Cab and fittings

Making a start on the main cabin, with the components cut from the pre marked sheet assembly starts with the base and back panel; the use of heavy metal blocks helps with alignment and holding the components while the glue sets up.

Fitting the front bulkhead and left side, making sure it's all square - the "engineer's square" is a vital piece of kit at this point. Extensive use is made of Gel Super glue for the entire construction here

When building up the roof panel, extensive use of precision metal blocks makes the job easy and helps to keep the panel flat on the table; the use of super glue makes this a quick and easy job. 

The skeleton cabin complete and mounted on the hull.

Now is the time to make any adjustment to the fit of the structure on the hull, i.e trimming around the steps and the cabin/deck joint; much easier now than when the cabin is finished with all its fittings.

The basic cabin, complete with roof.

A little care is needed with the roof, as there are many angles to deal with during fitting - so careful sanding of the individual panels pays dividends and keeps the filling to a minimum.

The complete cabin after initial filling and rubbing down, showing use of home made micro filler to eliminate small blemishes in the seams.

It's worth spending a lot of care and time on this job; the quality of final paint finish will depend entirely on what happens at this point.

Making a start on the flying bridge instrument panel; lots of angles here, so extreme care when cutting out and prepping the individual segments for assembly.

Filling and sanding produces a very satisfying result. The use of super glue here is really useful as i'ts a holding with the fingers job to get all the segments to close successfully.

Not found in every modeller's workshop!

The use of a surface plate and precision blocks makes the construction of the deck and cabin boxes simple.

The use of precision blocks and measuring gear produces all of the deck and cabin boxes after an hour's work.

After cutting out the window frames from etched brass sheet, the rough edges are smoothed where required and given two coats of chrome paint, prior to assembly.

Making a start on cutting out the glazing panels, using the frames as a cutting template; note a very sharp knife is required for this job, and lots of care!

The complete window frames with the glazing panel fitted are now put to one side, to be fitted at a later time, after the cab has been painted.

The basic cabin complete, sanded and with the first coat of plastic primer undercoat applied.

Next we move to the cab interior and a start is made on the seating.

The picture shows a seat and base assembly - care is required when cutting the seat bucket from the vacuum moulded sheet as the guide marks are not at all clear.

The author used a fine marker pen to highlight the marking prior to cutting. Styrine cement is used rather than super glue on this material.

The complete interior made up ready for painting and fitting into the cabin at a later time.

Making a start on the flying bridge access ladder, cutting the components from the brass sheet.Care is needed when folding the brass strip; a good quality vice with clean sharp jaws is essential.

Access steps complete and ready for painting; it is essential that these are soldered together. The solder gun is more than sufficient for the job, likewise a 50 watt iron.

While the main hull is being painted a start is made on preparing some of the other fittings.

Here we see the flying bridge railings and back rest comstructed from 1mm plasti card and styrene tubing.

The port-side safety hand rail being installed; after being bent to shape we turn to the heavy precision blocks, this time used as counter weight to keep the rail in place while the glue sets up.

The cabin after three coats of RNLI Orange. The picture shows the painted cabin complete with fittings which require to be painted in orange, now put to one side to harden prior to final fitting out.

Here we cheat a little by putting a false flying bridge floor onto the cabin.

This was deemed easier than trying to mask off and use spray paint to cover this floor area.

A piece of .01in. thick plastic was accurately cut to shape, sprayed and fixed in place with polymax adhesive.

Not the author having a bad day, but prepping the starboard side of the cabin, ready to receive the engine intake grille.