Well my Fire boat chums, Part 41, well so much for a quick blog! The pictures show where we are up to.
I have made the mushroom vents and the fuel caps, also the floor drains in the rear well, the mount for the tow hook.
The vents where made from some off cuts I had from cutting down the vents from my 34" boat it turns magic and is light.(picture at the bottom of page).
I had to make some plasticard rings the way I make them is to drill a hole in some squires of card and put a bolt through them and then sand them in a drill, you need to use course paper so as not to heat it up and fuse them together. The fuel caps are just brass rod turned with a small spigot to hold them, I have used a hard scriber to mark some detail on the face.
Brass hand rails, the way I do them is to just solder one ball on the end, that way you don't have to worry about solder getting every where and you don't need to think about spacing.
So that's the two main hatches finished, just some wet and dry to tidy. There are a few goose neck vents on the mid deck to make and the mounts for the crane.
There is lots to do in the rear well deck, lots of small items.
I am going to try and finish the superstructure before going on to the deck fittings, that way I can start the paint process (that I hate).

Sorry no up date for a few days as it's fiddly bits time. I had made the mushroom vents and some washers to make the base. they are simple to make as described in the last post, but make a difference in looks. I like to stick them down and use a bit of extra glue to soften them up so they finish flat and look flared in. The cleats on the front deck are made from hand rail brackets and some brass rod soldered in. The rope post on the deck was just a bit of rod turned with a short piece of rod soldered in. The port holes where commercial ones. The front deck cleats need to have some wire soldered in so that they can be fixed to the deck. I have started work on the tow hook and some pictures will follow. I do have an anchor but cannot find it so it will need mounts for it. The rest of the deck house cannot be finished until I have made the mast, and I am still thinking about how I will make it as I normally take a very long time to build normally and spend a lot of time contemplating how to do things. There are not a lot of fittings to make now there are four cleats for the deck house roof rear, mast, two foam monitors a crane and the tow hook, oh and the rescue hoses and filters, most are virtually models of there own. One thing to watch out for on the likes of the front section of the boat is the placement of fittings getting them spaced and square.

Brass time
Rear deck. 1st thing was to make the hook support two pieces of brass tube and a bit of brass strip, it would have been made from styrene but I did not have any the right size so brass it was. Just a simple cut and soft solder and a couple of 12ba bolts.

This again is brass its a part I like making, the main part is the 1/4 in square tube and some brass strips. They are three pieces equal to internal opening. They are shaped and silver soldered. I silver solder the first parts so the next bits can be soft soldered without it all falling apart. I will post a few pictures at the bottom showing some of the stages, I don't know if I will be able to make this one work as I did for the one on my 34" boat the lower picture is a picture of my 34" one blown up to A4 size the box below it is a packet of leds for my compass its about a 3/8 square the parts in the foreground is the new hook for this boat so you will get an idea of what I am making. As I have said this part will be a bit slower as the parts take that much longer.

The tow hook is now finished, so on to the crane.

The hook was made of K&S brass material and was all made with just a small minicraft drill and a small stand that go with it, it's just a case of sticking bits together with solder to form the hook. Unfortunatly this one does not work as the larger one did, but the hook does swivel and if I get around to it in the future it may get the cam mechanism to allow it to work. When it is mounted I will put a bit of the roof material (fiberglass) under the hook to strengthen the mount.

Ok not a lot tonight just fitted the hook and put some Fiberglass sheet below to strengthen it, the last thing you would want is for it to fall of, I also did the second life belt I have been going to do it for some days.
I spent some time looking at the plans and the pictures and I did a bit of a rough drawing for the mast. Also had a play with some tube trying to make it oval so I will have a go at the mast next (probably). I was going to start putting some primer on some of the parts but it is too wet and cold to do in the garage and I will not paint in the workshop as it is part of the house and the smell goes everywhere, I am still working out how to do the foot rails on the deck, I am thinking of pinning them on by drilling very fine holes to align and then Glueing them as they are going to be hard to get right, there is also the lifting hooks but it should all only take a night and the hull is ready for paint.

I have used the normal K & S brass tube the first thing I did was to fatten out some tube to form the legs, this gives it an oval look. They where then cut on an angle and with a small round file made the ends fit against the upright tube I then drilled the upright centre tube to take the cross bar and used my razor saw to cut a slot so the brace plate could be inserted in the legs also needed cutting the same way, you can just see the plate in the top picture, it helps hold it all together while you solder. I like to make a jig of some sort to hold parts while I solder it help keep it controlled so you are not rushing and pushing bits back together you only have to use a board and some pins. it also helps you check the fit as its not all moving about.
The mounting feet are just small brass strips shaped to fit, they allow the holes for the mounting holes to be offset the same as the full size mast this allows the mast to lift at the back so the mast clears the hatch when folded down. When completed the mast will be bolted and the rod in the bottom picture is just to enable it to be removed easily. it now needs the small rest at the front peek of the roof to support the mast when down, there is a row of cleats (4) to be fitted behind the mast. The spotlight and the Ariel can now be made and fitted as they are close to the mast and now we know the arch of the mast. There is a picture in the last page of the mast from a distance.

I have now made the mast rest, lower picture and a ring for the rigging to the mast, and I have put a ring through the mast to form two rings for the rigging to attach as well.

