Okay, MTB update. Not an awful lot of progress, due to the aforementioned vacation. Also, on return from vacation, I only had a short time before hockey tryouts started for my sons. That was a huge time sink, and I haven't had much free time to speak of in weeks.

However, the MTB hull is done, shafts installed, rudders installed, servo tray installed (servo is just sitting there for the moment), battery tray installed (battery just sitting there), motor mounts and motors in place, and rudder linkages are being hooked up. I have an ESC, and next payday will pick up a radio receiver.

In the first picture below, the wheelhouse, which is just started, is just sitting in the spot where it will soon be glued down.

Wow, almost three months since my last post. I am still alive, it's just that I went on vacation shortly after my last post, and when I came back I sort of forgot I had this blog. I've been doing a bit of model building of late, so I'll post a picture or two tonight. Assuming I remember.

Slow month

I'm still around, and still modelling. I know it's been 5 weeks since my last post, but I haven't forgotten the blog. The weather is the problem, mostly. Summer tends to be so short here that I get home from a day in the office and have no desire to sit inside working on models. I want to be outside. I will occasionally take a model outside and work on it while sitting on the front porch, but in general, not much has been done lately.

Well, as I had feared, the Blue Toon is toast. John said that the hull can be saved, but it will need a lot of work. He had told me when we started this project that this hull didn't really suit itself well to a full-frame build, but he wanted to go ahead anyway so he could teach me the technique.

So, the hull is twisted, and could conceivably be saved, but the faster solution is to start again, but using plywood bulkheads rather than by building frames. The work will be faster and it won't warp. Tomorrow I'll make copies of the hull lines, and start cutting out the templates for the bulkheads, which I can start working on this weekend using some 1/8" plywood that I have in the basement.

In MTB news, the hull painting is finished. There was just a very small amount of bleeding of the light gray paint onto the black of the lower hull, so that will be easy to touch up. Portholes are installed, and now it's time to get back to work on the wheelhouse.

Supplies

I took a couple hours off work this morning so I could go to the local hobby shop. I picked up a few supplies for the MTB:

- a piece of flat brass, 1/4" wide, to make P-brackets for the prop shafts;
- a package of 1/16" brass rod, for all kinds of things;
- some 5/8" brass tube, for torpedo tubes;
- some 3/32" tube to make stanchions;
- assorted other crap to make other stuff.

We are very lucky here in Halifax to have an excellent hobby shop - Maritime Hobbies and Crafts - owned by two guys who do a lot of scratch-building. Because they scratch-build, they put a lot of effort into making sure their store is stocked with everything you might want for your projects. If they weren't here I'm sure I'd be placing a lot more online orders than I do now.

What they're less good at, which is why I place orders with Cornwall Model Boats, is stocking such things as props, shafts, motors, couplings etc. The R/C model ship community here is fairly small, and I think it's largely the model railroad community that drives the need for scratch-building supplies.

Finally, a new picture

Here's what the MTB looks like right now. Not the best picture, as it was taken with my phone under poor light, but you can see the holes drilled in the side near the bow for the portholes. The portholes themselves are small grommets, such as you see in the armpit of jackets for ventilation. The semi-gloss black is visible on the lower hull, and on the bow is the light sea gray that I put on before I ran out and had to go buy more. If I hadn't messed up my latest Cornwall Model Boats order, and missed the two crucial drivetrain parts, I could have had the hull in the water by this weekend, I'm sure. I can still put it in the water, but only to make sure it's watertight.

Quiet weekend

Not an awful lot of progress this weekend. After a week of rain, the sun finally came out for two days (it's raining again today) so I got a bit of work done. The exterior of the hull is all but finished, just a few minor bumps and divots to smooth out. I'll get at that this week with the Bondo. All the spots are on the upper part of the hull, so I took advantage of the sunshine, masked off the upper hull, and painted the bottom of the hull black from the waterline down. I'll see if I can get those last few bumps sorted out in the next couple days, and if the sun comes out Wednesday as forecast, I might be able to paint the upper part of the hull, which will be light sea gray.

