Response

Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build Z-1

"Didn't quite make it by Z but what the hell." Never mind Number One, just tack the German umlauts on the end 😉 Ä, Ö, Ü, and their funny double S, ß ! That gives you four more chances😁 Boat looking highly Bristol fashion, Chapeau 👍 Ref the . Any form of crepe / decorators tape is a dead loss for modelling, as you've discovered. I use Tamiya . Comes in widths of 8mm upwards, gives a good clean sharp line, is flexible to go round compound curves (such as chine and bilge lines etc) and doesn't pull paint off. No scalpel needed. Dodgy business that!🤕 I just mark the waterline with 8 or 10mm Tamiya tape then apply newspaper and normal to cover the rest of the model. Works a treat, every time😊 Available all over the shop! Try plastic kit or model railway shops. They usually have it in stock along with the paints👍 I buy mine in "mini-bulk" along with Tamiya sanding sponges and other supplies from places like Krick here in Germany. BTW Lovely clean windows and cabin interior👍 Apropos cleats; they do look a bit "toylike" JB Cheers, Doug 😎

5 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Re: 40'' Seaplane Tender, new build Z-1

They are so clean you would think they are not there! (and you'd be correct,) -see reply to Martin. Thanks for the tape info, I'll see if Hobby City has any and give it a try. I've usually just used a small brush for the boot topping (masked up) saves a lot of paperwork. When cutting strips I use a steel rule and a sheet of glass to cut on. Just had a look, and they have 6mm Tamiya tape for $6 (doesn't say what length ) might have to go for a drive. Car pic has jumped from Martins reply to yours for some reason ?! JB

5 years ago by jbkiwi

Blog

Painting the hull – Part 1 primer & anti fouling.

There’s no putting it off any longer, I need to start painting the hull before I do any more on the boat so the hull was given a final rub down with a fine abrasive and then the deck and gunwales carefully masked off. I used some panel wipe to thoroughly de-grease all the surfaces and then put the hull in the ‘spray booth’ on my turntable and applied two coats of Halfords grey primer. I left this for a couple of days to dry and harden off before setting it on my bench. The next stage involves levelling the hull fore and aft and side to side so that the waterline can be established. Fortunately the well deck floor is meant to be perfectly level when the boat is afloat and at rest and this is the datum I used to level to using a couple of spirit levels. The rough waterline points were measured off the plan and transferred to the hull to be used as approximate starting points for the waterline. For my previous build I bought a self-levelling laser to indicate the waterline so this was brought out for the same purpose. The laser level was placed on another workbench a couple of metres away and gradually raised with packing pieces until the projected line agreed with the rough position marks I’d made on the hull and then finely adjusted until the line was correct and pencil marks made at intervals along the projected line. The process was repeated for the other side of the hull and then also marked across the stern, fortunately the stern line and bow markings joined up accurately confirming that the levelling was spot on. Good quality low tack was then applied all around the hull and the area above the line masked off with a couple of layers of newspaper. The exposed hull was then keyed with a fine Scotchbrite type pad and cleaned off with panel wipe before two coats of Halfords red oxide primer applied as the anti-fouling.

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Detailing the deck.

Some obeche coaming strips were added to the insides of the well deck and a piece was added at the rear which notches into the side coamings, this required shaping to the curvature of the deck so I wound some around a pencil to the required diameter and marked a line on the coaming to sand the profile down to. This piece won’t be fixed in place until I have added some internal detail in the rear of the well deck. Some thin strip was fitted along the sides of the deck which form part of the ‘treads’ that run the length of the cabin sides, these were glued and pinned in place after the edges and ends were rounded. At this point I applied some ‘Antique Pine’ stain to the bulwarks, rubbing fenders and deck strips. The position of the treads that run along the deck for the length of the cabin sides were marked by taking a measurement from the plan and transferring this to the deck strips. The tread angle from the plan was determined to be 68 degrees using a digital angle finder (another little bargain find in Lidl for less than a tenner 👍👍) and position marks pencilled on the deck. I chose to mark and apply these treads as per the model that is in the National Maritime Museum which I’m following to recreate my version of the Police Launch. These ‘photos have been very helpful in detailing this model. They can be seen here: https://collections.rmg.co.uk/collections/objects/67590.html I used some temporary spacer strips along the cabin sides and deck strips and then cut and shaped each tread individually to fit in the desired positions, all the treads were fixed using a couple of dots of superglue making sure that no glue got onto the deck surface as CA and aliphatic glue does affect the way the obeche accepts the wood stain as I discovered when I did some ‘colour tests’ earlier. The whole deck was then given a very light rub down with a fine abrasive pad before the first of several coats of ‘Teak’ stain was applied. The contrasting colours of the Antique Pine and Teak stain works well on this model and is in keeping with the wood colours of the NMM model that I’m using as a reference. EDIT…..I have just noticed that the digital angle finder and digital callipers are back on sale at Lidl on 3rd of March for £9.99 each…….still a bargain 😁👍 https://www.lidl.co.uk/en/MiddleofLidl.htm?articleId=20539

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

The deck planking.

