The skipper on Bluebird can now keep dry under the new wheelhouse roof complete with sliding hatch, made with 3mm ply, mahogany beams and trim and painted white, I am quite pleased with it but not convinced enough to glue it permanently in place. I am afraid a lot of the build is awaiting final fixing including, rear cabin, wheelhouse, mast, stanchions and deck lockers. But you bet your last shilling the minute I do fit them permanently I will remember something crucial that I have forgotten.
There is still much to do including approximately 40 stanchions to be fitted with middle rails and wooden capping as well as lots of `pretty bits`, the build continues to be a fun challenge.
Regards ChrisG

Well here is a little more but I`ll admit not much to show for two weeks enjoyment, so much has been scrapped as I have not been happy with it.
I have finished the wheelhouse sides, back and front and all seems to fit and look as I had hoped it would, roof yet to do. The wheelhouse furniture, chart table, bench seats etc are made and fitted although not upholstered and no instruments fitted yet.
Deck furniture built and the side rail stanchions also to be fitted after painting white.
None of this has been easy especially in 1/24 with my dainty fingers 😊
The list of bits to buy that I am unable to make continues to be endless, fenders for example, she sports 14 in total
which I have managed source without first having to consult the bank, I think the other items are out there but the time it takes to find them online can take hours.
I am really in no hurry to finish as I will then have to decide on another lovely project and at the moment have no idea.
Regards ChrisG

From the keel up, anti fouling finished including the prop shafts, brass props fitted and the single rudder also fitted and painted.
The hull has had another two coats of Humbrol white with a P1200 wet and dry rub down between coats, I love that Humbrol paint and for someone who seems unable to spray paint the finish if carefully prepared is as good I wish for.
She also now has a beautiful varnished mahogany transom.
I have fitted the 19 portholes and am pleased with them.
The deck has had just 3 coats of thinned varnish again with P1200 wet and dry between each one, at least another 3 coats before finish. I am aware that decks should not have a shiny finish but this is destined to be a display model and I like it that way.
I continue to struggle with the wheelhouse, the back and two sides are built but I continue to `screw up` the construction of the 3 windscreen sections, getting annoyed now with patience wearing thin☹️
The cockpit sole is fitted with stairs to fore and aft accommodation, and I have started making the on deck furniture, benches and lockers all in mahogany.
Still thoroughly enjoying the build, more to come.
Regards ChrisG

I was hoping that this was to have been a progress report but there has not been much of that over the last 11 days.
At one stage the choice between throwing scrapped mahogany away and buying a wood burner was hard to make.
I am not going to own up to the number of attempts at an acceptable wheelhouse that I have made suffice it to say the attached photos are the best of the bunch. I have two sides, a back and the three pieces which form the windscreen glazed and made but not yet glued together.
Drilling the holes in the hull for the portholes (12) has also been a bit fraught, the cedar planking does not like to be drilled to size (10mm) even with the sharpest new drill bit so I have resorted to drilling small bore holes and filing them to size. Cedar when dry seems very fragile, I will be re-thinking my planking wood in future builds.
Hopefully my next blog will be more cheery but it is so nice to see so many successful builds progressing on this website.
Keep up the good work, Regards Chrisg

Getting somewhere at last, I have 2 wheelhouse sides basically cut out to shape and am building the wheelhouse three front panels like you would build window frames. I have the glass in the rear panel and the window frames fitted.
The interesting bit will be gluing and fitting the six pieces together to form a perfectly formed wheelhouse.
Looking at the plan and comparing it with the height of the deck, wheelhouse and accommodation block a height variance is apparent, but it looks right. When looking carefully at the finished 1/12 build in Model Boat Int. the wheelhouse looks proportionally higher than I would have expected, but again looks right. I have done a load of accurate measuring and calculated heights and sizes with 1/24 scale and all seem have an acceptable tolerance.
I shall go ahead as I am, if it looks right then by golly it is right.
Regards ChrisG

I now know why builders prefer 1/12 to 1/24 scale B O C
models to build. I have spent 2 days attempting to build the rear and two sides of the wheelhouse and have destroyed no end of mahogany sheet of both 1mm and 1.5mm sizes.
You name a method and I think I have tried it. I now propose to overlay hand cut 1mm strips of mahogany on top of the already cut but extremely delicate mahogany panels. I then wonder how I am going to fix the plastic windows with the sandwich, judiciously applied araldite as super glue will not do the job.
I am not sure if I am writing this for help or sympathy or just to relieve my frustration, I have even tried carefully drilling holes in the aperture corners and using a craft saw with 0.3mm blade to join the dots, several broken blades later and I gave that up.
Anyway, been out for lunch eldest daughters treat and refreshed will have yet another stab at it.
If at first you screw it up then try, try, try again. 😠😠😠
Regards ChrisG

I now have the rudder problem sorted and in the process have acquired a back copy of Marine Modelling Int. which shows a build blog of a magnificent 1/12th model of Bluebird of Chelsea in fact 2 of them. This has come at a very good time as I was getting annoyed at my lack of progress since the start of the year and this has given me the encouragement to get stuck in.
As I was getting nowhere with the wheelhouse, it is so critical to the build and complicated that I decided to build the rear cabin hoping that it would help in getting the correct `look` and in perspective. The plans are great but I find that often ones eye is essential.
Anyway it is built and I am quite please with it, still need a finishing tidy and varnish.
A little tip, whilst pottering around and looking for a job I looked around the workroom for some dowel for the mast and 2 flag poles fore and aft. I chanced upon several small paintbrushes that had seen better days all turned from hardwood and the diameter I needed, I cut them off to length discarded the bristle bit rubbed them down and have ended up with freebie tapered mast and two flag poles.
Regards ChrisG

Santa and his little helpers has gone back to wherever for another year so time to start some serious modelling.
He did bring me some new tools that I needed to assist in making fiddly fittings and I have started by trying to construct some deck vents of the opening type. I have used 1mm brass rod for the vent protectors and hope that my newly acquired chrome pen will successfully change their appearance, never used one before and was only aware of them from an article on MBW.
Watch this space regards ChrisG

Managed to get a bit done this week, you know how it is, `shall we get some Christmas bits before the shops get busy`? don't know where everyone gets their money from I thought we were in times of austerity.
Anyway I went ahead with planking the fore deck and yes blackening the edges of each plank seems to give the desired effect hope it doesn't spoil itself when varnished. I have also started to make some of the hatches etc but am still hesitating when it comes to building the wheelhouse, serious case of `chicken` 🤣🤣🤣 I think a large scotch and throwing caution to the wind might help.
If anyone UK based is interested I put a small order on Cornwall Model Boats for some bits Sunday 27th pm and received the package Tuesday 29th a.m. that is Cornwall to Nottingham, I think that is excellent service by both the supplier and their carrier.
Regards ChrisG

Managed to get into my garage and decided to reduce the thickness of the strips for the foredeck, liked Roy`s suggestion with the jig based on two steel rules which worked well but as I have a lot to do it was a bit of a faff.
So belt sander clamped in the workmate and having carefully marked each plank at 4mm proceeded to reduce the planks width. First few took time but the more I did the quicker and easier the job became ending up with the required 30 that I was happy with.
The only downside is that I have no fingerprints left on three fingers on my left hand😁
I intend to use a black felt marker to blacken all edges giving a scale caulking look when sanded.
Regards ChrisG