A bit more progress! The lifeboat is finally, FINALLY on. This has been a bit of a debacle, it's a 3D printed set of parts from Shapeways for Flower Class Corvette lifeboats. It comes as a pair of boats and support frames, I painted one up and was very happy with it but the Humbrol enamel I used to paint the inside just never dried. Its still wet now 6 months on! So I broke out the other one and painted it with something I knew would definitely dry!
The mast is up, I sanded a length of dowel in the lathe before staining and varnishing it. I machined the mast foot to be a snug fit in the brass foot ring to reduce the apparent thickness of the ring, and having stuck a length of stainless wire in the bottom with a corresponding hole in the deck, used heavy duty superglue to fix it on. The rigging is EZ Line which is an elastic thread designed primarily for model railway telegraph wires, but its good for this too! If you snag it it just boings back to where it was. I'm going to try and get a bit more on, including funnel guy wires. I need to fit a mast cap really, to me that rather sticks out like a sore thumb.
Finally a shot of some towing earlier in the year!