The kit I’m constructing is a pre-production prototype and consequently it does not have the ‘laser etched planking’ feature that has been subsequently introduced in the final production kits on the ‘upper’ deck and the ‘well’ deck. This is of no concern to me because I think I prefer to do my own planking anyway but I do have to do a bit of preparatory ‘laying out’ of the deck pattern to ensure that it’s symmetrical and laid in a pleasing fashion. I have chosen to use 1.6 mm x 9.5 mm obeche hardwood strip-wood (from SLEC) for this with a thin black plasticard caulking between the planks. This is what I did when I constructed the VMW Fire Tender and the result was very effective and visually pleasing. Obeche has a pleasing grain, takes stain very easily and is also considerably cheaper than mahogany which I feel would be far too ‘dark red’ when finally lacquered. Because I wanted an outer curved plank around the hull edge I had to cut this from 1.6mm obeche sheet to the correct shape and width as it would be impossible to bend a strip to this extreme curve. These also needed a section trimmed out to allow the bow gunwales to be positioned correctly. Once both sides were cut and shaped I could then form the ply gunwales to the correct curve by my heating and bending process and glued them down to the deck. I understand that on the production kits these gunwales are now incorporated into the side skins which will make the construction a bit easier. The remaining outer planks on the hull edges were made from straight lengths of obeche but required some easing cuts so that they could be bent to the curve of the hull. Hopefully these cuts will not be too noticeable in the finished deck. When all the edge planks were glued in place I temporarily laid out the obeche planking strips with a thin strip of black plasticard as caulking and all held in place with . The centre plank was arranged to lie over the centre line from bow to stern. The setting out of the planks in this manner confirmed that the layout worked as intended and so I began fixing down the planking from the centre plank of the hull outwards with a fast bonding superglue and the process proved to be quite quick to complete. The side deck planks were equally straightforward but did require some to be carefully shaped in a tapered fashion at each end to fill the remaining gaps. The rear deck was also planked by working out from the centre plank and thankfully the planking layout matched and followed the bow deck planking perfectly. The surplus plasticard ‘caulking’ was then trimmed flush to the planks with a very sharp chisel and the entire deck rubbed down with my sanding plate until it was all perfectly smooth. For those building this model that don’t feel confident enough to do ‘real planking’ will probably want to make use of the laser etched planking on the ply deck panels to achieve a similar result with very minimal effort, but I quite like the challenge of doing it the hard way and the benefit of a slightly better finish.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

CNC boat kits...?

Retired now but when I worked at the College the CAD Technicians just held material in place with they were cutting anything from silk to 12mm hard woods

5 years ago by marky

Blog

Glassfibre cloth & epoxy resin

I used glassfibre cloth and epoxy resin successfully when building my 46” RAF Crash Tender and I chose to do the same with the Police Boat. See: https://model-boats.com/builds/view/23951 for the Crash Tender blog. The application of the cloth and resin serves to strengthen the hull enormously and produces a completely watertight hull, and after additional coats of resin are applied and sanded between coats resulting in a surface that is absolutely smooth and the perfect substrate for the subsequent paint process. With the benefit of my previous experience and greater confidence working with these materials I used a ‘fast’ hardener with the resin which gives a working time of 30 minutes and a much shorter curing time where previously I had used a 90 minute ‘slow’ hardener. The basic process is to cut the cloth roughly to shape with a good margin of overlap and then use along one edge so that after the resin has been brushed onto the hull the cloth can just be lifted over onto the resin. I then lightly brush the cloth into the resin and push the cloth into any tight angles, without any further resin on the brush, until the weave of the cloth is filled and there are no air pockets and the cloth is completely flat. At this point DO NO MORE as the resin will start to harden and any more fiddling with it will cause the cloth to lift and bubble, less is definitely more in this instance. The resin should cure completely overnight and can be trimmed with a sharp blade. I tend to cover a hull in five stages, as there are five ‘faces’ to the hull and thus it’s a five day process for me, this may be time consuming but I think the results are worth the effort. I will brush on two further coats of resin when the rubbing strakes and gunwales have been added, this will completely fill the weave of the cloth to create a nice flat surface but it’s essential to rub down each coat after curing. All the materials were bought from ‘Easy Composites’ https://www.easycomposites.co.uk

5 years ago by robbob

Blog

Aerokits/Jotika Sea Queen

I made this from a 54" long piece of Melamine shelving. shallow cut a centre ine down the middle 1/16" wide. The board was then marked into 2" squares using a laundry marker. The design concept was from a fuselage jig I had made by SLEC. The holes required for the brackets are M5 with captive ( T nuts) underneath pulled up into the bottom of the board. The red tape down the centre is ( the high quality stuff) this was to stop the boat glueing itself to the board. As the the keel has a skeg we needed to raise the keel to ensure parallelism I used an Enginerers Marking out block and two doorstops on this.The angles can slide and you then clamp the Bulwarks on I used thirty minute epoxy for this although I would like a longer working time epoxy. Bulwarks 3 and 4 with the motor base was also epoxied together. This was then located on the keey ( Dryfit along with the other bulkheads. A word of advice here use the cabin sides to ensure alignment. Check with a rule and squares before gluing anything.

