A lifeboat build blog...........How a kit is made!

Thanks matey........ and I hope you are well on the mend, and back into the modelling soon.

Been brush painting the well decks and engine casings recently with Humbrol enamel and my nice new sable hair brushes......getting a reasonable finish, but running out of enamel rapidly.........so today decided to tidy up the lower edge of the engine casing of the Mary Stanford with a rivet strip.........did this in 120 gram paper and an artists paint stopper which blobs out rivet sized paint blobs in rapid succession.........this gets rid of the ragged moulded edge of the casing and cleans it all up nicely.
Next bit is to fit the rudder assembly onto the Mary Stanford.

So, down to the making of the rudder and assembly for the Mary Stanford.....

Unlike the other two boats that have their rudders set into the deadwood of the Keel, this boat had the rudder hung onto a square section rudder bar which runs through a series of brackets on the stern of the boat, including a hefty bracket at the top, a "shoe" at the bottom and a mid spaced bracket to set the rudder at it's required possition on the rudder bar..
These brackets would be made from cast iron/steel on the real boats, and/or even bronze, but on the model the fittings are all made from cast white metal.
There are also two brackets attached to the rudder which have square shaped holes cast into them on a fore/aft axis so that two points/corners of the square run longitudinally with the boat, and the rudder bar is therefore set at this same "diamond" position......and as such the brackets on the rudder have no chance of slipping around the rudder bar because of the square shape!....quite a simple idea by the builders of these old boats, and also easy to replicate needing no screws, bolts or pins to hold the rudder from slipping.

I made the rudder as a seperate entity, and fitted the two white metal cast brackets and the strengtheners in 1.8mm ply and glued in place using epoxy for the w/m fittings and aliphatic resin for timber to timber. However before fitting the brakets I made sure that the square section bar slipped through the bracket holes freely and when O glued up I ran the bar through both brackets to make sure that they were glued in line and the bar freely able to move.

I started by fitting the top bracket ( the bottom shoe had already been fitted when doing the hull some months ago.
It was glued in place using epoxy and two steel pins to hold and secure it in place.

I then silver soldered a length of 5mm threded rod into one end of the square section bar, to take a top locking nut.
I next threaded a nut upto the joint between bar and threaded rod and locked in place using cyano.
I glued the slider bar which takes the pin from the servo to operate the rudder into place upto the top locking nut, using epoxy and then drilled through that asembly and inserted a 2mm nut and bolt to hold it all in place.Under this would be fitted a brass washer to aid movement and reduce friction.
I modified the bracket that is used on the Rother class lifeboat kit, and using a pin to hold it......fixed it to the stern post just below where to top bracket of the rudder will sit when the rudder is in it's correct position.
Next was to insert a brass rod up into the bottom of the square section rudder bar and secure it wit lots of cyano.
Now, ther is still no way to stop the whole rudder bar from lifting out of the shoe and flapping in the wind, so to make a tighter fit and impossible to lift upwards and out, I put two small diameter washers onto the bottom pin just before the square bare /round bar joint, and immediately under the top bracket I placed two brass washers onto the square rudder bar, and drilled imediately under them with a 1.0mm drill bit and inserted a split pin made from brass, wrapped it around the bar immediately under the washers, and this locked the whole assembly in place with a maximum of around 2mm up and down movement........Once it has all been painted the moving parts, metal to metal will be greased as a precaution.

The fun's about to start.............cost me a small fortune at Halfords this morning.
That's the trouble with building three boats at the same time, lol

It's a little frustrating that the further you get into a build or design, the smaller the part the less you think about it until it's needed and then when you do need it to set off another part, it's not there........it's not bad planning, so I like to think, just an over sight.

A week ago I found I had only 4 w/t hatch handles and so rang Dave Metcalf for some.........he, on the other hand, only requires two for the Anne Letitia Russell, and so his moulds only spin one at a time........I needed 20.............so with my 4, and 4 he had left over I had to then produce a little mould to supply them 8 at a time....this I did yesterday, and this morning cast myself more than enough for the three boats........

