Firstly a big shout out and thank you to Rob who kindly converted the motor decals to have a grey background. As can be seen from the picture of the one finished motor, they look great! Again, thank you Rob and glad you received the wooden rings as a thank you!

I’ve had a mixed bag today? Finished decorating the downstairs bathroom inbetween doing a few jobs on the lifeboat. The main deck got its orange coats followed by a coat of lacquer. Once that was set enough proceeded to glue on a few of the deck fittings I made a while back. It’s all starting to tie in now and looking to be near completion although there is still a lot of masking and painting ahead of the sponsons, all the detail painting and the remaining RNLI decals.

Please to say that the cheap eBay switch arrived and has been wired in for the blue flashing light, assigned to channel 5 switch on the tx and all is working fine and dandy.

I have come across a slight snag but I’m sure I’ll work something out? The pushrods to the dummy motors (Rudders See picture 1) run in a straight line from the servo using m2 pushrods. The issue is when the motors swivel they cannot turn using a rigid pushrod as the pushrod is trying to go round an impossible curve? Hope I’m making sense? I remember reading in the original manual that the original had a flexible snake set up or a Bowden cable which of course will allow for some flexibility at the motor end. I’ve nothing in my scrap box left over from my aircraft days so will have to source a micro Bowden cable and figure out how to connect to servo and rudders (there isn’t much distance between transom and the current ball link on the motor, so any connector will have to be no more than 15mm in length. Any ideas people, please let me know.

In the meantime, off to Cornwall tomorrow so next update will be in about 8-9 days 👍

Whilst on holiday in Cornwall I’ve made it my goal to visit as many RNLI stations as possible, thank you my long suffering wife who gets dragged off to all these locations!

The virus has found most stations closed and off limits to visits to protect the crews, so seeing some of the boats has only been possible by staring through salt stained shutters on the station doors including St Ives, Sennen Cove, St Agnes, Newquay. However, the Penlee (Newlyn/Penzance) have a “Severn” Class boat which is in the harbour afloat. Their Atlantic 85 RIB Was out on a training exercise!

A simple hello to a couple of the crew who were doing some routine maintenance resulted in a guided tour of 30 minutes, up down and sideways. The result being hundreds of reference pics if I ever manage to get a Severn on the building board. A huge thank you to the crew that spent the time to give me the tour, forever grateful, there’s a paper bank note in the collection tin!

The other shots show a “Watson Class“ boat the was decommissioned in 1982 and is now under private ownership in Hayle. Sadly it appears to be rotting but possibly not beyond restoring if the owner acts soon?

So we got back from Cornwall last night after a stop start journey! But a fantastic week away enjoying the weather, fish n chips and more than one cream tea!

Today I’ve spent what seemed like an eternity masking off the orange parts ready to get the grey on. 2 coats of grey primer was applied this morning followed my more masking to prepare for the orange strips down the sides of the sponsons. I shall now leave that to harden for a few days before I then mask off for the black strip down the sides of the sponsons, any touch ups required and will then start all the fine detail painting before decals and final lacquer coats.

That’s it until Friday, gotta work next 4 days 🤬🤬🤬🤬

Starting to see a small light at the end of a long tunnel! I’ve spent half day yesterday and about 9 hours today finishing the main colours which included some dark grey panels and the black centre sponson line airbrushed on. This was followed by adding all of the RNLI lettering and flags ect using Becc decals which thankfully I have lots of from previous builds, they are not cheap!

A lot of today has seen the main detail painting completed which included 24 grab handles and several cell air valves! Jobs left to do is all the detail painting on the transom and the lacquer coats which will just about see the main hull\deck and sponsons complete.

Still quite a few jobs to do before completion which include some more detail parts, self righting airbag platform on the rear frame, O2 bottles and brackets, 1x motor and connections to servo, Coxswain and a couple of other odds and ends.

I won’t achieve much Saturday as going to Dads, but I’ve got Sunday and Monday to break the back of it......

It’s been a good a good day of progress which I revoking takes me to about 90% complete on this little gem?

First thing was to mask off the whole model less the sponsons and give it a couple of coats of Tamiya Matt clear varnish to get rid of the shine. Not only did it rid the shine but also reacted with the lacquer underneath to give me a milky finish? Now this would normally cause some cussing and obscenities which I’m pretty good at, however the affect has left the sponsons looking faded, weathered and salty, I’m pretty pleased 😂😂😂

After all that, I’ve spent the day painting and adding more details including the tied down fabric covers (tiny circles of painted ripstop sail material, rope things at the stern of the sponsons, one sides Grab ropes (run out of 2mm Heat shrink, more on order!), various bits of detail painting ect. I hope the photos do it justice, but when all is done I shall photograph on water and with a neutral background.

Still need to make up the second motor, paint the coxswain, make the platform for the self righting airbag ect, but we are getting there!

The last day of my long weekend has seen some more progress towards the final reveal.

I made the self righting airbag O2 bottles and brackets from various bits of plasticard, strip and tube, the hose being just servo wire. Also made was the elasticated ties for the real stowage bags.