6 years ago by Ianh

Blog

HMS BRAVE BORDERER

The weather has quickly turned colder, giving an excuse to get back to this model. Stripped out much of the interior and the prop. shafts to replace the nylon propellers with brass. These items all needed removing for painting, so decided to paint the hull before reassembly and then moving onto the superstructure. Fortunately, examining similar naval vessels and several U Tube videos, confirmed the hull as light grey, the deck a darker one of the 50 shades of grey and the lower hull below the waterline black. Used thin Tamiya to define clean colour separations, followed by regular tape, masked the hull into colour sections and sprayed using “rattle” cans. After the colours applied a light overall Matt coat to subdue any shine. The results are satisfactory. Will now reassemble and move onto building the superstructure and the other fittings. Prior to the season closing decided to experiment with my new Flysky Tx/Rx package, shortly to be fitted to this model. This Tx has a servo limiting function, which was hoping could also be used to restrict ESC output. Would like to make the full speed motor response correspond to full Tx control position. Currently can over power the model; which lifts the stern, causing it to come off the plane and then dig the bow in. Was thinking that if full throttle could be set at around 90% forward control movement and 40% sternwards the model would retain adequate performance, but without being overpowered or very sensitive to control lever movement. As the Brave was not available, tried the idea on my Daman Stan 4207 model. This is brushed motor powered and a good performer. Obviously the settings for the Brave will be different, but at least could try to see if the idea would work – it did! This Tx function is easy to use and adjustments can be made whilst the model is on the water. Once the ideal settings are achieved they can be programmed and then retained in the Tx. Will try this on the Brave when back on the water next Spring.

6 years ago by Rowen

Forum

Brass bashin' Chris Craft deck fittings...

Just got white metal castings back of the Chris Craft fittings and very nice they are too. They have started to burnish up a treat and will polish well as Paul uses a good quality metal. Nice and hard. Now I have to make the light lenses. Also put the blue bottom on her at the weekend using my one and only pot of Plastikote enamel paint, not the acrylic muck they've turned over to and it went on through my spray gun as smooth as could be. Even my masking worked. Just waiting for a gold pin stripe tape for the boot topping now. The final bit will be masking the deck to paint the covering boards and king plank with the same blue. For those not lucky enough to have a wee pot of proper Plastikote in the paint cupboard, I also got a couple of tins of Rustoleum spray, only 5-25 a pot, enamel (of course) in a nice French blue and a rich cream. These colours will look good on my Darby One Design single stepper "WHO'S DARBY?". Very post War. I think the Oulton Broad One Design single stepper will be Burgundy and the Whippet One Design will be varnished mahogany. I know of no other classes of British stepped hydroplanes. These will all be 1/6th scale as they're all around 12-13 ft. long. I'll probably put the same motors in them eventually. The Darby is well advanced and has a Speed 400, but I may go brushless. Any suggestions for a cheap Brushless/ESC combo will be welcome for, say, 3S Li-Pos. it would be good to see these period boats all racing together. I also plan to make reverse clinker Singer cadet and a Percy See Bugatti engined boat for which I have plans. I'm hoping to get a response from the current keepers of Berylla II about measuring that, too, since it also uses a Lea Francis engine, like the Whippet.

6 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Plimsoll Line

I get the boat absolutely level and, using a laser level, mark the plimsol line on hull. After checking, join the marks up using Tamiya

6 years ago by Rowen

Response

Elizabeth

Thanks to all for the likes and response.... The idea was to illuminate painting by using veneer.. We will see.. ! !.. Probably finish up with rolls and rolls of .. ho ho ho. Regards Muddy.

6 years ago by muddy

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Hi Doug. After spraying, how long is the minimum time before removing the . Acrylic paints used. Thanks.😉

6 years ago by MouldBuilder

Blog

Five windows left!

I've painted the portside. Now to do the Starboard side! Then, I'm done with the windows! Of everything I've done of the Brooklyn. The windows were the most challenging of all...…. Oh, As I paint each window. I then remove the tape I had place to protect the windows then selves! Luckily the windows are 10mm wide. So, I ordered 10mm wide ! it worked like a charm. I think Doug, RNinMunich did a recommendation on using the tape. Thanks Doug!👍

6 years ago by figtree7nts

Response

Seeing the light

Nice tidy work Peter 👍, Good jointing, sign of some well cared for sharp tools 👍 I use Tamiya tape as well. Gives a good clean edge and the glue does not attack painted and varnished surfaces. So if the underlying paint was applied over a good primer it shouldn't lift at all. As to how long to let dry; check your paint can for info about 'touch dry' and 'can be overpainted after ...' times. To be in the safe side don't apply the tape at the 'touch dry' time, wait a coupla hours more. Leaving to dry (and harden in the sun or under a halogen lamp) speeds things up a bit 😉 Also, don't apply paint too thick otherwise it can go touch dry on top (skinning) but still be soft underneath - then may lift it more easily 🤔 Can you pdf or jpeg me your circuit diagram please? Sounds interesting 😊 Cheers, Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Seeing the light

