The final part of fitting the two rudders was to back fill any chance of gaps from drilling the holes into the stern posts to glue in the pintols to hang the rudders on.

When I was drilling 3 holes went straight through to the inside of the hulls, and although I injected copious amounts of epoxy with a syringe into the holes, there is still a chance that not all of the holes were sealed 100% and so the back filling was necessary.

The outer areas for leakage of resin from the insides were sealed with masking tape around the pintols and holes on the stern post, and then resin was poured in to the hull from the access hole in the decks and left standing upright for the resin to find its level inside the aft stern post hollow.

Job done, both boats now sealed and left to set and cure, as the models cannot leak from any conceivable area now than through the prop tubes.

And so, it was now time to clean off the two cabins of the blue PVA release agent which I did by dumping them in a warm bath, and then once washed and dried off, start to sand them both to get them smooth, as I have to say the moulds looked pretty awful as there are lumps and hollows all over them both showing that I had rushed them both to get them out of the way.

There is no problem in that, as I can fill them both with Dolphin Glaze to smooth the dents out, but am disapointed with my own workmanship in producing two poor quality mouldings because I got over confudent and rushed them…..c'este' la vie' I'll get over it, lol. but is an awakening for me and anyone………….grp laminating is NOT TO BE RUSHED!.

However the front end of the William and Kate Johnston is different to the Princess Mary as stated before it doesn't have the plinth attached for the survivors companionway, and which I cut off earlier.

So! I had to fill the gap left by cutting off the plinth, and by cutting, shaping and sanding the two parts that I have made from 3mm ply, I filled in the gap gluing in place with epoxy and leaving to set.

The gaps will be filled when I fill the lumps and bumps before sanding all parts smooth.

HAD A bit of a disaster with my Princess Mary lifeboat about 5 days ago, when i was lifting it of the bench.

I caught the rudder on the table for the band saw and broke the joints on the top two pintols…..

As I couldn't use the brasing torch in such close proximity to the wooden rudder and the grp stern stock, the only way i could repair it was to use my needle point 100 watt electric soldering iron, but when I turned it on…….ERROR came up on the digital display!

Took it apart and found the ceramic heating stick was broken, and so had to order a new iron from Amazon……

This was Sunday so wondered how long a new one would take.

Luckily it arrived on Tuesday and so was able to effect a repair on Wednesday……all seems ok now……….and in future I'll watch out where I am putting my a** end!

"The time has come," the walrus said…….."to speak of many things"…..

And so I have to say that the time has come to start painting the hulls of the two large Barnett lifeboats, as for the first time this year, the two oil filled radiators in the workshop have held their own against the outside temperature as it warms up and spring begins to warm the world up and makes for more pleasant working conditions inside the workshop.

I filled in all gaps and unevenness on the 4 end boxes with P38 filler as some of the gaps were quite deep and wide, and put them aside for a rainy day.

However, once I have also sanded the tops of the end boxes on the two Liverpools' that I filled this afternoon, whilst sanding the Barnetts, I can continue to work on those two smaller boats indoors in an evening!, but also go full steam ahead on building and finishing the two Barnetts'.

No Richard, my own slant on things, lol.

"The time has come" the walrus said,

"To talk of many things,

Of glues ,and ships, and sealing tacks, of fillers,

and rigging strings!"

lol.

Haven't done any spray painting of my own boats for a while now, and so enjoying getting in some practice….slowly and carefully!.

The centre of the upper works. i.e. the inner deck which will have the deck planks marked on to the bare wood has been masked over with brown paper and low tac masking tape, and then th ose parts , the deck, the bow breakwater and fore gobeye plus the rudder top and the upper belting have now been sprayed after wiping with tac-wipe to remove any sanding dust left after i brushed the hull and deck with a soft bristled brush.

FINALLY on the way.

I shall leave this to cure until after tea and then turn the boat over to spray the rest of the hull with the same filler primer, before seeing and bumps and hollows……..hopefully none.

just waiting for the filler primer to harden, still a little soft after a cold clear night up here int norf, so whilst it hardens over a second night, I have spent my time on the 2nd boat this afternoon masking the deck up as I did yesterday with the first boat………..

all done, and i will swap the boats around with boat 1 sat on my stool whilst the boat 2 goes on to the workmate.

I've no objections Ashley, I say the same, being a dad, lol………no wokes in this camp lol.

With the heating on and the hot air fan heater giving extra warmth in the work shop both hulls were given their first coats of grey primer this morning by 09.15 hours.

Just been out at 15.55 hours to check dor any anomilies, none seen or fealt anfd so gave the hulls a second coat.

I'LL leave them now untill tomorrow when I will run over them both with some 380 grade wet and dry, used DRY!!!, before I give them another coat tomorrow morning! I shall leave them over night to harden with some heat on before I use some 800 grade paper to smoth any iregularities out such as microscopic dust "mountains", but having wiped them each time with tac-wipes, there shouldn't be any, tbh.

BY Sunday morning-ish give or take an hour or so I will be able to put on the first colour of the top coats…………the white of the waterline/boot topping.