Also on the weekend, I got the shafts put in place with epoxy. I forgot a couple items in my last order from Cornwall Model Boats, so have put in another order, and once that order comes in, I can do the final work to hook up the engines to the shafts. The engine bed is all built and ready to have the engines screwed down, once I get the connectors and have the final engine positions set.

I had hoped to at least have the hull ready to go in the water for an event July 1, but I doubt my order from CMB will arrive in time, so this might not happen. However, as I wait for parts to arrive, I can continue work on the deck of the boat.

Pictures later.

Ask and ye shall receive

Perfect timing. Unfortunately, they were pretty much out of stock on rudders, but I got one. I can use it as a template to build another.

In the picture are two prop shafts, two couplings, two motor mounts, two props, and a rudder. As I said, I already have the motors, so once I get the exterior of the hull nice and smooth, I'm ready to start installing the running gear. 

Missing info

I just noticed that I hadn't written about what happened with Blue Toon. Distaster is what happened. I wrote back in early May that I'd taken the frame home to sand the three frames nearest the bow. After sanding, I put the frame in a stand, so that I could begin marking the spots on the frames where the first plank would be placed, along the deck line. Hmmm, something is wrong here. The mark on one side is way higher than the mark on the other. A quick look along the frame showed that the whole thing had warped, and was out by about 3/4" along its length.

John figures that it suffered from being moved from one environment (his shop) to another (my house) and that the move between places with different humidity levels caused the warpage. So, after much cursing (by me, and by John) we clamped the whole works into a jig at his workshop, in the hopes that it could be straightened again. If so, we proceed. If not, then 50 hours of work is down the tubes. In that event, I will start again, but I'll go with bulkheads rather than frames, which will get me back to the same point in perhaps 10 hours of work vs. another 50.

I'm still alive

Whoa, a full month since my last post. I've been doing some business travel lately, so not much time to sit and post.

Not much time for model work either, so here's all that's happened in the last month:

The status of Blue Toon remains up in the air. The frame warped, and my friend John had to do some travelling as well, and since the frame is locked in his workshop, I haven't seen it in a while. Did it straighten out after being clamped back to its correct position? I'll find out tomorrow night;

I've done a bit more work on the MTB. I've started construction of the wheelhouse, and have finished the hull. The hull has now been fibreglassed, plus I've put another coat of epoxy on top of the fibreglass to smooth things out a bit. This week I plan to sand off any high spots and throw on a coat of primer, which will highlight any defects. Depending on what things look like, I'll either put on yet another thin coat of epoxy to make things smoother, or if it's just a spot here and there, I'll break out the Bondo to smooth things up.

All the running gear for the MTB has been ordered. I have the motors already (a couple 550s), and the props, shafts, motor mounts, and couplings are all winging their way here from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. I'm hoping it all arrives this week so I can get started on installing the running gear. Once that's done, I'll head to my Friendly Local Hobby Shop and purchase the battery pack, receiver, and servos. My club has an event on July 1, and I know I won't have the boat finished by then, but I'd like to have something I can put in the water and drive around. It might simply be a hull, completely devoid of wheelhouse etc., but being able to get it in the water will let me suss out any problems that might exist with the running gear, and I can make certain that the hull is watertight.

Weekend work: not a heck of a lot, to be honest.

Let's see. Last week John told me I needed to sand down the first three frames near the bow of Blue Toon. Got that done on the weekend. On my worklist for tonight is to mark the spots on the frames where the top of the first plank will sit. I need to have that done before I go to John's tomorrow night, because the plan is to start planking tomorrow, assuming my frame sanding has been done to John's satisfaction.

On all the other models I have on the go, I did zilch this weekend. The weather was nice and the playoffs are on, so I spent the days outside with the kids, and the evenings watching hockey. I'll try to be more productive this week.

MTB work: I picked up a couple 550 motors last night from a friend. They're destined for the MTB model, and should really make it skip along. I have all the pieces for the wheelhouse of the MTB ready to go right now, and will begin assembly soon. I spent a bit of time this past weekend coating the inside of the hull with epoxy to strengthen and waterproof the hull. I got about half done and will do the rest this weekend, time permitting. I also need to place an order with Cornwall Model Boats, for props, shafts, couplings, and rudders.

