I posted an update last night, but strangely the photographs I’d added of which there was quite a few have disappeared overnight? Sadly I’d already deleted the photos of my iPhone so wasn’t able to put them back on the post. All I’ve been able to do is add some pictures I’ve taken this morning of were I am in the build so far.

Frustrating......

Just a short update today as my tolerance for working in my freezing (despite 2 plug in freestanding radiators on at full tilt!) workshop has wained ❄️😂

Concentrated on fitting, glueing and filling in any gaps on the rear bulkhead walls, and although the picture shows the completed look less handles and other ancillaries, some of the inner panels are removable to aid painting and will be glued in at the end.

Other items made of resin that have been cleaned up and fitted included the forward lifeboat stowage box, forward escape hatch, tool bin hatch lid and forward vent and the rear deck escape hatch.

I may do a little more tomorrow with more hatches ect to install before I return to work Wednesday. In the meantime, I shall walk the dog in 2 feet of snow!

Stay safe guys......

First day back at it after a few shifts at work, gotta earn those pennies to fund this hobby!

Today has been productive in that I’ve managed to cut out all the holes ready to install the various side bins the are on the wheelhouse. These include a port and starboard fuel filler box, fire fighting housing, fore life-raft housing and the radiator intake vent hole aft on the starboard side. Once all the holes had been cut using the dremel, they were tidied up with various files and then each resin part was tack glued with CA before adding epoxy on the inside. Once set, any gaps was addressed with P38 filler and sanded back once set.

I’ve also spent some time measuring all the fixing points for the various grab rails that are fitted to the wheelhouse. A few weeks ago, I emailed the RNLI asking if they had had a set of plans for the Shannon, within minutes I was sent a full set of PDF files showing all the views of the boat, top, sides, 3D view and they show every detail of every part fitted, simply superb. I was able to get the required scale up increase from a member on a Facebook Shannon model group and he put me in touch with a printer in Yorkshire who could print all 3 sheets for £15 posted, they arrived within 48 hours and will be invaluable during this build. A huge thanks to the RNLl, Dan on FB and the printers!

The various rails are made from brass wire and the fitting and soldering of the legs was done in situ on the boat for accuracy. Once all the brass had been cleaned up, I added the photo etched mounting circles with thick CA. the roof rails have been primed, but I have still to complete the side grab rails and the front rails.

Also added was the large photo etched roof detail sheet which was a superb fit along with a couple of resin parts on the side which are painted orange when the wheel house gets painted. There is an abundance of detail parts still to add but these will be prepared and painted off the wheel house and added once the main wheelhouse painting has been done.

I’ve got a nice large compartment box to put completed detail parts in so that I can add them at a later date 👌

Several hours has of work (why do we call it work, it’s all pleasure in my brain!) has seen not a lot done....

A couple of hours spent finishing off all the brass wheelhouse railings which have all now been filed, sanded, primed and awaiting their final coats of paint and lacquer.

I then made a start on cutting the windows out ready to receive their glass once painting has finished. I wanted an even 1mm lip inside the frame as a good purchase point for the window. This lip will be covered once the glass is in as the glass has a black vinyl adhesive frame around the perimeter of the glass. I came up with the idea of attaching a piece of lead pencil to a 0.75mm piece of plastic rod and scribed the inside of the window pain to give a good line to drill, cut and file back too, worked a treat. 2 windows cut, 7 more to go!

Last job of the day was to tidy up all the internal wiring using some nice eBay self adhesive cable tidies, I think they were about £4 for 50 inc postage! Once I’d done that I hooked up all the servos to the transmitter making sure that a switch was assigned for the reverse thruster buckets and a pot switch for the trim tabs, steering nozzles hooked up to aileron stick. I shall need to reverse the polarity on one of the nozzle servos which I will do by re-soldering the internals instead of buying a reversing switch, easy enough to do.

That’s it now until Thursday, have a great week and stay safe ......

Back at it today after a few days at work....

First job today was using mikes tip, I used a very small washer and pencil to mark the inner perimeter on the remaining window openings in preparation for drilling, filing and sanding. Mike, that tip worked a treat, thank you! A good couple of hours of work saw the remaining window openings all done and having checked with the pre cut green tinted windows that came with the kit, they are a perfect fit!

Next job was to reverse the servos internal wiring on one of the reverse thruster buckets so that on operation they will both lower and raise in unison. Martin suggested I do a separate “how to” on the technique and I have done that for those who are interested in the “how to articles” section. I could have hooked the servo up to a spare channel on the receiver and mixed it in the transmitters mixing area (flaperons would have worked), but I preferred the option of soldering simply because it’s easier! If you look on the electrics board, you will see I’ve added a Turnigy servo speed reducer so that when the reverse buckets are operated, they do so slowly instead of at the speed of a startled gazelle and un-scale like. These speed reducers are often used by aircraft flyers for flaps.

Next I proceeded to insert 2 aluminium flat bars across the hull fore and aft. My thinking is that I am going to use these to secure the deck to the hull by having 3mm bolts in the 2 towing bollards that will tighten onto a glued nut under each bar. This will make it easy to remove the deck for maintainable as the wheel house will be bonded to the deck, meaning no access via the wheelhouse. I have some self adhesive 1.5mm sealing rubber used for double glazing that I’m going to put around the perimeter lip of the hull hopefully giving me a water tight seal when the deck is bolted on, TBC 😂

Last job today was to spend some time doing a final sand with wet n dry on the hull, clean it with panel prep to ensure it was dust free and give it 2 coats of grey primer. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll start getting some colour on the hull!

