There’s a lot of windows on the cabin of this boat, 16 in all if you include the one at the forward end of the engine room roof, all of which require a frame too and as I don’t intend to detail the interior I have decided to apply a ‘tint’ to all the windows to obscure the interior.

I started with the three roof windows by making a template of the window apertures which I could then transfer to some 1.5mm clear Lexan sheet and cutting and trimming all of them to be a friction fit in the roof apertures.
The Lexan is thin enough to be easily shaped by scoring a snapping and the edges scraped and filed to remove any burrs or rough edges.

The roof windows on the real Pilot Boats have a heavy tint to make looking skyward up to a tall vessel alongside a lot easier in bright daylight and I simulated this by applying some window tinting film that is normally used on car windows.
This film was bought as a ‘sample size’ from an eBay seller and is described as ‘Limo’ which means it only allows a 5% light transmission.
The film has to be applied to the outer surface of the ‘window’ using a combination of soapy water, lint free cloths and rubber squeegees and to be honest is not at all easy to apply 😠 without getting trapped air or specks of dust or other contaminants that cause microscopic bubbles and bumps in the process, but after persisting I managed to get some passable results 😊.

The film was left to bond to the Lexan overnight before it was trimmed back with a sharp scalpel blade.

The roof window frames need to be made as narrow as possible so these were made from 1mm styrene sheet cut into 3mm strips which were glued together to form the frames with fillets fitted to the inside corners while overlaid on a paper template.
When the glue had set the frames were removed from the paper backing and the internal and external corners rounded with files and the framed flatted on both sides to smooth them and provide a good surface for painting.

The paint finish is two coats of metallic silver and a couple of coats of clear lacquer.

Fitting them into the roof was very straightforward, the friction fit was helpful to hold them in place while canopy glue was used to fix them, the thin glue was applied with a fine brush around the edges of the windows and capillary action drew the glue into any gaps between the Lexan window and the ply roof panel.

The frames were also fixed down with canopy glue applied as a series of dots around the underside of the frame and held in place with masking tape until set. Any excess glue is easily wiped away with a damp cloth and it dries completely forming a very strong bond.

When all the glue had set the windows were polished with a soft cloth and I think that the overall look of the roof windows is very good 😎.

I’m slowly adding a lot of previously made detailing items to the cabin structure and these are some engine room air intake/ventilation grilles that I made at quite an early stage of the new cabin construction and rather than cutting holes for these in the cabin sides I chose to simulate them with some false panels.

I started by making some card mock-ups to determine the right size and position using some ‘photos of the real boat as a reference and the dimensions transferred to some 1.5mm ply and cut to shape with a sharp knife.

The centre portion of the panels were cut out and then a framework of 1.5mm ply strips fixed to the rear of the panels to form a framework around the edges to add rigidity and also to form a recess into which I could fit a .7mm black Plasticard backing piece and a piece of fine stainless steel mesh to simulate the intake grille.

The two ply panels were flatted down, the edges and corners lightly rounded and then given several coats of sanding sealer followed by two coats of metallic silver. The fixings around the perimeter of the vents were simulated by making some waterslide decals to simulate the bolt heads.

The graphics were generated in Adobe Illustrator, printed out onto some ‘clear’ decal paper and then coated with some clear gloss lacquer to fix the black ink to the clear decal film.
The graphics were applied to the panels in one piece and fixed with some Micro Sol and Micro Set solution to bond them to the paint surface and when almost set the centres of the decals were cut out using a scalpel blade to leave just the outer portions.
An earlier experiment applying the decals with the centres already cut out was not too successful as the decals were very difficult to position without causing tears and ripples in the film. When successfully applied and fully set the decals were over-sprayed with some clear gloss lacquer to protect them.

When the paint and lacquer had fully hardened the black Plasticard and stainless steel mesh were glued into the recesses on the rear of the panels using some canopy glue and placed under some weights to keep the panels flat as the glue set.

The positions of the panels were marked out on the cabin sides using some masking tape strips as guides and the completed panels were glued to the sides of the cabin using some dabs of epoxy resin and the panels were weighted to hold them flat as the epoxy set.

I think the finished panels are quite a good representation of the intake panels with the combination of the matt black backing and the steel mesh giving them the illusion of some internal ‘depth’.

Last blog update before Xmas........