I fitted the cleats, they where held on with 3/32 brass rivets and will have a spot of superglue on them when finally fitted or if they are going to be painted I will fit them sooner. The full size boats had lifting brackets (six off) three on each side. These where so the boat could be craned out of the water for repair or shipping. They are on the edge of the deck (lower picture) and will have the foot rail against them. The way I have fitted them is to drill the deck right through and fit a length of brass strip with the end bent at 90 deg, it was then fed up from below and marked to give the correct length then removed drilled and cut to size, it will then be slid back up and epoxied in. its a right fiddly job to get them in and out and on such a small boat you need small hands that bend, that's 0 out of 2 for me but my small dental type mirror is handy. A little bit more about drilling the deck, I drilled a row of holes and put the drill bit in the drill with only a small amount sticking out so it was stronger as it is only 0.08 drill and they break and bend easy. I'll post a picture when its finished.

So the lift hooks are finished, they where a pig to do.
Trying to get them in after they where bent was a problem and they had to go in and out about 3 times each! They have just had a dab of super glue for now and will get a coat of epoxy next time I do any work on the inside, but the main thing is they are in and in the right place, I started work on the foot rails, but I have run out of med superglue and only have thin, thin is a pain, I never use it as it goes everywhere, and it did, so there is some clean up to do. I spent some time with a photo marking things to do, I find it handy this way as opposed to a list as it stands out when you are working on an area you just look at the picture and there they are. One thing that needs to be done before the foot rails are fitted is to make cutouts on the under side to match the full size boat these where so the water could drain of the deck and not be stopped by the rail.
I usually take a picture and scan it and then blow it up by a grid, then look at each area and mark on the picture details I have spotted, you get to notice lots of things doing this, one thing you do find is that No 93 and 94 where very different from the side windows to the hydrants to the rear bulkhead above the tow hook and lots of small differences also they had two re fits so there are difference depending on the time you are modelling. Anyway I spotted seven notches on the foot rails to be cut before fixing there also needs to have a drain from the mid deck so it can drain to the main deck, this is handy to know as it then sets the height of the deck, as some plans have it a lot lower when in fact it is level with the outer deck. I have looked at using hardwood for the foot rail but it will make painting a pig and as I hate that anyway I don't think I will do it. Only thing that needs doing is a pair of Ferrel's on ether side of the boat by the mid lift bracket for the rescue ladder, when I was looking at the deck rails I noticed that the bead I had fitted to the superstructure is a bit high at one point so a section will have to come off and be replaced.
Just a final point my wife came in to the workshop and saw me working and commented "so you have have fitted the melon ballers then" my brass vents. I had a break and bit my lip.
The Lower Picture shows the kick rails finished, I was able to just superglue them. in the past I have not been a fan of superglue and have only ever had luck with medium glue, but as I had run out (I ordered the wrong glue) I tried it with the small tube it came with, I don't know how you are supposed to use it but I just cut it in half and stuck it in the end and it was OK it did not go that far, just a few runs. I did notice that it dries a lot faster than the medium, and bonds fingers better, I did however glue the nice cutout's I had made in the bottom of the rails up, so will have to drill them out.
Anyway on to another job.

The top picture shows the hawser pipe, this was made from some 4mm brass pipe and I put some "kerf" cuts in it very close together about half way through. Then carefully bent it around, the picture does not show how tight the bend is so I'll probably replace it to show it.
I then silver soldered the cuts up, I used silver solder because it is finer and it is stronger and looks like brass, and also cleans up better. I then cleaned it up and soft soldered a brass washer on to it to form a flange, it should look OK when painted.
The portholes on side of the boat are different design to the ones on the front, I don't know which I like the best, what I have done is taken the outer up stand of the one on the left, the pictures I have seen show very slim looking portholes, so any comments? I have just remembered that I need navigation lights, these are a bit like the lights you would see on a 40s car wing for sidelights, I now think the £40-45 pounds may have been worth it now for the fittings kit. I seem to have lost the one fitting I had for it the anchor, will keep looking.

The lower Picture is interesting and shows why the fire floats are fitted with lifting rings, it looks like the boat was being lifted out of the water and the strops where in the wrong place or the wrong type and they have cut in to the hull full story at www.newson.co.uk/boat/spitfire. There is a lot on interesting stuff under previous work.

The last day or two has been spent tidying up the hull, I think there is just the exhausts and water outlets and generator exhausts on the transom and a flag mast that has to be removable, I have finally got the transom looking half way decent so I can go ahead with them now I am thinking of drilling the transom and making them quite deep so they look a bit better than what would look like portholes stuck on.
The other thing I have been working on is the rear tanks in the well deck, they have a grating on part of the top, so I got some kits to make some up. I don't know if anybody has made any but I hope I don't have to make any more, the kits where 33mm x 33mm and I want 55mm by about 20mm so you have to join them together, they are a pig to do and I have only just started. There must be an essay way to do them but I am stuck with a dish of yellow glue and a stick you have to trim the ends of the ones you want to join.
I had to alter the tank tops as well to take them, the races I had left were not deep enough. This build is getting more and more like my 34" build that I started as a quick build and ended up trying to detail it, I think the next boat I build I will start with the idea I am going to detail it and then I might do a quick build!

right the lower picture shows the finished grating, and the small panels I have made to go alongside them.the grating is made of boxwood and is very hard , it is not nice to hold if you have sanded it on a disc sander as it becomes very sharp and cuts in to your fingers as you try to sand the sharp edges. I am going to make a false floor for the well deck so I can line it and mark the hatches on I will use very thin plasticard and have it so it can be painted then fitted Ill try and fix the ladders to it as well, and they will be attached to the strip I have attached the tow hook tube strengtheners to .talking of the tow hook you can see now have removed it the elongated holes for the bolts, only two are used to hold id down the rest are for show, but they all have nuts on the bottom hence the slots to clear , you can just see the piece of Fiberglass through the holes that strengthens the platform.