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[CJ1]

Neil,
Earlier in this post, I fear I may have made a disparaging remark about the state of your workshop. Having seen what a brilliant job you are making of these boats, can I take it back please?
humbly, Chris

[Neil]

Neil,
Earlier in this post, I fear I may have made a disparaging remark about the state of your workshop. Having seen what a brilliant job you are making of these boats, can I take it back please?
humbly, Chris

when was that chris??........I astound myself at times that I can even move in the place.........it's a junk shop most of the time and no offense was taken I can assure you.........in fact rather enjoyed the banter..especially from that man Mr Bishop likening it to some tomb or other that I cant spell the name of, in Egypt.........I feel honoured.....maybe in a few hundred years when some poor sob opens it up to the world.they'll find me mummified bent over a bench with a knife and plasticard in my hand........what a way to go,

[rottweiler]

Dont forget to wear a new pair of marigolds,to confuse the mummy finders!
Seriously,though my friend,what a superb job you are doing,...and no one can argue with that!
Mick

[Neil]

and no one can argue with that!
Mick

I don't need anyone to argue with me, Mick.....I argue with myself most the time.....

[Neil]

Well, got back from my hols today, and thoroughly enjoyed them, but came across one sad site on thursday...........

Came across this sad looking ex RNLI Arun lifeboat Sir Max Aitken, 52 - 17 in Ramsgate harbour on Thursday, 5/04/2012 looking very forlorn, and with blown Caterpiller engines................and up for sale for offers.............

Sad thing is, that the owner dumped her on the end of the breakwater, so one of the harbour officials told me, and there she lay for nearly 5 months until they moved her to her present berth in the inner harbour where she languishes, with mounting unpaid harbour dues and no engines to move her...........she will be/is up for sale on offers apparently but no one can find her owner..........so what will become of her in those situations is anyones guess........what a crying shame!!!

[Neil]

and here just to round them up are the Dungeness, Hastings and Ramsgate Mersey's and Trent respectively plus a couple of pulling and sailing models........sadly the model I really wanted to photograph........the "Rankin"...the 51' Stromness Barnett class lifeboat had been moved from the Eastbourne RNLI Museum to Poole's heritage collection for later re siting.......

[F4TCT]

Sad indeed...

Whipround?

Dan

[Neil]

A few days before I went away I decided to give the Mary Stanford and the H F Bailey a coat of paint on the engine casings and fore cabins.

Because I had painted the "wood effect" cabins with a varnish I decided not to spray an undercoat using cellulose, so decided to give two coats with Humbrol acrylic No. 127, and brush paint on with my new expensive ( and I mean expensive) camel hair brushes................what a b***** mess.........the acrylic paint ( i used it because I couldn't find the corresponding number in enamel humbrol locally) and which I have never used before went on smeery, it grabbed on the "last" brush full, and plucked off the paint of the last stroke, and left such an uneven coat that I decided to wait till holiday time and try locating some enamel "down south".

But it niggled me to leave such an uneven mess on my model so decided to wet and dry it smooth................even using 800 grade wet and dry, with fairy liquid in the warm water, it just plucked at the paint, and in the end took off more, in patches than what was left on the casings.............so just to satisfy myself that I wouldn't come back to a mess and think about it all whilst on holls, I took it all off except for minor areas which I'll do before repainting with brush enamels that I obtained from a hobby and toy shop in Rochester, Kent.

So in the next day or so will finall take off all remaining acrylic and repaint with the stuff I'm used to.

They say these things are sent to try us, and that we learn by our mistakes...............I do!!.......will never use acrylics again.......don't like it, full stop!!

[Neil]

I decided to give repainting a miss for a little while whilst I pluck up courage to do it again......so decided to add the scupper freeing ports inside the well decks of the Mary Stanford.

I am using port holes with two bars from the Metcalf Mouldings Rother class lifeboat for these as they are very similar to the valve covers, and saves making new covers, then moulding and then casting them...call it modellers licence.

first I needed to get hold of an 18mm forstner bit to cut the recessed round holes ( not cut all the way through the timber deck, but I needed them to sit flush to the deck floor.

The port holes were two thick in profile so needed to sand off the basic thickness from under......and I needed something to hold them with whilst sanding on my disc sander, ( as sanding by hand would have taken an eternity.)

Some years ago I picked up a wire stripper in the middle of the road, but it had broken "teath" and wouldn't work as a wire stripper......but I knew, (even all those years ago, and it must have been 15 years ago that I found it) than one day it would come in usefull for something.......today it did......I sanded and modified the teath and hey presto......great for holding portholes with reinforcing bars whilst sanding.

Next job was to set the forstner bit to cut no lower than I needed, and so masked off most of the bit with a masking tape stopper to allow the port holes to sit just flush with the deck........then it was down to marking off the positions in both fore and aft well decks and drill.

