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Mowe2 a Grandad and grandson project

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leachim:
I have a 5 year old grandson James who, like all youngsters, needs everything done NOW! He needed to understand that it is ok to start something, put it to one side, and return to finish it later.He has been nagging me to get my boats working again, I built them a while ago and they had been sitting on display every since. I have now refurbished them, joined a local club and sail them proudly once again. I thought that a model boat project might be the answer to help grandson gain a little patience and have something he can sail when we go to the boating lake.What to build? it needed to be a smallish boat and an easy starter kit as I was sure he wouldn't cope with a scratch build. I found the answer after a little browsing online - Aero-naut Mowe2, a nice little fishing boat that looked like it would be easy enough that little fingers could help with and not to difficult so we could get it finished fairly quickly.
A kit was ordered and excitedly we opened the package when it arrived. The kit was superb, nice clean lasercut ply parts all well numbered most retained in their sheets by little pegs of uncut wood. The anchor and one steering wheel had come adrift and were in the bottom of the box. The kit comes complete with motor and associated wires, propshaft, prop & rudder. It seemed ideal and we set to work gluing the first parts together following the excellent instruction booklet.
James became very adept at applying glue and was most amused when we borrowed Grandma's clothes pegs to hold the parts together while the glue set. Very quickly he understood that there was only so much we could do at a sitting as the glue needed to set before we could move on. James visits every Friday so while dinner was cooking we retired to our workbench in the conservatory to work on our project.It took us a couple of weeks but quite quickly we had a recognisable framework that James could see would become his boat. You can see below how it looked against my scratch built Director class paddle tug "Tiger"

leachim:
So work continued Friday by Friday and gradually the boat took shape. Following the suggestions in the instructions didn't always work. To attach the sides of the hull they suggest using tape and pegs, we found that the spring in the ply was too strong for this to work alone. James applied the glue and I fitted the panels in place using Grandma's pegs, some tape and a couple of pins to hold the bits together. It went together very nicely with only one small area in the bow where the ply sheets didn't quite fit as I would have liked but this is probably because I had a 5 3/4 year old (apparently the 3/4 is very important!) apprentice assisting. As the boat was progressing thoughts turned to radio control. I was discussing the new build with a friend who is also a model boater and he asked what radio I was thinking of using. I hadn't really thought about it, he asked if I might be interested in a Tactic 2.4 Ghz 3 channel transmitter/receiver set he has spare. It was one of the trigger and steering wheel type that I don't really like but youngsters seem to get along with very well and the price quoted made it an offer I couldn't refuse so deal done and we had a control system.
I decided to buy a 6v NI-MH battery pack and run the boat through an Viper 10 ESC. With the side panels attached the boat was coming along and discussions turned to colour. With many "It's my boat so I can paint it whatever colour I like" comments we eventually decided on Green. Well grandad didn't have any green paint in stock so off to Hobbycraft and a browse through the racks of model paints there and we returned with a very nice green along with an orange (for the lifebelts, and the cabin interior that had to be orange and black stripes!) Well painting was a while away so construction continued apace. The wheelhouse went together well and James was delighted to be able to make the fish boxes all on his own!

