The upper deck is as the rest of the boat is balsa and I sealed it with three coats of sanding sealer and then after sanding filled any imperfections with model filler. Then comes the time to mark out where the cabin sits etc so with a pencil and ruler I start only to find that what I thought was a solid surface was similar to writing on custard. This deck must have been a soft piece of balsa sheet and also my misjudgment of how much work it takes to seal balsa. Next step fibreglass tissue and resin stippled on with a finishing skim with filler and bingo its a firm surface at last.

Well after a lot of hours I have finally got the hull sealed and all the broken bits fixed and filled,the bow was smashed at deck level and there were numerous holes in the foredeck. The upper deck and the foredeck needed sealing so out with the sanding sealer, funny thing I got quite a large tin on the day before lockdown and you guessed its gone. The outer hull got 2 coats of fibreglass resin and the inside 1 coats followed by flatting off filling and flatting again. I then blasted bits of primer on to see the faults and filled again meaning it now looks like a patchwork quilt but it sealed and smooth. Two main features stood out to me with this boat and those are the oblong windows and the small after deck, so these have to be neat the windows had been covered over with balsa glued on with evo stick and portholes put in. After removing this I was left with not only damaged but uneven sizes of windows now much improved I hope.
Ordered the new shafts just waiting for delivery so I think I might start with installing these next.

The main deck was built but the cabin had seen better days so I drew out the shapes and binned the cabin bits with a veiw to constructing it from plasticard a lot further down the line.
I have started to add some parts that were missing namely the bridge deck front which I have used some obechi sheet.
Although the hull is well built it is balsa and by the water that came in when I tested it very old dry balsa so Im fibre glassing it inside and out and hopeing that I can then get some primer on.

Got the idea for this boat after seeing a friends one in America, I found out later that not only is it a discontinued kit but getting hold of a second hand one aint easy.
So after seeing one on E Bay I bid and won, the boat has been part started and then left for what seems many years as there is damage to parts and some bits missing.
The hull has been really well built as can be seen on the photos but someone else must have had a try at it as there was balsa stuck over the windows with portholes stuck in. As for the running gear I have decided on twin screw so the single shaft has been removed and 2 new shafts ordered.