The results are shown below.

[Neil]

the centre holes of the forstner bit drilled recess will be filled with a little silicon rubber filler and the scupper plates will be set into black silicon rubber sealant.

[RAAArtyGunner]

Nice simple depth gauge on the 'spade' bit, was wondering what a forstner was.

[Neil]

It's amazing how many uses other than masking, masking tape has,

[Number 6]

They're looking great Neil, sorry not been able to keep up to date properly with what's going on with just my smart phone (contradiction in terms there!). Got a new laptop now so am slowly catching up with what's been going on. I'll have my new workshop set up soon so will be back building hopefully.

Dave. 

[Peewee]

looking good Neil, certainly watching with great intrest

[Neil]

thanks guys, and sorry for having to give the bad news Dave.
I am requesting on here as well as on Wants adds............does anyone have about 8" of BLACK 6mm o/d silicon tubing they could sell me please for the odd thing up the fore mast of the Field marshall and Mrs Smuts............been all over the place the last few days for some but no success.........I have tried painting some clear which I have plenty of inside and out but it just won't take and flakes off as soon as it's bent...................and ebay adds are for meters at a time.........all I need is one little piece 8" long......many thanks for any help.
neil.

[F4TCT]

What about using some electrical wire?

Bend it to shape first and then paint, assuming it isnt black already?

Dan

[Neil]

I have tried that dan but it is too stiff to go back into the hooped shape when the mast is folded down, and kinks..........I think it would break off the fitting that it fits through as it retracts into the cabin.
neil.

[Neil]

I seam to be doing a lot of flitting around from one part of the build to another at the moment and not simply getting down to one particular task in particular, and it all seams a little hotch potch........I have more fittings littering my benches than I can shake a stick at......but they have all been cleaned up, the parts are being dry fitted before painting and once the final parts of the jigsaw have been made, they hopefully in one mamoth painting and gluing session will manifest themselves into three models in one final finished amalgamation.

So today ( well last night to be more accurate) I mixed a couple of packs of Milliput together and made the three fenders which will be moulded.
There is one bow fender for the Mary Stanford and a bow and stern fender for the two Watson class boats.

The blanks were made and moulded to fit into the support brackets and then left to go hard. Today, they were sanded and then templates in card were made for the knitted covers for the fenders.

my good lady wife, who is a champion knitter and can knit virtually any  garment from anything, now has the unenvious tast of knitting the three fender covers from the thread I have supplied iin stocking stitch on 2mm steel pins.........not for the faint hearted.

Once they have been knitted, they'll be fitted, bandings put onto the fenders as with the real things, and then they will be moulded in rubber, so that on these boats, the task of knitting fender covers is no longer needed, as they will be shown on the mouldings.
the start of the fenders shown below......the knitting is now in the hands of SWMBO who will knit the shapes of the fender covers to the cardboard patterns.

[Neil]

The knitting is  coming along well but not allowed photographs of the items until all three are done

However, spent today doing another job that needs attention before all things come together , and those were the bench seats for all the aft cabin well decks............I planned to use generic gratings from the Anne letitia Russell kit, edged with some rebated timber that I made years ago, but ran out with two boats so the third one ( the benches for the Mary Stanford) were made from the last pieces I have left of the timber grating that I and a mate produced , again, years ago.

The edges of the white metal gratings were sanded to produce a "V" shape that would fit into the grove of the rebated timber and all was glued with cyano.

next, the legs of the benches ( made from 2mm stainless steel rod ) were bent around a jig to make sure all legs were uniform, and cut to approximate length.....glued into more pieces of rebated timber and then four of them were glued onto the benches......they will eventually have white metal feet glued to them and set into the sides of the cockpits, after some more detailing is done to the insides of the well decks..
the legs were glued to the timber gratings with aliphatic resin, but those being glued to the white metal gratings will be fixed in place using cyano

[Neil]

Been putting the bench seats together today, and needed all the legs to be cut the same length...........................devised a very easy way of doing it without intricate measureing of each leg.........I cut a little length of black tubing to slip over the leg and to the desired length of the leg minus 2mm to take into acount the jaws of the wire snips I was going to use...just slipped the tube over and cut to the end of the tube, through the length of the wire protruding...gave me perfect length every time.
I then glued the legs to the grating using the prefered glue, and then placed the feet onto a sheet of clear waste plastic and glued the legs into them using cyano.

