Preaching from the Pulpit

I've now moved to work on the bow/foredeck area.  I've now finished the pulpit rail, using the plastic tube and steel rod included in the kit.  I toyed with using alloy rod left over from my Trent, but decided against it on balance.

One obvious omission from the kit is the mini crane/hoist next to the pulpit rail.  I made this using 2.4mm brass rod and 0.5mm styrene.  The RNLI plans and my photos of the full size boat were invaluable for this.  I also made the extra section of deck plate on the starboard side from 0.5mm styrene, which was also used for the front anchor housing and 1mm styrene for the crane mounting.

Also, I made the bow roller.  The webs on the side were angled back slightly as my photos and the RNLI plans showed this.

There's no before and after shots because I think the finished but unpainted picture shows all the parts well enough.  The bolt heads are photo etched from Speedline models which I'm using around the boat.

Next up, I'm tackling the side steps.

Time at the Bar

After a fair bit of swearing(!) I've not finisted the transom bar and stern rail assembly.  For some reason, the rail itself seemed harder than the stern rail on the Trent; even though I thought it would be easier.

There are no pre-ssembly photos as you can see all the parts in the pic of the finisted item.  I'm pleased with the end result though glad the railings are now (nearly) all finished.  Just the rails for the flybridge now.

The rails seem fairly solid, though I managed to split the transom bar and had to repair so I've slight concerns on this front.  The stantions are all pinned to the top rail though due to the steel wire running through, the pins are only the thickness of the plastic tube!  I found it impossible to drill through either brass or steel wire on these parts.

Anyhow, pic of the complete assemble is here;

Last Orders at the Bar

Right, I've now finished one of the biggest challenges on the build, and also made it harderfor myself to boot: I've finished the transom bar.

The first job was to seal the dowel, but mine was jagged on one side.  So that took filler and time to put right.  I almost bought a new dowel but my local timber merchant didn't carry the right diameter.  So, with the filler sanded smooth and after several coats of sanding sealer, rubbing down each coat, it was time to get sawing.

Having seen the full size boat, there is are two angled pieces at each end of the bar, not one, so I decided a modification was needed.  Using the kit plans as a base, I drew the revised shape, together with cutting angles.  These were worked out using the RNLI plans.  I used my mitre box to get vertical cuts and held it over the drawing to get the correct angle.  A tricky operation all in all.

With all the parts cut, they were glued using superglue gel, fine tuning the angles where necessary with the superglue acting as a filler as well.

Then the stantion uprights were added.  The two uprights which pass through the top and bottom bars have a thicker bottom section so I used 4.8mm plastic tube there.  Hopefully the photos show this all clearly.  I've also added the deck base plates but these need a little more work.  The whole of the upright at each end passes through the deck rather than just the stantion partly because that seemed easier than shaping the bottom of the uprights to fit the deck camber but mainly because I pinned the bar assemble ot the uprights to add strength and the pins stop the stantions running all the way through the uprights.

I'm off to work on the other railings next.

Deck the Hulls

A big step forward this time; I've joined the deck to the hull.  It went quite well though there was a bit of swearing and I probably could have got the fit better in places.  Still, nothing a bit of P38 filler and rubbing down won't cure.

I was going to wait until all of the Y-Boat compartment including the transom door opening was ready before joining the deck.  Dry runs showed the compartment module would slide in afterwards though so I went for it.

I also decided that with only very limited access to the rudders, through the Y boat compartment, I needed better access behind the main deck opening.  So, I've cut out the engine hatches and made removable ones from 1mm styrene.  These are based on the ones in the Trent kit and have a coaming underneath which also acts as a former for the deck curve.  I just need to add some thin spacers now to account for the variation in thickness of the deck moulding - so nearly there.   After the filling, it'll be on to fitting the side steps.

I've been slightly scatter gun with the build.  During the last fews weeks I've been on the transom bar and some of the fittings.  More on these later...

Hatching a Plan

While I've been working on the dowel for the stern bar assembly; its needing lots of sanding sealer as half of the dowel was roughed up on one side, I've been building the hatches and doors.

I used the kit parts as templates but remade the hatches and doors using my Trent and also photos for reference>  That's because I felt 2 parts of 1mm styrene didn't look as good as using a combination of 1.5mm and 0.5mm for the doors and 1mm and 0.5mm for the hatches.  The photo below shows some of the parts.

Next was the fiddly job of making the hinges.  Patience was the order of the day here.  I've still not quite finished them as I've not joined the 2 halves of the hinges together yet, but I'm not far off.  A little slow progress this itme but then I have been away for a week since my last post.

Next up is the stern bar assembly...

On the Rails

So, I went with starting work on the railings, beginning with the side stern railings.  The first task was to 'clean' up the white metal stanchions.  This just involved filing down the casting seams and drilling out the holes.  I'd forgotten how time consuming this can be so am not looking forward to doing this with the other white metal parts.

Next up was forming the top rail into shape.  I used my x-acto knife as the former for the bends.  Second up was forming the bottom rail.  The parts are shown below.

I departed from the instructions in a couple of ways.  First, I cut off the pins on the stanchions, drilled out a 1mm hole and glued in 1mm wire pins.  I felt the original cast in pins were too big as whilst I could drill through the plastic tube, I couldn't get through the wire core.

Secondly, rather than just pinning the bottom rail either side of the stanchions, I have wire core all the way through to add strength.  Thirdly, I cut the white metal rail ends (part T17) down to better match the full size boat using the RNLI plans as a guide.

This pic shown the railing finishes all bar filling.  Next up on this vein will be the transom bar and railings but first I have to prep the dowel for this.

Floored

It's done, well almost.  After discovering that'd I'd assemble the liferaft storage on the wrong side or part 58, the new assembly had to work, and it has.  There is now space to have the full height port engine vent, which I'll scratch build soon, and all three 'storage' compartments.  The Starboard compartment though will be covered eventually.

I've just got a couple of cut outs to make which hopefully can be seen marked up in the photos.  One will be for the radar and mast light wiring and the other for for the starboard angine vent so the floor can't be seen through the grill.

I've also been cutting out more of the printed styrene parts.  From my point of view, this is one of the most tedious jobs on the kit, together with cleaning up the cast parts, but it has to be done!  So I have the cabin floor cut out, the vac-form seat bases and door surround roughly cut and also the strips which lock the floor into the cabin.

I'm not sure what I'll do next, I'll have to see how my mood takes me but it'll be the stern side rails, the transom railing or the cabin inside...   More next time.