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[Spook]

Not as neat as your build I'm afraid (hands a bit shaky and very clumsy) but getting there. I have a bit of tidying-up to do on the deck and hull then I'm just about ready to do a bit of spraying.


Early pic before I fitted the decks. Note the takeaway carton battery tray. Perfect and room underneath for ballast. I bought a couple of bags of small pebbles from Ikea - 87p per kilo.




This is the layout for the r/c components. The receiver will sit on the plywood mount opposite the rudder servo. - Originally I had planned for it to go between the ESCs (hence the three velcro strips) but I thought it might be too close to the motors.

It looks as if the motors/shafts are wonky, but that's the camera angle. They're about the only things I have managed to get straight in this boat so far



The blunt end. Not very exciting. I might think about brass props but TBH the amount of sailing I do, the plastic ones will probably suffice.




Side view, next to her stable-mate.



The lovely steps - lots of filler, and I had to trim away a few mm of deck to get them to fit.

[onslow]

Looks good Spook    Mine isn't as clean as it looks in the pics. I haven't had much time to do any work on mine since my last update.

[Spook]

I've done quite a bit over the past couple of weeks. Hull is now painted (I didn't want to do it  after the rails were fitted so as not to put too much stress on them) and coach lines in the later yellow & red stripe livery. Trim tabs went on OK after a bit of fiddling. After a major disaster with masking tape when I tried to paint the boot topping I eventually used PVC tape courtesy of Barry's Model Lettering.

Main rails are in place and the forward rails and aft hatch rails are waiting to be completed and fitted (stanchion bases not yet in place), all in primer or unpainted as yet. So far *looks for a piece of wood to touch* the rails haven't been the nightmare I thought they would, despite a less than perfect port transom corner (the first bit that I did) . The aluminium strip is so user-friendly.

I have decided to model the boat 'loosely' on the Barry Dock lifeboat as it's moored about 2 miles from my home.









Oh, and while the paint was drying I did this... (pics are not very clear, but there is a lot of black paint)

[onslow]

Looking great.    I'm going to go the tape route for the topping myself. Unfortunately I haven't had any time to work on my Trent. This time of year through early July gets a bit hectic for me.

Thanks for posting your progress! Looking forward to seeing more plus any tips you have.

[Spook]

Made a bit more progress. I've painted the rails and deck, added some of the deck fittings and done a lot of work on the superstructure. It's still to be finished off neatly, but I'll do that when the hatches, roof and fly bridge are in place. I have put a coat of varnish on the hull bottom and sides for protection, as I knew they were going to take a bashing when I fitted the rails and superstructure. The superstructure is not a great fit to the deck yet. It's not too bad but I might be able to improve on it later.

A word of warning... when you come to fit the side compartments into the superstructure sides, make sure they are clear of the raised 'splash guards' (I don't know what they're called) that stand up from the deck. The plans are not all that clear on positioning and I came a cropper and had to remove and refit some of them. Also I had a probem with the interior rear step stopping the superstructure from sitting snugly on the deck. Probably something I did wrong, but I had to cut away a little of the top of the rear 'splash guard' thingy to make it fit a bit better.

[Number 6]

Looking great, keep up the good work and the pictures coming, Dave. 

[onslow]

Very nice work. Still no progress on my build. I hope to get back to it in a couple of weeks. I hope mine turns out a nice as yours. Did you have to do much sanding/filing to get the superstructure to fit flush with the deck? I've done some test fitting with mine and noticed the very front (part D43) doesn't quite sit right.

[Spook]

Thanks for the positive comments guys.

Onslow, I didn't have to do much trimming on the superstructure sides, but my front piece (D43) is sitting about 3mm high, so I will need to sand down the sides a little. I had to trim a little off the rear sides for the steps to fit, as I had a bit of adjusting to do when I fitted the steps to the deck in the first place. Other than that, just the trimming of the splash guard inside.

I've now fitted all of the front superstructure parts (except for the hatches) and there is quite a bit of trimming and filling to do there. The instructions do indicate that there will be some trimming required.

I've also fitted the front superstructure rails. The wire is not as nice to use as the alloy strip.  As I am the world's worst solderer I have used thick super-glue, not solder, after shaping the joints. I did not build it separately then fit it, but built it up on the model (after cutting out the parts over the drawings as suggested).

Probably won't get much done now for a while as we are off camping tomorrow for a week.

[Spook]

It's been a week or several - and I've been hard at it - here are the latest pics. Every time I look at this model I see another mistake (but if nobody gets too close I might get away with it)




And the latest 'Look out!'...
I'm currently building the A-frames which fit on either side of the superstructure. The handbook drawing 24, part T36 is wrong - the cutaway is on the other side, so be careful when fitting parts 61 - they will need to face in the opposite direction.

[stoney]

 Its coming along nicely 

 Paul

[Number 6]

Looking very nice indeed, Dave. 

[onslow]

Looks great! Sadly I've had no time to work on mine at all. I haven't forgot though!

