Now that all the holes are cut and finished in the superstructure, its time now to apply its white primer coat. The grey primer was purely to make it easier to spot any blemishes in the mould and alsoits an easier colour to work with, when making alterations or repairs. White is too bright a colour to spot defects in.
Firstly, the antI slip coating was applied to the roof and engine cover area. For these areas I used a sheet of emery cloth, 300 grit. I first cut a paper template to the roof shape, remembered to cut out a section for the roof number and then mixed an ample supply of epoxy resin, coated the back face of the emery with the glue then carefull placed on the roof, making sure to gently smooth all the air bubbles out. I then cut similar templates for the engien covers and hatch tops and glued them on too.
yes, I do know there are aerosols available to put this type of finish on, but being as this is a flat surface, its just as easy to do it this way and less messy having to do loads of masking off. Once the grit paper has had a coat of primer, then a couple of coats of top colour, the roughness smooths out a little, but leaves the antI slip effect visible. Don't what ever you do, use a hogh number grit paper, or once you have applied all the pain coats, it will be too smooth as you have filled all the gaps up with paint, be brave and use a low number grit!
You will notice in the latter pics, the orange top coat has already been applied to the hatch openings, prior to them being masked off for the top coat to go on.

Just thought I'd give you a glimpse of how the mersey actually "looks" currently. 👍
it is difficult some times to visualise on how the whole boat looks from just a few "build update " pictures posted from time to time, so as a treat, here you go !
Hope you all approve. 😯

Now that the white prinmer has had sufficient time to fully dry [3 days]. its time enough to put the top coat on. Please, take my advise, NEVER try to paint top coat over primer in the SAME day ! the thinners will not of evapourated out of the primer paint, before you then over spray it with another coat. Ok, it may seem good enough today, but a few months down the line, the paint begins to move and craze, or at worst, starts to show signs of very minute little bubbles or blisters 😭 . This is the thinners in the pain escaping and the only way it can, is by softening the upper layers, till it reaches the surface again. So, PLEASE........... TAKE...........YOUR........TIME 😰 when painting. it works out in the long run and means you can leave the paintwork alone ever after, well apart from minor "touch ins" due to accidental knocks.
A light dust coat was applied, allowed to dry for an hour, then a second coat sprayed on. this was left overnight to fully dry, then a third and final coat applied. This was left for 6 hours to "flash dry" and all the masking removed. it was then left at "room temp" to fully cure for 3 days before moving or "touching". 👍

This is why its always better to be able to "switch over" between different bits of a build, so whilst one is glueing or paint is drying, you can crack on with another different bit, for attaching later.
The surface of the paint may seem dry to the touch, within a few hours, but LEAVE ALONE > 😟 untill fully cured, or any heavy handling of the painted surface will cause the outer layer to split and crack and the finish is destroyed and time to start all over again. 🔨 🔨

Now that the paint has had 24hrs to reach "touch" dry and is reasonably safe to lightly handle, I applied the roof decal. Reason? with teh paint slightly "soft" it give better adhesion to the decal and less risk of them lifting on super hard paint surfaces.

Kindly note that the "uneven paint finish" you see is the antI slip surface showing through. This will look far better once the matt clear coat is applied later to these specific areas.

Now that the main colour coat has had sufficent time to fully dry. I have now applied the matt clear coat to the antI slip panels. Now its possible to see clearly what they should look like.
Sometimes its not possible to get the exact colour you want in matt finish, [not unless you have a bottomless pit for a wallet!] so you have to put up with the extended time and effort, in painting, waiting to dry and then applying a further coat.

The engine deck hatch covers have now been refitted and the "speedline" window kit has been built up and bonded in place, remembering that we have already "test fitted and numbered" these window when the window apertures were fist cut and filed to get a pefect fit, So refitting them was as easy as checking the numbers marked in pencil on the inside face of the cabin, checking the numbers on the masking tape on the window "packs" and fitting them. Due to the "fit" of these windows and the way they easily go together, you only need to carefully use plastic weld or revell "contacta" liquid and they will hold themselves in to the frame. Once fitted and the gule fully dried, I painted the outer frames with tamiya "titanium silver" so as to give a "aged stainless" look, rahter than using chrome silver which I did do a test with and looked to bright and shiny.