Also whilst waiting for these to set, (and sadly I ran out of white metal feet so have had to order some more from Dave at Metcalf Mouldings) I made up the six boat hooks from the white metal ends from the generic fittings box and 3mm dowel rod and left these to set before sanding, sealing and then painting the shafts either white or blue for the starboard and port sides respectively on the three boats. This painting of the white and blue for the two sides of the boat went back to the olden days when the motive power of lifeboats was either single or double banked ( one or two oarsmen per oar) oars and the Starboard side oars were painted white, and the Port (or Larboard) side oars were painted in blue. The tradition still shows on even the most modern of boats where the boat hook shafts are painted in those distinct colours

[RAAArtyGunner]

Neil,

Good tip about cutting legs to length.

Not knowing anything about Lifeboats, the  legs 'look flimsy' in proportion to the bench seat etc.

Is this one of those beholders quirks.

[Neil]

they are matey.especially for something that took such a pounding.see here the real thing....this is off the H F bailey.
neil.

[RAAArtyGunner]

Thanks Neil,

They do look "light" but obviously stand up to the loads.

Just goes to show you have to do the Maths.  

[Neil]

Today Been doing a little more digressing and flitting from one area to another yet again today.......firstly I set up the "dummy" steering rod linkeage from the steering wheel in the aft cockpit of the Mary Stanford to the steering block on the aft sternpost.
The Mary Stanford is the only boat of the trio to have this external rod linkeage to the steering.........the other two boats have internal universal couplings to steer the rudder with and so none of this is needed or shown.

The second area of work was to the exhaust systems linked to the funnels of the boats.
The centrally steered boat...the Field Marshall and Mrs Smuts had extended pipes, (made of flexible tubing so that the boat would fit into the boathouse without having to chop the funnel down, whereas the H F Bailey had chopped down funnel and ( as shown in one pic that I have seen) also the extended pipes ....the pipes were to take the exhaust fumes over the heads of the crewmen in the aft cabins. The funnel of the Mary Stanford will have just the stubbs of the pipes extruding from the base fixings which go into the top plate of the funnel.
The base fittings were resin fittings made for the Clyde class lifeboat I built last year, and although as built they were bases for High tension Radio whip areals..........they were slightly modified to use as the bases for the exhaust tubes........modellers licence.

[Neil]

just got back from watching Titanic 3D at the cinema..............chap next to me must have been really frightened.....kept f*****ng and making foul smells.............poor sod............

anyway, before I went I got chance to do a few more fiddley bits.
First off was to make a more convincing hand cranked pump for pumping oil on troubled waters............this will be moulded when I get round to moulding the fenders, which are being soaked in cellulose sanding sealer at the mo before waxing up.

Second was to make the base and capstain for the "Smuts". The capstain was turned from brass and put into a mould some months ago (the brass master can be seen at the mo on the Mary Stanford)..the base was a modified piece from a moulding of the base for the cable stopper for the Mary Stanford.

And finally the capstain and base for the Mary Stanford.
The base is actually a bulge onto the outside of the engine casing of the M. S. and is made from Milliput moulded onto the side, from which I have taken a cast for reproduction of others in resin, and the capstain will be a moulding of the same capstain as used on the "Smuts"

[Neil]

Oh yes, and finally got to the bottom of what the black piping is that runs up the foremast of the "Smuts".

Have been in touch withan ex crewman of the particular boat called Glyn and he has told me that the pipe is in fact electrical conduit feeding the mast lamps, as a member on here proposed earlier, and that it was finally changed for a glass electrical insulater later in it's life.

he also tells me that the aft cabin fore engine casing was also planked and varnished, which if the same as the Cromer boat, henry Blogg which I am checking at the mo, will have to be planked and varnished before I go any further.

[Neil]

Couldn't find it before but this is the photo of the "Smuts" with the glass insulater rather than the black piping running up the mast....might be tempted to go this way rather than the piping.

[Neil]

Grinding on inexorably towards the day when all that is left to do is paint and stick on all the myriad of fittings that have been made earlier.

Today, it was a case of building the waterbreak on the fore cabin of "Smuts". I made this in two parts from 1.8mm ply, using card templates first to get the curvature of the cabin before tracing round and cutting out in ply. The pieces were then pinned with brass wire before drilling into the cockpit and gluing with cyano. they will be painted in situ. The holes for the two portlights were also cut out at the same time (i'd forgotten about those two items.)