leachim:
I needed the boat to be strong enough to be sailed by a nearly 6 year old and it needed sealing! So back to the internet and searches through the Mayhem forums. I came across "Poly-C" which sounded like it would be perfect for my needs. A PU varnish that was odourless and washed out in water, drying to a semi matt finish that was fuel and waterproof. It sounded ideal so I ordered a bottle along with some fine fibreglass sheet intending on giving the hull a dose of fibreglass strength. The instructions suggested sealing the wood with sanding sealer first, I didn't have any and thought that as it was a PU varnish it would seal the wood its self so a coat of Poly-C as a sealing coat followed by a layer of glass held in place by another coat of Poly-C. It dries touch dry in approx 20 mins so recoating was quite fast and with the glass trimmed back to the edges of the boat it wasn't looking too bad. with a light sand down between coats I found that the fibreglass mesh disappeared after 4 or 5 coats and the boat was ready for some paint. I also sealed the inside with 4 coats of Poly-C so it wouldn't matter if we shipped a little water.
1 light coat of Halfords spray primer/filler lightly rubbed back, a small amount of body filler to hide a small defect in the joining of two hull plates and the boat was ready for red primer. I must admit that I was delighted with the finish and hoped that my apprentice would like it when he came round on the Friday. A length of frog tape along the waterline and all was ready for the application of the green topcoat. Well little fingers love paint and James had a whale of a time applying the green. It was a Tamiya paint that he had chosen, it was ok but I didn't think it went on very easily as it seemed to dry too quickly to keep a good wet edge going. However it went on ok and didn't look to bad when we had finished. James and his mum settled down one evening and made a batch of fish using an orange Fymo (James had decided that his boat was going to catch orange fish! It's my boat and I can do what I want!")

leachim:
The deck was finished using some left over oak wood stain but I lost the argument over the wheelhouse doors that weren't allowed to be wood but had to be white like the rest of the wheelhouse. What happened to the Orange and Black interior I hear you ask, well I forgot all about it and when James saw the interior was white said It's just what I wanted!
We glued the two halves of the lifebelts together, rounded off the edges and James painted them orange. During the week Grandad added a little detail and when Friday came around again a little person was delighted with his real looking lifebelts. It was decided that they would be glued on the wheelhouse doors rather than alongside the doors as per the instructions so if the position looks a little odd "Its my boat.........."
The fish turned out ok and were glued into the fish boxes and arranged in a neat diagonal line by James who refused to have them scattered around the deck as grandad suggested. I must admit they look ok. We assembled the anchor and painted it grey also assembled the winch. James decided that the winch should be for raising the anchor so we attached a lenghth of line from the winch to the anchor which "needs to be hanging over the front of the boat in case they need it". I fabricated a cleat to hold the anchor in place. James has accepted that it wont wind up and down and now realises that it's bad practice to sail with the anchor banging against the side of the boat so will sail it with the anchor aboard.
I fitted the electronics into the boat and we tried it in the bath. Full throttle rammed the boat into the tap end and tried to empty the bath water onto the floor! Some tweaking to the endpoints on the controls is called for. At least it didn't leak so almost ready for a maiden voyage.
Grandad had a couple of surprises up his sleeve (as grandads do) so the boat was placed on display awaiting delivery of some parts. Well the package went missing and family holiday got in the way so everything was placed on hold for a while. On our return from holiday there was a package on the doormat, don't tell James the surprise has arrived.
I had ordered some 1:25 scale figures meant for scale railways, I wasn't going to pay an arm and a leg for painted fishermen! with a little adjustment a standing and sitting passenger became captain and crew for our little fishing boat. The captain holds the wheel in a flat cap wearing a moustache, like grandad (James hasn't noticed that yet!), the crewman sits on the hatch mending the fishing net wearing a yellow cap with batman logo on it (this was spotted very quickly by James who was absolutely delighted!) There are plans in my head to add a seagull being chased away by a little boy but I'm not sure if my modelling skills will stretch that far, time will tell.
So it was time for a maiden voyage. Off we went, with James new fishing boat along with my paddle tug, to Kearsney Abbey just outside Dover for a sail in the lake there. I had a very excited little boy with me who delighted in telling everyone that the fishing boat was his and it made his day when someone told him that his boat was better than grandad's but not to tell grandad! The boat sails extremely well despite James full forward - full astern treatment. He only hit the bank a couple of times but thankfully no damage. I had a very brief go, the boat in it's throttle restricted mode is very nippy and turns on a sixpence and will be great fun to sail, if I ever get a chance!
All in all a very good kit with detailed instructions that I would thoroughly recommend to anyone no matter what their skill level.

leachim:
The crew!

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