This is a scratch build from a plan designed by Basil Hardy and purchased last year. Its inspiration is from a photograph of Charles Fildes 'Fairy Queen' in the archives of the Windermere Nautical Trust.
I chose it following a gift of a Meccano steam engine which was the power for Basil Hardy's paddle steamer. These lakeland steamers were very much family possessions. The plans include a design for the drive unit as well as the hull.

I have been slowly building the parts for the paddle boxes. Nothing ever seems to go to plan but I am getting there.
The sponsons have been fun! So fragile in themselves so I have decided that they need strengthening with metal brackets, on the real thing of course the paddle boxes would not have required lifting out so this fragility wouldn't have existed. So what I have made is a small strip of tin-can with 0•5 mm holes for the pins (peco track pins) to secure them in place. The paddle boxes are 1/16 ply with balsa beams and they will need to be covered, the plans suggest double thickness of card or tin plate from a can. I still have time to experiment. They are held together by two lengths of wire and the engine room cover will go on to them to complete this.
The cabin door is a piece of 1/16 ply with detail using some mahogany veneer I have been given. It gives the appearance of a dark wood panel door, typical of Edwardian times.

I had a house repair to do and family gathering and a holiday this month and through to August, so a few pictures to show where I am up to before taking a break from the building of 'Nina'.