grendel

I have used one of my curved sections to make the flat section for the windscreen to sit on. this has the correct curve for the roof on the bottom, once the glue has set the curve at the top will be flattened for the front frame, as will the swept back side pieces. then it will be down to making the frames.

the smallest piani hinges I could find have now arrived, I can now decide how thick the windscreen frame can be, these are 120mm long, with the leaves barely 6mm wide

have they been made into ear warmers?

I have now attached the skeg to model #2. this entails drilling 3mm holes through the skeg on the pillar drill. this is then placed on the keel, and the 3mm holes drilled through the keel. the holes in the keel were then bored out to 4mm to take a 4mm od / 3mm id brass tube. these were then cut at 10mm then filed down to 9.2mm (the thickness of the keel). once the inserts are at 9.2mm they are fitted through the keel ( this allows the skeg to be tightened onto the keel without crushing the wood, a good tight fit, but not too tight).

contact is made and arrangements to pick up sorted.

now for the confession, I had turned the model right way up in its cradle to work on the cabin roof. when I came to move it the foam inserts in the cradle had stuck to the paint, a quick flat back and respray of the affected areas was called for, thus it will now remain upside down as long as I can leave it.

Well with the paint still hardening I cant turn model #1 the right way up (I will tell you later how I know), I had already glued yesterdays plank in place so more work on model #2 wasnt an option, so it was out in the garden between showers to bend up the skeg for model #2. this is done in thin brass sheet, and this time went a lot easier since I knew what I was doing. its still not easy as it is a 10mm wide channel with 25mm sides, so you bend the sides to about 45 degrees then hammer around a former to get it square and right angles. anyway its done now. I need some stainless steel angle for the corners at the stern, these I have ordered some 1/2" stainless steel box section, which can be cut in quarters to give me 4 angles (1/2" is the smallest stainless steel box section made- even for model making)

Since I have the day off for a dentist appointment, I have been getting some work in, After checking my working photos I have bent up a piece for the back edge of the roof, this curves in two directions to match the curves of the roof.

today the next plank has been shaped and steamed and clamped into position

I have used both with equal success with both the caravan and with the gas barbeque. I tend to go for propane now so I can use it on colder days. (though I do believe I have one of each at the moment).

is that Griff I see at the back there?

for tough repairs I use the green weatherproof duct tape from lidls. we have some in the bottom of a cat litter tray that is still in place after a year or more, gets a regular washing too (every time I change the cat litter). plus I have used it to firm up a wobble in a wing mirror, once again still going strong after at least a year and a half. It was in store again last month so I got another 4 rolls, just to be sure I didnt run out.

I dont find that wild sausages tend to be too difficult to hit with a shotgun, even if its not loaded wild haggis on the other hand.......

Tim my only contribution to this will be that when I am camping I generally dont bring a cool box, I forgo the milk and get the coffee sachets that come ready primed with milk and sugar, just add hot water. everything else can be managed without recourse to the cool box, meat can be obtained during the day and either cooked that evening or for breakfast. bacon lasts for a couple of days, cooks even better on day 2 when all of the injected water has evaporated. other than that if you want meat for the next day, buy it frozen, and by the time you need it it will have thawed out.

prawn steaks are a bit tricky to cut, and even trickier to cook medium rare.

the foaming glue is a polyurethane adhesive, Gorilla seems to be the only foaming polyurethane thats generally available without going to a specialist. the important part of the instructions is clamping the parts, the glue then expands through the materials by capillary action seeping into the grain of wood, the excess that oozes out is easily cleaned off with a sharp chisel.

rear cabin roof now completed ready for detailing.

So the roof fit, and now the intermediate roof struts have been added.

intermediate roof ribs will be glued in place once that glue has properly dried.

here we see the roof off and clamped back up, behind is the glued plank clamped in place.

So this morning I have glued that plank in place, this afternoon I have slowly been working on the rear cabin roof, I have just got to the stage of fixing the roof onto it, I will give it a while for the glue to start going off, but I will need to remove the roof while there is still some give in the glue. in case the glue gets between the roof and a static part of the cabin. this time I thought things through, last time with the front cabin roof you will remember it was such a tight fit that once removed it needed trimming to fit again. this time I have built in some clearance by using paper between the frame and the roof rib, once I take the roof off, the paper will be removed, and will give me a small clearance around the parts.

only the expanded bits outside the joint, the joint itself is plenty strong, just not if the two parts arent a pretty good fit to each other.

in my experience a lot of driving school cars are a bit tatty and tired, was it a dual control car? (ie brake and clutch over in the passenger side). its been a while since I took my lessons, but the cars take a hammering and its expensive to get them converted for dual control, so they tend to hang on to them for a while. once you have passed, you will find that long drives- eg to inverness - are no more difficult than a long river trip, motorways are easier as everything is moving in the same direction. and at least you have services to stop off at for rest / comfort breaks. when I was learning I was told I was always too near the middle of the road and to go tighter, next corner we went round with two wheels up the kerb - funny he never complained I was too far out again.

one thing it does need is clamping, it expands into any minute cracks in the grain of the wood, but the expanded stuff is not that strong- the tight clamped bond is almost indestructible, water (moisture) helps it set, it is very good, my models are held together using it.

So cracking on today, we have shaped and steamed another plank and clamped it in place.