The build is now complete and we are waiting for the maiden voyage to take place at the earliest opportunity Its been an interesting build with plenty of problems to be solved, but in all the kit is a comprehensive package, supplying a full box of materials covering all the build requirements. The plans are self-explanatory to the intermediate builder leaving nothing to chance.
I have during the build made quite a few deviations from plan such as planking and general additional woodwork, lighting and internal fittings.
My overall comment is that it’s a great kit to build and makes a wonderful model.
Next project is to finish the Inga IV

The deck fittings are minimal consisting of forward and rear cleats with bollards front and rear. These were all scratch made from brass, and are pinned and epoxied to the deck. Although this takes a lot of time it’s a most satisfying part of a build for me as I consider myself a builder not a sailor.

The front cabin has a windscreen, which is made from clear plastic sheet, which is supplied in the kit, this was roughly the correct shape. To bend the piece at the right angles I heated a piece of 2mm rod and held the bend line over it but not touching until it was pliable I then bent it to the correct angle drawn on a plan. I I felt that the sheet now the correct shape needed some solid surround. To match the rest of the boats wood it needed to be made from a dark wood such as walnut. I cut square sections 5 x 5 mm and then cut a 1mm slot along its length.
This was then cut into required pieces to slot onto the plastic I cut the screen in half to make it easier to put a central pillar in. the sides presented an issue in that they are curved, so a profile was cut out and carefully a slot was cut into the curve.
The whole assembly was glued together with the assistance of a metal jig and CA and then 1.0 mm pins secure it to the deck

The cabin cruiser needs to be painted as soon as possible so it can properly harden for a few weeks. I use cellulose paints (a left over mind set from spraying cars) This Cruiser will have a first coat of etch primer followed by 4 coats of standard grey primer with any filling and smoothing in between coats.
The whole hull will first be sprayed with a white gloss and will receive three to four coats, I prefer to give a number of thin coats this avoids the chances of any runs, which always cause problems, as they need to harden before being flattened.
The hull has been left to harden four a week; it is now hard enough to turn back on its stand. I now need to draw the water line around the hull. I do this by levelling the hull according to the “plans water line” and then using a height gauge with a pencil attached instead of the scriber I pencil a line around the whole hull.
Next masking the lower half of the hull leaving the area to be painted a very light green, again a number coats are applied to give a good depth of paint. The cabin also gets a coat of the green paint, having been painted white on the inside
I will now leave the paint to harden for 2-3 weeks before attempting to finally polish it to a high sheen.(hopefully)

The cabin has a rear section which when built as a fixed unit would have made it strong and rigid. However as I’m building a removable cabin I will have to add some additional 4x4 stiffeners around the sides and across the end so when its removed it remain rigid. The sides have what I think would be Chrome trim (4 strips) these are made of wood and have been painted along with the rest of cabin and then have been covered with adhesive aluminium foil ( the old fashioned tape used on window alarm systems) its worked well and looks the part.

The cabin is now complete and the electrics have been added, this comprises of navigation lights, internal cabin lights which are powered through 3mm bullet connectors 4 in all 1 neg and 3 positive all operated through RC switches.
All the windows have Perspex inserts and will need an chrome look surround. these are made from 1mm styrene sheet, I pencilled around the window profiles and cut the external profile (the easy bit) I then drilled 4mm holes at each of the corners.
Next I made a simple jig which would allow me to mill the internal profile by hand, first setting the 3mm thickness and a couple of pins to stop the sheet lifting each piece was moved around cutting away the centre using a 2mm slot drill.
A final deburr and light surface sand (1200 grit) to make sure the chrome pen adheres well. these will be applied on final assembly.

The cabin is best constructed on the body of the boat weather you are having it fixed or detachable, in my case I went for detachable. This presents additional problems if you want to have illumination in and on the cabin. In my previous model – The (Vintage Model Works Police Boat) I also had illumination on the removable cabin and this is achieved by using 2.5 mm bullet connectors, the socket is epoxied into the deck and the pins are epoxied into the cabin.
The cabin needs navigation lights, internal lights and a mast light this means I need 4 connections one will be a negative with 3 lives the 3 lights will be wired through RC switches. There are two pins at the front and two in the rear section of the cabin.
Now that’s sorted we can start to build the wooden parts of the cabin, first to be glued are the five pieces that form the periphery of the cabin sides, these have been strengthened with 4x4 framework glued to each piece.
Now the sides are set we can assemble the roof first gluing a centre spare in place to ensure we have a curved roof.
You may have noticed that the deck is in the process of been varnished, and looks a bit rough at this point. We have given two coats rubbing down between, we will have a further four coats to apply before an acceptable “depth and smoothness” is achieved.

As you will all be aware, the most vulnerable part of any craft is the bow and is often the area that gets damaged resulting in difficult repairs. This was something that happened to one of my boats --(carrying it down a flight of stairs).
To minimise the possibility of damage I fabricated a cover made from brass sheet that follows the profile of the bow and over onto the deck area, this will have an illuminated bow light built into this protector. The piece is made from two fabricated parts, which will be silver soldered together, polished and finally epoxied to the bow. The final picture I will save until assembly.

The internal cabin has a compartment, which serves as a battery cover (page 15) and a visual dashboard with dials and steering wheel. I wanted to add some detail and interest on the boat so the dashboard is to be illuminated. The body of the unit is made from 6mm black Perspex, there are 9 dials to be illuminated with different colour LEDs. They will all be powered by 6V so they all need to have different resisters wired in then they will all be terminated to a single terminal block to which 6V can be applied. The holes drilled for each LED will be countersunk to the same diameter of each dial on the laminated paper picture; this countersink was then painted with a mirror finish pen to enhance the illumination.
The holes are transferred to the wooden cabinet to allow the wires to pass through.

Although the motor is a nice looking piece of mechanical propulsion it has a fan on it that could cause injury, and in the real craft it is covered.
I decided to make something similar to the one I made for the police boat, which required a cover with an air intake at one end and an exit at the other to keep the motor cool in a confined space. Using some 2mm ply I made two side profiles that would cover the motor and fan, this was framed with 4mm sq timber to give attachment points for the top and ends. The end had incorporated a grating, which I made from bamboo; I found this close-grained wood was ideal to stay intact when cutting the small slots and then cutting into log lengths, this gives pieces that can be made into any size required
The wooden outer frame will be varnished wood (walnut) and the panels will be white, made from white plasticard inserts, the top panel will have a soft leather padded seat in light olive. (what colour will the hull be?)
The box when compete will be held in place by small magnets which had proved very successful on other boats, this requires a same size bottom frame to be attached to the deck with the magnet inserts