like a kid in a sweet shop

I just couldn't decide what model/s to build next, but finally decided a couple of days ago, and have settled on.....................

the Shannon class lifeboat.................well, two to be exact........

so what's the story behind two............

my friend Mick in Canada asked me to go down to Leicestershire last July with a wodge of fifty's that he had sent me to buy a 1;12 and a 1;16th scale Shannon lifeboat and then send to him..............

on acquiring both models from Adrian at Speedline mick decided that he wanted me to keep the 1;12 scale lifeboat over here and build it for myself as he would never get round to doing it.............and made a present of it to me...........What a wonderful man he is...........and we regularly chat on the phone.

the other Shannon is a Models By Design basic kit, including the KMB jet drives. my friend mick French, battleshipbuff on here asked me if I would build it for him if he bought it off mayhem, and as mick in Canada had been so incredibly generous in his gift to me, I thought I would repay a little to the friends I have and told mick French that I would build his Shannon along side mine.



I did ask speedline models about a set of fittings from his model for the MBD  boat, and initially he said yes, but to my immense disappointment when he came to pick up my steam lifeboat that he wants to proceed with, he told me that he would no longer be supplying me with a set of fittings for the MBD boat...............bit of a bummer really and so, at the moment the MBD Shannon will be just a partial build until someone starts developing their own sets of fittings for the 1;12 Shannon................ but I will on here post pictures only of the two models and how they are constructed, in slightly different ways, for anyone wishing to follow it. 

the speedline and the Models By Design Shannons.




The MBD basic kit on the right.





and the joys of having an Elephant size drawing board with parallel slide in your workshop to show the basic Speedline plans.........sadly the only ones available as the RNLI  won't supply them.

those plans are full size.

Here’s we go again

so.......to the MBD Shannon.........first thing I wanted to do with both boats is to fit the  intake tunnels, and so with careful measurements drilling and cutting, then sanding down with a rolled up tube of abrasive paper and then filing the intake inlet, the job was done in little over an hour.......with no need to go out and buy a special hole cutter at 45 quid a time.

and then it was on to the Speedline jets.......they are not finished but got a little peed off when one wouldn't turn the impellor after I had bolted them up, so removed to find that one of the shaft couplings wasn't tight and was binding on the housing.......so sorted it and then abandoned it for tonight......but here so far.measurements for positioning were the same for the outlets, taken from the plans.

Twin jet drives, nice, actually I forgot these have those, I’ve got used to seeing the older tunnels under the hull on lifeboats.

Which type of jet drives are those? I’ve seen many “cheaper” one on fleabay or are those the grauphner expensive ones?

the ones on the mbd are German manufacture, but the speedline ones are miniature Hamilton jets..........he got permission to put the Hamilton badge onto them the end nozzles are so accurate.

Good start Neil. 

Time to fit the main induction tunnel bodies.

now comes the tricky bit.....the floor of the hull and the rear transom plate where the two parts of the tunnel body fit, are not at right angles to each other, where as the end plate and the intakes are on the actual jets are..........

so I made a surrounding plate 2.5mm thick out of plasticard to go around the intake. This is to give some purchase to the glue where one end sticks above the actual grp hull.

I also dispensed with the plasticard  gaskets supplied with the kit, in favour of proper repellent gasket material and gasket glue [ahh, remembrance of the times I replaced cylinder head gaskets on my rocket gold star and other old brit bikes, lol]. I did this because the gasket material and glue will contour to the unevenness of the grp whereas a plastic gasket won't.

and so it was.....fit the gaskets were fitted with gasket glue both sides, and 5 minute epoxy laid onto the flange and working quickly I got one and then the other glued in and bolted up ready to set in position.

on the last shot you can see how even the best of hulls and layers can get one more even thickness than the other........not a problem and unless you are spray laying  mould, there will always be slight irregularities in a lay up, and that is why just a few minutes pondering over a subject and the problems that might arise can be overcome without histrionics and cursing the manufacturer.......simple slight problem overcome easily.....

I have left the two jets setting until later when I can then fill in those gaps with filler.

Nice start Neil.  

I really must get these other commissions finished and get started on my own Shannon.

gribeauval wrote:

Nice start Neil.  

I really must get these other commissions finished and get started on my own Shannon.

I won't suggest a sponsored sail up loch ness.................no, I won't go there, lol.

 Ya just did mate. 

the jets on both boats have now been well and truly bedded in now, but instead of using filler which, in my hands at least can be a messy finish, I have used Milliput white which is both very sticky and also water proof and acts as a water barrier when pressed home into the cracks............and it also looks far better and neater.


first the MBD boat...







and the Speedline jets.

Looking good Neil 

The crew figures look great!

However I rather be rescued by this beauty than some salty old sea dawgs





https://www.cornwallmodelboats.co.uk/acatalog/CAP-Maquettes-CAP-Figure-Ophelia-1-10-Scale-CMOPHELIA_10.html#SID=2240

yep/……………….totally right there...……...but the fun comes in unpeeling the suit, lol.

its not often I have the central heating on on a mid summers night, especially when its still warm and beautiful sunny outside...………..but I need to soften my modellers plasticine to make my mould bases and the only way is to heat it up as its normally rock solid...……

the box bases have been lego'd and just waiting for the soft plasticine to set the figures in to them...…

 WOW. 

