Member postings for neil howard-pritchard

always the case Richard, lol...always the case,

thanks Richard, they fit in place well, but the windscreen power boxes seem to have quite a few blow holes in them from casting, now paint has been applied, so am going to fill them all and then spray again.

a bit more for you.

i asked a friend who is building a similar lifeboat to the mersey that i am concentrating on now about the windscreen washer jets, and he sent me a photo of them.

so this little job this afternoon, made od brass 1,2mm wire and silver soldered together is dedicated to him.

it is really nice when fellow modellers can help one another so quickly, and i dedicate this post to Chris Beynon

so here we have the windscreen washer water jet pipes that fit on to the front of the cabin under the wiper motors.

are you both building the 1;20 sarik abs hulled model by Dave Metcalf, or the 1;12 scale grp cabin/superstructure from Mountfleet models.

just asking as i am doing a full build from scratch using the latter in the build blog section of my Tyne class lifeboat

HERE!.............you are quite welcome to copy and file any pictures you might find helpful.

TYNE Class Lifeboat build | Model Boats

this evening i fabricated the 3 windscreen wiper ,otors, arms and blades for the Mersey.

i had 3 moulded which are to double up for the Tyne.

unfortunately the centre one is much too long for the Mersey, and so thought i would cast another shorter motor unit.........could i find the mould with 3 already cast, and only seen 2 weeks ago...........could i ****........

so i chopped the long one in half, reduced it in length to the same length as the other two, glued it back together, put a backing piece of plasticard onto the back of the motor box,to strengthen the joint and then attached the wiper and arm with cyano.

they will be painted and then attached to the cabin tomorrow.

air intake grill surrounds have now been painted and fitted in arounf the recess of the grills......

thats those "tarted" up a bit. lol.......slowly comming together.

From this to that on a 50+ year old Myford Speed 10 lathe.........

so, i took an old moulding from one i cad cast before, and turned it up, and then sanded in the lathe befor adding base and triangular support brackets to the body from the base.

25 minutes tops, it has now just been sprayed with filler primer to find any iregularities that need filling...........

and a little secret i'll let out now,,,,,,

rather than use body filler which is actually harder than the resin i used to cast such figures, i user straight forward childrens plasticine to fill small blow holes and other marks.

believe it or not, it takes spray paint exeedingly well, doesnt flake off and remains in place for etyernity lol.........been using that little method for 20 years at least.........a very well known and well respected builder and international model engineering judge told me the short cut many years ago when we met again at Earls Court show one january, where he was again judging.

dont believe me...........have a go!

most builders have found a supply of small resin mock bolts and washers down to a size of 1mm or 1.5 mm across head flats for these boats, as did i....but sadly after I had the boat professionally painted in 2 pac paint., and so didn't want to drill the cabin to take them which in real life hold down the engine access plates on the fore end of the cabin, as I thought that this might chip the paint away.

however I ran it by my friend Mick french tonight that I have a special fabric pen that "spits" out at a controlled size tiny blobs of acrylic waterproof paint, that is meant for fabric painting.

I asked him if I could "rivet" the plates for him after a preview, as the paint cover is a chrome steel cover.

I did it for him and he is highly delighted with the result, and so I have left them to harden and cure.

I have also put a small amount of rivet detailing on the aft end of the flying bridge plates, and also made the securing flanges to the side air intakes.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 25/02/2021 22:17:49

the main mast has been uncloaked and the wind screen "glazed" with 1mm clear plastic sheet, and set in to the frame using 2 sided sticky tape.

then the outside of the "glazing" have been lined with black sticky backed plastic card.looks just right.

and finally i have started to get the fittings ready for detail painting and then sticking to the model. the main w/t door and the fore w/t hatches are ready to take the springs and locking handles ready for sticking to the cabin.

thanks ray........that was a mates idea, which i used myself.

thanks bob,

really appreciate your and all those members comments that post............it helps when i suffer depression especially in these times, and it really does boost confidence.

and yes....the major paint work on both the Mersey and the Tyne are stavros's skills and magic..........i cant paint for numbers lol.

as for steamers, i know nothing about that, and tbh have never heard Stav mention the name Phil Button!

the main mast had already been sprayed white, for the ladder arrangement at the rea

rd, and has been"baking" in a nice hot garage for two days, has now had the white area masked up, so that i can spray the rest, including the wind screen in satin black undercoat.

it has now been left to dry, and the satin top coat will be sprayed on tonorrow morning, once i have got up, lol.......that could be post meridian, as i feel a few beers coming on tonight,

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 24/02/2021 23:32:15

a little further on....
i have stuck the air intake grills into their recesses on the cabin port and starboard sides, painted alluminium, which were stuck into the recesses using waterproof double sided tape.this stuff is incredibly strong, micro thin and virtually bomb proof.
fitted the "glass" inserts into the window frames and glued them in from the inside with cyano.....the white one is just to show that the window "glass" was made from 1.5mm plasticard.
and then the inside of the rear watertight door was "glazed" in the same colour black but this time using black sticky backed plastic, in the old Blue Peter method. then i cut a piece of plastic for the centre peign rail, which will be stuck in to the door using waterproof two sided sticky tape tomorrow after being sprayed orange..

