This update should bring me up to date on my build.
I forgot to mention all the troubles with the new Krylon "Sweet Cream" (yellow) color spray paint used on the main cabin and pilot house. Maybe because of all the pigment in it, this paint can be sprayed in very thin coats with a minute between passes, for as many passes as you wish. But even after letting it cure in the warm house for WEEKS, if I tried to do a bit of touch up, the paint would "alligator." Appeals to Krylon were worthless (follow the directions on the can..., which I had done to the letter). From all the bi...ing posts on Mayhem and RCGroups, a lot of others have had this problem. My solution has been to take a part finished with the Krylon spray to my local hardware store and have a quart of latex paint color matched. I use this with a brush for touchups, and in small places where spray cannot be done.
One other discovery I made was the use of Scotchbrite green pads to dull the styrene and give it a tooth for paint. This seems equivalent to 600 wet or dry sandpaper, and lasts longer when used wet. It's best to sand parts before cutting out, particularly for the smaller pieces.
I chose to build the double-walled pilothouse by first erecting the outer panels. Then I spray painted the outside with yellow and the insides of the inner panels with a light tan. These were then glued together with my MEK mix. Window panes of clear plastic were added, with canopy glue, and the windshield wipers were painted and glued with CA. As with all of this kit, a lot of minor sanding and fitting was necessary.
The mostly finished pilothouse has two blind nuts set in plywood, under the "furniture." This will allow me to screw it to the top of the main cabin, so it can be removed for lighting wire maintenance. I also added brass angle stiffeners around the top of the pilothouse walls, to straighten them and to provide a place to add fasteners so the roof is removable, too.
The throttle/gear shift is made from a bit of wooden dowel, brass rod, and beads from a fan pull chain. The compass is from a small protective cap from a piece of all-thread rod. The radar and radio are from the kit (radios were much bigger back in the '70's).
I have made up basic navlights for a vessel of this size and type, from LED's and a 2 AA cell battery pack. It's all mounted under the main cabin, with two switches in a small box by the funnel. I only made red and green sidelights, masthead, and towing lights (forward and aft), since my soldering skills are minimal. The yellow aft-facing towing light is not part of the kit, but research said some of the Loyals had them. So I have made a pole from brass tube that will support the light above the rearmost railing on the cabin roof. The lights will eventually have brass lanterns over them.
My most recent effort over the last few days has been building the railings around the pilothouse roof. The kit includes more than enough of the white metal castings for the stanchions, and maybe enough 1/16" brass rod. I bought more as a CYA, and painted castings and rods before starting to cut and fit. This is very exacting work, made too difficult by the shaky hands, but it came out well with a little help from my better half.