Blue Toon work: I had a bit of trouble with this one this past week. While working on it, sanding the frames to shape in preparation for planking, I hit the hull against the table, snapping off one side of one frame and cracking another. Much cursing followed. I lost a lot of time because I had to glue the cracked frame, and glue and brace the broken frame, then let everything sit while the glue cured. On Tuesday I took the hull over to John's thinking I was ready to plank, but he says the three frames closest to the bow need more work, so we spent our work time making hull planks. Assuming all goes well this weekend, we will begin planking Blue Toon this Tuesday evening.

It was somewhat of a frustrating week with little visible progress.

Work has been happening on various models, but slow progress in the last week. Update on the weekend.

I changed the name of the blog today, from Modelling Dilettante to Ship Modelling Dilettante. Just wanted to save people from disappointment if they followed the link expecting to see real live female type models. Not gonna happen here, sorry.

Weekend work:

Not an awful lot of work got done this weekend. Here's a summary:

On Blue Toon: I did some more work, lofting the frames. No sense it posting a picture of that as you'd never be able to spot the difference from last time;

On Bluenose: On this project that my wife will start, I've traced the bulkheads onto some 3mm plywood. The real Bluenose has something like 68 frames. This model has about a dozen bulkheads. I'm thankful for that;

On RCNS Whistler: I don't know where Traplet got the RCNS bit. It should be HMCS, and since it's a Restigouche-class model, we've decided that it will be re-named HMCS Terra Nova, since that ship has a history here, and I've seen it myself here in Halifax. This is a very simple off-scale model with a flat-bottomed hull and very little topside detail. Yesterday, I cut out the bulkheads (five of them) and the transom, as I don't want my son using the razor saw and X-Acto knife. Then, I cut some 1/4" strips out of a piece of 1/4" sheet balsa, to be used as stringers. We'll begin construction after work/school today, and this time he'll be doing all the work. Pictures when we've made some progress;

Another of my kids has a model of a Viking boat that he got for Christmas, and when he saw me working with his brother on the Terra Nova, he suddenly decided the Viking boat needs to be built right now, and asked me to help. The wood for this boat is absolutely horrible, so a good deal of labour was expended for little progress, but I'll post a picture of it later on;

On everything else, I got nothing done.

Oh, and on Sunday afternoon I was asked "Dad, when are you going to build the N-scale train set for us?"

The fun never ends.

So, now I've got even more projects on the go.

A bit over 20 years ago, my wife (this was long before we met) decided she wanted to build a model of the Bluenose. She bought herself a kit, built the hull, then Real Life interrupted and the model got set aside. I recently mentioned to my modelling friend John that this Bluenose hull was sitting around in my basement, and he asked me to bring it over. This afternoon, I dropped by John's house with the whole family in tow so John could look at the hull. Long story short, the hull is shot. It's been sitting for so long that the planks on the hull - which weren't properly fastened because the hull wasn't finished - have come loose, and repair is too difficult. John's advise was to start anew, so to that end, he gave us some templates to use to make new frames and a keel. My wife has said she'd be interested in building the model, but not alone. She wants me to help.

Also, my youngest son, who is 8, said he'd like to help build the model, but shortly afterwards said he'd like to work on something easier first. So, I went through my stock of plans at home and found the plans for RNCS Whistler, a semi-scale Restigouche-class destroyer model from Traplet. Info can be seen here:

http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12247/rcns-whistler

Before supper today, I ran down to my local hobby shop and bought a good supply of balsa to start building the Whistler, which we'll start in a couple days after I have a chance to copy the plans so we can cut out the frame patterns.

So in addition to all the kits I have on the go myself, I now have two more to help with. Great fun, but I have to wonder if I'm ever going to get anything finished.

Some progress this weekend. In spite of being busy with hockey and such, I managed to find some time to work on both Blue Toon and Jane Burnyeat. No pictures of the latter, as all I did this weekend was work on building frames, but here's a picture of how Blue Toon looks now, and the latest picture of the MTB, with  deck attached.