The cabin windows are made in much the same way as the roof windows were made using paper templates of the window apertures transferred to the Lexan plastic for cutting and shaping.
The cabin side windows are made from 3mm Lexan to match the thickness of the ply used in the construction and the front windows from 1.5mm for the thinner ply in that place.
All were made to be a tight fit in the apertures with the front face of the Lexan completely flush with the outer face of the cabin. The protective film on both faces of the Lexan was peeled off after the shaping was done and then washed to remove all traces of contaminants before the tinting film was applied.

The front and side windows were finished with some ‘dark’ 20% film on all of the outer faces and left to bond to the Lexan overnight. After trimming the surplus film around the windows they were glued in place using thin canopy glue which from my previous experience with the roof windows is drawn into the minute gaps between wood and plastic by capillary action.

The window frames were made from strips of Plasticard in the same way as previously described for the roof windows.
At this point I ran out of plastic filler for smoothing the corner fillets and on the advice of some fellow forum members I used a concoction of styrene shavings and poly cement to make a paste which worked sufficiently well until I could source a new supply of Humbrol filler.
The forward cabin window on each side has some additional pieces of framework to simulate a sliding section of the window.
All of the frames were flatted on a fine grade sanding plate and painted with metallic silver spray, no priming required as the Plasticard doesn’t really need it after it has been abraded thoroughly.
A final coat of clear gloss lacquer on all the frames was sprayed as a protective finish.
I took particular care to get the alignment and spacing of all the windows correct and found that using straight edges on the side windows and applying masking tape ‘guides’ for the front windows helped greatly .
All were secured with a tab of tape or weighted down to ensure that the frames bonded completely flat on the cabin, once again using dots of canopy glue on the frames.

The forward engine room roof window is just a plywood square with a Plasticard frame, the ply painted matt black and a piece of Lexan over the ply with the 20% film applied to form a ‘dummy’ window.

Not too much to do now before this model is finally finished....... but for now I'd like to say a big THANK YOU to all that have been following my blog and giving me so much advice and encouragement 👍😀👍.

A Very Merry Christmas to All 😍.
Robbob.

A quick update on the cabin detailing as I near completion of the Pilots Boat.

Fixing the windows and frames in place would have been very difficult with the cabin handrails in the way so it’s time to do the final fitting of the handrail components.
They were made in two sections for ease of construction and handling with a jointing component at the front in the form of a 3mm tubular socket for the handrail and a wire reinforced butt joint for the safety rail.

All of the supporting uprights were threaded during construction for fixing through the cabin sides and engine room roof and it was just a case of getting all of the threaded sections through all of the fixing holes without scratching the paint as a certain amount of distortion of the rails is required to get them to line up with all of the fixing holes one at a time.

Thankfully both pieces went in place without incident and I could then fit the 2mm nuts and washers and tighten them all with a small box spanner.

The jointing of the rails at the front just involved cleaning the mating faces of the joints, passing a jointing wire through the safety rail jointing holes and twisting to draw the faces together.
A dab of flux and a touch with a 100w soldering iron was all that was required to soft solder the joint and the wire twist snipped back and filed smooth with the safety rail on its front face to leave an almost invisible joint.

A quick clean up to remove any remaining flux and a spot of brush painted etch primer and metallic silver saw the joint completed.
The ‘rope’ grip was then put on the handrail, this took a while as it needed to be ‘sewn’ around the rail through the gap between the safety rail one turn at a time and completed in two sections either side of the soldered tubular joint.

In the last picture the life raft container and engine roof window have been placed but not fixed yet just to see how the rails look at the cabin front at this stage.

Unlike the windscreen wipers on cars which sweep in an arc the wipers on the Southampton Pilot Boats sweep in a linear motion.

Close examination of some of the ‘photos show the wiper arms extending from the mechanism boxes and the rails that they run on and the pivot point of the arms.

The three wipers boxes are fixed to the front of the cabin just below the windows and to make these boxes I laminated some styrene bar to make up the thickness required and then trimmed them to the right dimensions.

The fixings for the boxes are two styrene rods with a short tubular spacer and matching holes were drilled through the boxes and then used as a template to drill the corresponding holes in the cabin front panel.

The spacer is required to ensure that the wiper arms are distanced correctly so that the arms and blades meet the front surface of the windows correctly.

The arm pivots were made from some short round styrene bar glued to the top surface which was then drilled through and into the box and a piece of 2mm brass tube was inserted to form a socket into which the wiper arm will be fitted.

