, I'm a happy camper.

Hope this might be a resource to others who are building mil-spec model boats (aircraft, too, perhaps?) and want the "official" colors!

True North Paints has a selection of FS matched paints and WWII colors. Their USCG colors include Spar FS 20371, CG Red #40 (CG stripe red) FS 1219, White, Black, and Deck gray.

G'day, Pat...

I received the hardware kit for my Dumas 44' wood hull MLB today. Couple of questions if you don't mind:

1. In some other threads (you included, if I recall correctly but it looks like you were running two-bladed plastic props whereas I'm running the three-bladed brass props from the kit...) builders are recommending to NOT use the Adapt-a-Drive setup and to go direct drive to the motors instead. The motors I have are older ones, 6v, but I don't know their RPM stats. For opposite rotation, I can simply switch the leads so the props are "counter rotating". What're your thoughts on the best way to go? Be nice to know before setting the motors in place...further forward WITH the Adapt-a-Drive, further back if I go direct drive, as it would simply be the nylon dogbones connecting the motors to the driveshafts.

2. In that 2335 hardware kit, there are two nuts I'm not sure about. It appears they should screw onto the threaded end of the shafts, down to the shoulder where the shaft goes solid. E.G, is it prop screwed onto shaft, nut at the end of the threaded section shaft itself , then the shaft through the stuffing tube/hull to the drives? The original directions are next to useless and Dumas has changed the set-up from those anyway. In those, they had a dog that engaged the prop itself; now the prop simply screws onto the shaft.

3. I think the correct spacing between the rudder shafts and the end of the props and got the proper angle for the stuffing tubes to go through the hull. Need to do some minor tweaking to get rid of any binding. Once they're "free", Dumas says to mix up some epoxy with some MicroBalloons and seal up the pass-through...is that what you did?

Thank you, sir...appreciate your time!

Bendmac

Bend, See below for the details;

1- I went with the recommended set up, and as I recall it worked fine. And yes, reversing the motor leads for proper direction of rotation is the easy way to go.

2- The nuts in the hardware kit are jam nuts for securing the props on the shafts.

3- If you have a half inch or so between the props and rudders you'll be in good shape. Meanwhile, here's a good method to set up the stuffing boxes;
a- mount the motors per the instructions
b- Cut the slots in the hull for a loose fit around the stuffing box
c- Make up the struts and forward supports and dry fit them in the hull (Ref. Post #18)
d- Fit the prop shafts and stuffing boxes in the hull and connect the dog bones.
e- Relieve the slots in the hull until the shaft are supported at each end with no interference at the slots
f- Solder the stuffing box at the strut and the front supports (Ref. Post #18 & 44)
g- Mask the bottom of the hull on the outside where the stuffing boxes exit the hull, then seal the opening from the inside with epoxy and micro-balloons
h- (When Cured) Remove the mask and fair in the outside with a slurry of epoxy and either micro-balloons or colloidal silica.

PAT

Originally Posted by P. Tritle

Before the top cabin details were added, the boat was turned over and the drive gear was installed and hooked up. The rudder drive linkage was fabricated from wheel collars and sheet brass, soldered together and installed in the hull.

PAT

I'm new to model making and just started the 1203 kit. Do you know if there is a rudder and prop assembly for a static 1203 available. Or should I call Dumas and order all parts separately? Thanks in advance for a reply.

PM

Dumas doesn't offer scale detail parts for static display, but if you have photos of the full size boat it wouldn't be hard to duplicate the rudder shape if it's different from the kit supplied rudder. As to the prop, look for something that looks right and is at least close to the scale dimensions and you'll be in good shape.

PAT

Tks PT!

PM