Well, it's a case of the best laid plans, and all that, eh? I got home from work late, just in time for supper, then I had to run an errand, and then it was dark and so much for sitting out on the porch in the sunshine, sanding the hull of the MTB. That picture will wait for another day.

But, here is the latest picture of the Blue Toon. 

Okay, got some good work done on Blue Toon last night, and remembered to take a picture. I'll post later when I get home.

It's a beautiful sunny day here today, and I have nothing important to do after work. So, I think I'll sit out on the front porch and do some sanding on the MTB to get the hull nice and smooth. I'll post a picture of that later on as well.

Not much activity here of late, sorry. I have been doing some model work, just not posting about it. Here's what's happened in the last week:

St. Roch - okay, I fucked up on this one. While working on the port side of the hull, I had the keel piece pinned to a workboard, then added the deck pieces, setting them down to the level of the board. This left a slight gap between deck and bulwarks, and when I sanded the edge of the bulwarks down to the edge of the deck, I had to pretty much sand the bulwarks away completely. This left nothing as a gluing surface for part 18, which glues to the outer edge of the bulwarks. So, the port side came off the board, the starboard side went on, and I used the bulkhead halves from the starboard side to help me make up some strips to add to the messed up port side bulkhead halves. I'll take these strips, use them to rebuild the sanded-away bulwarks, then hopefully I'll be back in business and can finish the port side. In the meantime, the starboard side is on the building board.

MTB - the hull is finished, other than to sand down some filler I put in a few spaces that were a bit uneven. Though I thought earlier that I wouldn't add the deck til all the RC guts were in place, I changed my mind after dry-fitting the deck. It seems to leave plenty of space to fit my hands in the hull to do the work, so the deck got put in place. Also, the two slots for the prop shafts have been cut in the hull.

Jane Burnyeat - I've started building two more frames. Once they have cured for a week or so, I'll cut them to shape and start making more frames. Need to get this done, as some of the cutting work involves the use of my friend John's scroll saw, which I have borrowed and need to get back to him soon.

Blue Toon - all frames are in place, as is the stern. Tonight I will be at John's, and we will be working on strengthening all the spots where frames meet the keel. I think the first hull plank will be added next week.

I'll try to take pictures of all these in the next couple days and will post them.

By the way, I think I'm doing this largely for myself, so I'll have a record of what I've done and when. That being said, I see I've had some visitors over the last few weeks, mainly from Canada, Alaska, and Germany. Whoever you are, thanks for dropping by what I admit is a rather boring blog.

Ah, yes, one more thing. I did find a very useful reference for the St. Roch build, namely a blog done by someone who was building the exact same kit as I'm building. It's http://buildingthestroch.blogspot.ca/ for those of you who may wish to go and have a look. I'll be reading the posts and downloading pictures and hints as I got along, in the hopes that I may avoid any pitfalls that caused that builder problems.

April 5, TGIF. It was a busy week with work and sports, with a meeting of my ship modelling guild thrown in for good measure, but I still found one evening to go to John's house to work on Blue Toon. In this last session, we started placing blocks of wood in the spaces above the frames, where the frames had been set into the keel. We also got the transom installed, after I finished building it at home earlier in the week. Sorry, forgot to take pictures, but I'll try to remember when I'm over there next week.

In MTB news, the hull is finished other than some minor touch-up work. Once I do that, I'll cut the slots for the prop shafts, then post some more pictures.

And just tonight I did a bit more work on the St. Roch. I had hoped to perhaps use the kit as a guide for a scratch build, but I haven't a hope in hell of managing that in time for September. Not with all the other stuff I have to do. So, the hull at least will be built according to the kit directions. Again, pictures on that later.

I do plan on trying to do more work on the MTB this weekend, and on St. Roch, and on Jane Burnyeat, but my wife is working this weekend, and the huge SEDMHA tournament is happening here in town, plus one of my kids is playing in it, so this weekend will be a blur of hockey and tae kwon do classes and playdate requests and making meals and taking care of kids and dogs, and trying to squeeze in a bit of model building. Wish me luck.

