Member postings for neil howard-pritchard

Mick's Mersey has had the piping, and unions added to the rams, the rams have now been attached to Mick French Mersey stern

sprayed the engine exhausts chrome, and fitted them. and then apart from the belting and the bow strops where I have some red cord, unless i sent it to Mick....can you remember old boy, the hull has been finished below deck level.

Engine exhausts fitted......

had a bit of a minor problem to overcome.
there are/were circular recesses into the transom that are barely smaller in diameter than the flange on the exhausts are.
and so, I doctored it......I filled the two recesses with milliput to the level of the transom so as to get a level area.
once set, over night, this evening I drilled into both the milliput and the bases of the exhausts and then spread over the base of the exhausts with 5 minute epoxy and glued in place.

the holes in each part of the joint are to make a good purchase and anchor bond, so that they wont drop off.

then I drilled the backing plates for the trim tabs and with epoxy again glued some framing pins through the plates, transom and into the hull..........this I will make watertight tomorrow by pouring some grp resin into the stern to cover those pins, and setting them in place permanently.

still on the mersey..

piping, and unions added, the rams have now been attached to Mick French's Mersey'.
tomorrow I'll find, and spray the engine exhausts chrome, and then fit them. and then apart from the belting and the bow strops where i have some red cord, unless i sent it to Mick....can you remember old boy, the hull has been finished below deck level.
then time to fit out the cabin, before lastly fitting all the deck paraphernalia and stanchions.

Always handy to have a ball of plasticine to stick your bits in whilst the glue is drying.

BACK TO THE MERSEY for the present,

I fitted the trim tabs this afternoon after putting them together and spraying the other night.

i put some double sided 3mm wide waterproof tape around the [already drilled] backing plates and then mixed some 30 minute epoxy into the middle of each plate surrounded by the tape. peeled the protective outer covering from the tape and stuck the tabs to the stern.i will leave them a few hours this evening and then will drill through with a 0.8mm drill bit and push some framing pins through the holes, with more epoxy on to them , and tomorrow when everything is set, i will back fill from the insides with some polyester resin to seal it all and make watertight.

now that the trim tabs have been fitted semi permanently i can make the hydraulic rams to fit in a neutral position.

simply made from different lengths of plastic tubing, some scraps of plasticard and some copper and brass wire, all the parts are ready for fitting together once painted tomorrow.

I also made the two towing/mooring Bitts for the bow and stern for Mick French's boat. there are two in the parts going to Dave Stavros Jones, so only needed to make these two.

my first images of my Tyne having taken her main colours after Dave Stavros Jones magical fingers have worked their beauty on the boat.

she looks absolutely stunning!.......cant wait to see her in the flesh

spent a little time today on my own boats fittings,

stanchions for the Tyne.

unusually, the tyne is the only boat in modern fleets not to have the stanchions attached to the toe rails.... the boards that run around the deck close to the bulwarks of the boat.

instead they are attached to semicircular brackets, welded to the deck.....a bit tricky for a modeler to get a nice firm attachment as not to break.

so, earlier in lockdown, i took some of the stanchions i turned and molded about 10 years ago and added a semi circle of plastic struct to the base and then made casting rubber molds.......

i cast a number a couple of months ago.

and so today i drilled the bases to take some pins made from 26 gauge piano wire so that the pins and the base of each stanchion would make a better connection with the deck, once glued.

i also drilled for the safety wire rails into the stanchions..Only the holes to drill now for the bracing wires from stanchions to deck, once the stanchions are dry fitted later in the build.

now back to my Tyne class lifeboat.....Dave stavros Jones has today sprayed the hull with a beautifully lustrous covering of OXFORD/BALIOL blue in 2pac paint.

it looks from the photos absolutely beautiful

so that is both sides done.....

the stanchions and stays have been attached together and to the toe rails.

next, once the glue has set hard, i am going to drill the stanchion plates through the toe rails and pin them, with a backing on the inside of very fine bore plastic tubing, so they look a little like nuts and rivets.

once this is done, they will be nice and secure, and put aside ready for spray painting polar grey [ford halfords].

