The build of the 2 RNLB Princess's Mary has begun.

The hollows running on the insides of the hulls longitudinally have now been filled with P38 to level them out so that I can lay 12 x12 mm sprue along them longitudinally, to glue same size cross members and the decks in to, eventually and also strengthen the hulls.

Once set they will be sanded smooth, and then the top of the mouldings can be sanded level and parallel to belting, before adding the longitudinal and cross members.

Once this has been done, I can then turn the hulls over and fit the prop tubes and shafts before decking the boats.

Two rare and beautifully shaped beasties together, and ready to start the build process!!

The bulwarks have been sanded with a delta sander and 40 grade grit paper, the insides of the hull have been sanded smooth of all "needles" and loose fibres,……………..

………….and then almost all of the PVA blue release agent has been washed off.

Now the first job is to saw and glue the longitudinal leangths of 12 x 12 mm obeche strips to the port and starbourd bulwarks ready for then measuring and fitting the cross members, later today.

But first a bath as I am full of dust except for my mouth and nose, as I wore my mask.

I have always found that building the same and similat models at the same time, rather than build one, and then start another and then even a third is far easier than the latter choice.

And as I am building two RNLB Princess Mary's I am building side by side.

This morning I glued fillets on to the undersides of the bow and stern plates to support the ends of the under decks.

Then it was time to place and glue the two cross bearers that denote the ends of the access to the hull, marked by the front and rear parts of the main cabin and engine casing.

these were supported at their joints with the longitudinal stringers by small plates of 1.0mm ply glued to bothe the longitudinal and cross bearers using aliphatic resin glue..

I shall leave all this to set for a couple of hours before putting the side bearers in for the width of the cabin/engine casing.

two jobs today both to strengthen the frameworks, before attaching the main underdeck.

First job was to run a fillet of P38 under the side strips of 12 x 12 mm sprue…..this does, contrary to some opinions, bond to both the grp hull and the obeche timber, and also acts as a waterproof barrier should there by any remote chance be a gap between the obeche and the grp hull.

Been using this method of seeling the wooden supports to the hulls since my first Caldercraft build in 1979, and never yet had a parting between the frame work and the hull, of any boat I have bult………and I have built one or two, lol

Seccond job was to mark out the central access "hole" where the main cabin sits, width wise.

The length had already been determined by the possitioning of the two cross beams, and so reverting to my handy measuring stick I marked off the 4 cross members for each boat, and glued to the bottom of them, in a nice straight line the lengths of 12 x 12 obeche and cramped them up, and left to dry.

I will infill on the top of these with more 12 x 12 mm obeche, once set to give me the basis for a nice combing of 1.5mm ply to glue to the 24mm deph of timber for the cabin to sit over nice and tightly should i be called to sail windermere next summer……………

no sails will be relied upon this time lol.

Apart from a single mid sprue at both bow and stern of each boat, the deck suppor frames have been fabricated, piece by piece to fit tightly to the cross members and the underframe support gussets made from 1/16th marine ply………

And I think I now have a very sturdy frame to lay both under and top decks too, when the time comes.

Later this afternoon I shall turn each boat over and firstly fit the prop tubes And the A frames to support the exposed shafts and propellors in the right possitions………….however, I have a sneaky suspicious feeling that the legs on the Aframes thay i made for the 51' Barnett lifeboat years ago, might NOT be long enough and then it will be a case of getting out my silver solder, and brazing torch………..

Fitted the prop tubes into the hull today, lining them and the A frames in the tunnels, and tacked the tubes into the elongated holes with 5 minute setting epoxy.

Tomorrow I will back fill from inside with P40 fibre glass stranded filler to keep in permenant place………and then glue in place the A frames.

However, as I said earlier, the gas torch and silver solder will have to come out as the two A frames that I have used for the first boat were the last ones I had cast in white metal.

I have the moulds to cast them, but as I have no white metal or melting pot anymore, I dont think even polyurethane resin ones will be tough enough………and so will have to make in brass, silver soldered together……tomorrows first job.

I have already drilled, shaped and drilled the two bosses needed, and just have to cut 4 legs now for the two frames.

others would disagree Ashley………..but I find it has its uses other than just filling.

i'll have a read of that Colin. thanks for the link.

as for the shaft……i dont think I''ll have a problem as i used it on my build of the 51" Barnet, and although that was 10" shorter as a boat, the actual drive set up was exactly the same, with a 4mm shaft and tube to fit….

and it sailed like a dream…………..but i can always chanhe it should it give a problem.

Mary Stanford, a model lifeboat – YouTube

Couldn't sit any longer feeling sorry for myself,……. taking the anti biotics and paracetamol faithfully and was getting bored just sat in front of the TV, so decided to go out in to my workshop and by trial and error cut the two sets of bilge keels for each boat.

That was late this afternoon after another day of almost none productive activity at all.

Tomorrow I'll sand all of them smooth, and then drill them for pins to go through into the hulls and with 2 part epoxy I can drill the hulls and glue them in place.

A stressfull and tense 90 minutes has just been spent dry fitting the 4 bilge keels on to the first boat.

Getting the nails protruding from the boat hull and marked onto each keel individually, then drilling it and finally fitting and hoping that each drilled hole would match up with the nails from the hull was almost too much, but as it went togethjer ok on a dry fit, I will glue them to the boat hull with epoxy tomorrow.

And whilst they are setting hard, I'll spend hopefilly a shorter time doing the second boat now that I know what I'm doing [hopefully]

Especially at this length ,Colin……….A nightmare………..

thank goodness for filler.