Also whilst looking at pictures that a friend Glyn had sent me of the "Smuts" of when his father was coxs'n on the boat..........a glaring addition was needed that I had forgotten on all three boats......the support blocks for the Fisherman's pattern anchor which is clamped in stands to the side of the boat. So last night I made those from blocks of obeche and will tonight put the side plates onto them with plasticard.

Well.........I tried putting the end plates onto the support blocks yesterday, and used as I said, plasticard for them, using plasticweld to attach the plasticard to the obeche timber................mistake............
It has worked for me in the past, but sadly it wasn't playing ball yesterday, as every one I tried to trim off, just parted with ease!.....
so I went back to basics and replaced the plasticard plates with 1.8mm ply and used aliphatic resin to bond the two together, and clamped them overnight.........success. they worked fine, and I trimmed them up using my bench sander.
they'll now be liberally coated with sanding sealer and then glued onto the respective boats ready for painting in situ.

so the moral of my story is, and I will repeat it 100 times......."I must try not to be to cleaver for my own good, and when using timber to plastic...don't...use timber to timber if possible and use a timber glue".

A nice bit of wood work there Neil..

cheers Barry.......back in the medium that I love most.

neil.

well,after some discussion on another forum, i have bit the bullet and sanded the endplates flush and rounded and fitted to the boats in the places shown on photos, not as per plans as on two of the boats the plans show them about 4 - 6' away from the position on photos.

I have also made the rim for around the companionway on the H F Bailey and painted it.

SPOT THE DIFERENCE!!

Recently I have been in contact with the son of the ex coxs'n who served on the Field Marshall and Mrs Smuts and who was also a crew member from an early age.

Apart from the little niggles about certain parts for the boat that now and then get pointed out, one of the main concerns was/is the colour for the steel engine casing just forward of the rear cockpit which carries the funnel on the "Smuts".............they were usually painted a grey similar to the H F Bailey and the Mary Stanford........but Glyn seemed to think that it was varnished timber from memory to begin with.

I pointed out that this part was an integral part of the watertightness of the boat as the steel casing including the water tight door had to stay intact......just at it did in the famous picture of the wreckage of the Fraserbourgh lifeboat after her disaster ........so Glyn went off to hunt for photos in colour, and found two of the "Smuts".....showing the sides of the steel casing a medium brown colour..............so we ( between us) have decided that the top of the casing of the boat is brown......and so I gave it it's first coat of No. 9 Humbrol this afternoon, to match with the edging plates of the forward cabin.













It will need a few more coats, but closely matches the very small areas visible of the engine casing on the colour photos.

That looks more and more lovely with each photo. Superb.

cheers matey.we are just in conflab between myself and the old coxs'ns son as to exactly what shade that brown should be?? no decision as yet.

mark 3 version.....she'll have had more face lifts and slap than Joan Collins before |I've finished, lol

I'll get the colour right one of these days.

So!,

now that the colour scheme has finally been sorted out I can now finally get down to painting and fitting the fittings cast for the models onto the right positions...started this evening by just adding a little detailing to the funnels of the 3 boats..the Klaxon horns, and the support brackets and the mast crutches that fit to the H F Bailey and the Mary Stanford.

The "Smuts" doesn't have a mast crutch as she folds her mast forward. the Klaxons I haven't fitted yet as these will be painted seperately black and brass, but the brackets and crutches will be sprayed with the funnels in a creamy yellowy buff colour

Now come on Neil, watching Countdown while trying to concentrate is not good for the model !!

that's the first time I've watched it since Mr Whitely died..........and won't be watching it again.....that chap at the head of the table should stick to firing people .......he was so wooden and stuffy I cringed every time he opened his uppercrust gob...............If that's what Sugar and his croneys are like....thank god I did my apprenticeship 45 years ago, lol

well, less of the dreaming about big boats......and back to reallity.
I set out my vents, cowls , funnels and other larger bits and pieces this evening and gave them a first coat of primer....had to make a start as there are so many fittings to go on......if I can get all the fittings sprayed in batches whilst I put three transport stands together it will make life easier once I have sprayed the hulls in the next week or so.

and here are a few more of those "made earler " fittings now painted up and readtyfor sticking onto the jigsaw puzzle.

