The white metal life rings supplied in the fittings kit not only look flat and uninteresting but more than that they weigh in at 57 grams individually and along with the rest of the metal fittings above deck will raise the centre of gravity quite a lot and may affect the roll of the hull on turns. Well that’s my theory anyway and I’m using it to justify replacing them with something lighter and more pleasing to the eye.
I found some plastic ones on eBay that were roughly the same diameter for a couple of pounds each that looked ideal.
The rope detail needed to be added to them to replicate the originals and this was done with some nylon cord that I superglued into slots filed into the circumference. I then wound seven turns to form the quadrants, securing each turn with a spot of glue and ensuring that the ends all arrived on what will be the underside of the rings.
They were then sprayed with a couple of coats of white acrylic and the red bands brush painted.
The weight of the new life ring is 19 grams, exactly one third of the metal one and it looks, to my eye, a million times better 😁
To locate them on the engine room roof I cut some 3mm plasticard wedges and superglued them in place, the actual fixing will be two small screws from the underside of the roof.
The white metal ones will make ideal ballast weights if I need to make any adjustments 😉

The paint on the hull has sufficiently hardened and needs a couple of coats of clear lacquer to protect it but before that happens I need to apply the hull markings.
The waterslide decal set that was supplied with my kit was probably at least 5 years old when I bought the kit on eBay and they had deteriorated so badly that when I put the large ‘FIRE’ lettering panel in some warm water it fragmented and clearly was not usable.
I called Mike Cummings at vintage Model works and explained my dilemma and he very generously agreed to supply me with a replacement set, and in addition a set of the recently available printed vinyl letters and markings that they now produce.
I decided to use the vinyl set as a quick test piece with the waterslide set revealed that the white ink is not solid and therefore not completely opaque. Furthermore I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ effect that happens on waterslide decals despite using various lotions and potions such as Humbrol Decalfix and Microsol/Microset solutions. A test piece with the vinyl lettering sheet was far more successful and when over-lacquered on the test piece the results were very acceptable.
Starting with the large FIRE lettering I cut a paper template the same size as the complete word and fixed this with low tack masking tape on the hull, this paper was then outlined in more masking tape to form a window and the vertical spacing of the letters transferred to this to keep the correct spacing.
Vertical strips of tape were then used as positioning guides for the letters which were individually cut and placed so that I could eliminate all but the solid white letters and give them a hard edge.
Feeling very pleased with myself I removed the masking tape guides and realised to my horror that I had set the baseline of the letters far too close to the waterline and the vertical proportions were completely wrong ….disaster 😱
Feeling ashamed that I could make such a basic error I abandoned the lettering and called Mike at VMW and described my foolish error, no problem he said, I’ll send you another vinyl sheet and also some additional drawing that were missing from my kit that would help with detail finishing.
My second attempt with the new vinyl sheet employed the same process but I was careful to measure, mark and check the positions (several times!) before starting.
The roundel and numerals positions at the bow and the stern were carefully measured and marked using the supplied drawings and masking tape ‘guides’ used to fix their positions before application.
Lastly the roman numerals that span the waterline at the bow and stern were marked, cut and individually applied.
I also took the opportunity to fix in place a couple of modified 6mm portholes to replicate the aft cockpit drain outlets, in the photo is the ‘94’ waterslide decal which I later removed and replaced with vinyl when I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ problem.
A big Thank You to Mike Cummings at Vintage Model works for replacing the lettering sheets TWICE! and for the extra drawings, I call that exceptional after sales service !.
Cheers Mike 👍👍 .

Because of the curvature of the wheelhouse roof the searchlight, mast, aerial and other fittings need some shaped wedges to sit on so that they sit vertically, this is particularly important for the searchlight as it is designed to rotate.
I cut and shaped some plasticard for these and when I was happy with the angles I superglued them in place on the roof and used a small amount of filler to blend them into the roof profile.
Similar spacers were made for the anchor where it sits on the forward cabin roof as well.
After masking off the surrounding areas I sprayed a coat of Halfords white primer on the roofs and immediately noticed that the paint ‘crazed’ very badly for some unknown reason.
I had used panel wipe to clean the roof before painting and was spraying over previous coats of the same primer so this was really disappointing to see 😭
I had to leave the paint to harden for a couple of days and set about stripping it back to the base coats as much as possible and then re-masked and sprayed again….only for the same thing to happen again 😡
This was despite pre-warming the can and shaking it thoroughly for the prescribed two minutes.
To cut a long story short I discovered that the new can of white primer that I had recently purchased was faulty and it was spraying considerably more solvent/carrier than pigment and this heavy overload of solvent was the cause of the problem.
Halfords replaced the paint without argument but I had to wait another couple of days before I could remove the paint and start over again for the third time.
Happily the replacement paint was OK, the re-spray was successful and the final gloss coat is to a reasonable finish but the whole process set me back a couple of weekends and was a very frustrating experience 😞
An isolated case I’m sure but after previously stating that Halfords paint was OK, I now reserve my judgement and remain cautious with their paint, and I now do more test sprays just in case…..

