Amazon Dinghy Orginal
I found this toy on sale in my local Tesco's and thought that it would make a good conversion to radio control, as I already had an old Jackson outboard motor (uses a 540 motor through fairly low gearing) an old servo, electronic speed controller and receiver, all of these fit easily within the hull.
The steering servo is mounted upside down in the grey plastic enclosure, just in front of the outboard, along with the receiver, the speed controller is mounted under the Action Man's seat and the 7.2v nicad battery slides in to the front of the hull between the Action Man's legs. The balance of the hull in the water is quite good with the weight of the battery stopping the bow rising to high when moving forwards.
The hardest part of the conversion was getting the hull apart (it screws together, top and bottom halves) because the grey section that I wanted to mount the servo in was partially glued to the hull which had to be broken before the two halves would come apart. Next I re-enforced the transom where the outboard is screwed on by fitting a piece of plywood inside the hull, I re-enforced the outside as well using a piece of clear Perspex to help spread the load and give me an even mounting surface for the outboard.
The two halves of the hull were silicone'd around the joints and screwed back together, the steering servo was carefully aligned with the outboard and a hole drilled to allow the push rod to connect, and then mounting points glued to the plastic for the servo to screw too, along with the receiver. The lower section of the hull at the back I filled with a block of polystyrene, to hold the speed controller in place and give some extra buoyancy in case it ever sinks!
The upper part of the hull has numerous openings that would let water in if used in rough water, also when going in reverse be very careful the outboard doesn't swamp the transom.
Now converting to Brushless!