Not much done on the model making front today, as fatherly duties occupied much of my time. It being Easter Monday, the kids are still off school, and my #2 son had hockey evaluations to attend, today being the start of the process to see what level of hockey he'll play next year.

I did manage a couple things though. As I mentioned earlier, I have frame #10 of Blue Toon to work on, and need to put on the transom which then needs to be sanded to shape. I put the transom on today, in the form of a 1/16" thick basswood sheet, topped with a 1/4" layer of balsa. The basswood provides the strength, and the balsa is there because it's easy to sand to the proper shape.

Also, I was asked if I could build my kit of the RCMP St. Roch, so it could be shown in an event in September. I've never shown a model before, so this is a bit daunting, but I'll give it a shot. I've also never had to work to a deadline before, and given my attention span problems, this will prove to be a challenge, but again, I'll give it a shot. Of course, this means that I have yet another partly built model on the list, which makes eight, I think. Sigh.

This is the Billing kit, which is in their Advanced Beginner line of kits. Here it is on the Billing site:

The hull of this kit is made differently than what I'm used to, in that the 'keel' is a large sheet that takes up the entire height of the hull from keel to deck. It's built with a 'keel' half to which one adds half bulkheads. Build, repeat, then stick the two halves together. Here's the port half with all the bulkheads in place and the first piece of decking added at the bow. 

Hmm, what else? One of the other builds I work on from time to time is a Thames workboat called Jane Burnyeat. I bought the plans from Traplet Publications, from whom I have bought a number of plans. You can see details about it here: http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/12297/jane-burnyeat

To date, all I have done on the Jane Burnyeat is the keel and a couple frames, and even the keel isn't finished. Today, I chiseled out a 1/4" wide groove in the bottom of the keel into which I slotted a 1/4" wide piece of brass rod, which extends to the end of the skeg and is intended to provide it with more strength than the wood alone can provide. I then sanded the keel down from 3/4" thick, to about 3/8" or 7/16", give or take. The next step with this will be to chisel out the rabbet line. I'll post a picture of that another day.

Being a beginner-level model shipwright, I am working on Blue Toon with my friend John, who is an excellent modeller with more years of experience than I have years of life behind me. He is my teacher and mentor, and is guiding me through the build of Blue Toon. In order to reinforce his teaching lessons, I started the build of Jane Burnyeat at home on my own. I'm hoping I can achieve a decent level of success with it.

Okay, nine days since the last post. I told you it'd be hit or miss here.

So, here's what's been happening. I've been at John's twice, working on Blue Toon. We have the keel finished, all the frames built, and on Thursday we installed all the frames except #10, which is also the transom. That one I've got here at home, and I'm covering it with a couple layers of basswood and balsa that will be shaped according to the plans. Once the transom is done, it'll be added to the keel. Here's a shot of the boat with five of 13 frames in place. The last is being held in place with the frame jig that I built.

And I've also made some progress on the MTB. I've got the hull pretty much completed, though there is still a bit of gap filling and sanding to be done. The next step on this boat will be to install the running gear, then the deck, but I had to buy new glasses next week - my first pair of bifocals(!) - so money is tight. Rather than shelve the boat til I have the cash to order the shafts, props, and rudders, I think I'll continue on and build the wheelhouse. I won't install the deck until I have all the running gear in place, because I want as much room as possible to do the work.

Here's a shot of Blue Toon from last night. The keel is finished, other than carving out the bearding lines, and the frames are finished. In this shot the frames are just loosely placed into position. They won't get fastened into place until after I finish with the bearding lines.

The three frames at the bow, and one at the stern, do not get set into slots in the keel, as do frames 2-8. Frames 0, 1/2, 1, 9, 9-1/2, and 10 are cut in half and fastened to the sides of the keel, which is why they have temporary cross braces to hold their shape. The three at the bow have fallen over in this shot, and the last two at the stern haven't been added yet.

