AMBULANCE LAUNCH FLYING CHRISTINE.

I've been threatened with that one alan..........."you spend so much time in there....you may as well have your bed there"........a common statement from the good lady, lol

Hi Neil

'went back out' ??? I thought your bed would be in the workshop

Hey Alan

if you do speak to Steve I'd be interested too - hey he's got two sales before he's got the hull - that's the way to do bussiness.

Regards Dave

re design and repairs finished. teach me to look at all my photos first in future instead of blundering blindly onwards, lol

























On the last shot you can see the textured covering to the deck...this is from a can of textured paint in a spray can bought from either B & Q or Homebase.......it really does give a brilliant textured finish for a deck.....and the colour I used which is the colour you see on the photos is called "stone grey" I think....if anyone wants a pic of the can I can put one up tomorrow.



neil,

Cracking work there Neil really cracking mate

cheers matey...am looking forward now, that I have seen how she looks to helping my daughter wiith her working model...should be fun with a couple of little blushless's in it.weeeeeeeeeeee!!

Having witnessed the power of that one I've fitted to "The Lady Sarah II" I'd be suprised if she's not a reall flyer

The hatch looks good Neil, breaks up the back part of the superstructure as well.

A picture of the can would be good Neil, think it might work well on parts of a boat I have in the side lines, well you have to have one or two on the go at once, don't you?

I'v been looking for photo's on the internet of wooden otter boards in order to make some for the shrimper, after the Blackpool show we had fish and chips at Fleetwood and a walk along the prom, low and behold there it was, a full size otter board, lots of photo's taken.

You should have told me, shame on you, fish and chips are good though, OAP portions of course

Alan

what size of board do you want alan........I have a couple of moulds for old wooden trawl doors in two different sizes...........I'll mould you some if you want.....no charge, but will have to look for the moulds tomorrow to see what physical size they are. neil.

the moulds are now ready for moulding....the pva release agent has been added and 7 - 8 layers of wax added previously and polished prior to adding the PVA











the first layer of laying up, the gelcoat has also been added.

Thanks for the offer Neil, I am now sorted with the trawler boards, someone has lent me one of the right size to copy.

Photo of that can of paint please Neil

Moulding seems to be going OK, presume you have to wait awhile for the gel coat to go off before you can continue.



Alan

Hi alan, it takes about an hour ( in a nicely heated workshop..ie about 75 F ) for the gell coat to go off and being thixotropic....i.e. it remains sticky on the inside for a while, you have a maximum of 24 hours before it would be iffy if the gell would delaminate from a top coat........leave it 48 hours and yer stuffed.



I best lay up my matting within a couple of hours of layig the gel....which is exactly what I did today...........and out popped the sweetest moulding that I've made in a while. And then it's none stop even for a "P" and I work up a nice sweat, lol.............but the results are worth it.









splitting the mould with nylon pegs









One half popped off like a piece of soap out yer hand....no resistance at all.

















both mouldings now out of the moulds and ready to be trimmed down to a line that I had made on the mould to facilitate this marking











Mouldings having been trimmed up.











the twins re united, lol

























My daughter will now, begin construction of her boat with a little help from me, lol

Very nice Neil, nice and informative, every day is a school day

Alan

I've been asked by Steve of MBB to make templates of the side beams in the rear sunken well deck and all other wooden parts like bulkheads so that he can laser cut them to fit inside the grp hull ( they will be differend slightly to those supplied for the wooden build boat because of the thicknesses of the grp moulding.

I have now made the three main bulkhead templates and drawn them out from those templates which fit into the hull. I've also made the side beams which support the well deck, and have made a "ladder frame" set of beams from 10x6 and 6x6mm ramin as the deck support.

This was also drawn around on drafting film which will allow the builder to build a frame on top of the drawing supplied, and this will just fit into the hull and glue in situ....as per pictures. Two part epoxy was used to glue the frames in and the deck together, and MMB Gorilla type glue used to glue the ladder frame to the hull sides.

