Dan L's Vac-U-Tug

Construction details on a highly-modified tug.

Click to Enlarge photos.

As built as the “ROSCO”. Includes operating lights, horn, fire monitor, winch, smoke, added scuppers and bollards, and the optional power upgrade. Superstructure. Mostly scratch built.
Mast detail. Two forward white lights and rear yellow and white (towing lights) are LEDs. Flag is laser printed paper formed and sprayed with Krylon matte acrylic.
Searchlight is modified “D-ring” key chain light (2 for $1.99 at Walgreens) with super-bright LED.
Not quite finished – some cabin/deck lights and a couple of railings to add.
Stack with aluminum tube liner to protect ABS from heat of “fog-juice” smoke unit. Life raft module rotates – attached to “on-off-charge” switch.
Rear deck. Winch works – servo drive and reel is inside cabin. Winch reel is “dummy”. Deck pattern is fine mesh fabric laid on styrene deck and washed with liquid solvent cement to bond it. Finished with paint and satin clearcoat. Bollards are brass tubes with nailheads as endcaps.
Non-prototypical prop, but it really can move - both speed and load. Rosco is our dog – has a passion for “tugging”. Stack “DL” and “Rosco” decals done on white laser decal paper. Not a Billings or Dumas, but built over less than 2 months, stable and dry in the water, great (non-frustrating) instructions and a lot of fun.
Later, Dan will have more pics showing a rescue system in action.

TM