Andy - these photos are from my Fairey River Cruiser which is a bit like a mini Huntsman! As you can see I had drawings of the windows so made templates out of card. What I sometimes do, where the openings cut out in the ply aren't exactly as per the drawings or you don't have drawings, is to draw around the inside of the openings and then add the width of the frames.

Once the frames are cut out and filed where necessary they are painted and then glued to the clear sheet using Deluxe Materials Canopy Glue or other canopy glue - this doesn't fog the glazing. Trim the excess off with nail scissors and then glue to the boat again using canopy glue. This is fiddly and avoid getting glue on the visual part of the glazing - it does dry clear but you can still see it.

Chris

What with having a few days away it must be 3 weeks or more since I did anything on my builds. I'm keen to carry on painting, now with the white, but before starting that I thought I'd better do some work on the cockpit area, that is the floor, as I'm going to be painting inside the cockpit and don't want to mark the paint.

So first job was to make a card template and then transfer to some thin ply. This is fine as it will be glued to the sub-floor and will be stiffened up anyway by another part of the construction. I mentioned earlier that I could have used the laser etched ply planking I've already got and used on other builds but I wanted to match the deck planking, so had to order some of that.

Then I remembered to drill a small hole thought he sub-base, this is something I did on an earlier build when struggling to get the floor out whilst working on it, as it was a snug fit. As I was sanding the edges of the floor down to get it to fit and found it awkward to get in and out I realised I didn't need to have it go right back to the aft cabin so cut some of it off - see the drawing. Once that was done I glued lengths of the planking to the base, the excess will be sanded off later.

Next morning, after gluing the planks on, the floor was a nice curve. Not a problem as it was nice and flexible and would have glued in place Ok but I needed to glue a batten on, sanded to an angle for the vertical panel to be glued to - the mahogany piece. Once the batten was fixed I gave the planks a sand and gave them a coat of yacht varnish which brought them up to the lovely honey colour I like.

The cockpit has ended up as a bit of a Chinese puzzle! With my other Fairey builds (well apart from the Fisherman which was even more a puzzle) I've been able to build in the engine cover/seat base and storage lockers/seats so that the floor and these additions could all be glued in as one assembly. But with this model the floor is wider than the top of the cockpit and nothing much could be glued to the floor as it needs to be slid into place sideways and I wouldn't be able to do it. But at least with the floor being in two pieces, front and back, means I could proceed with making the access hatch to the rear cabin, which over sails the floor, which I wanted to do before I painted the roofs.

Having done that I made the doors for the front and rear cabins as well. On a previous build I'd indicated the meeting of the two doors by using a saw cut but on others and this one I actually cut two doors per opening. Trouble is I made such a good job that you can't see where the doors meet! Could have sanded a chamfer on each door to highlight the join but I didn't bother. I can always run a triangular file along the joint but is anyone going to notice!

I was then able to get the first coat of primer/undercoat on inside the cockpit and on the roofs. Once that was done I made a replacement battery box. The one recently made was to suit the 3S LiPo I was going to use, but I've decided to retire that one and so bought a higher capacity which is bigger and heavier, which is good, as it needs more weight at the back.

As with the Swordsman I've returned to this one to finish painting the superstructure, that is the roofs. I've routinely mentioned my love/hate relationship with painting and this did nothing to improve it! The white gloss was a new tin, bought about 12 months ago, maybe less, and I was suspicious of it from the start as it had separated more than my other tins and even after much stirring it didn't mix entirely. But I used it anyway on another couple of builds and it was fine, apart from it not looking quite as white as a previous tin, but it was Ok.

So I applied the first coat on the roofs, which apart from a few bits ending up in was Ok and would be sanded out later. Next day I started applying another coat and got some big bits in it which I put down to the paint skinning overnight. I'd tried to get it all out of the tin before starting but some had remained. I normally leave the bits (usually airborne) and defects until dry but having just started painting and the bits being big thought I'd remove them with some thinners on a tissue. Big mistake as the surrounded paint started wrinkling! Bit surprised as I'd brushed thinners on in the past to smooth out a build up of paint without problem. Maybe it's because there are different thinners for cleaning/for the primer-undercoat and the gloss? To save matters getting worse I just left it to dry overnight and then sanded it off in the morning.

The paint is quite expensive and I hadn't used much but I decided I didn't want a repeat and so ordered a new tin. When opened this was just as it should be, creamy, easy flowing and no separation. So with another new brush I started applying coats over the following few days. I had to apply an extra coat to the front roof as that got some excessive airborne bits in it. I did have to add some thinners for the last two coats as the paint was beginning to thicken and start to dry too quickly causing unevenness when overpainting.

But finally it was done! You can't see it in the photos but it turned out pretty good. And when I look at my other builds they don't look too bad either really despite the grief when doing them. And once hardened off it really is a quality paint finish that should last well.

Since then I've spent some time meticulously cleaning the lids and the edges of my tins of paint to help with stopping skins forming, which has been largely successful and also when finished going around the lid with a piece of timber to ensure the lid is properly pushed into place. Part of the problem with models of course is that paint can be used and then left for some time between builds, especially if the tins are quite large like the 750ml ones I'm using. Not a problem with full-size or DIY projects where the tin is usually used pretty quickly.