The rope bins and side benches have been given a couple of coats ofdeep mahogany varnish, and then will be given a final coat of gloss clear resin. The hinges etc., will be painted later.

 

 

And the cabins have been given two coats of the satin deep mahogany varnish, as I decided that that was the closest to the original colour rather than the red colour that I had painted on to the seats/rope bins originally.

 

 

But the cabins are going to be given a couple more coats at least of the satin varnish and then let to cure and harden before I decide what to do next. …….pictures on those two to follow later.

 

 

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 08/05/2023 20:28:22

And secondly the twin funnelled RNLB Princess Mary of Padstow

no Jim, its straight on to two part buil pulling/sailing liverpool static lifeboats than a gent who owns the real boat daiting back to 1899 that is in the Lytham museum asked me to build in January. U got up to deck level in January-March whilst the weather was too cold to paint.

After those two are finished, it will be a change.

Two years ago my good friend and coxs'n of Fleetwood Lifeboat retired gave me a Cheddar Steam Plant on the contition that i would put it into a boat of some sort.

I felt guilty that i hadn't done so when Ian died just before Christmas and in february after his funeral i hugged his widow and asked her if she wanted it back as it was worth a tidy sum. She said that Ian had bequeathed it to me in his will, which i fealt very humble about.

So for the next week i scowered face book adds and ebay and eventually found a Mountfleet Steam trawler, Boston Typhoon for sale at £350……….i made an offer and got it for a rediculous bargain.

And so, in honour of a very dear friend and drinking buddy, i am going to build it…………but not the Boston Typhoon but naming it after my friend [which i have never ever done before] i am going to chop and change it about and build it as what was called a Bridge aft Sider, where the funnel is at the fore end of the cabin and the wheel house is right at the aft end of the superstructure, with things like lifeboat aft as on a drifter and an open fo'csle, like one i built years ago and appeared in the late yearly edition of Model Shipwright.

So that will be my next model.

The model will be called WILLIAM IAN FAIRCLOUGH

A typical bridge aft sider

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 09/05/2023 16:45:38

Put the jumping net and anchor davits parts together this evening, and then filled any small irregularities with surface filler.

All will be sanded tomorrow ready for painting.

And each set of fittings on these two mamoth tasks brings them a little closer to being finished. also made some grab handles to go onto the two companionway covers for each boat.

All the little fidly bits are now popping up and making life interesting to put the finishing touches to the multitude of fittings.

Luckily the RNLB William and Kate Johnston doesn't have a helm/coxs'ns raised platform so didn't have to make two.

However, these old lifeboats were nothing if not craftsman built and so with a little modellers licence, I thought I would too, add a little bit of ornate woodworking trickery to the platform, and just for a little ooohhh, pazazz,

I cut up two dolls house banister rails in to two different lengths to accomodate the sheer of the deck at the stern, so that the top of the platform would remain horizontal to the boat, and the cox wouldn't forever be slipping forward.

Have to admit that on first dry fitting the two different legs I got them wrong way round so that the cox would be on a permanent "dive" forwards………..easily rectifiable and then glued together with pins made from brass wire. once painted and ready to fit, they will be pinned and glued to the deck.

It's described on the plans as [only] "auxiliary machinary", and from what both the plan and profile show it, in two different positions, and some faint very early images of the original boat, it looks like a rope bin and storage "crate"……..

But it was only on the earliest of the 4 boats, the William and Kate Johnston, and as such, with modellers licence, tonight i made it as i think it could possibly haver looked like to house ropes, spare liferings and other such things.

Made from birch faced ply base and obeche' frame work with aliphatic resin to glue, it was constructed, frame by frame and will be sanded smooth and then coloured once fully glued, tomorrow.

The carburundum paper [120 grit ] was cut last night and this lunch/afternoon was glued to the deck using my aliphatic resin quick grab adhesive and taped down and left to cure.

 

I also glued the 3 rectangular pieces to 1.5mm x two layers to form the under deck storage compartment hatch covers., one for the RNLB Princess Mary, and two for the RNLB William and Kate Johnston, as shown in both sets of plans.

 

The two layers of ply were again glued together using aliphatic resin and clamped together. Clamps will be removed later tonight, and sanded smooth around the edges,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 17/05/2023 14:43:53

Tomorrow I have the daunting task of turning these two leviathons upside down in order to fit some water cooling intakes [dummy fittings] between the keelson and the nearest bilge keel to the keelson.

Then I will have to grease the tubes both to help the shafts spin nicely and also protect them from water ingress.

Over the years I have used a mix of vasiline and an aditive of printers carbon powder mixed into a lightweight but very effective barrier against water, and have never let me doun in the 28 years I have used the mix since I built my first Ann Letitia Russell in 1995!

But before I do that task tomorrow I had tpo file a flat on the inboard end of the two shafts per boat to take grub screws for the shaft connectors which was done without any problem, after cutting them all to correct length taking in to account the spacing for thrust washers and a small piece of silicon rubber on the inboard end between the motor to shaft connectors.

All is set for tomorrows task.

I stuffed the set of tubes with grease this afternoon after coming back from hospital and my second ultra sound in 12 days…………and needed something to do to deviate my mind from the hastle and pain in my neck.

So I greased up, and then incerted the prop shafts by turning them as i pressed then ionto the tubes by about 1".

Then I glued to the builges the four water cooling intakes for the two motors. Unlike those on the later watsons and the Liverpools they are a rectangular shape with an open scoop at the front…that to be painted in black later !

Now, I can turn the first boat upright and then block the inner end with a tapered piece of dowel and slowly and gradually turn the prop shafts into the tubes so that the grease will compleatly surround the shafts without squirting the black stuff out into the hull, making it all watertight………………well, thats the plan, lol.

Now that the shafts have been fitted succesfully i have now got down to sorting the fittings into 3 piles, for the two boats i have been buildingh, and one other.

And then getting down to painting my two sets by brush on the fiddly smaller parts, before attaching them to the boats, which I have done this afternoon, and evening.

I will now put them aside and bring some more in from the workshop and get ready for tomorrows onslaught.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 23/05/2023 20:50:20

Used that method myself plus another of gluing planks with aliphatic resin glue mixed with black printers ink which oozes out into the joints,looks like caulking and which also works well,

But the size of these two boats I just couldn't face individual planking of the decks……..had had enough by this time and just wanted to get fitting them out.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 24/05/2023 15:51:44

And once the etching primer had dried on the resin fittings i have been able to brush paint the deck plates with a new pot of Humbrol Metal Cote paint.

This paint is called Brushed Steel, and Humbrol do others including gold copper and brass,

Painted on, and then left to dry for a couple of hours they can be softly pollished with a soft cloth, which polishes the surfasce to give the look of shiny metal….so will "polish" the deck plates later this evening.