More progress on the boat

Yesterday it was dry and sunny, so it was out in the back with the hull of the boat which had been masked up ready. The inside was masked up as that's going to be fitted out with furniture eventually.

Its a bit of a balancing act isn't it ,getting out with the family whilst the weathers fine and doing some modelling, ie you need the weather to get out to do some spraying but need to keep her indoors happy.

Looks better already with a bit of undercoat, it also shows up any imperfections so you can address those before the top coat, luckily there doesn't seem to be any of those.

Whilst waiting for paint to dry and harden I had a look at the roof section, which was cut to size and the sliding hatch fitted and made to work. 

The flower boxes were placed on to see the effect and the brass hand rails cut to size , that's them behind the flower boxes.

Should look al-right with the four roof vents in between.

Looks long here but once on the water seem to shrink don't they.

Day out Wednesday 27th

Went to Stalybridge yesterday to the Model Shop "Norman Wisenden's" we thought they had closed down in Greenfield where we used to visit them, but we found out from my son the railway modeller that they had only moved to a mill complex in Stalybridge, railways mainly but building materials and paints available.

Check it out here

Went to The Lake afterwards and had lunch and a walk round the lakes with Pepe.

Met a couple of members on the landing stage  Vincent trying out his new Camera and he took this picture of John Goddard's newish boat

and a few pictures of Pepe

Won't bore you with too many !

On the modelling front embellished the front doors of the Narrow Boat have to put some hinges and handles on yet.

Think its a varnish finish going on these.

Places to go in November

Events at Buxton pavilion gardens 

And of course there's the Warwick Model Boat Show 

13th of November !!

Sunday Outing

We had a change of venue yesterday and went to Bury Metro Model Boat Club where my wife is a member and was surprised to see 35-40 members in attendance must have been the good weather brought them all out.

Took a few pictures of boats that stood out to me 

 Water skiing with girl on the back 42 years old the chap said , not  a collectors item now as when he cut her hair which was getting in the way he didn't have any scissors so used his pliers, not to be recommended for fashion though some these days look like they have been to this chap for haircuts

This air boat was very good and very stable the best I've seen !.

And last but not least a young man with a nice model of a pusher tug complete with barge with ambitions to make some more barges to push, nice to see youngsters sailing as they are the clubs of to-morrow aren't they. 

Dropped back to our Etherow Club and the park was packed out, not many sailors on the model boat lake but plenty of yachtsmen on the big lake.

Got a nice surprise when I got home an E-mail from mate Bob with an update on the rails for my Narrow Boat, he'd made flanges for the bottom of the legs.

Nice hey !.

Thanks a million Bob

Rear deck rails

Friday night I took the brass bits and pieces for the rear hand rails round to my mate Bob Abell to solder up for me, my soldering is al-right in the hull out of sight for wiring but on this important item it needed a lot more expertise than I have !. So it was a call for help to Bob and he's not let me down, look at this ! what can I say  but Beautiful and I might have to go as far as saying 

supercalifragilisticexpialidocious

                                                            

They are going to look the Bees Knee's on the boat and a shame to hide them under the seat piece supplied with the kit.

Certainly living up to his name of " Bob The Builder" and I'm waiting to see his next boat build project when he decides what its going to be.

Will show you some of his earlier paddlers in a future blog.

In celebration added this video 

Bits and pieces

Thursday added a bit more to the window frames to make them look a bit more bulky, rather than just flat plastic, so when painted should look better.

Though it doesn't seem that there's much progress on the build I want to do as much as possible on the side panels whilst they are flat as its much easier to work on like this, rather than fiddling on the insides once the superstructure is built. 

The other reason is that while the weather is still nice on the odd days we are trying to get out and about, went to the lake yesterday (Friday) for a bit of lunch at the cafe.

I have made a few flower tubs for on the roof as well (5)

Made of plain and planked plasticard, we bought some different coloured roses from a haberdashery stall in the market though not tried them in the tubs yet, hopefully from a distance they will do the job, not many real flowers will fit in these tubs!.

We did at one time buy ( RJR) our son some packets of flowers from a railway shop but looked very fiddly to put together so don't know if he completed them or what they looked like, perhaps look at that idea if the silk ones don't look right.

Back to the build

After visiting the Blackpool Show I got home and found the Stanchions I bought as 3mm didn't fit the brass rod I'd bought earlier so I've had the fiddly job of drilling and filing the holes to fit all 20 of them ,still that's what modellings all about isn't it.

These are for the roof rails instead of the wooden dowel and little blocks supplied with the kit, just thought it would look smarter and with the brass balls made earlier by my mate Bob the Builder should look the bees knees.

I'd bought some furniture gliders thinking they would be al-right with wooden dowel underneath for roof vents, but as the build progresses I realised they were too big  ( will come in for something no doubt ) so went to the local glass merchants and bought some brass mirror studs for a couple of quid so with a bit of plastic tube and the screws cut down will look more like the size required.

Whilst at  the show I also bought a Graupner smoke unit from "A Model World" stand and it was cheaper than the one I bought for wife's launch two years ago ( £12.50), you don't get that very often these days. At £11.50 it was cheaper than any I'd seen on the net which ranged from £15.50 to £17.50. 

These smoke units are only the size of a BIC pen top so good for just fitting inside the funnel of your boat and connecting to the + and _ of the motor leads puffs to the speed of the motor and the fluid seems to last forever.

Bought 3 lead acid batteries there as well from Model Power at £4.95 each , Maplins price £12.99 !!.

So it was a nice surprise to get some of my list at these good prices and made the trip worthwhile.