The original Vosper drawings state that the deck was finished in a special anti-slip finish called ‘Cerrux’ and according to some well-respected contributors to this site the best way to achieve this finish is to apply a coat of a textured paint on the areas required and then overspray with the desired finish colour.
Others have used a Rustoleum product but that proved difficult to obtain but I found a product from Halfords that looked promising.
As always I did a test piece using this to see what the results would be like and after the finish colour was applied the effect looked very consistent in texture.
At model shows I had previously seen some lifeboat decks that had been ‘texture finished’ and noted that non-textured areas had been carefully masked off. This seems like a great idea and would serve to emphasise the textured effect and also to distinguish it from a very bad spray job!
I applied a low tack masking tape to the deck areas and features where I wanted a smooth finish and very carefully trimmed the tape to leave a narrow border, I also masked the positions of the metal deck fittings.
Everything else was masked off and the textured spray applied in two very light coats and left to dry.
When the masking was removed it revealed a very neat defined border around the foot rails, cabin sides and deck fittings.
The deck and cabin sides will be over-sprayed with a couple of light coats of the ‘BS631 RAF Light Grey’ that I have had custom mixed and will be, hopefully, accurate to the prototype. 😁

Now that the self-adhesive vinyl lettering and hull markings are now applied and correctly positioned…😉 I can now spray the lacquer finish on the hull.
The gloss black areas will have a number of coats of Halfords clear gloss lacquer and the red ‘anti-fouling’ areas finished in Halfords clear satin lacquer.
I started with the gloss lacquer first, so the all the deck area and the red ‘anti-fouling’ areas were masked.
As I wanted the white waterline to be sealed with the gloss finish I masked below the line.
After a thorough wipe over with some panel wipe the first coat of gloss was sprayed followed by a further two coats at 30 minute intervals.
Fortunately it all went on without any runs or blemishes so I left it for a week to thoroughly harden after removing the masking.
The black area was then masked from the bottom of the waterline, the area cleaned with panel wipe and sprayed with three coats of Halfords clear satin lacquer.
With all the masking removed the boat was them put aside and left for a week for everything to dry thoroughly and then I polished the black area with some ‘T-cut’ polish to remove any surface blemishes and bring it to a full shine.
All the hull marking and lettering are now firmly fixed and sealed and I’m very pleased with the final results.
The next job will be to spray the deck and superstructure with the BS631 RAF Light Grey and then the majority of the paint process will be complete 😁

Although the colour of the grey primer and that of the textured finish look quite good together I am committed to use the custom colour paint that I had mixed for the deck finish.
The masking process took a while to do thoroughly as I didn’t want any overspray problems at this late stage but once I was satisfied I applied the first light coat of the ‘BS631 RAF Light Grey’ finishing coat.
After a 20 minutes or so the second light coat was applied and then left overnight to harden, two coats on the deck is sufficient as I don’t want to fill the texture finish and ruin the effect.
The deck was then masked to leave the cabin sides and superstructure exposed so that I could put a third and fourth coat of the colour on those areas.
The resulting gloss finish looks quite good and will be a good contrast to the textured decks that will be finished in matt lacquer.
The masking on the decks was then removed and the cabins and superstructure masked up to just expose the decks to receive two light coats of the Halfords matt lacquer.
Everything was left for a few days to harden before all the masking was removed to reveal the final result of the painting process.
The overall result is very pleasing and was well worth all the time and materials used to achieve it.
The custom colour has a slightly 'greenish' hue in contrast to the grey primer that I have been looking at up until now and took a while to get accustomed to but I can say that now really like the colour scheme and that it is reasonably true to the prototype 😁

While waiting for paint and lacquer to dry I thought I'd try making a flagstaff to go at the stern to take an RAF ensign that I'd like to fit.
I used a short length of 5mm brass tube set into a circular flange that I shaped from some brass sheet.
The hole in the flange was filed out to take the 5mm tube at an angle and was soft soldered into place, a 2mm nut was then press fitted into the base of the tube and secured with a drop of superglue. The pole was made from some 2mm brass rod tapped with a 2mm thread on one end. A short length of 4mm rod was bored out with a 2mm hole and was soft soldered close to the end to fit snugly into the 5mm base tube to act as a spacer, and another short piece of brass hand turned to make a knob at the upper end.
During initial construction I had set a wood block below the deck at this point to provide support for a flagstaff (always thinking ahead 😉) and this was drilled out at an angle for the 5mm base which was epoxied in place ensuring that base was seated correctly and the flagstaff was vertically aligned.
The length of the flagstaff is about 11cm above the deck and is removable for transportation.
It turned out really well and I will keep the brass finish but give it a coat of clear lacquer to prevent it tarnishing.
I will order the two flags (flagstaff and mast) from Mike Alsop flags & ensigns as soon as I have worked out the correct sizes for 1:12 scale.

