Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. Made the two sets of swing doors in the cockpit. Had no photograph so tried to imagine a 1940 deco style. The challenge was to hide all but the pin of the hinges. To do this, I cut slots into the doors at a slant, inserting the hinge so the pin is at the very edge of the door. Putting it in the center would have meant a gap between the door and frame to allow the door to open 90 degrees, exposing more hinge. I also built a storage area for my chaotic work bench. Right now there is a place for everything, but I fear it won't stay this neat!

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. Would a purchased steering wheel or a 3D one printed out from a computer be more realistic? Most likely yes, but for me that's not really the point! The challenge is to make it from scratch. There are no finished bought fittings on this boat, besides of course the propulsion and electronics. I cut down an RC server wheel for a hub, fitting brass octagonal tubing over the ’spokes’. These ran through a wood rim. Rather than shape this on a lathe, I fixed it to a Dremel and held it against a sanding block to get a perfect symmetrical shape. I filled in the tiny Allen key hole in the mounting screw with epoxy and painted the whole thing brown. Added whipping to the king spoke and brass pins in the spoke ends. It does turn!

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. The hardtop folds back in an unusual way. The pivot points are at different heights, so to ensure the top is exactly horizontal both when up, attached to the windscreen and down, folded flat on the aft cabin, the aft struts had to have a curious bend in them. Looking at old pictures, some had one bend but others were bent at both ends. The roof is of course not level as it goes up. Took a bit of trial and error, but I got it right in the end. The forward struts were made of wood, which when scaled down, would be too weak, so I made them in brass rectangular tubing filled with wood and painted them brown. The aft ones were always metal. The roof snaps firmly onto the top of the windscreen so it won't fly off unexpectedly. The hand rails were 3/16” Bass wood. A broken band saw blade made a handy drying rack for spraying them as it didn't sag!
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Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. The windscreen was a challenge. Being lazy, I wanted to be able to slide the windows in after staining and clear coating the whole thing. The windows are simple rectangles, but that's about it. To get under those low Thames bridges, the windscreen center had to fold all the way forward and the side windows fold flat. The three windscreen sections also had to fit the curved roof and cabin top. I made it first in balsa sheet, with clear packing tape joining the pieces together. When I got the angles and curves right, I used this to build the three 1/16” thick laminates of the windscreen frame, sticking scrap wood to the balsa to raise it, so the glued 45 deg joints didn't stick to the template. The frames in the middle layer are narrower to accommodate 1/16” brass channel and left open at the top, so the clear plastic could slide snuggly into the brass channels. It actually isn't difficult to make hinges from thin brass sheet, but I found 50 8mm hinges for around $5, so it wasn't worth it. I only needed 6, but plan to use more for the cabin doors. The hinges lie within the laminates, so only the pin is visible from either side. Slid scrap wood into the tiny brass channels to avoid clogging them with spray. With everything clear coated and the ‘glass' inserted, the top section of the center laminate was added and the top stained.

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. The cabin tops are on. I don't remember the hatch arrangement on the original, but besides the two hatches at the cockpit, I added two over the forward cabins and one aft. All five do slide open/closed. I remember one escape hatch over the forward V berth, but added more to show off the interior! The tops are painted first with textured spray, then a dusting of white, to give the effect of a canvas covered deck. I steamed the plywood cabin roof sections into the approximate shape, but I was still worried they would distort the frame, both from side to side and lifting the front and back when clamped, unless they were glued when the frame was actually fitted in the model. This posed a problem as the bulkheads of the model and the beams of the cabin top slide against each other, so any epoxy would inevitably run from one to the other and the cabin top insert would stay firmly attached to the model, never to be removed. I therefore glued small mounts that looked like beams, to the ply cabin roof, well away from any bulkheads. These mounts interacted with the cabin sides when the cabin roof was fitted and epoxied, and long clamps from roof to the base of the model pulled everything together. I used 10 minute epoxy as I knew I needed some time! When the insert was removed, it was easy to strengthen the joint from the inside with more epoxy. It was imperative the insert didn't change shape as the only interference fit is at the center cockpit. I’m glad to say it fits snugly along its entire 32 inch length. The cockpit has a solid fold down roof that lays on the aft cabin top. To keep in scale, the beams and edges had to be less than roughly 1/8” thick, which wouldn’t maintain the curve, so I glued larger beams to a base of solid plywood and laminated two sheets of 1/16” Bass wood sheet over it, running in opposite directions. When everything cured, I cut the whole thing off the plywood base and sanded down the beams to scale. The laminate kept the shape. I’m currently working on the folding windscreen, which with all its strange angles, is proving quite the challenge, but more on this later!

