Hi y’all. I had mentioned in the Night Watch thread how we, as in the whole family with the exception of the Cats had come down with a bacterial infection...plus, my Christmas present, a Ro-Marin Dolly with fittings kit and fire monitor kit had been back ordered from Germany, and wasn’t due in till around New Years. It’s here now, waiting to hit my bench. Anyhow, I was off work for the holidays, getting over the crud, kinda feeling sorry for myself. I had cleaned off my bench and done a some reorganization, and I was sitting there, bored to tears. I looked at my kit stash, and I saw the little Billings kit that I had acquired in a trade. Now, this is a small boat, 14 inches long. Smaller than I like. However, the more I looked at it the more I started thinking. I pulled it from it’s resting place and started going thru it. It had 2 props, shafts, and 2 300 sizes brushed motors. I decided that, if I were to build the little beast I would have to simplify the running gear....then, I remembered I had a little 20mm outrunner and esc. So, I started from there.
Inside the kit was an addendum from the importers of the kit at the time, I think it was Hobby Expo. Anyway, the sheet recommended to have the entire deck made removable so one could access the radio gear and drive batteries. They recommended Velcro. Nope. That’s asking for a leak. Since it’s 20 years or more since this particular kit was made, radio gear and batteries have changed profusely, and for the most part, for the better. So I decided to use the outrunner with a single shaft for simplicity and to keep room for batteries and the steering servo.
I installed the shaft first, then made up a bulkhead from scrap abs and installed it into the hull, giving me just enough room for the motor and a decent solid coupler. I then decided the stock rudders were too small, so I made some slightly larger out of thin plywood. I used the kit components for the rudder linkage, I then decided where to cut my hatch, cut it out, and basically started building. Everything will be easily accessed save the rudder linkage. All the linkage is attached by z bends, I have adjustment at the servo by use of a barrel connector.
As of now the boat is basically built, I’m doing the deck details, and I had to repaint the trim line as it was pointed out to me on another board that the trim is supposed to be black, not dark blue..the person who caught my error used to work at the Coast Guard paint shop, and worked these boats, so....I fixed it.🤣
Anyway, hoping by the end of the week, maybe middle of next she’ll be done, then we’ll see how she goes. I’ve already done a leak test and amp draw, and she’s pulling about 2.5 amps at full throttle, so at least I know I’m not going to burn her up.
Cash

Okay, so this little boat is kicking my rump. I did the fwd rails this evening, they built up good, and I tried shooting them with Tamiya acrylic thinned with Mr Color lacquer thinner. Had a young man at the hobby shop give me some advice, and it works great! Shot it with my airbrush, installed it then...well, my intentions were to trim the ends where they would butt up against the cabin, maybe socket in to drilled holes by 1/16th inch or so, but after I trimmed them I realized I didn’t account for the rearward rake of the cabin😠. Humph. After thinking about it, I used some very small nylon tube that just fits over the wire, and drilled holes to suit in the cabin, they are not glued in, but will slide in place for display and to facilitate removal of the cabin/deck hatch. Not perfect, but this boats kind of an experiment anyway, I’m learning new techniques and also that my hands are way too big to work on something this small🤣🤣
Anyway, the way I did the rail is I bent it up, drilled the forward stanchion holes, lined it up and used thin ca with a micro applicator to glue the stanchions to the wire, the pulled the assembly, drilled the rest of the holes, assembled it dry then glued it together. Off the boat, paint, on the boat and glued in place.
Oh, yeah. Fixed the lights.

Quick update as it’s past midnight...got some deck details painted up and installed, and there’s a post/stanchion/thingy that has 2 rails that bend around to stanchions on either side of the details I installed. Also float tested with drive battery on board.
Cash

Evening y’all. Had the morning to myself, as my lovely bride decided to sleep in, and my daughter is at an overnight Church function. Usually I take the Studebaker61 out early Saturday morning and have breakfast with my car group, but I slept in too, stayed in bed till 830ish...so, since I didn’t roll the Hawk, I decided to knock out some more work on the lifeboat. I did the mast, mast antennas and the side rails, however, I modded the side rails to make install/removal of the drive battery more manageable. The rails are supposed to tie off ate the aft end of the upper deck, I just made them dual rail 3 posters and didn’t extend the upper rail as per the plan. This way I have a little more room to each side without wires or clumsy fingers getting caught or breaking anything. So, the boats not exactly scale, but “stand-off” scale. I also finalized my radio install and put in a floor for the battery. I have a few more minor details to work out, but for all practical purposes she’s done and awaits her maiden.
Cash

Thanks for the kind words y’all, I really appreciate it.😀