And some more
Back to front cabin windows, the two side windows are opening on the real boat so I thought I’d give it a go since there’s time to be used up. I actually made 3 attempts at the windows, the first two were OK but not to the standard I envisaged at the start of the job, so I’ll just detail the final ones which are fitted.
The first attempts had ill-defined frames made from ply so I wanted to make these better, I used brass wire to form the outer edge which was bent around a former, a left and right hand version being port and starboard, these were silver soldered together at the joint. These wire frames were epoxied onto a ply backing and then the ply was shaped to the form of the wire frame, the centre aperture was marked out using a "pencil and washer" to give an exact width and form following the outside profile this was then taken out with the scroll saw. A final trim and sanding followed by a coat of etch primer they were then put aside whilst I made the Plexiglas window. After final painting the window “glass” was secured in place using canopy glue. Since the windows are opening there had to be a hinge system, and for this I used some brass piano hinge that was only 2.5mm when closed. I used some 0.5mm pins to secure the hinge to the frame along with a careful dab of cyno. Now final fix to the cabin again 0.5mm pins were used. The window needs some sort of “hold open” system so I bent a piece of brass wire and drilled a hole in the lower front frame through the cabin structure, this formed a sliding action capable of keeping the window open. As the window opening is effectively double-glazed there’s no chance of any water ingress,🤞 hopefully

Securing straps for foam hoses
(This was done some weeks earlier)
The hoses in the rear cockpit need to be secured to the foam tanks so I decided to make some leather straps with brass buckles. I used some 2mm brass plate and drilled a 6mm hole, then filed it to a square and then a radius was put around all the edges and then it was finally polished. I fitted a brass pin that swivelled to lock the leather strap to complete the buckle. The leather straps was cut to 6mm and then drilled with holes to secure it around the buckle then at the other end a number of holes were drilled.

The Crash tender is all but finished now so I thought I’d use the lockdown time to make some of the nice to have/non-essential bits.
The rescue ladders are made from brass brazing rod using the supplied picture to scale the item to the boat. all pieces were cut to size and bent to shape, each piece was then pinned into position and then soft soldered. After a final dressing the ladders were etch primed and the sprayed with a white gloss. I then made some brass clips to hold them in position which match the boat hook clips.

At last the water pump has arrived, I had a cancelled order, then after ordering again from another supplier they managed to lose the order, finally someone managed to sell me a pump and deliver it, just two months wasted
The pump is a 6V Dosing pump Peristaltic Head which gives an interrupted flow as if the boat is just ticking over at a standstill. The water supply is taken from the main feed to the ESC just as it enters the boat, however this water only flows when the prop is forcing water through it and as the smoker will only operate when the boat is stationary the pump had to be a self-priming type.
Both the air and water pump needed a mounting device which could secure them in the hull, I decide to mount these in the same bulkhead as the main drive motor so as to not make it stern heavy, however a final “bath test” may change the location so they are only Velcroed in position. The piping made for interesting routing as I really don’t like to see loads of pipes criss-crossing all over the place so I routed it through the same holes as the wiring which is just below the deck level and goes through each bulkhead with a 12mm hole, with hindsight I wish I’d made this hole something in the order of 20mm, however I managed to get the tubes through each bulkhead using my treading wire which has been resident in the holes since wiring commenced. On the bench trial all worked as planned and the increased length of pipe didn’t make any difference, I just need to “bath test” the system now

This job has been hanging around like a bad smell, when I finished the hoses the clip to secure then seemed a bit of a let-down. I decide since I had time on my hands I would make an over engineered solution to the “clip”. A piece of brass plate was guillotined to overall dimensions, then two 16mm holes were machined to form the radius of the hoses. This was then cut along the centreline to give the two halves. I made a centre locking bar which will hold the hoses in place. The three pieces were then soft soldered together and cleaned up before getting a coat of clear lacquer, finally this was fitted into the inside of the transom wall.