It has been a busy time at work which means that I have very limited time to build at the moment. All things considered all is going well. I have started the superstructure. The components are requiring a lot of additional work to fit them. I am glad about this as it is all good experience. My sandpaper and files are glowing due to over use. I have found a very useful filler at my local model shop made by Red Devil. it is extremely light and sets in a very short time; ten minutes. it says that it can be painted after ten minutes. Don`t think I will test this. I have fitted the deck and sanded down the hull sides to match. I think the weather is almost good enough to start the painting. I am still a little concerned about this particularly with the use of . I am worried that the previous layers which are covered by the tape will peel on removal. Can anybody tell me how long to allow paint to dry before applying tape and how long can the tape stay in place. I am using Tamiya tape. I have decided to illuminate most of the lights and will make a module for flashing the blue light. I have lots of electronic components here as I enjoy making prototype circuits. Unfortunately, my love of making these boards is not matched with a knowledge of exactly how they work so I am sure I will be asking for help with the circuit diagram. I have all the components here.🤓 Well that all for now. I am currently constructing all of the deck items. This I find more difficult due to the manipulation of very small parts having `sausage fingers`. Must buy more tweezers!!😊

6 years ago by MouldBuilder

Blog

wheelhouse amd bridge

I don't have any photo's of the building of this, so I will try to explain. I cut all the pieces for the wheelhouse out of 1mm plasticard, the pieces were then fitted together with to make sure that they all fitted neatly together. The windows were then cut out of Perspex and their positions marked and put aside. The floor of the wheelhouse was planked along with the rear wall, the five side pieces were then wooded (for want of a better word) light oak for the frames with teak for the infills, the windows were checked to make sure they still fitted. The whole lot was fitted together with and glue run down the seams with a small brush. After drying the outside of the wheelhouse was wooded 😁 over lapping the windows by a couple of thou, the windows were glued in place with canopy glue. Aft of the wheelhouse are the battery boxes, these were made out of plasticard with doors made out of wood, kiss buttons used for the door knobs. Two sliding doors were made out of wood, small plastic channel for the runners. The bridge was made using the same principal as the boat deck.

6 years ago by AlanP

Blog

Finally a Waterline!

Brooklyn now has a waterline! You can't see it in the picture. but my bled in some area's. Just a few minor correction needed! I'm thinking of putting white pin striping! On the waterline. what do you think?

6 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

Bristol pilot cutter mascotte

Today I have masked of the boat ready for painting when the weather warms up . Materials used where frog and some paper packaging that came out of the last delivery box from Amazon. Firstly I went round taping of all the fidly bits before completely masking the sides of the hull before applying the paper

6 years ago by kmbcsecretary

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Hi Boatshed, Know what you mean about brushing and brushes! You CAN achieve the same effect with brushes, but it takes much longer, with much more flattening in between coats. So much more 'secret ingredient is needed! Brushes from DIY shops, and most model shops, you can forget 🤔 too synthetic, too coarse and too prone to shedding hairs. 😡 For tiny detailing work, esp on Plastic Magic projects, I went to an art supplies store! Prompted by the GF who is into oil and water colour painting! There you will find a great selection of very fine real hair brushes in sizes from 'Help I can't see it'! to about 1" flat, used for applying 'washes' 😉 Not cheap, but quality never is! For example; I'm using a 1/4" flat camel hair brush for renovating the wood decks of my Graf Spee and HMS Belfast with sealer and satin varnish from the Lord nelson range. Will also apply some Jotica Oak stain to dampen the bright colour a bit. For the pinstripe / Boot Topping on the Sea Scout I'm 'Going for Gold', to be applied with the finest airbrush nozzle I have and using Tamiya to get a good clean edge. hardest part will be getting the tape on right 😲 Hope I don't mess up what I have already achieved! Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Sooo ... Happy with the cabin and main deck so onward and upward with the hull. At a previous stage the hull was already sealed, primed and two coats of gloss Royal Blue, or at least what passes for Royal Blue in Germany - seems a little light to me but I like it anyway. Over-spray from other operations was sanded off with a 600 grit sponge. This revealed a few imperfections around the bow that needed sealing (EzeKote) and re-flattening. No one's perfect!😉 These areas were re-primed using a primer-filler from the pro auto branch, flattened off with 1000 and 1500 W&D and the whole hull given a quick blast of Royal Blue again and flattened with 2000 grit wet. Pic 1. The finishing coats were then applied: 3 coats blue and 3 coats protective lacquer (contains a UV filter😎). Flattening with wet 3000 plus liquid soap between each coat. Finally cutting polish and finishing polish, as for cabin roof and main deck. Polishing might give her an extra knot or so, scale of course😊 Results of all this can be seen in pics 2-6. After removing all the full effect is shown in pics 8-10. Minor Arrrgh!: the on the main deck had been on too long and the white on the cabin walls had hardened, so when I removed the tape some paint came with it 😡 No sweat! I'll trim the cabin with a mahogany moulding 😁 BTW: the W&D used here are all Tamiya sanding sponges. Not the cheapest sort of W%D but I'm so impressed with how they work and their longevity that I've acquired a modest stock of grits from 240 to 3000😉 Only slight disadvantage; it's virtually impossible to get old colour out of them, unlike W&D paper, so you need new sponges for a new colour! E.g. I didn't want to use sponges I'd used on the blue hull for the white cabin walls!! Big advantage: you can use them wet on raw wood without staining the wood black! So, that's how I've spent the last two weeks, what have U lot been up to??? 😉 Happy painting people, cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Glue

Hi All, Any one suggest a glue that can be used for tacking assemblies together so I can test fit them, see how they look etc. And then remove and disassemble allowing adjustments to be made, allowing the glue to be easily removed when required and the permanent adhesive to be applied. not always suitable. Thanks.

