Mis-Shapes

Next up was the mast supports.  I was really keen to use to use the kit parts as they are nice white metal castings complete with brackets for the rail to the windscreen.  My plan was dashed though when I test fitted it to the boat.  As I've modified the mast so that the arches slope forward and are wider at the base than the top, the 'vertical' part of the support had to follow that and I concluded I couldn't do that with the kit part.

So I set to make a pair of new ones with 2.4 and 3.2 mm brass tube and square section brass tube cut down for the bracket on the wheelhouse.  I used small strips of brass to then make the smaller brackets.  Sounds simple but I had to resolder the main parts several times to get the correct angles to follow the mast.  Still all done now.

Pump up the Volume

So this post shows a lesson in checking references properly!  I've been working on the pump box and the hand/guard rail.

The hand rail was fairly straight forward especially once I'd found something of the right diameter to use as a former.  The harder part for me was the uprights.  First because my soldering could still do with improving and secondly to get the lengths right given the deck camber.  So, I cut them over long, solder onto the rail and removed to engine hatches so that I could use the deck to mark the right length for each.  (Only the base plates for the uprights to make.)

The pump box should have been easy; make lid and attach to drum.  Unfortunately for me, I used my RNLI drawings and not my photos.  The plans show the pump box square to the vertical rather than just sitting on the deck.  So, I made and fitted an angled fillet for the pump box.  Then I looked at my photos and realised my mistake.  Off with the fillet and feeling a little daft for wasting time on it!

The last part to make were the securing straps from the etched brass parts.  I pinned into a piece of balsa and then soldered on centre disc.

Job done.

Y Don't You - part 2

As promised last time, some more on the transom door and deck hatches.

So, here's the transom door all finished.  There's a few small bits and pieces to finish of like painting the bolt heads and filling the end of the fendering.

I've also finished the deck hatches save for painting.  I had to cut out a new set of hatches though.  In order to get the deck camber into the hatches I heated them in the oven but got it too hot so the kit part ended up as this!

But now all finished, with hinges for dolls houses and the strengthening beams underneath.  The hinges are slightly over scale but not too bad I hope once painted.

That's it for now.

Y Don't You

Right, New Year, new post.  I've been making slow and sometimes steady progress with my build but allow this blog to go on hiatus without meaning to!

I had a bit of a disaster with the wheelhouse which will need a respray when the weather improves.  I had made the front windows too tight a fit and broke the wheelhouse trying to fit them.  So this pic shows the panel in question after re-gluing and rubbing down as it's easier to see where the problem was;

I've also been working on the Y-Boat and Y Boat recess.  When I was making the recess for spraying, I noticed that the rubbing strips and hatches where slightly off-set to port.  I can only think that this happened when I rebuilt the compartment and I must have glued the sides in the wrong place.  So that meant removing and in some cases remaking the rubbing strips.  I also had to adjust the hatch openings to move them slightly to starboard.  These photos shows the work half way through and zoomed in just about shows what went on.

And then finished;

Next up is the Boat itself.  I got hold of a Speedline Models Y-Boat kit which I think is an improvement on the supplied Y-Boat but at a cost of course.  First job was to to join the tubes and then shorten them to fit the Y Boat compartment of my kit.

Then I did a fair fir of filling, rubbing down and priming several times to get a decent joint of the tube halves.  Then followed the fittings which were a combination of the vac formed Speedline parts and others made out of 0.25 'styrene where I thought the vac-form wasn't right.

I've also made progress with the transom door and deck hatches so more on that next time...