Looking good Neil.

I love the detail on those sprung hatches. The springs themselves look stunning.
And the uniformity is amazing - looks like you have a machine that stamps out identical
hatches. Good stuff!

I was actually thinking at one time of making moulds to cast the w/t doors in resin, but then thought that it was actually taking a lot of the build process away from the modeller and then it would just become a kit like an Airfix kit, which I don't want, so decided against it........

They are made from diferent thicknesses of plasticard, white metal/resin fittings and a little fine brass wire bent around a heavier guage wire to form the springs, and look reasonably effective, and something that even a learner could do, given the easy instructions that I will be writing.

Neil.

Well, I decided to get away from the painting of fittings this afternoon and get down to some "decorative" woodwork for a change, and so decided to make the rope bins for the "Smuts".

This consisted of a framework at deck level to attach the sides too...I doubt wether this was anything like a feature on the real boats as no positive photo is available of the bins at deck level but to aid the structure I have used a little modellers liscense or the thing wouldn't have stood a chance of remaining together. For the base I used some mahogany strip of 6 x 3mm and for the uprights some 3 x 3mm mahogany. For the rails I used some 4 x 2mm obeche that I had cut many years ago for some reason or other.

I started off by glueing the rectangular frame ( mitred at the corners) onto a piece of 1/64th ply to hold it all together, and left to set under a 12v battery.

Whilst these were setting(using quick grab aliphatic resin) I set about making the sides using the mahogany and obeshe strip........these were also left to set for an hour or so.

To fit the sides via the uprights to the bottom frames I cut recess slots into the frame for the uprights to glue into, before leaving them to set in the upright position.

Next was to glue the end rails in place to make the whole construction rigid.

A capping rail was glued to the top of the uppermost rail and left to set.

Tomorrow there will be a section cut out of the rope bin on the inner sides next to where the cowl vents go for access to the bins and the rope inside.
Finally they'll be sanded and stained teak in colour before varnishing.

The rope bins have now been trimmed up to fit the curvature of the cabin , sanded and varnished with a teak coloured varnish.......

I think it might need a couple more coats, but will let this one dry first.

The access sections to the bins have also been cut out where they sit next to the cowl vents.

I have now come to the stage where I have to make the stands for my boats so that I can protect the hulls once I have painted them this week.
I have to admit that of all the models I have ever built, no two stands have ever been made the same way, or have ever looked the same.
However the best stand that I ever made was for a 57" model of the old WW1 HMS Kent, County Class cruiser.
At the time I hadn't a car but had reverted back to my carefree days and was riding a BMW r100s motorcycle.....it had a carrier rack on the rear, and I needed a stand that would sit on that.
It didn't concern me in those younger days that the model would have to sit crosswise across the bike, nor did I count the number of wing mirrors on cars that I took out.....wooops......it was the fact that I could still ride like a maniac and that my model wouldn't slip off the stand.
So I devised a stand that would support the model via rubber straps..............these tended to grip the hull rather than let it slide, and I could go round a bend or roundabout at 45* and the boat would still be there when I got to the lake......more than can be said for many things I carried on my bikes....lol.
Also in all the times I carried the model, the hull never got one scratch from being carried, and the whole stand acted like one huge shock absorber.
So today ( not that I am going to carry these models on a motorcycle, unless I get a Harley donated from some kind benefactor) I decided to make the stands for my lifeboats in a similar way......using pedal cycle innertubes for the rubber supports, and pine for the frames....I also left enough space under neath for the R/C gear, batteries etc, plus the odd tinny or two .....

