Safety First

I've continued with the wheelhouse exterior while I steel myself to finish off the crew seats and rest of the interior.

First up was the rails along the cabin side.  Unlike the Trent, these run along virtually the entire one length.  Also unlike the Trent, there are no marks on the cabin sides showing where the bases go.  So, I marked up the cabin side using the RNLI and kit plans as a guide.  One point to note is that the rail bends upwards about half way along, not much so easy to miss at first glance but enough to be noticable.  Also, at least on the Pastow boat, at the front the rail runs closer to the lockers than the kit plans show.

Having marked up the position of the rail and bases, I used the 1.6mm brass rod and soft soldered (low melt solder) this to the bases in situ on the model.

I then turned my attention to the safety wire.  The anchor points will be glued on prior to painting, but as they're fragile, I'll leave that for now.  The guides were made from 4.8x3.2 strip in the end.  I used 3.2mm square strip at first, as the kit instructions would suggest, but in comparison with the photos and plans I have, these were too shallow.  Both are shown below for comparison.  I also used 0.5mm strip as a base plate.  These are painted orange on some boats, including the Padstow boat, rather than left as wood, so were glued in place.

Next up is the stairs and rails I think.

Fill 'Er Up

I've now turned my attention away from the cabin to the outside of the wheelhouse; I felt I needed a change.

First up was the fuel fillers as the production boats seem to have a slightly different arrangement to the kit.  I think, though I may be wrong, that the fuel fillers have a lockable cover on the production boats and the pipe forward of the fuel fillers is a cabin vent.  So having cut a much smaller hole and filled the remaining CNC groove, I got started.

The filler cover is simply 2 laminated pieces of 0.25mm styrene, one with a notch cut out.  The vent pipe is a 3.2mm styrene tube, running into a 6.4mm square styrene tube with the ends capped.  The collar is a 7.2mm disc punched from 1.5mm styrene.  The vent opening is 3.2mm brass tube.

Then, I simple made the recess box to take the vent from 0.75mm styrene.  The top of the recess box is not square but at an angle which make fitting the vent a little less straightforward.  Anyway, here's a pic  of the finished parts;