After 2 years of on and off work Bruma is ready for the maiden voyage! In my excitement I unfortunately I forgot to attach the mainsheet to the boom!
Having it as a sailing vessel is in phase 2 - I have bought some ripstop white sail cloth to make some test sails. The detachable keel has been made and for a this trial test I'm attaching a 900gram fish shaped fishing weight.
We christened the boat with a small bottle of fizz. When I have some time I will edit the video taken and post it on here. For now here are some stills - one looks like she is just leaving a harbour wall! Pity that the duck brings us back to reality!!

Just a bit of an update. Basically I think that all that is left now is the standing and running rigging to complete. Because I plan to eventually in stage 2 have it with sails, I have had to consider strengthening everything. I have purchased 2 purpose made goosenecks which I have slightly modified so that the swivel doesn't easily pop out of its socket. In order to lock it in I have attached a cut down winch which was in the kit. The smallest gooseneck was for a 10mm mast and these masts are 8mm. Therefore I used the brass in the kit which was for you to make a gooseneck as a filler to bring the mast diameter up to 10mm. I have also bought replacement 15.3mm dummy bottlescrews from Mantuamodels.co.uk. Unfortunately they come in packs of 10 and I needed 12 - so hence 2 packs! The eyes on these are much bigger, so threading the rigging through will be much easier! All the eyelets I've soldered the ends so they won't uncurl under strain and glued them in with the original slow setting Araldite. I've been informed by another model boat builder that the fast setting 5min Araldite goes soft in water so I thought I wouldn't take any chances! I will have to think carefully about the rigging and extra fittings as I don't want jib sheet and mainsheet getting caught on something like the horn and search light etc. Hopefully in the next few weeks I will be able to show some photos and video of it run under motors. Roy can you please give me some ideas on how to make some test sails for the model please? Also Roy, I hope seeing these last stages will inspire you to start this model which I believe you have on your shelf!
Hopefully all rigging will be done by the end of this week as I'm helping my grandson in building his first model boat which is a HA Kits Flying Christine II. It is a model of the St. John's Ambulance boat that was used to ferry patients from the island of Guernsey for medical treatment to the mainland. He is coming to stay with us next weekend for 10days and we are hoping to have it completed in that time! I will do a build blog with him - so I hope you will all follow this build as well!😊

After our Guide Dog puppy had finished having fun cooling off in a pet pool, I took the opportunity to have the first floating test of the motor sailor Bruma
All the radio gear, battery, motors, servo and winch were in place and I was very pleased with how she floated level. Pool is not deep enough to test with the detachable keel attached. That will be for another time. Initially I will just sail as a motor sailor and then try with sails on. Still lots to do before ready for maiden voyage! 😊

After a lot of careful thought, planning and ingenuity I managed to get all the electrics installed fairly neatly - well at least I hope you think so!! After a lot of searching on the internet I found the perfect set of clear plastic boxes. These boxes contain 2 x ESC's, W-Tail Mixer and connections for 2x motors and 1 x rudder and the receiver plus connections to the NICAM battery. The battery and plastic boxes are fastened in place with velcro.
Now that I have completed the electrics installation, I can now carry on with the installation of the remaining stantions. I didn't want to do that earlier as it could have interfered with access to the hold. Doing the wooden stantions was a bit tricky - having to drill 0.7mm holes to accept brass nails. The commodore from the boat club drilled the holes top and bottom on each stantion with a table mounted mini drill, but I did the deck rail and the handrail with a USB drill which new only cost £8.50 off eBay. Great little drill! I first fastened the toe-rail and handrail together on the deck with yellow masking tape to make sure all the holes lined up. Then used superglue to fix them in place - which I had to do quickly by lining up the whole handrail, before the glue 'went off'.
Hopefully I'm now well on the way to completion !😊😊

