Having seen another Aquarama built by Damian on Model Boat Mayhem I decided to follow his lead and replace the vinyl cockpit floor( as supplied in the kit) with a walnut planked floor. The planks are 6mm x 0.5mm walnut from Cornwall Model boats. I ordered 4 metres of them and I thought there would be plenty but I ran out before even starting the foot rests! I ended up having patch under the magnetic catches for the seats. I couldn't believe it - 4metres! I've separated the planking with 0.75 black rigging string. I eventually decided to order another 1 metre of walnut to do the foot rests so as to finish off the job properly! Needless to say the postage was 4x more than the plank!! I think it looks a lot better than white vinyl. Thanks to Damian Curzon-Price's great idea.😊

After a test in a paddling pool at home it was off to the local model boat club in Bury for the maiden voyage - along with a bottle of fizz! It was such a beautiful day it was so perfect for a launch. After christening the boat it was time for the moment of truth - will she run OK! I'm pleased to say that she handled very well although I thought she might run a little faster. The bonus was she was perfectly dry inside - great! Perhaps a direct drive rather than going through the supplied gearbox that arrived with the motorising kit. Since I'm going to have it as a display model I'm not that bothered about the speed. Perhaps it is about the correct scale speed of the original boats than weren't fitted with dual V12 Lamborghini engines! Please see this video of the V12:-

Hi Everyone,
Finally after 2 years and 2 months I have finally finished my Riva. Even though I say it myself I think she looks beautiful! I must admit I haven't put all the cleats on because the base of the cleats are flat and so small that I think they could easily get caught and broken off when I get round to sailing her. This could end up damaging the mahogany veneer.
To fit the forward chromed metal fittings I put a layer of masking tape on the bow then drew round the bases and cut out the shape with a modelling knife before roughing up the varnish and then gluing the fittings with 5 minute Araldite. The 4 engine air vents on the sides were a bit daunting to fit with the very fine 'Aquarama' lettering and also having to drill through the hull for each vent. I used cockpit glue as it is relatively ease to wipe away any excess. I had to nail the back strip on first so I drilled tiny holes so that I didn't have to use the hammer too much! I then chromed over the strip and the nail with the chrome pen I mentioned earlier in the blog. Unfortunately on one side strip there was a nail hole missing and 'try as I must' I could get my hand drill to create this tiny hole 0.3mm. Once in place The holes in the metal strip for the air vents show where to drill. I was surprised that I had to go through completely to hold the peg on the back of the air vents. I tried to epoxy the inside of the holes in order to seal the wood around the holes. I've fitted the seats to the floor with magnetic door catches so that I can easily remove the seats for cleaning. Eventually I will replace the floor with a planked floor but this wasn't part of the kit. I found using digital callipers useful to measure the size of the pegs on the fittings and then chose the appropriate drill bit. Because this has been my first build since my early twenties I have had to buying quite a lot of stuff and tools to complete the build. I would like to do another build but I don't think my hands are not up to that any more unfortunately.
I think the next stage is a bath tub test and then sit and admire it before I pluck up courage for the maiden voyage! I hope you have all found my blog interesting and helpful especially if you attempt this kit. I've learnt a lot along the way and had some sleepless nights wondering how to tackle certain things! Hopefully my blog will help you to avoid some of these deep searching thoughts!😊

Cheers Duncan 🚤

Getting towards the final fitting out. Just fitted the R/C. The receiver is in the blue box and the ESC is in the removeable white platform I've constructed from scraps. I've secured this and the battery using elastic bands. Fitted the switch to a piece of scrap ply. On the recommendation of another modeller I got some self adhesive 2mm x 2mm 'D' shaped chrome moulding off Amazon for covering the joint between the deck and the hull. I would personally recommend this rather than having to paint the white strip provided in the kit and then gluing this on without spoiling the beautiful varnish finish! It would have been better without the very thin black foam backing but the backing is hardy noticeable. I attached this strip after polishing with G10 polishing compound. Only done one side so far. So flooring, side upholstery , steering wheel, windscreen, air vents, exhausts and various other chrome fittings need to be attached. Some of these require drilling into the side of the hull. I hope this won't affect the water tightness!! I've also drilled out the back of the rear seat mount in order for some air to get through to the motors. I then covered this with a strip of non slip rubber matting. You can see my model standing on this matting in earlier photos. I sprayed it with some white primer in order for it to match. Not long now hopefully before I can send some finished photos! So far I've spent over 2 years working on it on and off. During the winter not much got done because it was too cold out in the garage workshop!

