Hello again, Seems ages since I did an update but there have been other things happening, and now I am shielding again so am confined to the workshop alas! Have been moving on a bit with the hull painting, a somewhat slow moving operation it seems. I have now painted the lower hull and upper hull, except for the final coat which will be applied after the deck and superstructure are complete. Have started to paint deck and cabin roof, (Hivis) and some of the railings and also have now netted the crab pots and have begun to create some crab pot markers, although I don't know how i will cast them into the water, let alone retrieve them. In the pics the rails are just standing in place and are not yet fixed. In order to give the bow rail extra strength at the joint I hooked a small piece of wire around the rail and then soldered this into a short length of brass tubing, the upright was then soldered into the tube on the underside. The Mahogany transom was given three coats of varnish first of all and then masked off for the rest of the painting process. Will keep on with this task in the next few days. It seems that the model trade is struggling for supplies at moment, I am still awaiting an Aeronaut Victoria kit ordered in October and I needed two more pots of Humbrol to finish the lower hull and the colours are out of stock. Must be patient in these difficult times, I am sure.
Happy New Year to All
Geoff

Things seem very slow at the moment what with painting the hull, the new paint has arrived now and so have been able to put the final coats on the the bottom and the sides. I have concluded that there is only so many times that you can paint a hull and rub it down again in search of perfection and so have had to say 'that is it' but still a long way from what I would like, but I think possibly my expertise has reached the limit. In the meantime I have been glazing the window frames. The kit comes with a sheet of templates for the glazing and a sheet of fairly thin acetate. Like everything else in this kit the templates are very accurate, and to my simple mind then there should be no problem in cutting the acetate to size and shape. but cutting a translucent material into relatively small shapes is not easy, there was a point when I thought I might even board the windows up! But with perseverance it all came good in the end.
For the four larger cabin windows, two sides and two front, I felt the acetate would not be quite man enouch so I used a 1mm PTEG plastic sheet. THis was much easier to manage, the sizes were larger and I could stick the template onto the sheet while I cut it out as the sheet has a protective film on each side. It was then a matter of turning the frames over and running a bead of canopy glue, with a cocktail stick, to the back of the frame.
For future reference I feel that 0.5 mm would have been adequate. I have also tried my hand at scratch building some fittings, the marker bouys, a search light from a syringe barrel and used the rubber end of the plunger as the back, point outwards and the round end off the plunger as the front. Mounting bracket was from piano wire and ali tube. Two doomed buttons were mounted on ali tube to pass as mushroom vents. The pics give a rough idea of what I have been doing. As a further note I have so enjoyed building this model that on Friday morning I ordered another Kit from HAKITS, the larger version of the pilot boat, and it arrived this Monday afternoon at 4.30pm as I have been writing this blog.

I hope I will be able to do a blog on this model in due course.
Geoff

I feel that I must now be getting to the end of the project as I have been able to start putting the radio gear back into the hold.
But I thought it would be a good idea to create some duck-boarding to go toward the rear of the lower deck and this has been made and varnished. Solid walnut, I am not sure if this is meant to be a fishing boat or a luxury yacht, but to my simple eye it looks ok. The space created in the plan for the motor, radio and battery is generous and is easy to access all components, ESC and RX have been attached to the sides of the hull using velcro. Where velcro is to be used, I have first coated the area with white glue and allowed to harden before sticking the velcro in place, this gives a much better hold.
The RX switch I have mounted on a strip of plastic angle so that it is a tight fit to the bulkhead and can be slipped out when required, see pics. The rudder as shown was scratch built using two slices of PC printed circuit board glued together with the copper sides out and the top slotted to take the rudder shaft. this then gives a flush finish to the blade. The esc is attached to the side of the hull to gain what cooling there might be from this situation and the Rx mounted well up out of harms way and in the shelter of the deck above. The rudder servo is accessed by the rear hatch and again is easy to get to. I have vaselined the rod at the pivot points. The Hatch cover has had hand rails fitted and two mushroom vents (Domed buttons purloined fro you know who!) I think that is about all for now, my next report will be the final, until such a time as I am allowed to go to the pond to do a trial run.

Geoff.

Well it seems like the building has come to an end and the boat is ready for the water, if only I were allowed to drive to the pond, I await further instruction from HM Govt. At least I have had my first jab now which is a bit more comforting.
To HAKITS I say thank you for a great build, it went well and as I have said throughout, it is a good design, well thought out and well manufactured. It gives a lovely boat which can then be the basis for trying new techniques in scratch building and fitting. As I said at the beginning I used Cee King of Whitby as an influence for what I put on the deck. They have a facebook page and a website. As a further compliment to them I have just received the larger version of the pilot launch which on first look has all the qualities of the Morston in materials and quality.
Simplicity in design but a good solid build. So watch for a new blog starting soon. A few pic to show the finished product.
Regards to all Geoff.

Well the great day has been and gone.

Mr. Johnson said I could go out, so I went, last Wednesday for the first trip with the Morston on a posh new stand and ready to be launched. Paul at HA had warned me that I might need to put some weight in the stern to balance, so I did. But it was not enough. I think his reasoning was that I had used a heavy brushed and geared MFA 500 which was heavier that the recommended brushless. I am also using NIMH batteries instead of lipos. All of this extra weight to the very front of the hull under the hatch.

However, undaunted back homefor a week and with some more lead in the stern, in three largish amounts, but only one was needed to get a satisfactory balance. I really must take some education on buoyancy because I thought I would like to put the pot markers in the water beside the boat. As a result of two hip replacements we have replaced our bath with a shower, so with little bits of lead attached to the end of the marker posts, I dropped them into the now full garden water butt and they went straight to the bottom! But my handy grabber was able to retrieve them.

Back to the pond again yesterday afternoon, Wednesday) and I was very pleased with the performance now and the afternoon passed at Woodbridge model yacht pond on one 2000 NIMH with still some to spare.

Now that the model has reached this stage it can be transferred to My Harbour with satisfaction. The Pilot Boat is just about finished so watch for that blog to be continued and concluded soon.

Thanks to all for following this blog.