[Neil]

over the last two days, in between swapping an internal rudder set up for an external rudder on Mick french's (Rottwieler) 47' Watson lifeboat I have been drilling holes for the "Ruffle holes" in the Keelson and rear deadwood of my three lifeboats.
Ruffle holes are put into all keels of the older (and some modern ) lifeboats, and are basically the anchoring points for slipway launched boats.
I say all older classic boats, with some exceptions ( not many) but as lifeboats were all supposed to be interchangeable for cover and researve fleets, they could possible all at some time in their life either end up on a slipway or on a carriage, and because of this, needed holes in the keels for rope, chain and shackles to pas through to hold them to either slipway or carriage..........and it was the ruffle holes in both bow and stern that are part of the makeup of the lifeboats hull.
Because of the build of the models, and the fact that at the bow, especially I needed to first pour some liquid polyester resin into the  area to be drilled, or the hole through the keel would inevitably cut through space and allow an ingress of water, and pretty quickly at that, so a reservoir of resin was poured in and allowed to set.
The holes were marked, drilled and then a brass washer to cap the hole off was added and secured with cyano.

then it was a case of adding the water coolers, intakes outlets, filters and the scupper flaps to the two watsons......the Barnett doesn't have any scupper flaps visible on the outside of the boat. All these fittings are generic with other boats and so they were readily available from stock.

[tt1]

Hi Neil, got to say I take my hat off to you, not only for your skills, knowledge and presentation of same including cock ups, not just because you can design and build THREE boats at a time and I sometimes struggle with one, not just because you can produce a silk purse in a sows ear environment - (oops  ) or that you must type like tango to keep up with the posts you manage to do, no - what I can't figure out is how you manage to squeeze more than 24 hours out of a day!
      Are you just a workaholic, a robot or an insomniac? cuz boy have you got staying power!!

                  Great stuff Neil, keep 'em coming  Tony.

[Neil]

thanks for those very kind words Tony ( i'll ignore the one about my wonderfully tidy workshop  )......it's just that for the past 6 - 7 years I have been building basically for other people and I haven't got a boat in the house (except the Flying christine ambulance boat that I built for my daughters) that I can call my own or sail............and these three are MINE........ and that's why I am enjoying building them so much....mine to play with, mine to sell for me if I desire, and mine to look at and think......at last I've built something that won't go to pay off bills or the mortgage or silly things like that.........it's not a driving force to get them done for anyone but me.........it may be selfish of me, but after years of building for others, I feel just that bit selfish, but am revelling in it, and totally enjoy the build...........and time just flows by when I'm in that scruffy old workshop..............but the big day of reckoning will come when finished.......

hve been ordered to tidy up.............

[furball]

Silly question...

Is there a specific reason you did the ruffle holes at this stage? I would have though it easier before the deck went on, so you can get the resin to the inside of the keel with no obstructions.


Cheers

Lance

[Neil]

no Lance......just forgot earlier on, lol..........it's only when I have bits left over that I begin to think..........woooooppppssssss!!!

[Neil]

Life's been a bit busy this week with one thing or another and have got little building done on my lifeboats....but what I have doen is ( with the help of my lovely wife) finished and moulded the fenders for my boats.

The Mary Stanford required just the one fender at the bow, because she has a rudder steering box at the stern, but the two Watsons, because of their rudders built into the deadwood of the stern keel, have exposed stern posts and as such have rear fenders to guard from accidental damage to the stern.

The majority of knitted/crochet'd fenders that I have seen for sail, (and this is in the eyes of my wife  who is a professional knitter) have used pins(knitting needles) thaty are too large in diameter and use cord that is too thick to give a scale apperance.

When I built the Anne Lettitia Russel those many years ago my wife actually experimented for a few days with different size needles and different cords and thicknesses until with the help of photo's of the real fenders, we came to the conclusion that she would knit the fender covers in "reverse stocking stitch" using 2mm "pins" and a guage of thread that gave a cordage of approximately 0.8 - 1.0 mm diameter, and this gave the best results for a scale looking fender.
Any smaller pins and the thread wouldn't be possible to knit, and any thinner thread,, and the desired effect of the nobbled surface just wouldn't show.
So we stuck to it and have knitted the fenders to that pattern ever since, and were always knitted around a blank made from polyester resin.
However, and sadly that polyester is brittle and on one or two occassions on customer's boats, this has snapped when the boat hit the bank leaving the fender mis shaped.
So this time I was determined to improve on that, and decided to make the moulds (blanks) for the fenders from polyurethane resin that doesn't split or crack.

My first task was to mount the fender brackets on the two Watsons (as I had done it earlier to the Barnett) and then mould the bow and stern fenders for ONE Watson only, as both Watsons would use the same blank, being built on the same hull

I made the blanks from Milliput placing them in position on the boat set into the brackets, and when cured and hardened I  then sanded them down to a nice even surface.

[Neil]

I would now have put these blanks into a mould for re producing them in numbers for kits but had then come up with the notion that as my wife was busy with some jumpers for the family it would be unfair of her to knit more than was needed, so I decided to curtail the moulding of the blanks until the fender covers had been knitted and put onto the blanks, and then I could mould them as one, thus eleviating the need for wives and sweethearts to have to knit them for their men folk.
So the next stage was to make a pattern for each blank out of card so that my wife could knit the cover to thast size. And this is what I and she did.