Between you and Steve this should end up a good kit

Looking forward to it.



Alan

it'll be really a semi scratch kit, alan....the hull and timber will be supplied but I haven't a clue as to fittings as I am using stuff that I've bought from different places to make things easy...........I suppose then it will be up to the builder to source those items.

neil.

Hi Neil

It must be really nice to think that all the builders that follow on from your build will be benifiting from all the work and thought that you are putting into it now. As I will be one of them - do your best mate

Regards Dave

Neil I have really enjoyed following this build.

Cracking work Gromit



Geoff

thanks lads for the comments.

I am a firm believer ( although not a church goer) that we were all put on this earth with a gift..................I suppose mine is supping ale, red wine, and gin and t's..........oh yeh, and model boat building................and it's wonderful that I can share with others, what comes ( not to be big headed...just realistic) natural to me...............I only wish I had gone into real wooden boat building as a youngster rather than teaching.

and as such I enjoy sharing with friends what I have learned from the very first days of my granddad teaching me at the age of 8....the same year as my life was saved from drowning by a lifeboat man.........seams that our lives ARE mapped out for us in some way..............



and yes dave........there is no bigger buzz than seeing a model built from one of my hulls or designs.......it's not an ego trip as such, more a thought that I have brought some joy into someone else's life and also left a mark on this earth that will be seen for some years to come.

My avatar shows a small "Liverpool" class lifeboat that I designed as a kit in the same manner that I designed the 41' Watson Anne Letitia Russell that Dave Metcalf produces these days, and Dave is working on that kit at the moment...............it will give me so much pride when he eventually brings it onto the market, knowing that modellers will get so much enjoyment from both building it AND sailing it.......

I am a real a** hole if people cross me and do the dirty on me ( as someone has done in the past few months in the modelling world.....and I don't mean our previous site owner), but if someone needs help and doesn't take advantage of my nature......can be a friend for life,but I am not very tactfull and speak my mind.......not a trait that some people like. lol

Neil,

I am one who is glad you did not build real boats for a living,the reason is you built them for a hobby.

Then your proffesion as a teacher teaches people,you show us how things are made,and the way you do it.

Yes you have built boats,for clients,and put the builds on forums for us to see,and no way i see it is being big headed or i am great at this etc.

You share with others,what you do.

I have seen you are a man of your words,if someone p***es you off,you will say so,same as me

the side beams have now been glued in before the deck can be added.

Bit before the deck can be added i will be installing the running gear and twin rudders for the working boat.



Side beams added for realistic look, although pruely decorative on the grp model.

I used two part liquid epoxy for the fixing of these beams.

Next job was to make up the running gear.



I like to make my prop shafts as per real boat and this usually entails the use of exposed shafts from a stub of a prop tube just poking out of the hull to the "A" or in this case a "P" bracket.

Because these usually are not made by manufacturers, I make my own, from a piece of 4mm stainless steel rod, bought on ebay, and a length of brass tubing bought from local model shop and two brass bushes made to fit into the ends of the brass tubing on a tight hammered fit ( well, wooden mallet really....not quite buchery yet, lol)

The "P" bracket is made from a piece of brass bar, centre drilled on the laithe for the shaft to pass through and then silver soldered to a piece of brass bar ( bought from B & Q)









The under side of the hull is then marked and drilled out for both the prop tube and the "P" bracket to pass through into the hull where it will be glued with epoxy from the inside and then lavishly coated ( although messily in this case) with polyester body filler to give good strong and watertight fixings.













the prop shafts are also fitted into the tubes and P frames at this point of fixing to make sure that they all line up and turn freely, and only then and all lined up are they held in place with masking tape and spot glued with cyano and then two part epoxy glue before filling.















Viewed from the inside of the hull with epoxy glue holding in place.

Nice work Neil, I will be making my own from now on, is brass OK for the bushes or does it have to be phosphor bronze?



