Footloose

I've still got one arm in plaster so progress has been a little slow.  This post will be about the wheelhouse interior but I've also worked on the transom door and opening.  I noticed looking at photos of the full size boat that the ends of the top edge are a different shape to what's shown on the kit and the RNLI plans.  But that's for another post.

I've also been working on the cabin.  The floor and seat bases are painted and I've added some scratch built foot rests.  I've also fitted the non slip plates to the front of each seat base (though I lost one so need to add that).

I've also been working on the seat belts.  They're made from 3mm ribbon and the hardware is from MFH and Fujimi etched sets for cars.  Each set is made up from several 'components as shown below.

It's slow going with only one fully working hand(!) but I've finished one; only six to go...

The Doors

So progress has been a little slow of late for a reason.  I was cycling to work one day in December and a car decided it wanted to join me in the bus lane.  I braked to avoid him/her and the bike skidded and went from under me.  Cue several trips to hospital, a screw in my right scaffoid and a rather natty plaster.  So my boat building has been somewhat limited, and will be for at least 6 more weeks.

Had been working on rebuilding and the fitting the Y-boat recess; which I'd mostly finished before being put in cast.  Since the rebuild is essentially what I'd built earlier, but with with extra care taken, I've not got a separate picture of that.  What I do have though is pic of it being held in place during fitting.  I used styrene glue on the join with the transom itself onto the supporting strip and epoxy to glued to the underside of the deck.  The 6x3mm styrene support strip I'd added to the back of the recess itself in order to keep the structure rigid came in handy for giving the clamps something to grip!

Now here's the finished article, filled and smoothed in.  I glued 1mm styrene underneath the deck to give a smooth finish there.  I've also put the servo which will be used to operate the door in shot.  I've made a bracket for the servo from styrene and that screws onto plywood mounts epoxied into the hull.

Just a few bits to finish off in there now, the support brackets, what appears to be a step and the plumbing/wiring at the fore end of the recess.  Hopefully those are bits I can do with one arm in plaster!

Bridge Over Troubled Water

So, I thought I had made a big step forward in fitting the Y-Boat recess.  However, once I'd epoxyed it in, it didn't look square.  I couldn't fathom out what was wrong so it came out.  Unfortunately, that was quite a destructive process so save for the flat part of the floor, a total rebuild is needed.  This is what's left!

While that's ongoing, I've been making the sliding 'bridge' that bridges the gap between the transom door and transom when the door opens.

My first plan was to make balsa formers for the underside and then to attach the rubbing strips directly above so not to stress the styrene too much; I've used 0.25mm styrene for the main part and 1.5x3.2mm strips for the rubbing strips.  However, the result was very wavey and an attempt at warming in the oven to straighten it out ended in disaster!

So, the mark 2 version - pic below, was preshapped but taping the styrene to a spaghetti storage jar and heating in the oven.  That worked a treat.  The only problem is that the balsa formers stop the piece moving properly as the door opens.

So, for the mark 3 version, the rubbing strips were also fixed around the spaghetti jar and heated.  Hey presto, it's worked and this is the result.

Quite a lot of work for a what appears to be a simple result!

Watching Windows - pt2

I've had a bit of a dilema with the flybridge windscreen.  Comparing the windscreen to the full size Padstow boat, the kit part is too wide at the front and the side pieces too short.  This is most apparent over the cabin door as the corner of the windscreen matches this part.

So, what to do?  It wasn't an easy decision as the kit photo etched brass parts are so good otherwise.  I was tempted to cut up the kit parts and rebuild it.  However, in the end, I decided to fabricate a new frame from plasticard.  That would mean I still had the kit parts to fall back on if it all went wrong!

So, here's a picture showing the kit parts against the new plastic frame.

I then made another inner frame to match the outside frame and also the support brackets.

Finally, I needed a way of fixing both inner and outer faces to the cabin roof as this will be done after painting.  I had considered small brass rod to act as pins having read the Model Boats magazine review.  In the end I used plasticard strips so I had a straight edge.  Hopefully the photo shows what I mean; the tray has the dummy bolts heads for the frame and there's about 100 of them.

Watching Windows

I'm continuing to work on the wheelhouse interior.  However, I had decided to try to get the wheelhouse outside finished and painted before the weather turns too cold to spray paint.  Not sure whether that'll happen in time!

So, I turned to the flybridge windscreen.  The three pieces were soldered together using my 'helping hands', square and graph paper to measure the correct angles.

I then made the the inner frames from 0.5mm styrene.  These will get bolt heads too but I'm holding off for the time being and will explain all next time.

Building the windscreen has also highlighted a few issues with the top of the wheelhouse door.  So I'm rebuilding that at the same time.  Essentially. the build up on the cabin roof needs to be lowered, but here's the work in progress.

Complete Control

This time I've been making controls for the wheelhouse and the flying bridge.  I've made the steering control, new throttle levers and the SIMS control.

The steering controls are on the helm and cox's seat and also to the port of the flying bridge.  The body is 3.2mm and 4.8mm styrene tube and the lever 0.8mm and 1.6mm brass/alloy.

As there are more throttle controls than supplied in the kit, I made a new set so that they are uniform.  The body is laminated discs of styrene made using my punch tool, through which is a 1.6mm alloy tube.  The throttle levers are dressmakers pins.  These are on the helm and cox's seats and on both sides of the flying bridge.

The SIMS controls are 2 pieces of 3.2x6.4mm styrene glued together then cut and sanded to shape.  The trackballs are dressmakers pins.  These go on the Helm, Cox, Mechanic and 1st Navigator's seats with a 5th on the 2nd Navigator's table.

Now, just to paint them.

Stairway to Heaven

This time it's the turn of the stairs.  Model Slipway have been excellent in supplying a few extra bits and pices for my build and allowed me to buy extra bits and pieces without having to buy whole photo etched frets.  That's allowed me to get a second set of steps back down into the cabin.

Is used my etch-mate tool to fold the steps though it was harder than I expected.  Due the shape of the outside pieces, I used a combination of the etch-mate and a pair of long pliers.  The pieces we re then soldered together by soldering all steps to one of the outside pieces first using a square to make sure all were, well, square!  The other pieces was then soldered on.

The photo below shows both sets of stairs finished.  One set has 0.5 styrene inserts on each side.  This was used to join the bottom step back on that I'd previously cut off.  This was originally cut off to fit the cabin as per the kit design.  However, as I wrote in my 11 & 28 January '13 posts, I dropped the cabin floor.  Luckily, I'd kept the unused bottom step and the pieces of the side parts that I'd cut off.  This set will go inside the cabin so the repair shouldn't be too obvious!