6 years ago by glyn44

Response

Main Cabin Bondo'ed!

"But I ran out of elbow grease!" Where do I send the bottle??😉 I'm just taking a break too. with a glass of Spanish white 'elbow grease' from Mederano. Castilla 😋 Pics soon of finish on my boat; just removing to get an impression of her before I finish off the hull. Which made me think about your greenhouse / pilot house! Dumas must be nuts making the cladding out of one transparent chunk instead of with separate window inserts! Suppose it means you have to use something like liquid for the windows 🤔 I use Revell Color Stop when I have no other choice, usually only needed on smaller plastic kits. Looking forward to the pics & vids of 'Brooklyn' 👍 Long time since I was there🤔. Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Bulwark supports

The deck and bulwarks were given another coat of paint, after this had dried the wash ports and rope hawsers were masked off and the hull given two coats of red primer, the water line was marked using a pencil on a block of wood, bottom part of the hull masked off and the top part given two coats of satin black. Starting to look like a boat now. The rope crate was made out of plasticard to be a good tight fit on the coaming. The bulwark positions were marked with pencil on the top of the bulwark. After cutting them all out of plasticard, each one was sanded to fit it's position, then keeping them in order and sticking them to upside down they were sprayed with paint. All the supports were glued into position with super glue, a toothpick and my best glasses.

6 years ago by AlanP

Forum

Just getting started

... as well as set squares (30/60 & 45/45), compass and dividers. Tamiya masking and trim tape is also very good for when it comes to the painting. They give good clean sharp edges 😊 Happy shopping, time to bash the credit cards! Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Lady T

The next stage was to fit the prop tubes and motors, MMModels prop tubes and T4 motors were used. Now I will admit that getting the tubes lined up and getting them to come out of the hull nearly horizontal gave me a lot of headaches. The hull had different thicknesses and shapes of fibreglass were the motors had to be fitted, the A frame markings on the hull, especially the inboard ones were way out, all of this plus the fact that the motors had to be fitted more or less on the bottom of the hull. Aligning pieces were made on the lathe to go between the prop shafts and the motors. Motor mounts were made from hardwood and shaped on a belt sander to fit the hull bottom. I think I had about five attempts at this stage using all sorts of pieces of ply with holes in them, wooden wedges and of course . Motor mounts, I only have one photo of these, holes drilled in hardwood with a hole cutter, then cut in two on the bandsaw to give two halves that can clamp the motor, draught excluder stuck on the inside and the two halves fastened together with two wood screws.

6 years ago by AlanP

Blog

Scrumpy 3 (Aerokits Sea Commander)

Ok, so I bit the bullet and got seem epoxy for the hull skins. I had some Gorilla glue but it was suggested that epoxy was better. Damn the stuff took ages to apply, and finding ways to clamp one hull skin with the limited stuff I had was testing my patience. I’ll be honest, I spent nearly an hour just finding ways of securing the hull skin to the frame. Used clamps, , bits of the kit and scraps to get it secured. Then just needed to wait 16 hours for it to set.....If you want to see some really impressive model making go to Harry Potter World. Hog warts Castle in there is immense. So pics show current state of play with one half of the bottom hull done. Next work will be at the weekend or next week, getting the other side on....

6 years ago by Penfold63

Blog

Scrumpy 3 (Aerokits Sea Commander)

Hello everyone. I’m a relative novice with 3 projects on the go at the moment. Project 1 is a Riva Aquarama, which stalled at the stringer stage. Project 2 is a smaller Riva Aquarama which stalled at the planking stage. Project 3 and the subject of this build blog is an Aerokits Sea Commander, photos to follow. Kit delivered Tues 9 January and spent about 6 hours on it so far. Using typical PVA glue and trying to avoid any brass pins choosing instead clamps of various shapes and sizes and liberal application of . it’s a good kit and the pieces have gone together well so far. Stringers were a challenge as always, but 30 minutes of soaking got them to bend to the right shape. Next stage is chamfering the false rebates along the keel, chamfering the stringers and the bottom hull sides for a neat fit. That will Be Monday night and Wednesday evening’s work. I have a Dremel which should make that job easier. I would be keen to hear of any motor/shaft mods anyone recommends. Also, any ideas on final finish colours or schemes, may consider mahogany and lime deck? Thanks

6 years ago by Penfold63

Forum

Spraying/hand painting

Hi Colin, isolator is available in aerosol form, its about £10 from specialist paint suppliers, plus all the filler, paper, stopper, thinners and . Mark

6 years ago by jarvo

Forum

Clamps and such

PS: for soldering I use a small machine vice (Proxxon or similar) or jigs cut into close grained wood blocks with to hold parts down; e.g. for railings or complex mast and crane jibs etc. Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Clamps and such

