This is the first float test to get ballasting correct and make sure there are no leaks in the hull. There is still no forward superstructure and the old bridge and funnel section are the only things covering the hole. At this point a perspex sheet has been mounted on four lengths of studding to hold the RC equipment, with the aim that its' height can be adjustable and a second set of control equipment (such as pyrotechnic controls), could be easily removable from the boat outside of display season. However, I didn't check to see if the studding could move while it was setting and the whole assembly shifted so the perspex deck is no longer removable. The whole thing will be removed and rebuilt at a later date.
This is the corvette at the Chichester Canal endurance run earlier this year. Due to the final year of university, I haven't had a lot of time to work on the boat, but between the last picture and this one superstructure has been built to cover the access for to the hull and a plate added over the rudder access hole. The bandstand has been moved to the very back of the superstructure and the stern has been heated by a hot air gun and flattened to better resemble the flat Canadian style.
At the bow the protruding copper piping has been cut off and covers reducing the diameter of the holes introduced, along with detail work building up the mounting for the winch. The winch itself seen here will be replaced.
In preparation for more extensive work on the deck (installing the turret, a new winch etc), the hull is being stripped for repainting before work on the top commences. This is where it became evident that the ship has had numerous refits. The paint is a pain to remove- I can't simply sand it down for fear of destroying surface details like portholes and the individual plates of the hull and products like Mr Muscle and Fairy Powerspray didn't cut it. Eventually I started using Modelstrip. While it takes much longer to apply than the others it does work rather well.
Unfortunately, there were several layers of paint under the first one. The photo above is of the starboard side after the first layer of paint was removed, revealing what appears to be an arctic camouflage pattern. If anyone knows the exact ship I would be interested to know which one it was.
also alongside the deeper layers of paint were vinyl lettering for the pennanat number of HMS Bluebell. These letters were under so much paint you couldn't tell they were there on the initial model.
Also note the extra wash ports cut into the hull where the extended forecastle used to be. These are still rough and will be neatened up after the hull stripping is complete.
In addition you can see the bilge keels added to the hull by Unbuiltnautilus- typical of Canadian corvettes the bilge keels extend futher from the hull but are shorter than those on their British counterparts.
Paste and clingfilm are the orders of the day for stripping the hull down. It is a fairly extensive process needing two or three layers of modelstrip to get to bare fibreglass beneath. The red you can see between the modelstrip is a phenomenon where the red paint underneath is liquefying and forcing its' way past the modelstrip on top of it. This makes for some particularly gruesome scenes where it looks like the hull is literally bleeding.
Fortunately the red paint below the waterline appears to only have been applied once or twice and was probably left alone during the refits, because one coat of modelstrip is enough to get the vast majority of the paint off, leaving only small stubborn spots to be sanded off.
This is a homemade smoke generator which will be in the corvette. Based off of one of Unbuiltnautilus' designs, this uses a length of wire wrapped around an insulated core (in this case, salvaged from an old bar heater) then in turn wrapped in heatproof fibrous material which is soaked fluid which produces smoke (at the moment I am using Johnsons baby oil. This will however be replaced by commercially available smoke fluid of the kind used by indoor smoke machines because baby oil smells rather bad). Inside, the heating wire is connected to a ceramic chop-block and the cables coming out of the box are transformer wire. They are also fixed in place to prevent rubbing against the bare metal which could eventually cause a short circuit and also to prevent smoke from escaping.
The fan on top is a computer fan and the whole system will run off of a 12v battery. If you are thinking of making your own design, take note- when you force air into a contained space, like this fan and box, vortexes will be set up in the confined space which will push the smoke in directions you don't want. If you have as powerful a fan and a big hole in the box to mount it, these vortexes can become powerful enough to push most of the smoke back out through the fan rather than the pipe. In this case the smoke is still forced upwards fairly vigorously, so I might be able to get away with it without having to buy a new box and fan which are the most expensive parts of the unit.