The Perspex laser cut windows are a surprisingly good fit requiring only minor trimming to make a good fit. I secured them into the frames using propriety canopy glue. First putting a light bead of glue around the hole and then holding a piece of ply on one side, then pressing the glazing panel into its hole ensured it was flush with the outer cabin faces. Any excess glue was gently removed with dampened cotton buds before it dried. The kit supplies window frames which I wanted to add a rain lip on the top edge which I made from pieces of plasticard and glued them on prior to painting with aluminium paint. These were then positioned against each window and secured again using canopy glue.
The front cabin side windows on the real boat are opening windows albeit only to ventilate the cabin so they don’t open a full 90 degrees. I wanted to try and include this feature in my model so I made a ply outline the same size as the windows and then cut the window area out and fitted a Perspex piece, this then required a hinge mechanism, a simple dolls hose hinge, a 150mm length from the model shop. The hinge was pinned to the frame using 0.5 mm brass pins with a touch of epoxy.
The centre window has a Kent Clear View unit fitted so this has to be made using some black Perspex bar and some flat sheet, the outer ring was machined with a recess to accommodate the supplied Perspex circle and a diameter on the reverse to fit into the hole on the supplied screen, these were then glued in position using canopy glue. A small triangular piece was made with an arm extending to the centre of the unit; again this was fixed in position with canopy glue. Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of the manufacture and just remembered when it was fitted
The two front side cockpit windows on the real boat are opening, so I’ll be tackling that a bit later.

The boat has 2 types of boat hook one is a hook and the other looks like the window pole we had at school to open the top windows in the hall. Both these were first identified by Rob who got some from EBay and did a transformation job on them, so I’m really just copying his. I decided because we are now in lockdown the maiden voyage may well be a long way off so I have plenty of time to take more time over some of the fittings not yet made. The hook and I’ll call it a “sash” window hook are made from brass tube with the hook tapered then bent and the sash was bent then soldered together, both were then etch primed and painted with gun metal paint. The ends of the poles were wound with red silk thread to simulate a rope handle this was then treated with a coat of lacquer.
Hooks to hold the poles to the cabin sides were made with some 0.75mm brass sheet and bent round a small jig to ensure they were all the same. Holes were drilled in the cabin side making sure they only went 5mm deep they were then treated with wood hardener followed by an 8BA thread, the hooks were lacquered and left to dry overnight and fitted the following day.
Just as an aside you will see a number of abrasive sticks in the pictures; I make these from coffee stirrers using double sided tape and sticking various grades of wet and dry to them. I find them so useful for cleaning up my brass fittings prior to polishing, you can snip off the used ends when used and reshape as required to get into difficult areas.

The prop shaft was fitted during the initial build and lined up with the motor as close as possible however the final fitting takes a little more time. The first obstacle to overcome is the brass propeller I purchased has a 4 mm thread and the shaft is a 5 mm thread. Because of the shape of a propeller it is impossible to hold it in a tree jaw chuck or indeed the collets, this means that a jig has to be designed in order that the propeller can be held in a three jaw chuck perfectly true. The jig is quite difficult to descried but it has to fit around the parallel part of the prop (which is only between the blades), and to ensure concentricity the point of the prop also needs to be supported. Now secure and running perfectly true the new thread can be machined. To increase the hole size it can’t be drilled out using a normal drill, this is because the drill will be pushed off centre by the uneven cutting of the existing 4mm thread, so the hole is enlarged using a stub flat bottom drill, or a slot drill this will ensure the hole is machined true. The thread can now be cut in the newly machined hole.
The motor and shaft can now be aligned; initial alignment is done by a solid brass connecter which is then replaced by the flexible coupling. Because the motor mount is made of wood supported by wood and a prop shaft mounted in wood, a final tweak can be made with the motor running and observing the “note” of the motor which will alter when the best alignment is achieved

I have been looking at all sorts of alternative smoking devices and have now come to a system that I think will work for me. I purchased a vaping device which I felt would be a self-contained unit , easily charge easily replenished and would work for a long enough period for a day’s sailing. The system comprises of :-