Alan

Next job was to make the rudder shafts.......these are made from a piece of brass tube which fits snugly over the Rudder shaft, and then reinforced by slipping a piece of thick walled plasticard tubing over the brass and finally encasing it in a block of obeche timber glued onto the inside of the hull over the pre positioned place of the hole that has been drilled to take the tube for the rudder shaft.



Rudder tubes made from brass and plastic tubing.













Blocks of timber to support the tubes glued onto the inside of the hull over the pre drilled pilot holes.









Rudders fitted,after drilling with correct dia. drill bit for the rudder tubes, with a small shim of silicon tubing between top of rudder and the hull, slipped onto the rudder shaft.



the rudders have been slightly off set from the centre line of the prop shafts to allow removal of the prop shafts should need be.











the rudder servo has also now been fitted onto blocks glued into the small space in the stern of the boat.



It has also been linked up to the rudder tillers with clevis clips ready for linking to a receiver.







Finally, and no, I haven't converted it into a contaimer vessel......just fitted the deck, glued in place with Gorrilla glue, and held in place with parcel tape and plenty of old batteries I keep for just such a job.

AlanP wrote:

Nice work Neil, I will be making my own from now on, is brass OK for the bushes or does it have to be phosphor bronze?



Alan

hi mate..........sorry was just writing the next bit of diatribe when you posted that question..........I have always just used brass for my bearings...the amount of use they get is negligable really to have to think of P/b and so I just use brass for ease and have never had to replace any.

neil.

Hi Neil

This is all a joy to watch. I haven't drilled any holes in a watertight hull yet - and the thought of doing it for the first time isn't good for my blood pressure I'm glad it's not going to be very soon. Have you ever got the placement wrong?

Regards Dave

a good many times , Dave.....



.then it's a case of masking tape on the outside in quite a few layers, and then ( normally the distance wrong isn't too great...millimeters rather than inches, locate the correct possition, and just glue and resin from the inside the same, and then fill from the outside.

neil.

Same here it's good that GRP repairs easily.
Christine is looking good Neil.

next on the list is fitting the cabin to the model.

The sheet of ply was cut with access hole long before I made the mould for the cabin, and now that it is all moulded, the cabin doesn't match up to the hole in the deck....my cock up, no one else's.

so I have had to docter the deck beams and put a few in extra for the combings fitted to the deck and to locate the cabin onto. no probs really as they will never be seen as cock ups once the deck is filled and sprayed, lol

I also need to add spacers and fillets to places that have left a gap, so make a tight fit.











Once the combings have been fitted, the cabin can be levelled off to fit the deck.



I do this by making a "pencil guage". I.e. I cut off a short length of a pencil and flatten one face on abrasive paper so that the point of the pencil lead is about 3mm above the flat surface.

I put the cabin into the deck, and over the combing, making shure that it looks level, rather than forcing it to fit snugly onto the deck.there will be gaps.

then I run my pencil all around the deck, making a line onto the cabin..this line of course will then be parallel to the deck....the cabin is then filed down to the line. It may take two goes if certain areas of the cabin are more than 3 mm away from the deck, but no problems. just repeat the proces, and you will ahve a cabin that perfectly fits the line of the deck.

Only thing to watch...MAKE SURE that the pencil is kept at right angles to the cabin when marking or the line will be artificial and you may be following a line some mm's away from the actual line of the deck.











then comes the cutting out of the apertures for the windows.

I pre drill with a 2mm bit all around the inner edge of the hole to be cut, then ream out the inner hole, finally filling down to the pre marked line with small files.























finally for this part, once the cabin has been fitted and is in the correct possition, I have resorted to trial and error to fit the well deck side wind breaks as particular to the Flying Christine. . As the cabin is obviously removable for access, I could see no other way of constructing it all but to make the wind braks fitted permenantly to the deck of the boat. They show little gaps which shouldn't be there....but from 30 fet out on the lake.....who's to complain, and if they do, my standard phrase is."if you can do better go away and show me"

Cant believe the amount of effort you have put into this. A real labour of love and its looking lovely. Is it worth marketing as a kit or a semi kit now that you have the moulds all done? Certainly as good as some of the commercial offerings available.

intrepid75 wrote:

Cant believe the amount of effort you have put into this. A real labour of love and its looking lovely. Is it worth marketing as a kit or a semi kit now that you have the moulds all done? Certainly as good as some of the commercial offerings available.

thanks mate.........I don't go down that way anymore.....too many people willing to rip you apart on the smallest of detail.

