Here's the history bit so pay attention...
Many years ago as a boy in the fifth year of my north London secondary school, circa 1971, our woodwork class was given the option to make something of our own choice.
Having mastered the majority of joints, wood turning, finishing techniques and the making of table lamps, stools and bookshelves etc. this seemed a good idea, so myself and a fellow classmate and model making chum asked if we could construct a model boat.
The teacher, on hearing that it was to be from a kit and not from scratch was a little surprised but agreed.
So my friend and I jointly invested about 20 quid in an Aerokits 34.5 inch RAF Crash Tender from Blunts' model shop in Mill Hill (long since gone like many others) and we set about construction during lesson time and sometimes at break times.
I recall we used "Cascamite" to glue it all together on the advice of the woodwork teacher because neither 'Scotch' glue nor PVA was suited to marine construction.
Good progress was made over the course of our last year at school but it was never fully completed, only requiring painting, running gear and detailing.
My friend decided that he needed to withdraw from the project as he was enrolling in a college away from home to study for a career in the merchant navy and I agreed to buy out his share and continue with the project.
And so it was that I carried on with the painting and installing the running gear which consisted of a 1.5 cc marine diesel engine, water pickup, prop shaft and rudder and a MacGregor radio system with a stick for steering and a single button for speed control.
The engine and radio came from Michael's Models in Finchley (also long gone) for £20 as my elder brother, who had started a Saturday job there, was able to get a staff discount for me.
The diesel engine was noisy and smelly and a pig to start with a leather thong around the flywheel and I decided to abandon this means of propulsion (I foolishly ran it for slightly too long 'dry' and melted the soldering around the brass water jacket!).
By now I had graduated from my part time job in Woolies to an engineering apprentice with Post Office Telephones and my new income of 20 quid per week could support my modelling and electronics hobbies after my contribution to the household for my keep.
So off to the model shop to buy a Taycol Supermarine electric motor, two 12v volt lead acid batteries and a suitable charger.
The diesel came out and was sold on Exchange & Mart and the mount and coupling re-made to accommodate the new Taycol motor.
What an improvement that was!
I can't remember now what speed controller or servo I used but whatever it was did the job, and it went like the clappers on Friary Park boating lake (also long since gone) even though the radio control system was a bit crude with the non-proportional steering and 'blip' throttle control.
The boating took a back seat when I acquired my driving licence and my first car (a rusty old Cortina Mk 1) and I also got involved in sound recording for radio.
I decided to sell the boat and bits for £60 through Exchange & Mart and bought an Akai 4000DS tape recorder and a 'Chilton' audio mixer, built a home studio and along with a good mate of mine started making radio commercials for the new commercial radio stations including London's Capital Radio.
We even won a 'Campaign' advertising award for one of our efforts! And so after several years as a 'phone engineer I moved into professional recording for A/V and broadcast and then into TV production.
Fast forward to today.
Semi-retired with grand kids and with more free time on my hands I still had an interest in model making so in Jan 2016 went to the Model Engineer exhibition at nearby 'Ally Pally'.
It was there that I saw an RAF crash tender just like the one I built all those years ago and got into conversation with the chap on the stand.
This re-ignited my model making interests and I researched the hobby and that model in particular.

In May an eBay item caught my attention, it was a 46" unbuilt and complete Crash tender by Vintage Model Works and my bidding secured it for just under £200.
I drove to Gt Yarmouth to collect it from the seller as I did not want to entrust it's delivery to the likes of Parcelfarce or similar.
The kit was indeed complete and in mint condition with fittings, transfers and plans/instructions.
The documents were dated April 2012 and the recommended motor, ESC & batteries etc. were by now obsolete/unavailable so I put call in to Mike Cummings at Vintage Model Works who answered a few questions about the kit and contents, he in turn put me in touch with a very helpful chap by the name of Alan Holmes who recommended a motor, ESC and battery combination from Hobbyking and Component Shop that were more suitable.
I would like to thank them both for their advice and guidance on the construction of the model as it has proved invaluable to me.
Mike also suggested a build blog on this site would be appreciated by others too which I am happy to start now.
I have documented the construction in photographs since the start in Mid May and will continue until it is completed but I decided not to start the blog until I was well into the build and had sufficient material to post regularly.
I am now at the painting stage and slowly nearing completion......

Checked the kit contents against the supplied list and it's all complete including the white metal fittings, windows and frames and transfers.
The building instructions and diagrams are less than concise but a good enough as a guide.
Had to buy some new modelling tools, saws, knives etc.
Luckily I already had a Dremmel with a good range of cutting and drilling accessories.
Aliphatic and epoxy adhesives and brass pins are on order so meanwhile I cut out the keel and bulkheads from their respective panels and dry fit them to the building board and jig to see how accurate and square the hull will be.