The next task was sorting out the servo to rudder connection which I’d been putting off for ages but turned out ok in the end. I extended the ball link on the dummy motor by 7mm for more of a stand-off so that at neutral the plastic Bowden cable run straight to the servo. I also added a ball link to the back of the dummy motor which will have a bar link to the second motor so that moth engines turn on one output from the servo. Once servo end was hooked up, all was set to neutral and adjusted in the transmitter. Please to report no binding and adequate deflection for turning the boat.

I’ve also screwed down the deck and fitted the rear frame, so structurally the model is about complete less the second motor, coxswain and self inflating platform and airbag and any final paintwork touch ups.

that’s it until Sunday folks, gotta work for a few days to fund the next project 😢😢

I’ve had to manage household chores and a visit to see dad this weekend, so not a big update but a little closer to the end!

I’ve added as much detail to the motor end as I think is practical. The second motor is built, painted and fitted and I’ve added a few wires ect to represent the various cables that abound the stern end. Looking at reference photos, there is a lot more on the real thing, but I think “less is more“ in this case. I’ve also made a couple of fuel valves, a couple of lifting eyes and the link between the motors.

Next job was to “cut n shut” the coxswain figure to make him a better fit and look abit more naturally in his pose. Once arms, feet ect had been cut off and repositioned, the joints were filled, sanded and the whole thing primed. The paint that’s on at the moment is just a test on the colours, a lot of fine detail painting to come. I’m painting the figure in the current RNLI scheme as I like it, historically it may not be accurate as the Atlantic 21 has been out of service a while and the uniforms have no doubt changed?

Once the figure is done, the whole thing will be finished apart from the rear frame platform and self righting bag, that will be a challenge but should add that finishing touch ......

I’ve not had a lot of time this weekend with another trip to see dad and getting a COVID test! (Going to Cyprus and have to have one before travel Wednesday!)

However, I’ve managed to build the self righting airbag platform from plasticard, tube ect, getting it finished and painted. The big blob of orange on top of the airbag tray is the simulated airbag itself. This was simply an off-cut of glass cloth folded, scrunched and then firmed with some epoxy, primed and given a couple of coats of orange acrylic. This will eventually be mostly hidden by the last piece in the jigsaw which is the tarp that covers it and the rope work as per the picture of the real thing.

Talking about the tarp, again I’ve used some glass cloth taped to a frame and given one coat of resin to semi fill the weave. Once dry I’m hoping it will be flexible enough to mould over the airbag once cut to size and painted, I shall then make up the rope work and consider the model finished! I’ve re-done the grab ropes on the sponsons with 1.5mm black cord as I didn’t like the result of the thinner cord and shrink tube I’d done before. The book was an eBay find and I wish I’d had it at the start of the build as it’s full of great things, oh well 😂😂😂

So, once I’ve finished painting the figure and done the last couple of bits, it will be done. Unfortunately from a modelling point of view you guys will have to wait a couple of weeks for the final reveal, as Cyprus beckons, but I promise to get back on it as soon as we return!

On my daily trawl through eBay looking for future projects I noticed this example of a Lesro Atlantic 21 for sale. If people would take better pictures and include a better description on their listings they may generate more interest? Other notable listing errors currently is a miss spelt Aerokits Solent lifeboat kit which I would have been tempted with if it wasn’t for collection only and an Arun class lifeboat (way overpriced at £1500 buy now) spelt “Aron”

What am I actually hunting for? A Model Slipway Tamar unstarted or part started, hens teeth I know! 😂😂

I’ve quite a bit to report since my last update 11 days ago prior to our trip to Cyprus. Whilst we had a fantastic time on the most part in Papfos, the sun was shining, the food and drink was good, but sadly my Dad passed away half way through the week 😢. Since coming home my sister and I have had a heap of things to deal with regarding arrangements ect, but it’s all coming together and despite COVID, we will give him an awesome send off on the 6th Nov.

Anyway, today I had a little time to myself so set about finishing making the self righting airbag platform, tarp and rope work for it (the rope work in real life is elasticated to allow the airbag to inflate under the tarp when activated by the crew, there is an interesting video of this in action on YouTube!). So, to that end, I now consider the model complete except the crew figure which I hope to finish painting tomorrow!

An interesting footnote is that whilst on holiday I thoroughly read and enjoyed the Atlantic series book I mentioned in a previous update. It appears since I started the detailing of this model, that I have infact built an Atlantic 75! I had been using a series of photos that I got off google for reference that was described as a 21 by the owner, but the roll bar, dustbin and a few other details don’t appear on any 21, but the 75? The thing with the 75 is that there is very little difference to the 21. The 21 was 21 ft long, the 75 was 7.5meters long, so about a meter longer. Same 3 crew positions and appearance wise almost identical. So do I class my model as a 21 or 75, does it really matter, probably not?

My next update should should the coxswain fitted followed by a final update of the complete model on location in Southwold and hopefully some pictures on the water. It will Then be time for the next project.......