The wiper blades were made from some styrene bar shaped and rounded to simulate a wiper blade and rubber. A short piece of styrene box section form the ‘socket’ into which the wiper arm will be fitted.

The wiper arm is a short piece of 1mm brass rod bent at each end to the correct angles so that with the boxes in position on the cabin fronts the wiper blades sit centrally and completely flat on the window surface.

The arms were removed from the boxes which were then sprayed with some gloss white with three small black dots to simulate some fixing screws.

Some further research enabled me to identify the manufacturer and I produced some graphics in Adobe Illustrator to simulate the type and serial number plate in black and a ‘Wynne’ logo in blue and these were printed in various sizes onto some clear decal paper.

I chose the most appropriate scale of decals to look correct on the boxes and applied them after which I sprayed the boxes with some clear gloss lacquer to seal and protect them.

The brass wiper arms were then fixed into the arm pivots with some glue and with the boxes temporarily placed on the cabins they were adjusted to sit flush on the window surfaces.
After the glue had set the wiper assemblies were removed and the pivots arms and blades painted with metallic silver and matt black. Some satin acrylic lacquer was later brushed over these to protect the silver and black finish. The boxes remain gloss white with clear gloss lacquer.

The three linear windscreen wiper assemblies were finally glued in place on the cabin fronts using a small dab of canopy glue which will fix them in place sufficiently but allow them to be removed if required at a later stage. 😊

Following up on Martin’s suggestion I have added a simulated track slot to the wiper boxes.
I didn’t have any black Trimline tape as used by Skydive130 on his model but I did have some silver self-adhesive vinyl that I trimmed a 1mm strip from and applied to all three of the wiper boxes.
The effect is very much the same if not better and is a great finishing detail to the wiper assemblies 😎

A brief update on a small feature....

The boat hooks on the Pilot Boats are recessed into the cabin sides so that there are no protrusions for the crew to get caught on while walking on the decks and so when designing and constructing the new cabin for this Pilot Boat I included these recesses.

The hooks I have used are a ready-made item that I’ve used before on both my RAF Crash Tender and Thames River Police Boat, they come in set of three and are available in different lengths.
I chose the nearest size to suit, trimmed them to length and added some of the cotton cord that I used for the handrail to form a hand-grip. The white metal hooks required very little ‘fettling’ with files and abrasives and the poles were given two coats of some acrylic teak stain to finish them off.

They are fixed into the cabin recesses with a short length of tinned copper wire pre-formed into a kind of ‘staple’ which were also given a couple of coats of teak stain.
I drilled some 1.2mm holes through the back of the recesses and with the boat hooks in place I passed the 'staples' through the holes and secured them by twisting the wires on the inside of the cabin.

Quite a nice little detail I think 😀

The radar assembly needs to be fitted into the cabin roof before I can do the final fit of all the lighting features as I’ll need to incorporate the wiring to the drive motor into the loom of wiring that will be formed with all of the lighting wiring.

I made and tested the radar unit some time ago and it’s designed to fit through the roof panel and couple with the drive motor and gearbox on the underside.
I used some rubber spacers to add a small degree of resilience and adjustment and fixed the motor in place with two fine machine screws directly into the ply reinforcing block that I fitted during construction.
The wiring from the motor was terminated on a two pin plug which mates with a corresponding socket glued to the roof panel to extend it through the loom to the lighting circuit board.

With the motor in place I fitted the column into the roof, fitted the drive shaft and fixed the radar bar to the shaft with the grub screw.
After temporarily connecting a 1.5v battery to run the motor the gearbox fixings were loosened off and adjusted for perfect centring and minimum friction with the motor running before being tightened again.

Once I was happy with the alignment I removed the radar column and bar so that I could continue with the other roof detailing without the danger of breaking it 😨

It will be eventually fixed in place with canopy glue in the very final assembly of the cabin.
And now I can get all of the lighting and wiring installed 😁

Either side of the radar unit are a Foghorn and a Loudhailer which are nice small details to add to the roof of the cabin 🔈 📢 😀

Cheating slightly…I used a couple of ready-made units from RB Model (based in Poland) as a starting point as they are just about the right scale and made from turned aluminium and brass to a high standard.

The foghorn needed very little modification other than a supporting leg at the ‘loud’ end and a few coats of Halfords ‘Appliance White’ gloss paint.

The Loudhailer on the other hand needed a great deal more modifying to convert it from a foghorn.

