Everything seems to be bigger on this boat than on other classics that I have built in the past, other than the bigger Clyde that I built years ago, but am enjoying it very much.

Last night I started cutting out and gluing the base and sides, and backs for the two different sized companionways, housing hatches to the insides of the boat, the fore and rear survivors cabins, but because of their sizes I chose to use 2mm thick plasticard, for all pieces.

So last night I glued the bases, sides and half of the backs up to the start of the bends in the two companionways using EMA Plasticweld, and although it will bond within seconds to glue parts that no stress is put on to the joints, when under stress as the backs would be when I start to bend the thick sheet, the joints need to be left to fully bond the pieces together and harden up to full strength. As such I left what had been glued, over night.

This morning I lit a candle, and with gentle heat to the plastic to be bent, I anealed the plastic to soften it in order to bend to shape.And then i glued it together and tape it up to maintain the bend and joints and left all to bond and set.

I am giving my 3 monthly pinta of O Neg this afternoon at the same hall that Dave Stavros Jones feels so much at home every October, the exibition hall of the Norbreck Castle, at 14.00 hours so will leave the companonways to set until I have had my 3 monthly ration of Bourbon creams and week orange squash. lol, before I carry out some cleaning up and trimming off.

Edited By neil howard-pritchard on 26/07/2022 11:49:05

This evening I have made the main parts, the actual bodies of the hatches!

Three layers of plasticard went in to making each hatch, of which two will be moulded twice, the inner round hatches inside the cabin, and the hatches on the engine casing both need two of.

The hinges and spring cosures for the bodies will be attached and moulded in to the item, and all will be made into silicon rubber moulds and then cast in resin, 8 hatches per boat.

Having been model boat building since I was 8 years of age I have amassed a great number of tools, both hand and power tools over those 63 years. And to be honest I don't think there is a tool at 71 and in my later years that I really need anymore.

It was as I was setting up my boat and frames that realised that one of the tools I was about to use, and I don't mean those that scrape, cut, smooth or shape, was one of my oldest, none cutting tools. My "Workmate Professional".

It was bought my as a wedding present in 1988, and is still givng great service, even though the lady has long gone to a prefered gentleman………dont really blame her, lol

HOWEVER, at 34 years old I have used it regularly over half of my modelling life………….now that is good going!

So today I finished cutting the remaining frames out after measuring and marking this morning. I mounted a strip of hardwood under the keel to keep it at the right height to mount the frames,when clamped in to the workmate, and also to keep the "backbone" absolutely straight and true!

Slots cut, I slid the frames in to those cut in the backbone, and found just two frames are not quite right for the bottom of the frame to meet the bottom line of the keel. these two ftames will be slightly adjusted before ALL frames are glued and wedged in to the main frame.

That I will do tonight and let the epoxy glue set over night.

fully enlarging a plan to a much larger size from an original small scale plan, always has its downfalls, especially in width.

one can use the highest of accurate digital scanning enlargers to get a correct length, but the width or beam of a subject will always have slight differences.

As such, i always check the beam of both the line drawings for the stations after enlarging, and the plans for the general arangements.

If the lines for the stations and cross members are correct acording to the dims of the boat, i will transfer those measurements from the frames to the GA Plans at the right positions.

This i did last night and transposed those measurements to the GA's.

As you can see, the black lines as shown by the tips of the pencil and pen are slightly out in that the beam on the enlarged GA is slightly out at most by about 6mm at bow to zero midships and 4 mm at the stern…….

So this is very tolerable to most model builders and having re drawn the shape of the hull top to the black pen line, i can now mark out the deck on 3mm ply using carbon paper.

Once this has been drawn and cut out and checked against the frames, i can then glue in place the frames, making sure that the tops are at right angles to the centre back bone and keel. Methodology, time and patience are the key words to getting a straight set of frames for a plug for grp work.

You'd think that after using 2 part epoxy such as Zap and otherts, for the past 30 odd years, I'd be able to mix two equal parts and glue my frames together……BUT NO!!!

Five of the frames stuck, and on the next mix, when handling them this morning fIVE OF THE FRAMES fell apart, much to my great anoyance….just wasted time.

