Hello everyone


Has anyone built the laser cut Yellow Jacket kit, available on the web
any input on the kit and overall performance of the boat from the kit would be appreciated

Hello Rapid,

I haven't built the Yellow Jacket kit myself, but do know it. Its a nice little boat but can run, due to the size, a bit jumpy or instable. If run with moderate power you are OK, but it is not a boot for speed junky's. Also the size limmits the space for the RC components. If this is your first vintage outboard boat I would recommend a larger model like a Foo-Ling or Jinx for example.

The Yellow Jacket built from a RBC kit (I presume that's what it is) can not get a certificate for racing it in the official 152VO races. But off course you can built it, and run it just for fun!

Hello Lex

Thank you for responding to my post appreciated, yes it is that model from Rc Builder I was looking at
I see they also have the Saucy but was told not the best design?. I do like the old kneeler hydros something like the Saucy would be great to but not much out there in kits? Anyway I was thinking of getting the Yellow Jacket kit but wanted to do a wood deck for the front instead of the plastic foil provided in the kit. Do some some 1 mm mahogany plywood, might be nice, for the front deck but seeing the boat was designed for the plastic foil, heat and seal cut there are no patterns provided in the kit or on the paper plans . From your experience with building scale models like this how hard is it to modify things like wood deck instated of some plastic foil, my guess two sheets for wood front deck would be easier to fit then doing it all out of one sheet but I do not know? I will try to attach an image of the skeleton, frame, you can see the center beam for the frame is very narrow so two sheet might be a bit difficult to fit on .
Any help would be greatly appreciated David

Hi David,

The problem with a wooden deck on this model is the fact that the deck is warped in two directions. You can't bend plywood, even 1mm thick, in two directions to cover a 'sfere'. Therefor you need to cut it in strips and apply those one by one after trimming them to the correct curve to the adjacent strip.

This can be done, but needs some craftsmanship, and increases the weight of the bow quite a bit. For an example you can look at my Humaroc Baby where I have made the deck in that fashion. . Some pages back you can also see the frame and hatch layout.

For a Yellow Jacket however I think the Oracover deck would be the best solution.

Ask Andreas. (Vollnormal) Here, he has built 2 of these, he's your man.

Hi Lex

Wow ok I see you did a very nice job on the Humaroc Baby looks great amazing !! I know I am perhaps going out of my way here little Yellow Jacket kit but unfortunately not many scale kits, out there like these old racers, to build wish there were more to chose from. The Yellow Jacket kit, does look like a bit of a fun to build, but I hate looking at the skeleton frame through the front deck plastic film?. Would this perhaps be an option fill in the front deck, like a grid with some lite material like dare I say
balsa wood ? cut parts to fit in-between each section of the frame or something that has really good bending properties.
Then lite sand fill in if needed to make everything even level and apply something like 0.6 glass cloth and epoxy finishing resin over the hole front deck . Do you think that would work or some other way any help appreciated David

Just skip the balsa and go straight for the cloth.

On my Yellow Jacket I used an old men's shirt to cover the front. Put a thin layer of epoxy on all the frames and stringers, waited till it started to cure an then stretched the cloth over it. After the expoxy had set, I mixed another batch and applied it to the fabric to make it watertight.

Hello Vollnormal

Thanks for responding to my post appreciated, did the cotton material absorb much resin and form a hard shell once it cured.
Did this process add much weight to the front deck . Do you have any pic's of your end results you could post Thanks