I started by cutting off the flared tube halfway down its length and flatting the flared end to increase its surface area so that I could superglue a 3mm thick piece of styrene to it which, when set firmly, I could roughly shape using a Stanley knife to extend the flare of the aluminium horn onto the styrene and also trim it to a circular shape.
Prior to gluing this piece on I had drilled a 5mm hole through it which I will later open up to create the internal flare.
I put this piece into the chuck of my crude Black & Decker horizontal drill holder ‘lathe’ and shaped the styrene end with files and abrasives to blend the metal and plastic together to form an enlarged horn.

The internal flare was created by using a tapered grinding stone in the drill chuck while rotating the work piece by hand to create the correct profile, a very delicate operation because I was worried that the interface between metal and plastic was now very much smaller and they could very easily separate if too much force was used.
Happily this didn’t happen and the new enlarged horn was successfully formed.

I then reduced the length of the aluminium tube by using a saw blade as a parting tool and cleaned it up with a file. The base of the horn was formed from the foghorn base by filing down the remaining ‘stump’ into a taper and reducing its diameter until it fitted neatly into the new horn and then the two pieces superglued together to complete the assembly.

After cleaning, the new loudhailer was given a few coats of white gloss to match the already completed foghorn.

I carefully gauged the correct positioning of these horns on the cabin roof either side of the radar unit using some photos of the real boat and made a paper drilling template.
After drilling the mounting holes they were fixed into the roof using the 2.5mm threaded stubs and a corresponding nut on the inside of the roof which had to be recessed into the wood so that they would not foul with the radar motor.

There is a third unit between these horns on the real boats, a square black object.
Perhaps an infra-red floodlight for use with night viewing equipment?

I just can’t identify what it is from the ‘photos that I’m working from so any ideas or suggestions would be very welcome

Whatever it is, if I decide to add it, it won’t be as tricky to make as the loudhailer 🙄
Rob.

Although I could buy some ready-made bollards I couldn’t find of any of the right style and scale to resemble the bollards on the Southampton Pilot Boats so I decided to make some from styrene now that I am feeling more confident working with plastics.
Fortunately I had the right sizes of styrene rod in my materials collection for the job and so to start I made the rectangular bases first from some 2mm styrene sheet.
Some 4mm styrene rod was bored out with a 3.2mm drill bit in a pin vice and some 3.2mm rod inserted through two pieces and glued in place with the correct spacing to form the cross pieces.
I chose to trim all of the upright posts to length after this process as drilling them accurately at the correct heights was proving to be very difficult, it was far easier to get the basic piece together with the correct horizontal spacing of the posts first and trim to height later.

The trimmed pieces were then glued to the bases and when set the horizontal bars were trimmed and filed to length. To finish the pieces off I cut some very short sections of 4mm tube and 5mm rod to cap all of the ends and sanded them down to the desired thickness.
I used the tube as I didn’t have any of the right size rod for the horizontal caps but after glueing they were filled with some Humbrol filler.
After cleaning up all of the bollards they were given a couple of coats of Halfords metallic silver and gloss lacquer.

I don’t want to rely on just glue to fix the bollards to the deck so I pin drilled up through the bases and into all of the uprights so that I could insert a piece of 1.5mm brass rod to form fixing pins that will go through the deck skins and into the ply panels beneath them for a good mechanical fixing in addition to the glue.

To ensure accurate positioning of the fittings I made up some paper drilling templates and then drilled the deck to take the 1.5mm pins. The front and rear bollards were all glued in place with canopy glue for ease of clean-up with water if any oozed out onto the textured deck surface.
The side bollards were glued into the cabin recesses with canopy glue but for those I used some epoxy to secure the pins on the underside of the cabin deck. I was then finally able to glue the front pulpit and rear railings into the deck, again using canopy glue.

For the fairleads I thought I would definitely cheat and use some really good ready-made ones cast in white met that I have previously used on my RAF Crash Tender.
These fairleads were very generously supplied to me by Mike Cummings at Vintage Model Works and they are a perfect style and size for my needs and only required a bit of fettling to remove casting marks.

Thanks Mike...much appreciated 👍😀👍

They were etch primed and then brush painted with some Tamiya acrylic ‘Gun Metal’ paint and when dry, drilled pinned into the deck in the same way as the bollards.
That very much completes the deck fitting with the exception of an anchor which can be seen in ‘photos of the real boats.
It’s a ‘Plough’ type anchor and should be fairly easy to fabricate.......I hope 🤞😀