Now that the side panels are finished and varnished they need to be glued to the side walls of the Box. The main issue is not the glue but how to hold the sides in place whist the glue sets, clamping over the sides onto the sides of the boat aren’t really a good idea as the side walls are quite delicate and I don’t want to squeeze too hard, plus the clamps don't reach the bottom of the sides, so back to basics and cut a number of bamboo sticks and some coffee stirrers to oversize of width of the bow.
Each side panel is glued up and placed in position then the sticks are placed all over the sides in order to distribute the pressure

Before the cabin can be constructed there is a wood profile for the final finishing of the lower deck, I need some 90 degree angle profile walnut to cap the joint between the side panel and the deck, It’s important for this edge to be quite robust as it supports the cabin which in turn will be fastened in place using small magnets sunk into this edge, and a corresponding magnet in the base of the cabin.
The cabin pieces are cut and pressed out of the sheets and the small protrusions sanded off, on first viewing the pieces it’s difficult to see how it would all come together with the correct angles. I found the easiest way was to draw the shape of the base of the cabin on a sheet of paper, you could alternatively use the plan to do this but mine is pinned up on the wall. So a quick plan is drawn out. Laying the pieces in place soon gave a better idea of how the cabin would look and I was pleased to say that the accuracy of the laser cut parts was spot on requiring little or no trimming to make the pieces fit. This confirmed the pieces were in good shape requiring no amendments; however for the final build I will be building it on the boat itself.
The first operation is to place all the 4mm x 4mm obeche pieces to the side panels that give it strength and jointing references for the top spars to connect to, I did make one addition and that was to place a ply strut to the end of the cabin purely from an aesthetic view point.
I need to assemble temporarily the cabin sides to the “box” sides using strong double sided tape, the mating surfaces are slightly tapered to account for the angle of the cabin sides, also the front panels are similarly fastened to the front of the cabin profile using double sided tape. To ensure the sides are kept at the correct angle I made some balsa blocks at the correct angles (deck to cabin sides) to support the sides whilst the parts are glued together. The two sides ,front and roof spars are placed in position and glued then before they set the roof is primed with glue and placed in position finally elastic bands were stretch across the roof to allow pressure to be applied and maintain the curvature. This will now be left to set overnight.

To ensure the magnets are positioned exactly in the correct position I made a drilling jig to drill all the holes in the correct place on the deck and on the underside of the cabin. The jig consisted of a simple hardwood frame around the profile of the cabin base the corners were pinned and glued whilst being attached to the base of the cabin, I used some scrap pieces of ply to wedge under the curved cabin roof so it would sit level whist I drilled the holes for the magnets. In addition I am drilling holes to accommodate a plug and socket both as location and to carry the 6 volts to the cabin roof for the various lighting features. The frame was marked out and the 3mm holes for the magnates were drilled to depth into the cabin base, I also drilled 2 holes for the power plugs.
Now I have the holes drilled in the cabins base I can transfer the jig to the deck and secure it in the correct position ready to drill the corresponding 3mm holes in the deck.
I now have all the holes drilled ready to receive the magnets with a spot of epoxy to hold them in position, I can also wire the electrical socket which are 2 modified 2mm brass cable connectors, which have a brass washer soldered to the end to stop it being pushed through the deck. This connection will pass 6 volts to the cabin to power the navigation lights, spot light blue flashing light and the interior lights. When the magnets are set I was pleased with the pulling power of these tiny magnets and I’m confident that the cabin will stay attached in operation.