[nhp651]

It's been a week or several - and I've been hard at it - here are the latest pics. Every time I look at this model I see another mistake (but if nobody gets too close I might get away with it)

looks damn good to me, in fact superb, indeed!!!

[CF-FZG]

Looks very good Spook

What kit is it? 

I'm looking at getting a 1/16th Severn as my first Lifeboat, (but also looking at the Tamar, as I fancy making a slipway to launch it )


Mark

[Spook]

It's the Model Slipway 1/16th scale Trent. Approx 1200 parts so plenty to do. The instructions and plans are extensive, but there are a few areas where you have to work it out for yourself - hence my many mistakes. The parts are all good quality, particularly the etched brass.

The latest "Look Out" - The suggested Humbrol orange no 18 paint does not match the also suggested Halfords Volkswagen Brilliant Orange very well so, if you're spraying as well as hand painting there will be slight variations. Again if you don't look too closely it isn't glaringly obvious.

I wish I could stick clear 'glass' plastic without getting gluey fingerprints on it. I've just finished off the fly bridge glazing and it's not great.

More pics when I've done a bit more.

[Number 6]

One tip I learnt is to use silicon sealant to hold glazing in place, works well. Also if you're using halfords brilliant orange make sure you prime with white primer first or it will dry looking way too dark. I made that mistake once, won't do it again, Dave. 

[Spook]

Dave - I used white primer, even thought the kit says use yellow, as I thought it would be too yellowy - it's still very yellowy, even with white primer. The Humbrol orange has a softer, more pastel finish (well, more pastel than the VW orange anyway)  but not a million miles away from a match - several thousand, yes , but a million, no ;-)

I wish I'd thought of silicon sealant for the glazing. I tried UHU (it was uhuseless) and ended up using thick superglue, which worked OK but is a bit free-running and, with my clumsy hands, got everywhere I didn't want it to go.

[Spook]

AAAAARGH!

Sorry - slight overreaction there. I took these interesting 'out of the water' pics of the Barry Dock Trent lifeboat the other day, hoping that they may prove useful to myself and any other Trent modellers, and it looks as if the Humbrol tank grey which Model Slipway suggest for the deck is waaaaay out - unless of course the pics show a lighter primer which goes down before the much darker Humbrol tank grey (I hope).

But I would say that the Halfords VW Brilliant Orange over a white primer is the business - as for the Humbrol No 18 Orange.... I'll show you the difference in my next set of pics.

[onslow]

Thanks for the Barry Dock pics! I'm not sure what I'll do for paint when I get to that stage. None of the recommended paints are available in my part of the world. All your tips are much appreciated. I'm sure I'll be referring to your build when I get going on mine again.

[Number 6]

This might be of some use for Trent builders too, Dave. 

[Spook]

Loads more work done. There's not much more to do - touch up the paintwork, put on decals, add a few more ropes, varnish deck matt and the rest gloss then put in the r/c gear. Thet it's time to get it wet.

[CJ1]

Spook,
....either that's damn clever photography or you've made a lovely job of your Trent. Thanks for the pictures of a really neat build. I love what you've done to the interior too. Lovely work.
Chris

[Number 6]

Looking excellent, I can't see where it wants touching up! She'll look great on the water, Dave. 

[Spook]

Thanks for the nice comments - much appreciated.   

I suppose the camera does make it look better - there are loads of paint runs and blobs, one window upside-down (oops!), windscreen washers too low down, gluey fingerprints on the windows etc. I completely messed-up the lifebuoys, so I had to buy some ready made and paint them. I skipped a few of the smaller pieces (because I'm a bit on the clumsy side and I would make a hash of fitting them).

If you don't look too closely then she really does look lovely, but close-up there are things out of alignment, like the topmast, so the flybridge backrest has some 'interesting' bends in it, and the port quarter rails. But all-in-all I'm pretty happy with it.

Chris, it's a shame that you can't really see much of the interior when it's all put together - maybe I should have fitted some lighting.

So now I have to finish off the bits and bobs and summon up the courage to do the decals (as some of them need to be cut out from the sheet and Captain Clumsy is not looking forward to that). Then there's the varnishing, which has been known to wreck a perfectly good model in the past. Also I have to fit the rubber fendering, which will go on after the varnishing.

Onwards and upwards, eh?

Wondering what to build next, providing that:

a) I can find room to put any more ships
b) SWMBO goves me the green light

[Spook]

Quick update:

I've just finished putting on the decals (pics when I get a chance). If you're using Barry's model lettering, the helpful guide to fitting them is not correct.

The vessel numbers, the lifeboat location name (transom) and the word 'Lifeboats' do not need to be transferred to masking tape then onto the model. They have a slightly sticky front film which does the job and the lettering/numbers do not need to be cut out - they are separate and no additional vinyl is present.

I discovered this after applying one side set of numbers using masking tape (de-tackied, I thought) which still took the varnish off my hull (that I applied to protect the paintwork whilst building). The other decals I transferred using the front film and all is good.

You will, however, have to cut around the 'open / close' signs etc for the hatches with a sharp knife then peel off the backing.

Simples *squeak*.