Some people find electrics a walk in the park, whilst others struggle and have many sleepless nights. But, so long as you always follow the instructions sent with any electrical item, you cant go wrong. yes, ok its a "men thing", we , er "only look at the instructions when it dont work first time" then its time to reach for the instructions, but with electronics, one crossed wire can be disaster and can blow an electronic circuit in miliseconds! the system I fitted cam from Action Electronics and was bought as a complete package, so not only did I buy the twin motor controller [esc], but the sound system too, thats why the electrical board is quite full of bits and bobs.
1/ The twin batteries feed through a circuit board, which prevents backfeed between them, so stops any battery damage. This then supplies power to the main circuit board. This then supplies power to the motor controller, as well as then "offering" power outputs for other items, like lights/ radar motors, winches/etc.
2/ The sound system consists of the main sound controller, which then links to the amplifier and then on to the waterproof speaker. The main controller had the addition of a "switcher unit" plugged in, so I can also operate a selection of "other sounds" within the selected range of programmed sounds. So I can vary, by "flicking" the one joystick on the transmitter down, once for one sound, twice for a second........and so on up to 5. it saves having to install seperate sound boards for horn/siren/fog horns, its all built in to one panel.
3/ The dual motor controller can also be programmed, it arrives standard set for "tank steering", so assists with high speed turns by cutting the inner engine on the turn, You can alter the setting to allow for simple dropping of motor rpm's on the inner engine too, so always worth remembering. the motor power outputs then pass through a fuse panel, as a protector for both the motors in case you get a plastic bag or other debris snagged round a propeller, but also then protects the electronic motor controller from damage too from power overload.
NEVER install electrics in amodel without installing a fuse protection. a fuse costs pence to replace, once you have rectified the fault, even something as simple a a bit of plastic bag, a speed controller or motor costs a lot more and means your sailing is over, whereas removing the offending article and replacing a fuse takes a few minutes, but you are then back out sailing again.
Providing you remembered to pack a few spare fuses in your boat tool kit of course ! [ha ha].

What basically starts out as a single piece of chequer plate, needs a little "mod" before fitting. I found it easier to first cut out the wt access hatch, complete with its outer surround. Then cut a same size piece of black plasticard to the "hatch piece". Then cut the outer surround piece off the hatch "chequer plate piece". The hatch is now correct size and once the small handle hole is drilled out it can be glued on to the centre of the black piece. Then glue the black item tinside the cutout you created earlier. Thus the hatch stands slightly "proud" as original, it has the detailling of the outer "sunken" seal surround and is of same material as the deck floor and it matches the cross hatching of the chequer plate. All that is left is for the small piece of plastic rod to be glued over the centre of the hatch handle hole and the complete floor piece, bonded fully to the flying bridge deck.

The rear panel of the deck floor is fairly simple in construction, but remember to cut the panel behind the step out to allow you to fit some alloy mesh behind it, so you can see in to the underfloor stowage locker. The step itself has more little pieces of angles and shapes to contend with, but I found that by shaping the step plate from some spare chequerplate first, rounding the ends and then fitting first, made it easier to then "build up" to it and get all the angles right first time.

Now that the engine deck hatches are on and hinged, I have now made up the underlying panels to accept the electrical master and function switches.
the most forward hatch contains the main power switch, the second one has nav lights, engine sound, radar and spot lamp switches [for now]. the thrird hatch was left as original as a stowage locker and will have some ropes and tools added later.
This is simply to allow easy access to the operating switches, as it saves having to keep lifting the superstructure on/off ever time to sail or switch off, so once the master batteries are in and connected, the cabin is only lifted off to either swap flat batteries for fully charged ones, or to remove the batteries once sailing is over for the day.
batteries:- 2 x 14,8v 5000mahr Lipo for the drive motors [one each] and a 12v nimh 3300mahr stick for the sound unit.
Steady cruising, these give me about an hour sailing time, if I decide to use full ahead for the majority of the sailing time, it will drop to about 30 minutes!