And I have to say that they look snug and safe cocooned within the frames, to boot.
simple to make, take all the shocks from motoring especially if the boats are put in a trailer for transport and they get there without scratches.....tried and tested in the most hairiest of ways,

Anyway, back to reality..and down to some work today ( well last night to be more exact, for the firsat thing.........
I got round to doing another of those little detailing parts.....remember the item on the main mast...the black tube that operated with the mast when upright or folded down. It turns out that (as one mayhem member suggested) it is a conduit for wiring and electrical gear up to the mast head.
I made this from some black silicon tubing, a base fitting which came from the Clyde class lifeboat, and a piece of brass tubing.

And to set it all in place, the tabernackle was fixed onto the cabin top using a thin layer of polyester filler which allowed the tabernackle to set level and without gaps, on to the curvature of the cabin. You can see in the last clse up shot of the tabernackle, the filler oozing out from under the fitting, which was cleaned off as it was going rubbery but not yet set.
It also located into the cabin top using 4 pre fit brass pins that set into pre drilled holes in the cabin. The brass tubing acts as a guide for the silicon tube to slide up and down when the mast is raised and lowered.

Incedentally, Dave Metcalf told me when we were having a chat last night on the phone, that he has passed on the moulds and rights for the Clyde Lifeboat that I built last year to Andy Grigg at Models By Design, so if anyone is wanting that model........a real brute, but will take any weather, then Andy Grigg is the one to see.Good luck to him.

Today, I began to prepare for spraying the hulls of the three boats, by giving a coat of etching primer, to key into the grp without blooming.

I am by no means anywhere near a decent painter, and tend to muddle through, and I tend to become impatient when painting, but have said to myself, this time, I'll spend some tme and take my time, leaving coats to dry, and rub down with wet and dry well.............ummmmm!!!.

hopefully I'll reach a desired effect that will be pleaseing to the eye.



So, I got down to it, and even after the first coat, things didn't go well at all......first I found a small area on the belting of the H F Bailey that was hollow underneath the gell coat, so painting stopped whilst I cut out the gell coat and filled, then sanded down, before giving another coat around the area with primer.

However, on the Mary Stanford, there was an even bigger cockup to cover...........

After spraying up with the coar of etching primer, I was looking at it and watching the preverbial paint to dry when I realised that I hadn't put into the two anchor recesses, the hawse pipes from the anchor/rope recesses to the deck..............so I then had to work that out, using brass tubing, and filler to hold it in place, so after drilling the holes to take the hawse pipe, that was sorted, and after cleaning up the mess created it was back to a covering coat of etching primer.

However, for the opening where the hawse pipe comes through the deck, I used bulwark hawse plates ( moulded for the Clyde lifeboat) as the deck housing surrounds, bedded in with polyester filler, and trimmed up just as it was going off..

You are not lone!!!!!

I too am having difficulty with the painting of my hull.....Masking tape tearing paint off underneath for one. Rain landing on the newly painted surface for another, oh and like you i forgot to cut the hawse holes first.......Must be an age thing as I don't remember having these problems before..

It must be, Barry...as for masking tape.....have you tried the new line called Frogtape.............it ia absolutely marvelous..and they have released a diritvitive of low tack that won't pull the paint off called Frog tape delicate.....marvelous stuff even if expensive..saves a lot of time and haassle in the end.

neil.

Filler primer now applied. I'll give them all another coat of this tonight before I turn in, and then will give a couple of either white or grey primer tomorrow before setting about them all with wet and dry.

Primary coloured primers now added.......will need a couple more coats before rubbing down with 800 grade wet and dry.
Wht the different colours......??

Well, the Grey primer on the Mary Stanford is because her anti fouling is a green lead colour, as she was an "afloat" boat in Ballycotton Harbour, and topside is ford Galaxy Blue....a slightly darker shade of blue to the other two boats, and therefore will take a darker under primer.