Dry fitted all the keel parts and bulkheads and transom, the jig has supports at the front and rear to secure the bow and transom in perfect alignment and metal 'L' bracket to keep the bulkheads vertical and square.
The cabin sides lock everything in place but will require some shallow cuts on the inner surfaces to bend properly without breaking.
I'll be using Titebond 11 and Zpoxy 30 minute epoxy as recommended, adhesives have come a long way since my last boat build when mixing 'Cascamite' up to the right consistency was a bit of a pain as I recall.
When the propshaft arrives I can cut the keel to accommodate it and start glueing and clamping it all together.
I have bought lots of clamps to hold the bits while the glue dries, it seems you can't have too many of those !

Glue, pins and sanding sealer at the ready.
I have put the 'vee' cuts in the cabin sides to allow for the sharp bends and also where the wheelhouse window needs to bend to meet the roof, the rear cockpit sides have also been glued to the rear of the cabin sides.
The propshaft slot has been cut, the false keels will also be pinned to the main keel with 15mm brass panel pins.

Happy that keel and bulkheads fit square and true so they can now all be glued and pinned using the 30 minute epoxy.
I have decided to chamfer the keel parts particularly at the bow, parts K2, K3 and the chine formers, to the approximate angles where required before assembly as it's easier to do at this stage while they are off the keel and they can be lightly trimmed and shaped to their final angles later. Once all the false rebates are fitted to the keel it is slotted into the jig and the bulkheads glued and assembled on the keel, the metal brackets ensure that it's all kept true and square. Brass pins in pre drilled holes and lots of clamps hold the parts firmly while the epoxy sets.
The Cabin sides are dry fitted to lock everything in place.

The cabin sides are now glued to the assembly and checked for square and left to dry while I dig out the wallpaper steamer in preparation for steaming the gunwhale stringers. I have a length of aluminium tubing that is ideal for a steaming tube, one end can be sealed using some duct tape and the length of the tube is sufficient to take the strakes over distance that they need to be formed.
The outlet tube of the steamer is long enough to reach outside to prevent condensation inside the workshop and stop my glasses from steaming up too !
About 15 minutes is sufficient to soften the wood and make it very pliable and when ready they are placed in the bench vice and bent to a curvature greater than required so that when they are cold they relax to approximately the right amount. The stringers are actually laminated from two pieces and the inner pieces are fitted first on each side so that the assembly doesn't twist, these are epoxied and pinned into position and lots of clamps used to hold it all together. At all stages the assembly is checked for squareness.
The process is repeated for the outer lamination of the gunwhale stringers, and so far I haven't managed to snap anything or scald myself !

The chine stringers are steamed and formed in the same manner as the gunwhale stringer, they are also laminated with the first set into a notch in the chine former. The bulkhead B1 needs to be bevelled so that the stringer lies flat in the notch. The stringers were drilled with a pin drill to prevent any splitting and epoxied and pinned to the chine former and bulkheads from fore to aft. The second lamination is done in the same way but this is glued and clamped with very few pins so that the stringer can be shaped to the bulkhead profile with no pins in the way, any pins used were punched into the lamination.
Next I fitted the deck stringers that go between the bulkheads and fixed to the cabin sides, these are to support the decks, these are just glued and clamped.
All the stringers and keel formers were then planed and sanded to the profile of the bulkheads in preparation for the fitting of the hull skins.

The formers are positioned as per the drawings, the cabin sides marked with pencil line and pilot hole are drilled with a pin drill through the sides and into the edges of the formers. When the cabin formers are glued and positioned 15mm brass pins are easily pushed through the pilot holes into the edges of the formers with a 'pin push', no need for a hammer thus avoiding the possibility of damage to the still fragile assembly.
The forward cabin sides need to be bent inwards at CF2 (wheelhouse) to meet the former and this is aided by the shallow cuts that I put in the cabin sides previously.
As always everything is checked for square and clamps applied when necessary. The tow hook deck support is fitted to cabin former 5 and for good measure I also fitted a central supporting brace into which the towing hook will be fixed.
Lastly the transom former CF6 is fitted and a stringer fitted to it to support the transom deck.

The recommended propshaft is 13" long with an 8mm outer tube and 5mm inner shaft. I purchased this from 'Modelboatbits' along with a nice little oiler clamp system, and a universal coupling with inserts to suit the threaded end of the propshaft and the 5mm plain shaft of the brushless motor.
The recommended prop is a nylon two blade X50, again from Modelboatbits.
The keel needs to be bored out to receive the propshaft and fortunately I have a 8mm wood bit that is long enough to go through the keel and through bulkhead B4 in one pass. The slot cut in the keel at an earlier stage helps guide the drill bit but still this needs to be done very carefully to maintain correct alignment and angle.
I won't glue the propshaft into position yet, this will be done when the side skins are on and the motor mount and motor can be dry fitted and aligned properly.