Hi Roy, You actually sent me a link to the detailed instructions and yes it says do the deck planking at this early stage. I've given the inside of the hull a coat of epoxy resin and where the planks would not be assessible I coated them with waterproof glue (Aliphatic) before attaching them to the hull. So hopefully it will be Ok!
I'm also waiting for a cataract operation but it is more complicated because I had a corneal graft when I was about 40. It now has no cells remaining so I will have to have another corneal graft and cataract operation at the same time. Ugh!
Enjoy the rest of your holiday in Australia and have a good trip back. I hope you decide to start the Bruma soon ! 😊Cheers

Finally we had some warmer weather today so hopefully it didn't cost too much to heat up the back of the garage! I've painted the hull with epoxy resin, then applied an under coat and several coats of paint. I found that the matt paint showed up some blemishes so I have filled them again. Unfortunately the colour of the filler is showing through very slightly, so I will have to apply yet another coat of Humbrol Matt white!

I followed the build instructions to the letter but I personally don't think it is a good idea to plank the deck at such an early stage. This is because of the difficulty in applying the masking tape on the planked deck especially through the 2mm slots at the top of the hull planking (gunnel). Given my time again, I would leave the deck planking until after the hull has been painted. My only thought is the sheet of decking is very thin and whether the kit creators thought that the planking was required at the beginning of the build to give the structure more rigidity - who knows!
Hopefully we will get another mild day so that I can apply another coat of matt white.

Finally managed to complete the double layer of planking in limewood on the Mantua Bruma which is a plank on frame hull. I then did some filling and sanding before applying two coats of sanding sealer. Having 'chewed over' all of discussions about fibre glassing the hull I 'chickened out' and instead just applied a coat of Z-epoxy 2 part finishing resin. Another sand down with 120 grade paper (as advised on the bottles) before applying a Rustins primer & undercoat. This has now shown up some imperfections so I plan to remove these with Holts Knifing putty which is designed to fill small scratches and paint chips. I need to fit the bulwarks but I'm not sure about how to cut a 2mm 'slot' along the limewood planks. The slot is from around 6" from the bow to about 6" from the stern. I've tried a steal ruler and modelling knife but it still seems to follow along the grain of the wood on these 6mm wide limewood strips. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Finally got some time to work on my model after working on other jobs that needed doing around the home and also a holiday down the Rhine river on a cruise. Weather was good today which enabled me to do the sanding outside and save the mess of dust everywhere in doors! Hopefully the hull is now smooth enough for the second layer of planking. Fingers crossed not too many more interruptions to the build program ! I used for the first time sanding sponges which seemed to work very well. I also did the sanding in a large box lid which kept most of the sanding residue in one place. Unfortunately when I first started sanding I forgot to put the yellow foam supports under the hull and as a consequence it has snapped the plastic tube which will carry the mainsheet off at deck level. It was originally designed to go through the cabin deck which also had the secondary purpose of holding the removable cabin in place. Hey Ho - one step forward and two back!!😐

Nearly there with the 1st layer of planking. Been a bit of a challenge especially around the stern. Once the remaining planks have been added I will shape bow and stern, fill between planks and then sand back before starting the second layer. Having planked from the deck towards the waterline I decided to because of the hull curvature the best way to complete the the planking was to then start from the keel and work towards the completed side planking. It seems to have worked out as a good method. Hope this might help future builders of this model. 😊

Planking slowly coming along. Attaching each 7mm strip of limewood with Aliphatic glue. Before fitting I'm spreading the glue the entire length of the strip to waterproof it. I've decided to put strips of Pond Noodle under the flooring to stop any build up of water and also to provide buoyancy if required - hopefully not!! It also provides a suitable scratch free support for the hull when turned upside down as the deck is already complete. It is getting more tricky as I'm now encountering curves in two directions. I'm using a Model craft electric plank bending tool which certainly helps. Unfortunately it is rather time consuming and then I keep having recurring thoughts that I need to do it all again for the second layer! Hopefully with a flat surface to glue to it will be easier - wishful thinking! 😊 Happy Easter to everyone. Cheers D