1 An ecig devise - Smok Stick V8 Kit
2 A water pump –Dosing Pump Mini Peristaltic Self-Priming
3 An air pump DC 5V 6V Mini 370 Motor Air Pump Vacuum Pump Self-Priming
The e cig required some modification in that I needed it to work by a simple switch action that could be incorporated in an electronic circuit rather than the push button on the side of the unit. So I decided to dismantle the unit with some help from You tube the end caps are a push fit in the end of the tube and they are a tight fit. The guy in the video attacks the unit with a rather large hammer, I took a more gentile approach and mounted it in the lathe collects and gently wiggled it loose. This seems simple but it took an hour to release it. Having got the internals out I could see the on/off switch which was part of a circuit board and had tiny soldered joints. Using the multi-meter I determined the terminals that switched on/off and using a big, big, magnifying glass and a modified soldering iron tip I was able to attach two wires. I drilled a small hole in the base and fed the wires through then refitted the end caps, the unit can now be operated either by the button or just connecting the two wires.
I now need an electronic devise to switch the components on/off at varying periods, this is where my electronics expertise comes in – “call a friend” Graham93 Warrant Officer another member on the site had offered to help me out so I gave him details of my requirements which was :-

An E cig device which requires switching on/off pulsed at 3 sec on and 3 seconds off this also needs, at the same time to switch the water pump & air pump on/off at 1sec before the ecig and stay on for 4 Sec and off at the same time. However Graham said he could make the timings’ variable which meant that with experiments I could make the devise work to optimum safety and look realistic. The starting point for timings was:-

See table (table wouldn't reproduce in the text Pic 3)

The device was delivered after a week and it also came with a two page instruction manual, so I wasted no time in testing it, albeit out of the boat and it worked perfectly, at this point I didn’t have the final pump unit. So I then started to fit all the parts into the boat which will let me try it in the bath!

Many thanks to Graham for his contribution to this smoker, It has really performed well.

Ecig smoker

▶️

Electrics continued
The size of the electrical requirements for this vessel seems to be mirroring the real thing.
I need to finish the assembly of the front cabin roof so I can run the wiring harness through the cabin interior before I finally fit all the flooring and control panel. This also means that the cabin lighting has to be fitted as well, these are the imitation strip lights I made earlier, there are 3 in the front cabin, 4 in the mid cabin, and 4 in the rear cabin. The wires all pass through the pre drilled holes and hopefully will be all hidden under the Port and Starboard sides of the boat, they then go into the box containing the circuit board. The pump for the fire monitors needs wiring, and the Turnigy switching device installing to allow the water to be switched on/off from the T/X. Leads will be made up to go from the receiver to the two fire monitor servos. The power for the lights is from a 6V 2500ah battery which will also power the pump for the fire monitors.

First to finish is the wiring in the front cabin roof, I have worked out that I need to bring 8 wires from the roof down into the front cabin and then back to the control box and the spotlight rotation servo lead back to the transmitter (you may remember that the roof is on a hinge system and lifts up). I have used an 8 pin JST Lipo Balance Lead Cable Plug Sets which is quite small enough to be unobtrusive. All the wires come to a socket which is mounted in the sliding cabin recess. The 8 wire leads then goes down to another socket which is mounted above the centre window where the wires continue down two tubes mounted in the window frame and exiting in the front bulkhead space, they can now travel down the side of the boat and exit to the control box and receiver.

Next to complete are the cabin lights, all wires are brought back to the control box and separated into 3 plugs, (front cabin - mid cabin - rear cabin) the filaments are very delicate and need protecting. I used some 0.5 mm polycarbonate sheet. Time for another jig, I used a 5mm steel bar fastened to a piece of 5mm x 10mm wood, this needed to have a mating slotted piece to create the cover. I cut some 20mm strips. 150mm long these were heated with a hot air gun and then it was pressed into the jig, the covers were trimmed to length and then fitted to the light fitting with canopy glue.

The last to be wired are the tow light, the navigation lights and the front cabin “dash board” lights (which are 6v), The tow light and navigation lights are wired straight to a terminal in the power box and the dash lights are wired through another switch and back to the 6v battery.
Each of the sets of lights were checked as they were installed and so far all worked as expected, so now all the wires are tucked away in the under deck space.