The H F Bailey and the "Smuts" both have a white underhull as they were both slipway launched and boat house stored, and with a lighter Oxford Blue hull they will take a white under primer.

All boats will be given more coats of under primer before the final colours are added.

First coat of colour.....AT LAST!!!.........

After wet and drying the grey primer down this morning, I decided to spray the green lead underside of the Mary Stanford with the nearest match I could find to the old green lead colour I had.....Halford's Ford Laural green.
I decided to spray in the windless open air garden rather than in my dusty workshop....and just after starting, the wind picked up, but I got the area's that are in nicks and crannies done first, and will go out in a few minutes to give an overall coat.















the first of 4 full coats.this was the prefered lead oxide anti fouling of the RNLI in the first third of the last century for afloat boats kept in harbours rather than in a boat house for slip launching.












well......it had to happen.......glorious sunshine this morning....and then just as I put the first coat in, it starts spitting with rain....... as usual.........if it's not dust, in the workshop then it's rain, lol.........so needs must.....got out the gazebo that I haven't used because of the c r a p summers the last four years......guess what...can't find the top sheet...........U N B E L E I V A B L E !!!!!!.....so again mother of all invention and all that..................I have used my old classic car cover for the "roof"....worked well and off a spraying I will go, lol

Not going to be defeated by hell or high water eh? Looking beautiful as always!

What's that filler-primer like in practise? I've always worried that it might hide detail,
so I've faffed about at length with hugely expensive 1k stopper-filler and what seems like hundreds
of coats of normal primer to check progress.

But times are hard (as they say) and it's just cost me about £10 to put a single coat of standard grey Halfords
primer on Manhattan - ouch!

can you tell me what sort of thing filler-primer will fill and what it wont and if you are happy with it?

Thanks

James

Hi James.......it WON'T fill deep scratches unless you put on a minimum of 3 coats......but will cover faint sanding scratches......it just gives a good base to wet and dry to and a nice smooth finish once cut back on..........you would still need stopper putty ( not filler.but fine scratch filler) to fill those deeper scratches.........it doesn't have a hardener and is cellulose based to dries and sets being left to open air.

sadly rain has stopped play..........left the gazebo up last night and it has p'd it down all night....three of the legs have bent and broken......so am going to have to rig a jury rig using the top and washing line when it stops raining, lol.....Oh well........was a good idea while it lasted, lol

So much for a british summer......

Back to the drawing board with my portable spray booth.........and the ground is under 3" of water..............so much for spraying al fresco!!!
Now, what can I do inside my dusty shed whilst my lawn feeds the water table of this country and lessens our drought conditions.

Bring em over here Neil....No problems spraying outside....29 degrees and not a cloud in the sky...

now the drainage pump has packed in barry..never rains but what it pours, lol..you makwe me feel very envious of that thought...blue skies.what are they, lol

Whilst I have been in conversation of the ex crew member of "Smuts" he told me that there was a rear pen to the rope bins, and so have added that. Whilst doing the measuring up for this, I found that my preliminary position for the funnel,vents and decklights were too far forward by around 15mm and so, whilst waiting for better weather, I set about doing the changes yesterday.......made the rear pen front rails, and re positioned the holes for the deck lights and funnel, by filling the originals by putting a strip of plasticard inside the grp moulding , held to the moulding with polyester resin, and then sanding smooth before re painting and here are the results.
there is some slight disagreement about the inner longitudinal rails and their length, going back to the cockpit, but looking at photos, I can't see this. also the short rear rails of the bins..........should they be there or shouldn't they............well, for structural purposes on the model, they'll have to stay there (even if not on the real boat) for if I were to take them out, I feer the whole structure would be very much weakened, and so using modellers license, they are staying put.

Well, modeller's license or not, it looks absolutely stunning.

I've just noticed you posted that at one o'clock in the morning! Do you never sleep?
I am starting to doubt that you are human, and are in fact some sort of relentless unstoppable boat-building machine.

