Now that the cabin has had its orange coats and lacquer, time to start making and adding all the details. About 70% I scratch made, the kit parts being the photo etched parts. Things like the kit cabin lights, mounting parts for the safety cable have been scraped as wrong and re-made.

As for the cat on the instrument combing, those that know the “Haydn Miller” in Tenby know? At the weekend I shall start making the multitude of aft cabin parts and the side parts including handrails, MOB cranes ect…

4 long days has seen most of the interior basics built. I’ve still got a few instruments to make and that will be it inside. I’ve installed a 3 light 12v in the roof which will come on via switch along with the nav lights. It illuminates nicely but not too bright, perfect on the mostly black interior.

The cabin was sanded, filled, sanded again and primed in white before 3 thin coats of VW Orange after having painted all the nooks and cranny’s with thinnned orange acrylic. This means that once you start painting the main coat, your not trying to fight what is quite thick paints into the corners and gives a nicer finish. I shall gloss laquer the cabin once all the decals are on as I’m waiting for the RNLI decals in the post. All the remaining hundreds of cabin parts that I’ve yet to make and paint will go on after the main lacquer coat as they are mostly a Matt finished including the window frames.

For anyone wanting to know how I got the rear upper deck floor so neat, I cheated! I cut a paper template, then made the floor from 0.20mm styrene before texture painting and a coat of grey primer and Matt varnish! For the eagle eyed amongst you, the rear cabin door is upside down, but fea4 not, it’s not glued yet! That’s it now for a few days, need a rest 😂😂

I’ve had a Busy 3 days progressing the cabin structure to basic completion. The last of the panels are now fitted, glued, sanded, filled and sanded. What I’ve also done is studying lots of photos, added as many scratch built extra details that are painted orange. There are a couple more bits to add before final sanding and painting, hopefully the cabin will be complete next weekend. There will be a lot of detailing to add once the cabin is in its orange coat, but that’s a while away yet.

Whilst waiting for cabin panels to set, I set about building and completing a few of the fittings that include the towing bollards and I really wanted to build the upstairs crew entry door, so did so to completion. It also gave me the opportunity to add a lot of my new favourite Meng bolt heads!the kits parts are nowhere near cake accurate so modified where needed using reference.

Something else I discovered was a chrome permanent marker pen, available in 1mm, 2mm and 4mm. There are a lot of chrome parts on the Tamar and having tried this pen out on a sample, it’s the business! I need to see if any lacquer or clear coats dull it, but I’ll experiment with it. You can buy a 30ml refill, but that’s expensive at £20. Apparently the liquid inside the pen can be used in an airbrush, so may play with that too! EBay was the source and YouTube has plenty of videos on this stuff!

That’s it until Friday guys……

After having to work for 3 days, managed to get a full day in today as “wifey” was away on a works party (no plus ones allowed! Bonus😂)

The postman bought me some Meng scale bolts in various sizes. Just a simple case of cutting them free with a new scalpel blade and they are good to go. They are simply fantastic, there is no way I could get such accurate bolt heads cutting hex rod as I’ve done in th past. So putting them to use, I replaced the bolt heads on the transom fittings and made the aft deck access panels with all the bolt heads, really happy how they’ve come out.

The rest of the day has been a case of adding more panels to the cabin, which is time consuming but well worth the effort, she’s started to really take shape now. I’ve added some extra scale details using reference pictures, but will add a whole load more as I go. More progress tomorrow……

A few hours work today has seen the basic cabin structure built. It’s worth taking the time to cut out the CNC parts carefully, followed by any trimming and sanding all surfaces. This gives a good key for gluing and eventually painting. What we have here is basically a giant Airfix kit and it’s one of the tasks I enjoy most as it gives instant results!

As mentioned in my last post, I am making the forward stowage bins function instead of being marked to represent. Using the paper template included I made a .5mm styrene template and the plans to position and mark the hatch opening. This was then cut out and cleaned up. Once I add the upper facet plates, I shall cut the remaining door positions and then make the bins and line the rims to take the hatches. One thing I haven’t figured out yet is how to make time working scale hinges, so if anyone has a solution, I’m all ears!

Tomorrow I’m going to return to finishing the steps and make a start on the kick boards….

The last couple of days has seen the deck set solid followed by all the labour intensive sanding, filling and filling to make good any joins ect. I’m now happy that the deck is a cracking fit around all points of the hull.

Next step was to start making the steps from the lower to upper deck. The kit supplied hideous vacform steps were used as a starting point to assess how to make new steps from 1.5mm styrene. After several hours of cutting, measuring, fettling and many discarded parts, the port side steps were fashioned, glued, filed, sanded and primed to see if any issues stood out. As for the starboard steps, I shall start on them tomorrow as I needed something else to break up the monotony! The manual calls for making the kick boards next, however I didn’t fancy that and they can be made anytime relatively early in the build, so shall possibly look at them Tuesday before work Wednesday!

