Assembling the Monkey Rudders and Components

After having a good time assembling the window panes, I moved on the next day to assembling the Monkey Rudders and their components.

Before assembling anything, the first and most important step is to locate, mark, and drill a small pilot hole on top of the paddle horns A18, as shown. This is where part E1-7 will later be glued.
Be careful with E1-7, as there is a right and a left piece. Also, be very gentle when drilling the final hole that will accept the brass tube from E1-7—these parts are small and easy to damage.
Now assemble all the components and perform a full dry fit.
Your kit includes two pieces: one measuring 154 mm (top) and one 161 mm (bottom).
Once you are satisfied that everything fits correctly, disassemble the parts and epoxy only the bottom piece H3-6. Make sure the holes that accept H3-4 (the monkey rudder stock) are properly aligned and match the position of K3-5.
After the bottom piece has fully cured, epoxy the remaining components in place.
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Belt Housing & Monkey Rudder Support – Step by Step
While the monkey rudder assembly was drying, I began assembling what I refer to as the belt housing only.

I emphasize only because the instructions also suggest installing part F1-3 (Splash Board) at this stage. I chose not to install it yet.
Part F1-3 was primed and painted separately, as it carries a large decal that could easily be damaged during the assembly of the remaining components.

Install the inner monkey rudder support bracket. When positioning it, make sure the angled surface at the bottom of the hull interior and the angled plastic support work together to provide the correct alignment and angle when the hull is viewed upside down.
Apply a few drops of CA glue to tack the supports in place.
Double-check the alignment carefully before proceeding.
Once the alignment is acceptable, permanently secure the assembly by sealing everything with epoxy.

Note: There are three small notches along the edges of the belt housing. These are intended to receive the small magnets included in the kit, which allow a removable cover to be attached for access to the belt.
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Before proceeding, I would like to share this reference image provided by Chuck, which was extremely helpful in clarifying the placement of several small components that were not immediately obvious from the instructions.

For anyone currently building this kit or considering one after following this build...this image serves as a valuable reference and will greatly assist during assembly.
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The Rudder Linkage
This small connecting bar must be soldered by the modeler. To ensure proper alignment, I created a simple jig to hold all components securely in place during soldering.

You will need:
Two H2-7 parts (the small brass pieces with double holes)
One brass rod, cut to a length of 72 mm
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PILOTHOUSE AWNING

Jumping back to the pilothouse, I mixed my own version of the green color based on what I could estimate from reference photos of the real Juanita found on the web.
The mix is:
Tamiya XF-65 – 70%
Tamiya XF-4 – 15%
Tamiya XF-21 – 15%
There is a lot going on on top of the pilothouse: radar, navigation lights, horns, antennas, and a small mast with what I believe is a white light. I’ll need Ron to confirm exactly what that light is used for.
I made my own mast, and instead of soldering thin brass rod as tie-downs, I replaced them with wire.
This is how it came out once finished.
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Mike,
I knew that modeler’s tip for relaxing was going to be a smash!
Glad I could at least help you sleep like a baby.
In my case, it was Tequila Añejo, another excellent helper. 🥃 😎 😄

BOTTOM OF THE KNEES

Instead of a single solid block, the kit uses a combination of four B22 pieces on each side.

I made a big mistake here...something that should have been simple turned into a bit of a nightmare.
I ran a piece of tape from the upper pushing-head edge down to the bottom, but when I flipped the hull over I lost track of the orientation and glued the parts on the wrong side of the tape. That meant ripping everything off and repairing the damage, as you can see here.
This time, I made sure to pencil-mark the correct side before gluing.
Since these bottom pieces are actually made up of five parts, it’s very difficult to hide all the joints with paint alone. To solve that, I added two pieces of 1/32" plywood to clean everything up.
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DOOR HINGES AND JAMBS

This is another small detail I added based on what I could make out from reference photos found on the web.
I added hinges, handles, and jambs to all of the doors.
I think they came out pretty neat.
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Presson,

That was you?
OMG—I was right next to you, but I guess I’d already had a bit too much and didn’t recognize you!
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PAINTING

This model requires three main colors: white for the upper main structure, gray for the upper and lower decks, and black for the hull. Below is my take on how the painting sequence went.

1. Priming
I first applied two coats of primer, sanding lightly between coats.

2. Upper Main Structure (White)
The first color applied was white on the main structure.

3. Decks (Gray)
After a few days, I painted the decks using Rust-Oleum Smokey Gray.
I had lots of problems with this paint on the sun deck. I painted it three times, and each time after drying it developed a wrinkled finish—possibly due to some kind of contamination. Just in case… I wouldn’t recommend buying it.
It took many days to strip the paint, patch the surface, and repaint it.

4. Pilothouse Roof (White – Personal Choice)
Here I did something different. The pilothouse roof is supposed to be the same gray as the deck, but for some reason that color choice didn’t appeal to me. I painted it white instead, and I think it balances the overall colors nicely.
As they say, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

5. Hull Bottom (Black)
The next color was black for the hull bottom. I initially used semi-gloss black, but again ran into major problems—possibly a reaction with the fiberglass used to laminate the hull (unfortunately, I don’t have pictures of that stage).
I ended up stripping the black paint four times before finally switching to Tamiya Black, which completely solved the problem.
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