I certainly stopped last night..spent it in A & E having all sorts of tests for my kidney stones..........turns out not to be........but was /is in fact accute constipation because of all the pills I've been popping..........gordon bennett.

the rest is unrepeatable, lol

well! I've given up on this british summer already......a drought order in most parts of the country, and it's done nothing but persist itself for the last few days since I decided to spray outside......just can't believe it.
So after a brief spell of decent weather between downpours I today wet and dried the two Watson hulls ready for spraying.
Then I had the brainwave ( not common for me) that my mate has a large very clean and tidy garage where he used to restore and spray his Austin 7's, and after a phone call I am taking them down to his place tomorrow morning for spraying over the next few days.........hopefully without any drama.
So this afternoon I also masked off the lower hull of the Mary Stanford ready for spraying the upper hull with Oxford blue.
I used Frog tape delicate for the actual masking, so will see what sort of line this gives once removed.

Well at least Ronnie Corbett will be keeping an eye on you!!

you got eyes like a s*** house rat Barry,

Neil, you can slow down a bit now as I am off to northern France for a wek to my lad and his family. Will be back on 23rd so look after the place whilst I am gone..

Will do Barry...seems as no one else is around, lol.have a good holiday and enjoy yourself.

hopefully my boats'll be in glorious technicolour by the time you get back, lol

neil.

Oh How joyous it is to be able to spray in a nice clean tidy garage workshop for a change...........must do something to mine one day soon????

Anyway, went down to my mates this morning and gave the Mary Stanford it's first two coats of Ford Royal / Oxford blue and the two 46' Watsons their first two coats of Polar white......but not before we had covered up Rod's beautiful model of the old Fleetwood J Marr and son's NAVENA, which he is adding the final finishing detailing such as nets trawl doors and rigging which go to make up one of his superb models.......don't want overspray getting onto that beauty.

an update....all spraying has now been completed on all three boats, and it's now down to painting by hand the fendering on the boats in red gloss which I'll do over the next few days.
I took the masking tape ( Frog tape.delicate) off the hull of the Mary Stanford and it has given a perfect join line.
well worth the money for the rolls.
finally, I seem to have been hijacked on my builds by my mucker who asked me to put 3 pics of his trawler under lighting...she does look well.
I think he cheered when I drove down the road

That is indeed a very crispy-sharp line Neil. Nice! You obviously weren't nervous about getting the camera really close
to that one.

Beautiful trawler too!

Yes, James..The tape is super.Will post some pics of the white hulled boats later but had a bit of a disaster last night with one.

as to the trawler.......Rod, my mate who builds them has actually never ever seen a trawler in his life, "in the flesh" so to speak....he came to the local area long after the last of the deep sea trawlers had left the town, but his execution of detail on them is so correct and so superb, you would have thought he's spent a lifetime onboard that type of ship........his attention to detail really is brilliant.

neil.

It is really irksome when people are that talented. Love to see some pics of it on the water if you have any.

As to the disaster, I'm sorry to hear that, but I seriously doubt that fixing it is going to be beyond your talents.
'Tis always annoying to take a step backwards as I know only too well.

James_H wrote:

It is really irksome when people are that talented. Love to see some pics of it on the water if you have any.

As to the disaster, I'm sorry to hear that, but I seriously doubt that fixing it is going to be beyond your talents.
'Tis always annoying to take a step backwards as I know only too well.

repairs already done James....just annoying that I never learn, lol.

as for the trawler......it hasn't got it's bum wet yet, but will post some when it's finished.

neil.

the more colour I put on, the better they look.........beginning to realise that the beginning of the end is nigh!

Dave Norsman is offering one of his boats and his prized action man ( all dressed in pink for some reason) for your grand launch of your boats ,so you can have something to rescue .so I hope I can make it. it should be a great day, I would offer one of my boats but as dave will tell you they are all un painted shelf queens.



Peter