However it has been passed on to Steve Tranter of Model Boat Bits along with drawings of the decks, bulkheads etc, and he is going to make it as a semi kit.

I went down the road of manufacturing a kit The 41' Watson Lifeboat that Dave metcalf now produces some 18 years ago....cost a fortune to set up, long hours producing and boxing up all fittings once it was on the market and then you'd get some w anchor ring up at 00.30 hours to tell you that you'd left a fire extinguisher off the drawings...........no fun.

I just develope them now, and if someone like Dave wants to take it off my hands at the end of it, that's fine by me..no hassle and I get the enjoyment of seeing them on the water at the end of the day, knowing that I can stand and watch and know that someone else has had the smae pleasure without the heartache that I have had, lol

Watch out for my next 3 lifeboats.....hopefully will be completing them starting early next year, 2012.I started them 7 years ago:pale:

neil.

Neil - You are definitely THE MAN

Anyone else would have said watch out for my next lifeboat - but you say THREE!!!.

and we believe you too.

Regards Dave

I've been steadily getting these ready for the past 7 years, bit by bit, Dave.....all the moulds for the hulls and cabins for all 3 have been made, all the fittings have been made and cast, , the wooden bits made, and all drawings done, and most of the deck beams have been cut out and dry fit............it's now just a case of putting them together, and writing the instructions and drawing the plans for them and taking constructional photos of the progress to put onto a DVD.

The only problem is, that when I get them all out of storage, someone askes me to build something for them..the biggest culprit was a so called mate on another forum..I did an incredible amount of work for him over the last 4 years on his boats, never charged for this job and that job and when I wanted something doing myself.."sorry, got no time"...was a great stab in the back and it still b****y hurts deeply...to the point that when I think about it, I get tearfull....boy was I a sucker..........so I have vowed to myself, that when this Flying Christine is finished and packaged away..........I am going to sit back and enjoy every minute of my time on my builds, and have something to show for it when I've finished.............then may be I'll finally be able to finish my other 5 lifeboats that I started......( but they are really sweet.....and fit into the palm of my hand.....see below.............The have all been already claimed by my two daughters, lol



























The longest one is a minature of one of the three that I am building at 1:12 scale and is about 6 inches long and built to 1:96 scale.....she's the RNLB Mary Stanford.........going to put those into dihorama's eventually.

Neil you are going to be goggle eyed working on those wee boats- the very best of luck
to you.

Geoff

What a sweet little fleet



Alan

I like them too, I did them as a little bet to myself that I could go minature after seeing some in cases at the Lifeboat museum in Poole......so will get on with them next summer/winter once I've got my 1:12 scale boats up and sailing... I plan to put them into dihorama's with some Revelle trawler and Lighthouse kitsa that I have had for years.........gawd....back to my roots with plastic kits, lol

Classy little numbers!!

anyway, progress has been made .painting, and making the masts, hand rail brackets and rear flag staff.



The twins are back together again, lol







My gawd how they soon get dusty, lol









Allthese little pieces were made from brass tube and rod, and silver soldered together.

That's an interesting array of masts and antennas' Neil getting seriously tempted by this one maybe a call to Mr Tranter early in the new year is on the cards.

I do like your masts Neil. Tell me, why do use silver solder please. I assume this is not the same as regular solder which I used on my masts.


ken

yes phil.

there are two sets in the photo, but the "Y" shaped aft mast I think is part of an early RDF loop, as it is attached to the forward mast and radio antenna with insulaters and wires to the cabin.bit strange, but there's no one around on Guernsey anymore to remember what it was about, and info is very sketchie.