John and I managed do get some work done last night, including dry-fitting most of the frames onto the keel. From last night's session, I've been given a worklist to complete before I go back for the next session, some evening next week. Again, I'll post a picture or two later on, on the status of that project. For now, here's a picture of the real Blue Toon:

For some reason, blogger doesn't seem to be able to link to the url for this picture, so as you can see on the bottom left, it's from MarineTraffic.com.

Today's work: tonight, I'll be going to my friend John's to do some work on one of my other models, Blue Toon. John is an excellent builder, and I am doing my best to try to learn some skills from him. To that end, he is leading me through a scratch-build of Blue Toon. As I've mentioned before (I think), the keel is finished, as are all the frames. The next step is to start placing the frames into the keel. To ensure that is done correctly, I've built a jig to help align the frames as they go in, which will help determine that the frames are not lopsided. I'll post a picture of that later.

Snow day! The kids are off school, and my wife left for work before the closure announcement was made, so, tag!, I'm it to stay home with the kids. I need to get some real work done, but I can also find time for model work. Just before lunch, I put the second bottom skin on the MTB. I'll post a picture later.

Now that the hull skins are going on, it's time to start thinking about powering this thing. To that end, I need to place an order with Cornwall Model Boats, my favourite supplier for such things. I buy most of my modelling supplies locally, but with certain things it's faster and easier to go with CMB. Their service is great, and they're fast. Here's the order:

2 x 10" prop shafts, 4mm @ 8.50 quid apiece;
2 x u-joints @ 2.00;
2 x 35mm Rivabo brass 3-blade props, one RH, one LH, @ 10.00;
2 x Graupner 35mm rudders @ 4.00;

That's about 50 quid for the lot. As for motors, a friend has a couple 550s he said he'd sell me, but I won't be seeing him for a couple weeks. If the motors aren't to my satisfaction, I'll add the following to my CMB order:

2 x CEM 550 motors @ 8.24 or;
2 x Mabuchi 545 motors @ 7.25.

A couple 550s should make this thing scoot right along, I would think.

A bit more progress on the MTB. I managed to get food poisoning on the weekend, which meant I spent the best part of 24 hours sleeping and running to the bathroom. On Monday I felt well enough to do a bit of work, so glued on several 1/2" thick pieces of balsa on the bow, which I later sanded to shape. Today, after work, I sanded the chine stringers flush with the frames, which allowed me to put on the first bottom skin. As the instructions suggest, I cut the bow section off the hull piece and fitted a piece from the stern to frame 2. This is now fixed in place with wood glue, and held with various clamps and pins. I'll let that set overnight, then repeat on the other side tomorrow.

Balsa. Did I mention in my last post that I had problems with balsa? Well, it happened again.

On the MTB 379 model, the top stringer is put on in two pieces. A 1/8" x 1/4" stringer is put on, then another layered on top of it to give a 1/4" square stringer. Yesterday I put on the first upper stringer on each side, glued from the stern to frame 3. Forward of frame 3 the stringer takes a bend to frame 2, more of a bend from frame 2 to frame 1, and a big bend from frame 1 to the bow. I test fitted the stringers numerous times and the 1/8" balsa had no problem with the bend.

So, today, I put glue at frames 2 and 1, bent the balsa strip into place, and it snapped at frame 2, sigh. I pinned it at frame 2, took off the broken piece, and went to work on the other side. That piece snapped at frame 1, aaargh! Did I mention I don't like balsa?

Okay, time for the contingency plan. One of the options for this model is to do away with the stringer from frame 1 to the bow and replace it with a solid block of balsa sanded to shape. The bow structure is a bit flimsy using just the stringers, so I'm going to opt for the balsa block, which I'll pick up at my FLHS tomorrow. So for the starboard side stringer, no worries as it now ends at frame 1. On the port side, I've glued in an extra piece along the top of  frame 2 to help support the stringer at that spot, and did likewise on the other side just because. Tomorrow I'll replace the section on the port side that broke ahead of frame 2. Since these are the first of two stringers, I'm not too worried because the second stringer put on top will allow me to retain the curved shape of the bow past frame 2 and up to frame 1. There will likely be a small gap between the two stringers between frames 2 and 1, which I can fill with an appropriate filler.