Back to the mersey for a while...........may as well combine the two builds.......two for the price of one, lol.

The commencement of putting together the grown up aitfix model has begun.

I got hold of the window frames for the Mersey, and laid out two strips of masking tape, sticky side up.

I then seperated the "glass" from the frame one at a time, and put the "glass" on the top strip and the frame on the bottom strip, as quite a few of them are different shapes, and I only wanted to paint the "glass" black on the outside face.

I sprayed the. all a coat of filler primer, and then after an hour or so in a nice hot workshop I sprayed the "glass" black satin, and once it had dried after an hour or so [all depends these days how long my coyboy film lasts or has a break in it........as sod all else to do lol] I then covered it up and sprayed the frames alluminium silver!

They will be put together tonight and then hopefully attached to the cabin of the Mersey!

i bought this untouched kit a few months ago on impulse. Built one in 1982 and it was both a lovely kit to build AND sail. however i gave it away to the son of a work collegue who had just lost his mum to cancer, and my mate and i thought it might take a little away in sailing it from the trauma of the situation

i didn't regret it, but always thought i might buy another, until Graupner discontinued it.

and it became very rare as an untouched model.everything is there, including a tube of very hard out of date glue, lol.

i paid quite a bit for it because of its rareity, and so dont want to sell it, but would if the right model came along swap it. i am limiting my scope at the moment to something allong the lines of a lifeboat or possibly something along the lines of a well built Louie Helloise sailing boat...but i would lke a swap that has no work to be done, but just ready for plonking in the water on a nice sunny day.

i realise that as i get older, i am not the best [ never was] at reading instructions[ even less so if much is in diagramme or German] and so probably will never get built.

as i said its nice and complete and just aching to be built.

Miracles do happen

As the weather has started to get warmer, and my 2 oil filled rads are keeping pace and in fact getting the workshop nice and warm, i have done some clearing out of some crap, giving me space to have the two lifeboats on one side, and the fittings for the Mersey in front and behind me so that i can work on it.

a little more clearing tomorrow and i could possibly be on the ball to start putting Mick French's Mersey together by the end of the week..a couple of months at most, and that will be ready to bring indoors and hopefully if lockdown is lifted a few days in cornwall for my daughter and i will be on the cards.

SORRY, Herman, but have only just seen this question this afternoon, 16/02/2021,

the length of the two model lifeboats is 44.7 inches . and are built at 1;12 scale.

mine is in one hell of a state after 61 years, but having been given to me all those years ago, i would like to have it restored by a book binder rather than buy one.........but they are truly a great read...well done Richard..........i'm sure you'll enjoy it.

I myself would completely strip, clean and repaint the model in as near to original paint colours as possible........and by this take it to B n Q and have their paint department colour match the paint colours in their "yacht paint" paints, and brush paint the boat, as it would have been all those years ago..........to bring back some authenticity to the model.

if you look on book sales on the internet for; SCALE MODEL SHIPS, THEIR ENGINES AND CONSTRUCTION by BERNARD REEVE and P W THOMAS published 1951, it gives a fantastic insite into how models were built during those pre and post war times.

i was given a 1st edition by my grand dad who taught me the first rudaments and steps into model boat building and painting in 1959 for my birthday, and i still use it now and then for traditional members.

you would find it fascinating reading AND invaluable help in restoring your boat using traditional methods, rather than using rattle cans from Halfords. ..and good luck.

Scale Ship Models their Engines and Construction By Bernard Reeve & P.W.Thomas | Used | 1593503960DPB | Old & Rare at World of Books

Scale Model Ships.Their Engines and Construction.1951.Bernard Reeve.Hardback.1st | eBay

I send my sincere heartfelt condolences to Lawrie and his family for this tragic and sad loss of his wife, in the most horrible of ways.

I lost my mother in law and sister in law too the same horrible illness some 20 and 30 years ago respectively, and those memories of their suffering still hang heavy upon us as a family.

God bless you and your family Lawrie at this sad time, and my prayers go with you all.