Hi One & All
Today was the Guardsman's first sail, happy with it so will not do all the fiddley bits.

Hi One & All
Just a quick update, I have done a repaint of the hull, and today I made and fixed the mast, just have to rig it now.

The one in the brack ground is a MMM Lady "T"

O.K I have now finished the planking on the Guardsman, I think I need more practice,
I also tried out how she will look with all the deck housings.

Hi One & All
Despite the cold I have been working on the rope locker and trying to plank the deck, this how she now looks.

With the deck replaced she now looks right not broken back.

It has been two years since I last posted anything on this build, in that time I had fitted the deck and found that when I fitted the deck housing it made her look as if she had broken her back, so I removed the deck and at this point I just put her onto the shelf, for two years she has been giving me the evil eye, so that in the end I took her down from the shelf and started working on her again.
Why do we refer ships as female? Send your answer on a £50 note
I do have an idea why

Hi One and All

Having read about Martin and Bill being removed as Mod's I now feel that I will just be come a spectator from now on.

I will be moving this build to another forum, as said in Hitchhiker's Guide " So long and thanks for all the fish".

Fred

Hi One and All
Well I have been looking at the rudder on the Guardsman.

Taking into account all of your comments, I have been thinking (not a good idea) I will make a bespoke rudder but unlike the one on the plans, I hope that the new one will be fitted into the shape of the hull and not look like a barn door.

I will post updates as I go alone.

Fred

Hi One and All
Well I have spent some time reshaping the rudder into the shape as per the plans, have I done the right thing? John said that he made his rudder larger as it did not respond to well going astern, so I may just have to make an extension to the rudder at some point in time.

As I had made the cut out for the prop shaft in the keel, I now cut out the rest of the shaft tunnel and made the breakthrough into the hull, I have just placed the shaft in the hull to see were the moto mount has to go, but first I will fix some ply so that when the time comes I will have a base to fix the battery and any other items that need to go into the boat.

I moved onto making the hole for the rudder post, now when I tried the rudder post it put the rudder out of place, so that has gone out the window, so in the next week I will have to go to my local model shop ( Sussex Model Centre) to get some brass tube to fit and make a new rudder post.

Well that is it for the time being.

Fred

Tuesday 06/07/2021
Hi One and All

First of all I will answer John's question yes I am using the
vac formed hull, as I do not want to take too long on this build like my last one.

Yesterday (Monday) all the parts that I ordered from Model Boat Bits came in the post.

My first decision was not to cut off the waste, The reason I did this was that I felt that it would give me a more stable platform for when I was cutting out the rudder post and the prop shaft, I then moved on to cutting out the keel, now this fits into a grove in the hull, to make the keel more stable I put three 2.5 mm nylon bolts through the hull into the keel, I also cut some dragon teeth into the part of the keel that is glued in to the hull grove, I used a new to me epoxy from Devcon, it takes up to 12hrs to fully set. I also cut out part of the keel to take the prop shaft for when it was time to cut through the hull, Last thing was to glue the keel onto the hull and tighten up the bolts.

All being well tomorrow I will start cutting the rudder into shape.

Fred

Hi One and All

Have just come off the phone to Steve of Model Boats Bit's, I have placed an order with him for a 7" x 4mm shaft, 385 motor with a set of couplings to fit and a Medium Brass Rudder.

He said that they will be in the post tonight, so should have them some time next week.

So here end's the first instalment.

Fred