So having cleaned all the old glue off and reglued the frames with cyano I sanded all that stuck and glued onto bases of 1.32 thick birch faced ply with aliphatic resin……….which are now all under weights and will be left for a couple or so hours to set. and the two remaining still have to be sanded as they were late arrivals in the "do it again" pile…….c'este la vie.

All raised cabin gratings now been stabalised and and sanded smooth on my belt sander.

They look well on the deck in the approximate position they will eventually sit in.

Which brings me to the next part………….and that is the gluing and fitting of the deck. But there in lies a small cockup, and a reference to my school days.

I was ABSOLUTELY USELESS at science in any form and although my problem stems from my fear of the subject it really wasn't a problem with the boat other than blanking out certain points, but I ,as an escape, blame it on science.

The shortest distance between 2 points is a straight line, and why a boat/ships length is measured between perpendiculars, and as such I measured the length of the deck I cut, between those two points.

I DIDN'T take into account the sheer of the deck, which ultimately alters the length of the deck.

So! I am going to have to cut the deck into two pieces.

It will eventually make it easier to fix in place the 2 halves and line them up, and I will be able to infill the small gap in the centre of the boat………….but it could also weeken the structure unless I reinforce it properly………we shall see, eventually.

i hope so George………..and once the hull is made for the plug, and moulded, all the hard work will be done, as almost everything else, fittings wise is done. the cabin itself will be a plug and moulds from solid obeche, unless the plug from the 51' Barnett that i still have can be modified to take a mould.

i will endeavour to do that, Alberto .

and here's the latest tip.

Take an A4 size piece of plastic cross stich backing [ well, pay for it tbh…best thing to do, lol]………put supports into the frames you have made, and then cut to fit…..

Voila…….but for painting the grating brown, and laquering and varnishing the frames, the inner cabin raised gratings made.

Obviously, because the deck sheets were cut on the flat, and the deck actually follows the sheer of the boat, the deck was too short, and so had to be modified.

First, supports were glued to the cross frames to support the front section of deck, fore and aft, and then left overnight.

this morning i put glue on to all tops of the frames and supports, using aliphatic quick grab wood glue, and then, starting at the rear end of the front section, mating up to the fore part of the aft deck, where the deck is at its widest.

Using framing pins, and starting at the rear, i pinned the deck to the frames, finally using G cramps to hold the final part of the foreward part of the deck to the frames and supports.

This will be left for most of the day to thoroughly set and dry.

There is then a small strip about 25mm wide to fit at the bow section and put an upstand piece of ply to finalise the rased section of the fore peak.

Once that has all set by tomorrow, i shall be able to start filling in between the frames, using strips of obeche i bought a couple of weeks ago. Thats when the fun begins.

It's like playing Lego with big wooden blocks.

Started last night with the first 5 blocks fitted between frames each side from the mid section, and then the last 3 blocks going aft to the Stern post this afternoon.

Then, this evening i started working forward until i got to the last frame, before cutting to shape, the bow blocks that will be laid vertically to the keelson at the bow.

And those blocks will be added tomorrow before i tirh the plug upside down and starting to build the sides up layer by layer until i reach the keel level.

All sounds simple, and it is to be honest, as i did a plug this way once before, a shelter deck trawler about half the length of the RNLB Princess Mary……………but the principle is exactly the same.

Wish me luck, lol.

And so I started, by cutting slices about 1/2 inch thick by the width of of the plank, and cut the first three blocks to clad 4 frames, two midships [one either side] and two frames towards the stern.

It was then that I saw that one of the frames didn't look right, and hadn't been drawn right on the original drawings…..frame 8………the tunnel for the propellor shaft and prop was all wrong.

I checked on my Liverpool class boat, my unbuilt Ann Letitia Russell lifeboat and pictures of the builds of my other Barnett and two 46' Watsons, and there was no way that the tunnel markings on frame 8 were correct……..there was far too little depth to the marked tunel to give a nice sweep to the length of the tunnel, and as such I got on my knees to mark it out to what I feel is a uniform "sweep" from frame seven to frame 9.5.

It's just how I am going to cut out the extra "chunk" of wood to make the overall tunnel correct.

I'll think about that problem tomorrow, but for now I'll just let the blocks on the 4 partially filled frames set and cure overnight.