The corners of the roof/sides I feel needs to have a walnut edge so I need to make some angle. I used some 1.5 x 3mm and some 1.5 x 5mm walnut strip and laid them on a piece of non-stick oven sheet against a spare heavy length of brass bar this creates a 90 degree edge. An amount of glue was sparingly applied along its length and the two pieces are pressed together and allowed to dry, I made enough to do both sides. Whilst I doing this I also need some similar angle for the opening windows to slide in, so four lengths of a smaller size were made up. The roof corners were applied and trimmed at both ends, then a piece was glued just above the front windows to finish it off.
I need to make all the fittings that are on the cabin roof and drill appropriate hole for fastening before I can do any paint preparation. Square holes are drilled and filed for the navigation lights in the cabin sides and holes for the spot light, life ring and sirens are also finished.
Next I cut to length the rails for the opening windows to run in which are made from some angle walnut I made up earlier. I realised that the windows are on a curve making it impossible to have top and bottom channels running parallel and also lining up with the profile of the windows, so I decided to make a slight modification and trim the front window to make them line up with the trim,

The hand rails need to be made and fortunately Rob did his interpretation of a rail instead of the suggested simple rail in the kit which looks really nice, I will do my own version but in walnut to match all the other wood work. I have some planking left over so in the spirit of economy I will glue two planks together to form a ticker piece of wood.
First of all I stuck some sticky backed paper over the wood to make the marking out easier to see as the wood is quite dark Again a simple jig is required as the cut outs will be finished by rotary sanding. The jig is simply a fence edge with a cut out for the rotary sanding bobbin and two pins spaced at the length of each slot so after the first slot is done by eye to the marked out shape the following slots are regulated by the two pins in terms of length and the depth is limited by the fence edge giving an accurate and uniform profile and also making both rails identical.
Once the main profile is done the cut outs have to be profiled in the 90 degree plane to give a rounded shape to the rail. This second process is done by hand using the sanding bobbin in the Dremel and finally using abrasive sticks to give a smooth finish ready for varnishing. To attach the hand rails I will be using pins on each leg which will after the painting is finished they will be carefully epoxied to the roof so before painting I need to mark out the pin holes and drill them

The windows in the cabin are cut outs in the 1 mm ply, the side front windows that have sliding panels have a surround of walnut timber that gives then a more solid appearance but the two rear and the 2 front windows are just the ply thickness need thickening up so I am going to make some window frames. I did notice when preparing to do this that the lower edge of the sliding windows was not level with the top which made it look not quite right for a parallel sliding window, so I modified the shape of the sliding window. Walnut “L” section was made and then cut to size and fastened to form the framework for the sliding windows.
I’ve made window frames for my crash tender but they were much more substantial being opening windows. For the rest of the windows I intend to make these out of 0.75mm styrene, First I mark out the window profiles using the cabin sides as a template, this gives me the internal shape of each window, To get the outside profile I mark out the width (4mm) using a piece of strip wood placed around each window and placing cuts in one piece to allow a slight curve to be produced.
I have seen some others make windows using strips glued together and then corners glued in and trimmed to shape but I thought I would use a different method. For the corners I placed suitable size brass washers in each corner and secured them with some clear tape this allows me to drill a hole through the brass washer in each corner, I then remove the washer and open up the hole to the washers outside diameter to form the curve in each corner. Next using the scroll saw I cut the inside profile of each window. The external profile is simply cut out using very sharp scissors and then the outside corners are sanded to form the round corners, the edges are then smoothed using some 1000 grade abrasive paper. The next operation is to prime the frames using plastic primer, this is followed by 2 coats of silver/grey paint and finally a coat of satin lacquer. The frames will be attached to the cabin when the final painting is finished using a strong double sided tape

The lights to be powered are navigation lights, spot light blue flashing light and the interior lights, so I decided to do a small distribution board that will take in 6 volts and then divide it up to the various LEDs using the appropriate resistors and an easy connecter for each. I will also have the flasher unit that Graham built for me which will also be mounted in the roof.
The navigation light LEDs had to be modified to fit into the white metal fitting that’s supplied in the kit. The white metal fittings have to be drilled out and filed square to accept the modified LEDs which were filed square with a quadrant filed onto the corner; these can now be wired up and glued into the white metal fitting.
The spot light is the same unit as I had on my Crash Tender so I will deal with this in the same manner. The mounting yolk is too weak to support the light unit with its lens, lens cover and LED so I made another from 3mm x1.5mm brass with a supporting turret. The light unit has been machined making the bore as big as possible and the O/D turned to fit the tri legged cover. The LED will be mounted on a piece of copper strip board, the wires exiting at the rear. The front lens was made from a dud LED spot light (GU10) the front plastic lens was taken off and machined in the lathe to fit the previously bored out body. The lens was pressed between a plastic plug in the chuck and another in the tailstock pressed by a rotating centre this allows the diameter to be machined to size without any damage to the lens. The whole assembly is held together by the tri legged end cap which eventually will be glued in place.