Hi Gramps 😉 So far we're a bit Off Track! 🤔 I'll photo tomorrow a selection of what I use, including a good quality or similar! As Dave says Neodymium mags are also good for some items but I've never tried 'em for hull planking. I use a variety of types and sizes of wood clamps from traditional G clamp screw types to the spring loaded type (what you call alligator clamps?), even various sizes of Bulldog clips for smaller items. More tomorrow, cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

replacing propshaft

ChrisF I have now floated the boat in the bath tub and measured the top edge of both the front and rear down to the water, back in the workshop I put some from the waterline mark from front to rear keeping the tape as straight as possible, it is not a million mile away from the Keel less than 2 degrees difference. so the prop will stay where it is. I have also now rubbed one side of the hull down and masked it to the water line and resprayed the top half white, the lower part of the hull will be resprayed black, the waterline line will be put on this. I will then repeat on the other side. I hope this will be correct.

6 years ago by RichardSReade

Response

Plating

Over the weekend I had been thinking maybe it would be easer to epoxy the plates together. Having almost finished the 2 bottom strakes I will continue soldering. Finding it easer with each plate, as I learn, little tricks. Cleaning the plates with a sanding drum (dermal), keep the plate flat on the bench. Otherwise the plate will cruel up and destroy the sand paper. Don't put to much solder on the iron, or I get lumps of solder as it runs down. I am now holding the plates in place with . That is working well. Two strakes are taking almost half a can, as there are 12 strakes I will cut up 2 more cans.

7 years ago by hammer

Response

Impatient but hit away with it!

Skydive, please don't rush the coats of paint, yes, remove the , but, allow the paint to harden possibly 24 hours, before the lacquer, it might react!!! then allow at least 24 hours before you apply the mask for the Red lower hull, otherwise you could end up with either the paint pulling off or getting the tape marking the lacquer as you press it down, make haste slowly. Mark

7 years ago by jarvo

Blog

Fittings and finishing

Have been making steady progress on the Huntsman. Few additional fitting I acquired and me mom has been busy knitting boat fenders front and for the sides. Amazing she can almost knit one as faster than I can chamfer a cork in the lathe to fill it with. (pictures attached). I'm not sure the she attached them will cope with the speed and the wet. I guess I need to secure then with some brass cleats or posts. My next Job. Also attached the windscreen not as much trouble as I thought. Radio is in and the Torpedo 850 motor installed.

7 years ago by Novagsi0

Forum

Richards 48'' Swordsman

Hi, another month on and things are still progressing. I have finished planking the deck and have started on the rubbing strake. I am using 3x5mm balsa for the strake and I will be staining it teak. I have bent the strip for the bow and stern, I soaked balsa in hot water for about half an hour. Whilst the strip was soaking i cut strips of and evanly spaced them around the bow and stern sections ready for the soggy balsa. Then working evenly side to side from the center point, I bent the strip and secured it in place using the pre-installed . Note work evenly from the center my first effort i worked from the center and concentrated on one side, when i went back to the otherside the strip snapped in the middle (the point of most stress) probably because the wood had Dryed and cooled by the time I went back to it. The strakes are currently relaxing to shape for a few days before I remove the tape.

7 years ago by rmwall107

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Precedent Huntsman 34''

Hi All Repaired one of the broken cabin pieces under the aft side window and added strengthen timber forward and aft(windows). The gap under the windows to the deck, I laid down two layers of and mixed up some Selley's Plasti-bond. Pushed the cabin onto this and waited for it to harden. Removed cabin, removed the , sand the areas and spray filler undercoated. A nice clean gap!!! Canabus

7 years ago by canabus

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Cabin Repair

Hi All Started on fixing the bits I broke in removing the old paint. The forward window had a gap in the middle to the deck, so I added timber behind the bottom of the window and filled in the gap. to the deck and combing, a lump of filler, sit the cabin down and wait for the filler to dry. Remove cabin, , trim and sand down. As the aft of the cabin sits over the deck a fair bit, I added a plywood piece back to the combing so to strengthen the aft cabin area and replaced the bottom section under one of the windows. Remodelling this boat and building the SG&K 1920 Gentleman's Runabout is keeping me busy!!! This retirement is great, but, I still liked my old job. Canabus

7 years ago by canabus

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The suction hoses – part 1.

Hi Paul. I thought I might try lamp black and a steel scribe but couldn't find a candle to make a dirty flame. and pencil worked just as well.😁

7 years ago by robbob

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The suction hoses – part 1.

great idea with the Rob, they look very nice👍

7 years ago by pmdevlin

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Shelduck

PS: I noticed that the waterline (transition yellow to red) follows the wave line! Small tip: to accurately set the true waterline and keep it straight set the hull up on the building board dead level and vertical according to the plan. Use spirit level to check port / starboard for horizontal! (I.e. athwartships in marine jargon!) Make a small right angled jig to hold a soft lead pencil (or simply use a small try square). Attach the pencil to the jig / try square at the waterline height from keel according to plan. Then just trundle round the hull marking the WL with the pencil point. Tip 2: use narrow (ca 10mm) Tamiya (from the plastic magic department) to mask off the line itself. The rest can be masked as usual with cheapo decorator's and newspaper. Spray away to your heart's content. The Tamiya tape gives a wonderful clean line with no paint creep. Please don't be offended, nobody's perfect and I'm still in awe of your woodwork! 👍 cheers Doug 😎

7 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

The window glazing & frames.

