Well, first a big thank you to everyone for their encouragement and advice.

Today I decided that she is finished, the painting was much harder than I imagined, I was disappointed with my first attempts and I let her sit for too long. But thanks to Geoff, I went back and finished her. Originally I was planning to put some rails and other bits on her but I want to sail her first.

Overall I am very pleased with the end result and am looking forward to sailing on the Clevedon model boat pond on Sunday all the electrics work. She seems to float OK in the bath but the test will be on the 'real' water.

As I say she's quite rough in some places, I feel I let the kit down, this is my lack of skill or impatience but looking at her I am pleased with the overall result. I can see what I should have done and hopefully will do on my next build.

I would highly recommend HAK kits, the instructions were easy to follow and the wood wonderful to work with, I think that this company undersells its products as it was a delight to build, it was the painting that I struggled with.

Once again big thanks to Geoff and everyone else who has tried to keep me on the right track.

Best wishes
Treve