I must admit I am actually enjoying the build because of it's simplicity and rudamentory looks as a boat. Some builds are a bind, but this isn't at all.

I know me and the daughter will enjoy sailing her, lol.

Hi Kenny, personally I find silver soldering far easier to do.........it's not only stronger as a joint, but it's easier for me to get the temperature just right, and the solder just flows where it is fluxed.

The only time I use soft leaded solder these days is to join wire to blade connecters.

I use a marvelous "portable hearth" and a bottle of propane with a fine point torch.

The hearth is made up of a strange very light weight material that I bought from a place in Blackpool.it's cut from a sheet of material, and can withstand 1300c, but at the same time can be cut with a saw, chiselled out to make tooling jigs for stanchion making, and all sorts of other things....it really is good stuff and didn't cost the earth either. I think it's called Vermiculite.

they've moved even nearer now to me, but this is the stuff and this was where I bought mine from yonks ago.


I use a seivert brazing torch as well..worth every penny of what I paid for it.


neil.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Soldering-Mat-Pad-Brick-Board-Brazing-Hearth-/120799566544?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSIC%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%252BIA%252BUA%252BFICS%252BUFI%26otn%3D21%26pmod%3D260898624510%26ps%3D54

Ah !! thanks for that. I use a torch for my soft soldering but was never happy with the process
as it was easy to overheat the joint. Also I did notice it wasn't very strong when finished.

I shall be trying silver solder on my next project, so thanks again for the info.

ken

you can get different melt temps for silver solder Ken...I have a low and a medium temperature melt ( never use a high temp one as you tend to melt the brass or copper before the silver solder melts with a high temp one.

The low temp melt is not much higher than soft solder but it flows beautifully. I also use a powder flux that can be used as a powder or mixed with a little water as a paste.

neil.

i see a masterclass on silver soldering coming off here. be good to see some pics of this being done proper like....
love the little boats too by the way. well smart.

Looking damn good Neil. Question for you what is the powder flux you use Borax perhaps?

Damien wrote:

Looking damn good Neil. Question for you what is the powder flux you use Borax perhaps?

I think so, damien.....I'll have to ask my mate...he's been in the business for a local company since he left school at 15 ( same age as me) and has been silver soldering beautiful brass work all his life....

he supplies it to me...........in fact went down yesterday to have my pot filled.....last time was 15 years ago, lol.....so actually not sure what it is, but think borax powder.

neil.

Ps, I did put a reply on for Scalloway, but it seams to have disappeared, unless I forgot to press the send button, lol

I'm not that good at it matey....Alan looks to be a far better solderer than I am..his brass work is exquisite really and truly.

All I do is blunder through the process.

The main thing is to get the metal cherry red first before adding the solder and flux, and then it will flow nicely into the joint.....a bit of trial and error really.

Every bit of soldering with me is trial and error as I don't do enough of it to get the practice in, but it is easier, in my mind than soft soldering.

n

some people may find this helpful it is silver solder foil you can cut it with scissors and place between or around a joint then apply heat (don't forget the proper flux) I have found you need a lot less silver solder than you think as it flows in to the joint.

you can even place pieces to be soldered on a hot plate, heat and leave to cool

the nice thing about silver solder on brass is that it doesn't show very much so the joint when cleaned tend to disappear.

these are just my soldering preference, other people may have there own,



http://www.model-engineer.co.uk/classifieds/view_ad.asp?ad=4557 a piece of this solder will last ages as you can cut it very thin.

Peter

Very interesting indeed. I shall be going this route.

Thanks

Ken

Wow, Peter, that's handy stuff to have...never seen that before.Didn't know it existed.cheers.

Thanks for posting it.

neil.

I'd like to see that diorama Neil, and that hearth is so practical for work and for safety I think too.

Also I really liked Scalloways suggestion of a seperate masterclass thread for soldering methods

Dave