I also have to do the same thing down below with the chine stringers, so while I'm at the FLHS, I might just pick up some sheets of basswood, and do the chine stringers with basswood strips in lieu of balsa.

Okay, time for some project status pictures. Here's some of what's on the go. Sorry for the lousy pictures, but they were taken with my phone. I've got pictures of the work I did last night on Blue Toon, but they were taken with my BlackBerry, so I'll get to them later on.

This is the canoe model that I have underway. All the forms are in place, and the first plank has been attached on the far side.

The next step: start adding more planks.

Next, we have the Billing Boats model of the tug Banckert. I'm naming it the M. E. McIver, after my grandfather. The deck is just sitting on the hull, not yet attached. All the running gear is installed and working. You can see some BBs that I've put in for ballast. I'll pour them in all over the bottom and fix them in with epoxy to form permanent ballast. After that I'll add moveable weights for the final ballast adjustments.

The next step: a friend of mine built this model and said he had a lot of trouble with the deck. What I'm thinking of doing is cutting out the entire deck and replacing it with a planked deck, with better access holes to get at the electronics when necessary.

Next we have the Midwest Models kit of the USCG 47-footer, which I have already started to paint in Canadian Coast Guard colours. Because I'm Canadian, that's why. The hull is mostly finished, other than some paint touchups and the addition of the name and Canada wordmarks and such. I'll leave that til last. The wheelhouse is mostly built, and I'm now working on the fly bridge.

The next step: start building railings. This involves doing a lot of soldering of brass wire, which I don't do inside. I have no proper workshop and do much of my work on the dining room table. I don't want to get into soldering there, plus I have no proper ventilation, so things such as painting and soldering get done outside. Outside is snowy now, so I wait for warmer weather to continue.

Next up is the Traplet kit of the MTB 379. I've just started this a few days ago, and what you see in this shot is the two top stringers installed, but not yet trimmed to length at the bow, nor fastened at the bow.

The next step: trim those two stringers and attach to the bow, then install the chine stringers.

Next is the Dumas kit of the USCG 44-footer, which I will also do up in Canadian Coast Guard colours. This one will be somewhat retro, with a red hull and the SAR yellow wheelhouse, just to be different from the 47-footer which will have a white wheelhouse. At this point, the hull has just been built and coated in and out with epoxy. The outside has some Bondo filling in low spots, and it hasn't yet been sanded down properly, so it looks like crap. This hull was not without its problems. Dumas supplies balsa strips for planking the hull, 1/8" or 3/16", I can't recall. Anyway, the balsa is brittle and didn't take kindly to some of the curves in the hull, but with a bit of soaking I managed to coax them into place. If I were to do this again I'd go buy some basswood to plank the hull.

The next step: cut through the hull to install the prop shafts, then do some more finish work on the exterior of the hull.

That's it for now. What else is there? The Jane Burnyeat and the Blue Toon, I believe. Pictures on those later on.

More on MTB 379/74

Here's some more info on the two MTBs.

Firstly, here's a link to the Traplet Publications page for the MTB 379 kit:

http://www.trapletshop.com/gb/p/13748/vosper-mtb-379

According to uboat.net, MTB 379 was a Vosper boat, 73 feet in length. MTB 74 was a Vosper boat, 72 feet in length. This conflicts somewhat with the information from the Osprey book British Motor Torpedo Boat 1939-45, which lists 379 as a 70-foot boat, and MTB 74 as a 70-foot as well, both Vosper. Another book, Allied Coastal Forces of WW2, by John Lambert, seems well respected, so might have the definitive information. However, it's out of print and copies on Amazon are listed starting around $150.

From naval-history.net I get this picture of MTB 234. Though it's not a 70-foot boat, you can see that it has the torpedo tubes mounted beside the wheelhouse.

And here's a picture of MTB 74. Note the placement of the torpedo tubes on the bow of the boat in front of the wheelhouse.

