Trent Finishing Touches (Pt1)

I've been busy working on the Tamar but there's little to show in photos.  That's because I've been fitting the deck support strips, opening up the running gear slots and holes and rubbing down the mould lines and hull in general.  A reasonable level of progress but nothing much to look at.  Fitting the prop shafts, rudders and bilge keels is next up.

So, I've also been busy adding some extra detail to the Trent, which really is all do bar the trim tab rams.  I've made a pair of small vents that sit in the vent boxes on the rear of the wheelhouse and the emergency tiller.  Photos or the unpainted and also the finished parts below.  Also working on some crew figures so I'll probably post about those later.

Break out the Filler

I've now completed work on the running gear, except of course for the job of actually fitting it!  The photos shows the work I've done and also the rudder parts.

The skeg extention is finish and I'me really quite pleased with it.  The P38 method has worked a treat.  The rudders took a little more effort though.  I didn't use the styrene parts in the kit.  Instead I adapted the method I used to scratch build new rudders on the Trent.  So, I glued spacer strips onto the supplied brass rudders, cut new outside skins from 1mm styrene and formed the 'foil shape that way.  The void was filled with more P38.  It didn't go to plan at first but I think the end result is ok.

I've also modified the bilge keels.  The boat I'm building has a slightly different bracing for the slipway skids.  So, I cut away a 6mm strip and glued a length of 6.4x3.2mm strip on (bought separately as it's not as rough cut as the strip in the kit) as thisi si slightly bigger than the keels, it handily represents the protector strips.  The supports are from 3.2mm tube and the mounting plate on the transom from 0.75mm styrene sheet.  The parts were made using photos I'd taken and the plan I got from the RNLI.

These will all be glued and pinned over the next couple of weeks, but first to install will be the prop shafts.  Before that though I have to rub down the mould lines.

Running Gear and Hull

So the bow thruster is now epoxyed in place - no going back now!  I've been busy working on the stern of the hull with the running gear openings.  These are now all roughly to size so the next big task is to align the prop shafts.  This photo shows how I'm getting on with prop shafts and bilge keels placed but not glued in place.

I've also started work on the slipway/tow shoe/keel extension using the kit parts as a template.  There are a few mods to be made between the kit and the boat I'm building in this area but all are, hopefully, straightforward.  The next photo shows the start of this; each side is 1mm styrene with 3 lengths of the supplied plastic strip between.  I'll fill the middle with P38.  I considered just making up up with several layers of styrene but thought that would be harder work!

Next up are the rudders...