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. The windows on this boat tilt inwards to open. Like the real one, I framed the thin clear plastic with tiny brass channel (thank you Tim for giving me a huge selection of brass cut offs). The curtains were made from (you guessed it) clay. They would not be seen from above once the cabin top is glued on, so I used copious amounts of epoxy to secure and strengthen them inconspicuously along the top. The table hinges are just brass angle with a tiny brass rod glued in the V. They seem realistic even when viewed just inches away! Will use this trick again! Took her to our monthly model club meeting. I can't believe it's been a month since I last posted!

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. Cabin sides and steps done, deck painted. The hull always gave a clue, but the emerging profile and shape of the windows clearly date her. She's a lovely old classic Thames and Norfolk Broads motor yacht! The cabin sides are attached to the cockpit so the whole thing lifts off in one piece to view the cabins and access the mechanics. The decks were first painted with brown Rustoleum textured paint to give the rough effect of painted canvas decking and then sprayed with a thin coat of white. The cabin top will be done the same way. The cabin step treads would probably have slotted into the ladder sides, but this more modern design was easier to build! Likewise, I don't remember any seat backs in the cockpit, but I had to add them to make the cabin side joints strong enough. After sketching the cabin side windows in, I used a Dremel with a cutting disc to roughly cut the centers of the windows in the cabin sides, then created the final shape using a Dremel with a small drum sander. Took Rosalind to a meeting of my local model club. Our first in person meeting since Covid - vaccination a requirement.

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. Tried a different approach to the conventional boat stand, by building boat jacks and keel blocks. To ensure the boat doesn't move sideways or backwards, I cheated by adding an additional pair of blocks either side of the keel and behind the skeg. It's not noticeable and the boat is held firmly. The jacks were made of brass tubing soldered together. The threaded rod goes through the base for strength. To account for sagging etc, the height can be changed by turning the pad, like the real thing! For the base, I found a beautiful piece of Walnut at our local Rocklers (Portland, Maine). 36” by a full 10” width, which is hard to find. I don't normally bring anything to a really high gloss, but had fun with this one, getting it so I could see my reflection. The grey hair shows up beautifully! I also treated myself to a nice new router bit for the edges! No stain, but I did use a pre-stain conditioner which helped get uniform absorption, particularly along the end grain.

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. Concentrated on mechanics and running gear. Made the rudder and linked it up with the servo. Finished wiring, adding receiver etc.. The rudder was laminated wood, glued to brass tube, then encased in fiberglass. I lightly glued the fiberglass cloth to keep it in place before adding the epoxy. Secured the rudder to the shaft by running a small amount of CA glue between the shaft and rudder tube, being careful not to get it into the upper and lower bearings. Because the rudder cannot be dropped, any future repairs would involve breaking this glue joint to raise the shaft. Running the wires aft to the servo was simple as the bulkheads below the floor are all open for the length of the boat. A huge advantage, not only for this but also for later additions and repairs. Being so low in the boat, the engine room looks difficult to work on, but each section is simple to remove and the wires are long enough to lift them out of the boat.

Maid Rosalind, 1940 Thames cruiser. The beds are made! Because they would be glued down I could get away with simple self hardening clay rather than stronger fired clay. My sculpture clay contains a lot of grog for texture, so I experimented with DAS modeling clay, from Italy, which is much finer. I would use it again for this type of project. It dried hard in 48 hours, with very little shrinkage. The mattress, pillows and turndowns were all made separately, dried and glued together, as wet clay does not stick well to other clay once dried. The turndowns were formed in place but with masking tape in between for simple removal before drying. The ‘mattress’ was sprayed with brown Rustoleum textured paint to give the feel of a blanket and covered with a thin layer of red. All exposed white clay was sprayed with a fixative used for setting charcoal drawings, as it’s very absorbent and stains easily. Wasn't sure what to do with the awkward corner of mattress in the aft double, so experimented with a checkered cushion, but the jury is still out on that one!