Now that the painting is finished I can start putting on some of the white metal deck fittings.
I had previously cleaned these up with a file and wire wool and sprayed them all with etch primer, some were drilled to take threaded studs to fix them through the deck or as a reinforcement for epoxy glue fixing into the deck, and some pierced to take a short fixing pin. The chain pipe was drilled out to make it look more realistic.
They were all brush painted with some Tamiya metallic acrylic paint, I chose ‘gun metal’ for this as I want to paint some other fittings and window frames with a metallic silver finish as a contrast.
The portholes were painted with the same colour as the cabin sides and glazed with the perspex that was supplied with the kit, 'canopy glue' was used for this as I read that cyano glue would 'mist' the plastic.
Another small detail I thought to add was a brass knob for the cabin door, this was hand turned from some brass rod and drilled out to take a 2mm threaded stud for fixing through the door.
A nice little finishing detail I think, and I'm quite enjoying working with brass 😁

As a novice boat builder I have never done any planking before but after seeing some fine examples on other crash tender decks and read other blog descriptions of the process I thought I’d give it a try as it would be more pleasing to the eye than a plain painted surface. I’m not sure how true to the prototype the planking is on a RAF Crash Tender as it’s not described in the Vosper documentation but I think some ‘modelling licence’ is justified for the visual effect.
The choice of materials, planking sizing and the method of ‘caulking’ were all studied in detail in the blogs and discussions and I finally decided on 7mm x 1.5mm maple for the planking and some .7mm black plasticard cut into fine strips for the caulking.
All the required materials were ordered from Cornwall Model Boats and all arrived remarkably quickly packed in a long cardboard tube two days later… very good service and quality materials!
I made a practice piece to test the process and materials before committing it to the boat, I used a teak stain on the wood as a test as well but decided I preferred the natural colour of the maple after it was lacquered with a few coats of satin finish.
When I felt I was sufficiently proficient to start for real I elected to do the relatively small area of the tow hook deck first.
This was marked out to get the correct centering of the planks and I commenced with the application of a 5mm border with mitred corners and the plasticard caulking strips on the inside edges.
The maple planking is very easy to cut and trim and is also reasonably consistent in width and thickness.
I’m using a medium cyano glue for all of this as it grabs very quickly so that I can work at a reasonable pace but my finger-tips unavoidably end up getting stuck occasionally too 😡
Working from the centre line outwards the maple strips and caulking were fixed down, the final outer pieces on each side needed to be slightly wider to fill the space but the difference is barely noticeable.
The ‘caulking ‘ was carefully trimmed flush with the deck with a very sharp half inch chisel and the whole surface sanded smooth.
Several coats of acrylic satin lacquer were then applied by brush as I decided it would be easier than masking up the surrounding areas.
Buoyed by the success of this I think I'll do the mid-deck and the cockpit too 😁

After a successful first attempt at planking the tow-hook deck I then did the same to the mid deck.
I placed a 5mm border of maple with mitred corners, but I stepped it out around the forward cabin access door so that the completed deck panel can be dropped and slid into place beneath the door threshold.
The planking was placed working out from the centre line to keep the spacing even, and when the CA had fully set the black plasticard ‘caulking’ was trimmed flush with a sharp chisel and the whole surface sanded smooth.
There is a small detail on this deck which is identified on the Vosper drawing as a ‘fuel tank sounding’, a sort of dipstick access point I suppose.
This part is not supplied in the metal fittings kit so and I fabricated this from a piece of 10mm brass tube with a plasticard insert to replicate the detail.
This was then painted metallic silver and let into the deck after cutting a 10mm diameter hole through the planking.
To cut this hole I used a short piece of 10mm thin wall brass tube with a sharp edge filed on its internal bore so that it acted as a sort of ‘cookie cutter’ and it produced a neat and accurately sized hole in the deck planking.
The ‘step’ formed by the door and frame was painted to match the door and then the complete deck panel sprayed with several coats of satin lacquer for the final finish.
I'm getting the hang of this planking lark so confidence is high as I move on to tackle the far more challenging cockpit deck 🤔