This was a duplicate - sorry

My build of the Riva has been on hold because of the cold weather making it too cold in my work room but I have now put two coats of undercoat and one coat of Humbrol gloss white onto the bottom. This is on top of the 6 coats of varnish. Once it is thoroughly hardened I will then start to put the blue waterline stripe on and the chrome accessories on the decks etc. I made a rod for my own back though with painted the blue sides on the seats. I've lost count on the number of times I had to redo the paint of white and blue because of seepage through the masking tape! I think it now looks good but a lot of frustration getting there!

DISASTER! I left my yacht varnish to go hard for nearly 3 weeks. I put standard masking tape on in order to form a line of where to sand the bottom up to the waterline. It was difficult when applying this masking tape to cope with the curves leading up to the bow so I decided to order some 12mm Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves. I also ordered an Edding 0.8mm white marker pen because it was difficult trying to mark and see a pencil maker on the varnish.

I made up my own waterline marker with clamps and set square and a box with felt feet which made it easy to slide along the side of the hull. It worked OK.

I then applied the Tamiya Masking tape for curves tape.
It did the job I wanted but then I noticed a slight kink in it on the transom. I therefore lifted the tape off to reposition it and to my horror this tape pulled the varnish off! The other standard masking tape was fine. I therefore decided to take the tape off the rest of the hull and again in one place it has pulled the yacht varnish off! It would not have been so bad if it had just been the transom that I would have to sand and repaint but now it will be the whole hull again!! One step forward and 4 backwards. Depressing.
Any suggestions for masking up again after revarnishing without having the other problem of bleeding!

Thank you for all your suggestions for gluing the fittings onto the decks. I will experiment with your ideas and then choose. Cheers Duncan

Hi Everyone. Managed to get 4 coats of varnish onto first of all the decks and then onto the hull sides. The bottom had 4 coats earlier in the build. I will need to polish out the dust specks eventually. I tried really hard to avoid any dust by sanding and wiping down outside but still got dust specks! I've started to build the dashboard which I found very fiddly and inevitably got some CA glue on my figures even though I was using reverse tweezers. Unfortunately, the simulated light switches seem to have the glass domes missing from the kit so I've raided my wife's bead box and managed to find some small coloured beads to make the domed fronts of the light switches! I still need to fit the key sockets and keys, plus the gear levers and steering wheel to the dashboard. After a lot of messing about with paints for the seats I have found the Tamiya TS10 French Blue spray paint to be the best match. Having sprayed them I have then sprayed them with a Matt lacquer finish over the top of these seats. I decided to separate the seat sides from the main part of the seat to make the painting job easier as after my first attempt I found some leakage under the masking tape. I've just ordered an Edding white 0.8mm permanent marker to create my waterline mark prior to painting the bottom of the hull white. I couldn't see the pencil maker clearly on the varnish and this marker writes on glass and metal and is waterproof - so it should be OK. Pity in a way I'm going to be covering up the lovely mahogany bottom with white paint but in the end I think it will look better. I bought a 13mm wood drill from the Blackpool Model boat show to create the two holes for the cabin skylights. I drilled these holes with great trepidation! Added a touch of varnish around the inside of the holes afterwards. Just a warning to anyone else building this model - I measured the distance from the dashboard to the centre of the skylight on the full size plan. Unfortunately, this turned out to be right over one of the bulkheads which then involved cutting away a small portion on each side for the skylights. Once the bottom has been painted white, I will be able to get on with the deck fittings. Any suggestions for best glue for chromed brass fittings to be attached to the varnished decks. I wondered about using my Deluxe Cockpit canopy glue - any thoughts?

Just a bit of an update. Finished the deck planking which took quite a long time to complete! I've applied a couple of coats of sanding sealer onto the deck and also applied some sealer to the saxboards before gluing to avoid any glue staining. I found fitting these saxboards quite difficult as they need to bend in two directions. I heated them in boiling water and then applied them to the deck with masking tape and left them to dry for a couple of days to take on the shape of the deck. It was only semi successful. I then glued them on the deck and held them in place using strong car masking tape. I've had to do some filling using aliphatic glue and mahogany dust mix in places as I couldn't get it to follow the contours exactly. Fitting the rear removal hatches was also a bit of a challenge but got there in the end! Will soon be ready to apply the first coat of varnish - followed by several more coats. Weather is turning colder so my 'man cave' at the back of my garage is not very warm to work in. I'm worried about putting the heater on with the cost of electricity these days because it takes a lot of heating up. 'Catch 22'!!