The problem with the kit is that it's semi-scale, so doesn't incorporate the curved section that leads from the rear deck to the higher deck at the bow. The kit is simply a flat deck from bow to stern. So, can I make the conversion? I don't know. Once I get to that part of the build I'll make the decision whether to just go ahead with the flat deck, or risk screwing up the whole boat by trying to make the deck match the pictures. I have no plans to go by to do this, so would just have to eyeball the whole thing. Risky. For me, anyway.

So now I'm off to take pictures of various projects, and will post them later on. But first, there's a bottle of The Macallan cask strength that's calling me. It's happy hour.

Another one

I was just looking at my list and I see that I left off one boat. I am also working on a 1/32 scale model of a WWII motor torpedo boat. This is a kit, from Traplet Publications (the people who bring you Marine Modelling International magazine), and I decided to order both the plans for the boat, and their offered woodpack. This, I am hoping, will give me an easy build and help me get my arse into gear and get some building done. Over the last week or so I've built up the keel, added the frames, and on Wednesday night I cut some stringers from some 1/4" and 1/8" balsa stock. Two stringers have already been put on the boat.

This model is of MTB 379, which apparently was a prototype of a new design of MTB. A number of boats were made to this design, but I don't believe 379 ever saw service, though I could be wrong on that. Anyway, I was wondering if I could convert it to MTB 74, which was used in the commando raid on St. Nazaire in 1942. MTB 74 differed from other MTBs in that it carried its torpedo tubes on the bow in front of the wheelhouse, pointing straight ahead. With this design, they hoped to fire their torpedoes over torpedo netting in an attack on the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. When this attack didn't pan out, the boat was used instead on the St. Nazaire raid.

There are numerous challenges to doing this conversion, and I'm not sure I'm up to it. So, perhaps I'll just build 379 as is, and fit out the deck equipment a la 74. After all, it's just a model made for me to have some RC fun. I'm not entering it into any sort of model competition, and if anyone criticizes me for what I've done, I'll just tell them to fuck off.

Next step in this blog: upload some pictures of each project to show where I am in each of them. I'll try to do that this weekend. I'm new to this whole blogging thing so I'll have to figure out how to upload images and such. This being google, I'm sure they've made it pretty easy. I'll figure it out.

This blog will document my efforts to work on a number of model projects, in the face of several handicaps, namely:

- I work full time and occasionally have to travel for work;
- I have four kids, two of whom play hockey;
- my wife is a shiftworker, so I'm often left home alone with the kids. The kids are my priority, so kid time negates modelling time;
- I have a terrible time concentrating on some things, including modelling. This means slow progress;
- I don't know if it's a related problem, but I have a hard time finishing projects. I love starting them, but I have trouble finishing them. I have trouble finishing most things to be honest, but I've got four kids, so I can sometimes finish what I started.

You can expect me to jump from project to project to project. It might be maddening. Take comfort in the fact that I find my inability to concentrate on one project quite maddening too. But I shall keep trying.

Posts will be irregular. I might post daily for a couple weeks, then not at all for a couple months. Depends on how I feel and how successful I am at maintaining my focus.

So, in the spirit of full disclosure, here are the kits I have in progress at the moment, all in various stages of completion:

- a scratchbuild of the Peterhead (Scotland) pilot boat, Blue Toon;
- a Dumas kit of a USCG 44-footer lifeboat. This will be done in CCG colours;
- a Midwest kit of a USCG 47-footer lifeboat, which will also be done in CCG colours;
- a scratchbuild of a Thames River workboat, Jane Burnyeat;
- a Billing kit of the tug Banckert;
- a Bear Mountain kit of a canoe.

I have two other kits that might be tossed in here, namely a Dumas kit of the tug Carol Moran. This one will be taken to my cottage this summer where I'll begin work. Also, a Billing kit of the St. Roch. I plan on trying to copy the keel and bulkheads of this onto paper, in order to make a proper keel and set of frames. If successful, I'll continue with a scratch build of the vessel using the kit as a guide.

As you might have guessed, I have a strong interest in smaller vessels, such as tugs, lifeboats, and workboats.