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.

Flying High

This time, I've been working on the flying bridge as well as finishing off the roof by fixing and filling all of the joints.  The cabin door entrance is now in place as is the flyingbridge steering position.  The door went together very smoothly.  I've cut off the roof former at this point and will also need to cut out the roof section under the door frame as both will be very obvious with the door open.

The steering console was more tricky.  I made several new parts using the kit parts as templates.  I also altered the side pieces as they have a crease so that they are a right angles to the cabin rear at the console and then angle in.  It's difficult to explain but hopefully the pics show this.

I've also cut the new parts for the flyingbridge floor and back of the superstructure.  This will accomodate the longer port engine vent.  I also discovered that I'd fixed the liferaft box to the wrong side of part 58 so my clever scheme on that was not so clever!

Wheelhouse Rock

I've been on hols for a week so less progress than usual and only one pic.  However, I'm pleased with what I have done.  The roof is now on the wheelhouse.  A little filler was needed but I'm happy with the results.  I still need to reinforce the inside joints.  Rather than single 1mm thick strip, I'm going to use 0.5mm strip scored down the middle.

One holiday related link was that we went to see a Tamar.  Turns out the port engine vent runs down below the flybridge floor; it's about twice as long as the kit part.  So, I'm going to order some more styrene from Squires and build an alternative flybridge floor and see if I can model it with the larger vent.  If not, the kit parts are in reserve.  More on that next time hopefully.

Lighting the Way

I've been working on two things over the last couple of weeks.  First, I've been working on the cabin lighting realising that once the roof's on, fitting lighting would be much harder.  So having been persuaded by a club member to use LEDs rather than conventional bulbs, I made a trip to my local Maplins.  LEDs, resistors and circuit board bought, I've soldered leads on and am half way through the whole circuit.  The other half can wait until the cabin is finished and I've worked out all of the wiring routing.  The photo shows the LED and some wiring conduits in place.  This will all be painted black before the roof goes on.

I've also been working on the boxes on the flying bridge (or upper steering position [USP]).  The plans I got from the RNLI show these with rounded edges which I've tried to do.  I also decided to ditch part 72 on the port engine vent box and make a replacement frame from styrene strip.  This will give some depth to the vent once the grill is on.

Next up is the cabin roof, flying bridge floor and finishing the front off.