The interior lighting will be mounted in the roof area and project through the roof lining, they are high brightness flat top LEDs, I mounted the LEDs into some short pieces of plastic tube which then were glued into a piece of 10 x 3mm obeche which are then glued into position in the roof, I can now mark out the hole positions by putting some oil paint on the flat top of the LEDs and then pressing the roof lining onto place and the LEDs will make marks to position the drilled holes. The four LEDs are wired up and connected to the distribution board using the small plugs.

The mast has a red and blue alternating flashing LEDs at the top. I made three versions of possible masts, one with 3mm LEDs mounted in a walnut post; the second was similar but using 5mm LEDs both of these didn’t turn out as I wanted so I decide to make one from various pieces of brass tube, This version has 2 LEDs mounted in the top one blue and one red, the wiring of these LEDs proved to be a delicate operation due to the proximity of the LEDs to each other and the amount of wire legs I could allow due to the short distance available before the wires have to turn 100 degrees and go down the main shaft into the plugs and soldered into position. This completed meant it only required a small brass finial made from 6mm brass hex bar on the top which was glued in position.
Now to the base, this will have to be removable from the cabin roof (for safe transport) so a method of holding the mast in position and also passing the electrical connection to the LEDs has to be designed. I used some 2mm plug and sockets which will do both jobs; however there is some precision pieces that need to be made to do this. In order to keep the electrical connection separately insulated so I used some Perspex to mount the plugs and sockets into, three (plugs) are fastened to the base of the mast and the others (socket) will be fastened in the inside of the roof. In all tree wires are required to operate the flashing lights. (operating system kindly made by Graham93)
The control (on/off) will be operated via a Turnigy RC switch which is mounted in the main hull.

I won’t go into great detail about painting as it’s been covered many times and it will be like watching paint dry.😴
I will cover the painting in five major steps.

1 Priming
2 Painting with Red Oxide
3 Painting with Blue RAL 5004
4 Trim line in white
5 Final coat of satin lacquer (to be done yet)
There was of course an awful lot of masking during these processes and a great deal of rubbing with wet and dry, so that’s that job done😁

I used"www.cars-n-stripes.com"4mm self-adhesive White vinyl stripe 2 for 1 offer sold by the metre to do the water line, the reason I mention this product is because a lot of people seem to have problems with taking the tape over the raised chine.
When I'm applying the tape I work from the stern with a length of tape that is 20mm longer than needed, I attached the length to the bow with a small piece of masking tape to keep it in the right direction and stopping it rolling up I start in the centre of the stern and work around the first corner, applying some gentle heat with a hairdryer (but not stretching it).
I work along following with a soft cotton cloth pressing firmly until I reach the dreaded chine, again applying some gentle heat I mould the trim around the chine pressing firmly and holding in place while it cools, finally coming to the bow I cut to length. Then go back and check all along the length to make sure there are no "lifts"
Just a note the gentle heat is really "gentle" and just tends to make the tape floppy. It’s a good idea to try a test piece first.
I also found some “trim line” in gold that I had from lining a kit car in the past so decided to use it to put a line around the top of the hull to give a nice distinction between the blue and walnut woodwork. Just a point, the trim line was probably 20 + years old but still as good as new. I also applied the rear fenders, a detail I had made earlier and veneered/lacquered ready to simply glue in place using epoxy. Now the paint work is finished with all lines in place the last thing to be done is to give a couple of coats of satin lacquer.
I did wonder why this Thames Police Launch didn’t have any “POLICE” decals on the hull as most emergency services have today and other vehicles probably did back in the day?