Last couple of days has been a dusty affair! It’s been mostly sanding, filing we’re required and generally getting the large pieces I.e the hull and wheelhouse ready to prime and start painting.

Firstly, the hull was primed grey with 2 coats, followed by 3 light build coats of Ford Galaxy Blue for the upper sides of the hull. Having left that for 24 hours, using my cheap eBay laser level mounted to my camera tripod, the waterline was established both sides before masking for the black lower hull. This was duly added with a coat of Matt black, followed by 2 coats of satin black. This will be left for a further 24 hours before I spray paint the silver keel. The whole hull will then get a coat of lacquer before I add the waterline and other decals. Once all the decals and other ancills have been added less the drive nozzles and trim tabs, the hull will get a couple of coats of gloss lacquer above the water line and a Matt coat below.

Other jobs was to identify what stanchions go we’re on the deck using the pre-marked guides, drilling holes for the feet. The stanchions were then cleaned, prepared, primed and painted and finished with a light wash around the bolt heads before finishing in Matt lacquer.

Another major dusty task was to identify and prepare the 10 pieces of cast resin that make up the fendering around the lip of the deck. These will be painted off the boat before adding later in the build.

Last job was to finish cleaning and preparing the wheelhouse, which has now been given 2 coats of white primer in preparation for the VW brilliant orange. Tomorrow I shall give all the nooks and crannies a blast with orange acrylic with the airbrush. I’ve found in the past that if you go straight in with the Halfords rattle can, you don’t always get the thicker paint into the tighter spaces unless you go really thick. A few light passes with airbrushed orange will then see the rattle can paint go on a lot nice, I hope!....

Oh, and I painted the wheelhouse door! 😂😂

3 days of work has seen the wheelhouse primed, based painted with the airbrush followed by 2 coats of Halfords VW orange for the final paint finish prior to lacquer inch. The reason why I hit the cabin with the airbrush was to get a thin layer of orange paint into the many nooks and crannies before the main coats. This way you get a good finish without trying to get rattle can paint into the creases and folds ect causing detail loss with the thicker paint. Happily it’s come out well.

I’ve added most of the decals and at this point hit the wheelhouse with gloss lacquer before starting to add the many details that I’ve already made or still need to make, believe me there is a heap more detailing parts to come, especially on the flying bridge ect!

There is probably another week to ten days work on the wheelhouse to come......

I’ve not posted in a while simply because most of the last 30-40 hours of work has been mostly the detail painting and making of small parts for the wheelhouse. Suffice to say, I reckon I’m at about 80% done on the wheelhouse which does not include the rooftop antenna array which is a whole separate kit in its own right! Using a very good reference CD of photos that came with the kit, and a contact who is crewman on the Lowestoft boat I’m building, I’ve tried to replicate the original as much as I can. Studying the multitude of photos shows all the things that need doing and I’m sure I’m not the only one that makes a list of jobs to be done, crossing them off as they are done. Trouble is, you feel that the list is getting shorter and then you find some more details to add over and above what the kit included!

Jobs on the wheelhouse that still require either building and/or painting are the 2 side poles, 2 working roof lights, make a new helmsman gate as the kit one is wrong, scratch make a few detail parts that weren’t included, 2 more rear side grab rails and lastly the windows and wipers.

After I’m completely satisfied the wheelhouse is completed I will finish the hull (less the deck, again that’s another major job!). Jobs on the hull include adding the white waterline, transom details, slipway skid, reverse buckets, steering nozzles, trim tabs and there servo connections along with some more work on the electrics. Once all that is done I shall lacquer the hull gloss above he waterline and either satin or Matt below.

A few days of work ahead, but I do have Thursday off so will press on then ......

Another 30+ hours of work in between shifts at work has seen the wheelhouse getting to the end point.

Fitting the pre-cut glazing was time consuming but fairly uneventful. All 6 side windows were a perfect fit and just required their pre-cut black vinyl simulated frames fitted followed by a coat of Matt black around the edge of each pane to ensure the frame blended in nicely. I also gave the inner seat a coat of black so that when the window was fitted, they appear seamless. The 3 front windows required a little bit of work with the sanding black for a nice fit. You will notice I’ve fitted the first of 5 wipers, which are a kit in themselves as they are made up 5 resin parts each, but detailed to the point of being hard to achieve if made by hand. The washer pipe is again a piece of servo wire.

Another long winded task was making the brass railings at the stern of the cabin. Careful bending of the 2mm brass to get the curves right and soldering a piece on the starboard side as that has an extra arm, followed by paint, lacquer and a piece of heatshrink for the grip (the black grips aren’t fitted on all Shannon’s, but are on the Lowestoft one which this model represents)

I’ve also made a new gate from 2mm brass plate as the kit supplied resin one was I feel incorrect in width. My next conundrum is how to incorporate the brass “keep closed at sea” etching which was designed for the kit gate and is now too small, I shall figure something out to blend it in!

Remaining jobs are the remaining wipers, finish the gate, add the whip antennas and build the main radar/antenna/nav light gantry.....

So, apart from the flying bridge windscreen which I’m going to remake, radar gantry and antennas, I now consider the wheelhouse complete. Last job was to fashion the 2 little devices that go in the rear uprights (reliably informed by my Shannon crewman friend that they are the engine room air intake flap mechanisms). As nothing supplied in the kit I made them from various bits of plasticard and plastic rod and the clear window was simply a piece of acetate.

I keep putting the white waterline trim line off, but will attempt that at the weekend, get the hull lacquered then I can finish the bow bits n bobs!