Blog

The Kent windscreen, some small cabin & deck fittings.

Continuing to add detail to the model, the two white metal fairleads supplied with the kit were cleaned up with a file, sprayed with an etch primer and painted gunmetal grey to match the bollards. They are fixed to the deck with a brass pin and a dab of epoxy and the pin head blended in with a spot of gunmetal grey. The Kent windscreen was made in a similar way as the one on my fireboat, the outer ring is a small slice of 20mm plastic conduit that was further reduced in thickness on my sanding plate and then painted black. The screen was shaped from some clear perspex and fixed into the ring with some canopy glue. I used a 2mm brass bolt as the centre fixing, the head of the bolt rounded to a dome in my makeshift lathe, this was also painted black. The whole assembly was then fixed into the port windscreen with the bolt, no additional glue is necessary. The front sliding window on the starboard side is held in the closed position by a small threaded brass ‘stud’ with a ring on the head while the window on the port side is intended to slide back to an open position so another stud was fitted further back. This is to allow access to an internal cabin feature that I’m developing😉. Two slightly larger studs were fixed to the front of the cabin on each side and a further two fixed into the deck near the rear of the cabin. All of these brass fittings came from in Poland. https://www.rbmodel.com/index.php?action=products&group=001 The last two pictures are of the model that's in the National Maritime Museum that I'm using as a reference for detailing.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Searchlight & Horns

When I built my RAF Crash Rescue Tender my brother made a searchlight base for me on his lathe from a drawing I supplied and at the time I asked for an additional one in case I made a hash of it. Fortunately I didn’t need it at the time and still had the spare one in my bits box and so it made sense to use this for the searchlight on the Thames Police Boat. The new base was made in much the same way as the previous one, the detail is in my Crash Tender blog: https://model-boats.com/blogs/23951 The white metal casting of the searchlight body is very well made and only requires a little fettling to remove casting lines and as this searchlight will not be a working one I used the prototype lens from my previous searchlight build to fit into base. A short plastic rod was push fitted into the lens base with a disc of silver foil at the lens end to enhance the reflection in the optical path. This piece acts as a support for the lens instead of the LED unit and is glued into the body which I had previously painted black internally. A perspex disc was made to cover the front of the lens, and a ‘tri-form’ front piece was made from some 22mm copper pipe and some brass wire which was soft soldered together. Before the front was glued in place all the parts were sprayed with a grey etch primer and a couple of coats of satin lacquer. The finished assembly is fixed to the roof with a 3mm threaded stud and a wing nut to make removal easy with a circular plasticard base between the two. The twin horns are from in Poland and they just needed to be sprayed with etch primer and lacquer before fixing to the roof. The boat is now looking more like the real thing, just a little more detailing to add including the life ring, roof aerial, flagstaff and a few more deck fittings. 😊

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Mast

The mast on the drawing supplied with the kit is rather simplistic and I want to reproduce the mast in a more authentic style so with reference to the NMM ‘photos of the museum boat I set about modelling it. The timber mast is held on the cabin roof in a metal socket and I produced this from some 6mm & 7mm brass tube and some brass bar for the base. The tubes were cut to length and assembled onto a brass bar which was previously drilled to take a 3mm bolt with some flux paste between the parts and a nut and bolt used to clamp the parts together. This was all silver soldered together, the bar cut off and the temporary bolt removed and the base reduced to a circular form by filing and the piece cleaned and polished. The mast is a short length of 6mm dowel with one end turned down to 5mm to fit inside the brass base tube. The mast head is formed from some obeche hardwood shaped to replicate the original with a 6mm hole bored through the base piece to take the 6mm dowel mast. I used a spare 6mm porthole that I had surplus to a previous project as a supporting flange that also adds an interesting detail to the mast. Lastly a fillet was added between the mast and the base and the whole piece was then finished with a few coats of Teak stain. A filed down the head of a 3mm bolt so that it would fit into the brass tube and superglued in place before glueing the dowel mast into the base. A plasticard disc was made to fit between the mast base and the roof and reinforcing plate fitted to the inside of the roof for the securing wing nut to bear on. The light fitting is standard part available from various suppliers, mine came from in Poland along with some other brass fittings for this boat. All of the tall fittings on the roof will be made to be removable for safe storage and transport. Next up...the Searchlight.😁

5 years ago by robbob