So, I made a start on the cabin. The main parts are CNC cut styrene and just needed a little effort with a new scalpel blade and steel ruler to free them from the main sheet. The cabin sides are different in that the rear windows are positioned differently, so double checking with the manual was called for to make sure I identified the correct sides! Start8ng with the port side, all windows were cut out and the whole piece sanded. Last job was to cut the base former and cabin. Wall upright , sand and glue together at right angles and leave to set over night. Before gluing the first side to the base, I must ensure that my next modification of cutt8ng out the forward stowage hatch doors on both hull sides as i intend to make these function unlike the kit version which is drawn on, I shall show that when I do it.

So, tomorrow I shall build the other steps and more work on the cabin …

Good progress today starting with filing out the hole for the Y-Boat hatch in the stern of the deck. I took the added precaution of supporting the GRP surround with wood and clamps to add strength while filing as I didn’t want a nasty accident accidentally breaking it. It took about an hour of filing and sanding checking often to get a good fit for the hatch which will hinge in 4 pieces later.

Once happy with that I then marked the position of the compartment on the underside of the deck and fitted it with 5 min epoxy and clamps and beefed up the join with a fillet of liquid steel.

Next was to make a 2mm template to mark the inside of the hull where the 3x6mm deck bearers will sit. This was followed by fitting strips of 6x3mm styrene that had been roughened and scored, the first layer being fitted with 5 min epoxy and every clamp in the box! This was followed by a second layer fitted with styrene cement and my trusty clamps again and then once hard enough, a large fillet of liquid steel all around to beef it up ready to fit the deck.

The styrene strips where sanded flat with the Dremel sanding drum and then a couple of hours of fine fettling of the deck before fitting with 30 min epoxy, lots of tape and weights and checking for true before leaving overnight to fully harden. Next job is the sand and fill the deck flush with the hull and fit the steps on the deck…..

So, back from a cheeky break in Tenby with the Mrs and it’s straight back on it! Having got some good reference shots, I decided to add some extra detail to the Y-Boat compartment which includes some wall panels, step and some pipe work. All made from good old styrene, it adds some interest to an otherwise plane box if left as kit form. This was then painted with various weathering techniques as unlike the exterior of the boat, this area on the real thing is quite grubby!

A few other little jobs included fitting a blue strip of water cooling pipe that had arrived in the post along with fitting the heavy duty propshaft couplings, lipo checkers and the new lipos. I now consider the internal workings about done part from maybe a couple of tweaks if needed.

Tomorrow’s project will be to start fitting the deck…….

What a fantastic visit to the station at Tenby yesterday. Managed to get a wealth of shots of external features on their Tamar. Unfortunately no crew were on site so unable to get a shot at getting on board. What is clear is that as fantastic as the kit is by MS, I’ve now got plenty of shots of all the extra “bells and whistles” I can scratch build.

The 2 lovely ex-Yorkshire ladies running the shop kindly informed me that coming back Monday evening when they are due to go out on a practice sortie will give me the opportunity to film the launch process and with crew being about a good chance to get on board.

I shall be there like a geek and hour earlier than the launch time slot!…..

The last couple of days has seen steady progress on preparing the deck for fitting and building the Y-boat compartment. Using the plans, the cut out for the Y-boat hatch was carefully marked in pencil on the deck and this was then cut out under sized with the Dremel. This has still to be filed to completion, but I will do that when I’m in the mood as filing fibreglass is not pleasant!

Making the styrene compartment was simply a case of cutting out the parts from the supplied sheets, sanding, then gluing together with Revell and Tamiya plastic cement to the correct dimensions as per the plans and manual. I did beef up the joints with some extra styrene strip for belt and braces as the glueing surfaces are minimal. This was then left overnight to set before final sanding, masking, priming and a couple of coats of Ford Galaxy grey and Matt lacquer. I figured it was easier to paint now before fitting to the underside of the deck.

One decision I have made is not to attempt to make the rear transom door fold down which is how the Y-boat is launched. It does say in the manual that people can attempt this detail, but no instruction is given. My biggest fear is getting it wrong and destroying the integrity of the hull, and also not getting the scale detail right. So please forgive me on this, but I will add other details in lieu!

Last job was to cut out the deck hatch opening again with the Dremel cutting disc and finishing the edges with a sanding drum on the Dremel and final sanding. No requirement for this to be pristine as it all disappears when the cabin is fitted.

That’s it for a few days now, as off to Tenby on Saturday for a few days. I’m hoping that the RNLI station is accepting visitors as I fully intend to get a wealth of reference photos and my one wish is to get shots inside the cabin as there is very little on the web. I shall flutter my eyelids ha ha…..