 Marvelous Neil. 

I know how good and life-like your other figures were Neil,and I am amazed at the transformation that you have maid using milliput.These are going to be superb when finished
As for the moulding and casting,you make it all seem so simple.There sure is a meaning to the old saying,Practice makes perfect,except for the seemingly excessive use of elastoplast lol
Mick F

Ah ha yes.........keep those very handy when I'm carving and whittling these days.......arthritic fingers don't make for good precise handling and coordination of a very sharp craft knife and after a spell it usually looks like a war zone lol.

Began this evening by sanding the surplus filler from around the inlets and outlets to the jets of the Speedline boat and once done, by siting the position of the trays that would hold the servo mounts and the battery holders, 

Then moved on to setting up the mounting plates for the brushless motors to the main bodies of the jets on the Models by Design boat...………..took a little brain manipulation but eventually got there...….the Speedline boat was much easier, having had the single plate already fitted to the motor.

tomorrow I'll set the trays in and screw the servo holders to the trays, before I start working on the hull fittings for the Speedline model...……...the parts are there for that one, but I'll have to fabricate as much as I can for the MBD boat before I stop building until fittings are available for it, and as such, I have gone as far as I can with it, sadly.


below, the Speedline hull.






the MBD JETS.




the MBD motors with adapter plates to allow fitting to the KMB German waterjets








The Speedline jets with motors.





below, the Speedline jets with motors.

and the build goes on.....

I cleaned up the inlet ports on the Models by Design, and then added the bilge keels by drilling and gluing in 3mm screw threads..they were screws but the heads had been cut off.

Hull was drilled and then the bilge keels added using 2 part epoxy and 3mm nuts with washers to hold them tight up to the hull.

The keels foe the Speedline boat were different in that the fixing face had a ridge on it created when they were 3Dprinted...and so a line of holes were drilled in the hull to take the ridge of the keels.....they were also pinned with the same 3mm screws and bolts, and set in place using 2 part epoxy.

finally the stern spray rail for the Speedline were prepared from the 3D printed set of fittings and glued in place using 2 part epoxy.

however for the MBD boat I had to fabricate these by using 3mm x 7mm plasticard strip, sanded to profile of the speedline boat and then drilled and pinned with 1.2mm stainless steel rod, and glued in place with cyano acrylate. 









































from the inside...





the penetrations on the inside of the hull will be sealed with grp mat and resin within the next day or so.

Coming along nicely Neil. 

Ahh reminder I really must look at my bandsaw to discover why I won't cut a straight line. 

it is usually one of 3 things, Damien...…..lack of tension on the blade, too wide a gap on the guides to the blade, or quite simply...…...the blade is blunt.

there is a fourth problem and that is the bearings on one of the wheels...……………..but that on a hobby saw is very rare indeed as they take minimal punishment, unless you are sawing logs for the fire all day long...……

check the three above symptoms.

neil.

Real nice Neil.

talking about the holes neil, you only have to look at the old ships that were riveted holes drilled every inch our so then rivets, no glue on them   and they took some bangs I bet. great build neil just how I like it calm and    


david

TBH David.......I don't know what all the fuss was about on other sites......they are kits or semi kits and the fun in buying such is  you don't have to make the parts on one and if you like making parts you build the other.....on these I have the best of both worlds in that I can if no parts are available for the MID  boat use the kit to allow me to fabricate others by looking at those already there as a guide without too much research...…

I can't understand why people will pay a grand on a kit and then scratch build half of it lol..unless the parts are crap.....which they are not.....just stupid to me...………....or very egotistical.

Don't berate yourself Neil it's just a senior moment and ya next birthday is 6 days away matey.

Yippee. ...and the weather is holding up for my 3rd BBQ of the season...especially as last year I didn't have a single one lol.....good night one and all.....now off to bed.....need my beauty sleep. Lol.

spent the latter part of the afternoon setting up the link rods and tiller arms for the two different sets of jets.

sadly one of the speedline jets has a small fault in that the brass thread and nuts won't tighten on the tiller for directional use of the jet nozzle...…...it also has a crack in the upper mould...……..having moulded fittings for years, it is quite impossible to pick out such a small problem until you get down to the job...……….but have emailed Adrian this evening asking what we can do to get it working again.

otherwise I have used either clevis clips and ball and cup connecters on the jets...………..just hate bits of bent wire when you are building kits of such magnitude and standing.











thank goodness for my old sets of magneto spanners.




didn't know whether to use model aircraft snakes to operate the KMB  reversing buckets...…….or steel rods...………….in the end I decided on steel rods.





and then it was down to fitting the links to the speedline jets





in the end I settled for a shorter plastic clevis clip for the Speedline reversing buckets.