A full set of laser cut perspex windows is supplied in the VMW kit along with corresponding frames for all and they are all a pretty good fit in the window apertures of the engine room, forward cabin and wheel house rear walls, only requiring a light easing with a file for a secure fit. I left the protective film on the screens whilst gluing them in place with a very small amount of canopy glue applied to the window edges with a dressmaking pin and pressed into place so that they were flush with the outside of the cabin walls. The wheelhouse windows were a bit trickier as they are glued to the inside face of the panels and I had to remove the protective film around the edges of the outer face of the windows by running a fine sharp blade around the window aperture with the perspex held in place by hand. Canopy glue was then used very sparingly on the face of the perspex and the windows clamped in place. The central screen of the wheelhouse has the Kent Clearview in it and this needed to be carefully centred before fixing in place. When all had dried and set the protective films were peeled off to reveal nice clear ‘panes’ without any unsightly glue smudges. The CNC cut window frames are made from a flexible plastic material with accurate and well defined edges. They were all given a light sanding with abrasive paper as a key for the paint and were then laid out on a large piece of card paying particular attention to getting them the correct side up, in particular the wheelhouse frames which are ‘handed’ for either port or starboard. They were all held to the board with small pads of double sided foam tape and sprayed with two coats of Halfords metallic silver paint followed by two light coats of Halfords gloss lacquer. After a couple of days to dry they were removed from the board and fixed in place with canopy glue applied with a pin as very small dots around the inside face, aligned with ‘guides’ and a straight edge and then held in place with small tabs of . The installation of the glazing in the wheelhouse was made a lot easier because I had previously cut away some of the bulkhead and rear wall to give better access to the wheelhouse interior for detailing. This is not mentioned in the building instructions but is well worth doing for all the above reasons 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Response

muddy 6 Upperworks

Hello, Thank you, BUt the camera lies..! I did think i had cracked it last year, by masking up the the varnished parts after a long drying time, and then continue with the painting..A month or so later, when all was done, i tried to remove the /newspaper, but found the tape had stuck hard and was a dickens of a job to clean off, it also left residue of glue on the varnish so looked pretty terrible. Talcum powder did work, sprinkling it on the offending residue and rolling it along the deck, but not 100%.. As a footnote, i used Wilko spray enamel on this one's hull with undercoat/primer, all spray cans.. Cheaper than Halfords.. But Halfords were doing 4 spray cans for the price of 3.. The cabin was hand painted with Humbrol enamel.. Muddy

7 years ago by muddy

Blog

The deck anti-slip finish.

The original Vosper drawings state that the deck was finished in a special anti-slip finish called ‘Cerrux’ and according to some well-respected contributors to this site the best way to achieve this finish is to apply a coat of a textured paint on the areas required and then overspray with the desired finish colour. Others have used a Rustoleum product but that proved difficult to obtain but I found a product from Halfords that looked promising. As always I did a test piece using this to see what the results would be like and after the finish colour was applied the effect looked very consistent in texture. At model shows I had previously seen some lifeboat decks that had been ‘texture finished’ and noted that non-textured areas had been carefully masked off. This seems like a great idea and would serve to emphasise the textured effect and also to distinguish it from a very bad spray job! I applied a low tack to the deck areas and features where I wanted a smooth finish and very carefully trimmed the tape to leave a narrow border, I also masked the positions of the metal deck fittings. Everything else was masked off and the textured spray applied in two very light coats and left to dry. When the masking was removed it revealed a very neat defined border around the foot rails, cabin sides and deck fittings. The deck and cabin sides will be over-sprayed with a couple of light coats of the ‘BS631 RAF Light Grey’ that I have had custom mixed and will be, hopefully, accurate to the prototype. 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Hull Markings