an easy cop out when you couldn't think what else to say, lol.

it is just ok Paul............as teacher would say.......MUST DO BETTER, lol.

after a lot of problems with the painting of the deck in textured paint, and mainly due to my total impatience and not waiting for the paints to dry and properly cure in a coldish workshop and the mess that i alone got myself in to, i have finally sorted it all by gluing a layer of 80 grit wet/dry paper to the overall covering of the deck.

not my greatest achievement in my modelling career, and would give myself only 5/10 marks.........and only then for digging myself out of a hole........if only slightly.....so it has now been sprayed, and i will begin work on it in a couple of days.

if i were writing a school report on one of my CDT kids i would would say................."needs to have patience, has talents but blunders through and lives on his wits"

another small but important fitting has been almost finished this afternoon, for both mick's and Daves boat...........the strop hook/lever that tightens the retaining strops to the bow from the launch trailer.
made completely from plasticard.

i like that, Ray........a nice subject with plenty of scope for "busy" detailing.

the aft access hatch has been sanded and sealed with sanding sealer.

masking up done,

spraying with Rustoleum Aged Iron Textured paint applied to the deck.

just wait for an hour or so now for the paint to set and cure into the textured finish it turns into. i normally leave it a couple of hours to set and 24 hours to cure before i start any work on the parts that fit on to the deck to make sure it is hard enough.

the final obstacle to painting the deck and then fitting all rails and other clutter was the fitting of the rudder links to the servo.

with the help of the open hatch on the stern, this was done and the links all tightened up, set with locktite thread lock, and then a hatch made of 2 layers of 1.5mm ply cur across the grain to bend to the camber of the deck.

this was set in a no nails type glue, and has been left to set overnight.

tomorrow all will be sanded, and then masked up and sprayed with Rustoleum textured paint

a handsom beasty if ever i saw one Chris, lol.

i felt the same to begin with, RAY, but as time has gone one, and an end to such restrictions becomes even more prohibitive, one's mental health becomes an issue.

my daughter suffers badly from depression after suffering horrendous threats of sexual harassment of the worst kind when on her first trip across the pacific as a cadet deck officer, with nowhere to turn to but her cabin, and i also suffer bouts of depression dating back 25 years when my career as a teacher came to an end after malicious accusations of physical assault against a thug who had stolen tools from my woodwork room, stolen the school car with them, absconded with another boy, in the stolen school car and crashed it on the M6 near Lancaster, killing his passenger, and getting off with an extra 3 months incarceration in the same "school".

when you suffer depression, there is only so much time you can spend in isolation, and in your workshop before something "breaks".

so a release, if you can actually work around the prohibitions, is sometimes welcome.

ahh thats where i have been going wrong then..........not had a boat on the water in over 18 months or more now, and have two boats that are virginal......and was worried in the beautifu weather that we had this spring and early summer whether sailing a model could be classed as exercise.........just twiddling the sticks forwards backwards up and down just didn't cut it in my mind

however, when you mentioned your rubber band model and dashing from bank to bank, it set my mind a thinking.

Fleetwood lake is, when walked around the perimeter of the bank, just over 1/2 mile in distance, i have often sailed my boat around the lake, following it at nice walking pace 3 times before the battery starts to fade, and boat starts to run slowly.

when doing that i have walked over 1.5 miles during my nice peaceful sail with no one following or "grouping" around me...............totally on my own.........obviously pre covid.

SO!!!!.........would this constitute exercise, or socialising..............after all, it is not much difference from walking my little dog for 1.5 miles around the estate,...........or would it.

i am just playing the waiting game now, waiting for my friends cabin and my boat to come back from my other friend Dave, in Wales fully painted......

i received good news today in that the cabins for both boats, that had been given their undercoats and primers in the last few days, have this morning had their top coats of RNLI Orange sprayed on in 2 pac paint...........

they look brilliant, and sorry to say guys, far more exciting than the presidential elections at the moment.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 04/11/2020 15:17:56

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 04/11/2020 15:18:27

what could you mean, Chris............i have no idea, lol.