Hi y’all. Got a bit more done this weekend. I bought a little grill off Amazon as this is a vacation/weekend boat. Didn’t like the color so I took it apart and painted it silver. I’m thinking I’m going to mount it over the rudder linkage hatch. I also got the rear nav lamp mounted on the stern. I had to rethink my wiring as I could not drill where I wanted due to the angle, so I drilled forward of where I wanted. The aft bulwarks support hides the wires, I have a tube under decks that directs the wiring away from the rudder linkage hatch. I need to hide the little part of the wiring that’s showing, and touch up repaint the bulwarks rail nearest the lamp. Then, it’s a few more details, final light wiring and touch up some boo boos, then she’s ready for a ballast check.

Hi y’all. Did a bit more on the Antje today. I decided to mount the grill on a “table” to cover the rudder linkage hatch. I used a piece of soft balsa glued to the bottom that’s a good friction fit in the hatch opening. The grill and a cat are glued to the top of the assembly, the pilots girlfriend is at the port aft rail. I found a plastic ladder in my stash. It’s a bit narrow but with a little finagling it looks ok, made handrails from brass wire.
That’s about it-I need to work up the mast, and decide if I want a mast lamp. Also need to finish up the foredeck with some simple railing, then odds and ends and under decks.
Cash

Hi y’all. It’s been a bit since my last update. I’ve got about 2 weekends of work done, plus I took 3 days off to prepare for my colonoscopy this past Friday. Worst part was being on a liquid diet the day before and longing for pizza…..happens every, single, time.
Anyway, last post I made I mentioned the mast, possible railing, and under decks work. The mast came from the kit, but I cut it down a bit as I wanted it to basically just carry a mast lamp and flag. Made the mast lamp holder from scrap plasticard, mounted the lamp, then braided the bulb wires and installed. I ran the wiring down the fwd face of the mast, using heat shrink to simulate band clamps for the wiring. Since I cut down the mast from the bottom it was a little loose in the brass tube it’s supposed to be stepped into, so I made up a baseplate of thin ply and a round fitting I found in my stash. I had to make clearance for the wiring in that assembly, then I installed the mast till it hit home and glued it in. Problem was it didn’t hit home, the mast and plate tightened up with the bottom of the mast a half inch shy of the hull bottom. So, in true shade tree mechanic fashion, I took a 3/4 inch thick piece of medium balsa, cut a notch in it that would accept the mast, fitted it once, pulled it out to shim it, reinserted, and glued in place with both medium and thin ca.
I also made up some simple railings for the foredeck and installed those, then turned to the light wiring. I’m using a single Apex RC transmitter controlled switch for the lamps, and I’ve wired them so they all come on at the same time. The Apex RC unit is simple. It uses receiver power for the load, turned on the lamps get powered by the receivers BEC, turned off the powers cut. Easy-Peasy. I needed a Y harness so I could remove the cabin from the circuit if needs be. I soldered the appropriate ends to the 2 circuits, cabin and rear/mast, and then got my supply of extensions out. I found an old Y harness I had completely forgotten about, the 2 female sockets are stacked together and this part also has mounting lugs. I cut one lug off, glued the socket to the inside corner of the hatch coaming making sure the uncut lug was level with the bottom of the coaming, then glued in a piece of ply doubled with 1/4 thick balsa on the bottom, and tightened the lug down with a socket head servo screw. I test fit the cabin and sure enough, that corner of the cabin was hitting the wiring plugs. I had 2 choices…I could carefully cut away the bottom floor at that corner and hope and pray I did not nick the wiring coming out of that corner, or pull the plugs, release the pins, cut the back of the plugs down to make clearance and still not expose the pins once they were reseated. Came out better than I expected, cabin seats properly, all lights work and I have a nice clean wiring setup that makes it easy to remove the cabin wiring plug if I need to.
I found a fire extinguisher fittlng that I made up and painted, glued it to the back wall of the cabin. Looked okay, but it need some sort of mount. I found a white metal fitting that looked like a half nav lantern. I cut the top off, painted it then installed it where the extinguisher bottom is “sitting” on the base, then took a plastic ring out of my stash and cut it down, painted it and installed to make a “bracket”. Looks more plausible.
I did a little touch up to some obvious boo-boos I found, but there were a couple slightly rough spots I let be. My reasoning was twofold, both practical and whimsical. Some of these spots were in places that sanding and repainting would be a huge pain in the butt, and if I made a mistake it would look much worse than what I have now. Also, the backstory of this boat is that she’s and old fishing boat bought by a young couple in their late 20s to mid 30s that had just enough money to purchase the boat, farm some work out they couldn’t do, and did what they could. She’s not perfect buts she’s loved.
Last thing I did was to name her “Lily”, then make up 2 sets of her name for the bow, and her port of call Galveston for the stern. I used Chartpak 1/4 inch letters along with some Von Dutch decals to set the names off. Like I said, there’s a running backstory in my mind, and the male part of this couple has a thing for old school Kustom cars. He really wanted to paint her with 50’s scallops but the wife said nope, so the Von Dutch pin striping was a compromise.
And that’s it!! I might add a horn and a few cleats but for all intents and purposes she’s ready save for ballast and a prop. I’ll let y’all know how she looks on the water..
Cash