The paint on the hull has sufficiently hardened and needs a couple of coats of clear lacquer to protect it but before that happens I need to apply the hull markings. The waterslide decal set that was supplied with my kit was probably at least 5 years old when I bought the kit on eBay and they had deteriorated so badly that when I put the large ‘FIRE’ lettering panel in some warm water it fragmented and clearly was not usable. I called Mike Cummings at vintage Model works and explained my dilemma and he very generously agreed to supply me with a replacement set, and in addition a set of the recently available printed vinyl letters and markings that they now produce. I decided to use the vinyl set as a quick test piece with the waterslide set revealed that the white ink is not solid and therefore not completely opaque. Furthermore I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ effect that happens on waterslide decals despite using various lotions and potions such as Humbrol Decalfix and Microsol/Microset solutions. A test piece with the vinyl lettering sheet was far more successful and when over-lacquered on the test piece the results were very acceptable. Starting with the large FIRE lettering I cut a paper template the same size as the complete word and fixed this with low tack on the hull, this paper was then outlined in more to form a window and the vertical spacing of the letters transferred to this to keep the correct spacing. Vertical strips of tape were then used as positioning guides for the letters which were individually cut and placed so that I could eliminate all but the solid white letters and give them a hard edge. Feeling very pleased with myself I removed the guides and realised to my horror that I had set the baseline of the letters far too close to the waterline and the vertical proportions were completely wrong ….disaster 😱 Feeling ashamed that I could make such a basic error I abandoned the lettering and called Mike at VMW and described my foolish error, no problem he said, I’ll send you another vinyl sheet and also some additional drawing that were missing from my kit that would help with detail finishing. My second attempt with the new vinyl sheet employed the same process but I was careful to measure, mark and check the positions (several times!) before starting. The roundel and numerals positions at the bow and the stern were carefully measured and marked using the supplied drawings and ‘guides’ used to fix their positions before application. Lastly the roman numerals that span the waterline at the bow and stern were marked, cut and individually applied. I also took the opportunity to fix in place a couple of modified 6mm portholes to replicate the aft cockpit drain outlets, in the photo is the ‘94’ waterslide decal which I later removed and replaced with vinyl when I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ problem. A big Thank You to Mike Cummings at Vintage Model works for replacing the lettering sheets TWICE! and for the extra drawings, I call that exceptional after sales service !. Cheers Mike 👍👍 .

7 years ago by robbob

Forum

Handed props

its a little safer to take props off and put a piece of over the ends of the prop shafts. That way you can check rotation directions and keep a full set of fingers ~laughs~

7 years ago by Haverlock

Blog

Wheel assembled

The paddles were cut from 0.050” styrene, the attachment points for the support arms drilled, and the support arms fitted and glued in with epoxy. The paddles and the side wheel assembly were painted black, with small pieces of over the pivot holes in the paddle support arms, where the pivot tubes were glued to them, and painted over later. When it came to assembling the parts, the sequence was as follows: - Fastened one end of the links to the inside face of the master rod (looks like a banjo); using #2-56 UNC bolts with the bolt heads on the outside face, a 4.5mm length of 1/8” brass tube as a bushing, and two #4 washers, and a #2-56 nyloc nut. - Inserted a #4-40 UNC bolt and washer in the centre of the master rod from the inside, secured it with a 5/32” brass tube bushing, lock washer and nut - Fastened the outer end of the links to the paddle arms, with the links on the outside of the paddle arms, with the bolt heads on the inside face, otherwise same as inner end of the links. The next step is to make the support for the pivot of the feathering mechanism.

7 years ago by Trillium

Blog

Applying the waterline.

I have used a vinyl tape made by Trimline rather than trying to paint one. Starting at the stern the tape conceals the join between the red oxide anti fouling and the black gloss sides. This is then continued to the bow but it has to cross the spray rail and this part gave me the most trouble. I ended up masking and painting the line at this point as I could not get the tape to conform to the multiple angles involved 😠 Visually it looks a bit odd and it’s far from perfect but I can’t afford to waste too much on it. Perhaps after some flatting down it will look better. If anyone has a quick, simple and accurate method of doing this I’d love to know the secret 😞

7 years ago by robbob

Response

Spraying the hull black.

I like the idea of using foil with the . it seems original and you have used a lot of initiative with preparation for the painting. I too used Trimline and as for the decals I went to a local printers who did a nice job especially with the FIRE decals. They adhered very well and nearly 3 years on the are still looking like new.😁 Boaty

7 years ago by boaty

Blog

Spraying the hull black.

Now that the red oxide has dried and hardened it’s time to mask it off in preparation of spraying the upper hull black. First I had to very carefully flat back the ridge in the red oxide paint left by the edge of the that might prevent the new laying flat. I chose two types of Tamiya tape, the first is the very thin and flexible type to get the sharp edge and this was then overlaid with the wider flexible variety. Once this initial masking edge was established all round the hull and at deck level I could mask up the rest fully. As an experiment and to prevent any possible bleed through of solvents through regular newspaper onto my lovely red oxide anti-fouling I chose to mask with some ’Bacofoil’ which actually works very well for this purpose as it is quite strong and easily folded and formed to the hull shape. I didn’t use too much of this from the roll, and my wife never noticed it’s absence from the kitchen whilst I was nicking it …result ! The hull was thoroughly wiped over with a tack cloth and panel wipe to remove any traces of contaminants that could spoil the paint finish and then it went into the booth. The pre-warmed paint went on very easily but at one point I noticed a bit of blooming on the surface in a few places but much to my relief this soon disappeared. Even after only one coat the finish looked very smooth and glossy. I left this first coat for a day or two to fully harden before wet flatting it down with an 800 grade abrasive. The second and third coats were applied in the same way, each left to harden for a day or more before flatting with a yet finer grades wet & dry paper. With the final coat on the finish greatly exceeded my expectations 😎 The and foil was very carefully removed to reveal a very sharp line where black meets red although this will be covered with the white ‘Trimline’ tape I bought from SHG Model Supplies at the Bristol model show in the summer. After a further couple of days drying and hardening I gave the black paint a bit of a polish with some Halfords cutting/polishing compound. I’m extremely pleased with this finish and at the same time frightened to death that I’ll ruin it in some way with a clumsy knock or in the lettering and lacquering stages 😓 …

7 years ago by robbob