Phil's Workbench

Santa brought the model boat club several thousand gallons of water for Christmas. At least the level in our lake was many inches higher than it had been only a week earlier. All that overnight rain had worked some magic.

This was good news for me as I wanted to give Mohan a proper sail before the end of the year and more water equals less bending down to launch him.

All sort of worked well at first. He moved in all the right directions, but it was obvious that additions to the superstructure resulted in more forward weight than was desirable. Add in the ability to get a bit of speed up and his nose-down attitude was alarming. Water shot through the holes in the front and we ended up with a wet deck.

Back on the bench, I pulled out one of the bags of lead shot inside and tried again. Better, but still a bit nose heavy.

Relocating half the bag (not scientific, I just poured some of the shot out into the carrying box) to behind the battery solved the problem. Even at full chat, the fender is just out of the water. Since a more sensible speed is about 3 notches on the stick, all looks good.


With the levels sorted, he's quite a good sail. Silent on the water (that sound deadening stuff works!) and reasonably manoeuvrable, he pottles around the water perfectly happily. When it gets a bit choppy, he bobs around like a cork, riding each wave nicely.

So, we finish the year with a reasonably succesful. There's still bodywork to do, you might notice the navigation lights are half-fitted, but he sails. I could do with a barge to tow though...

Making some holes in the upper levels of Mohan's hull adds character and, depending on their purpose, lets the water run off the deck.

At the front, the holes are to let ropes through to the bollard at the front of the boat. Making these is simple, just drill a hole and then open it out with the largest tapered reamer in my possession. This limits the size of the opening, but as this is a freelance model, if it looks right, it is right.

A thin sliver of plastic is fitted around the inside of the hole and generously washed with solvent. Once hard, I sand it back with an abrasive stick giving a nice, neat finish.


The freeing ports at the back are a little tricker. After drawing the desired lines on the bulwarks,  I drill out the corners, then open them with the reamer. Then the straight lines are cut with an Olfa cutter. A little bit of filing and fiddling, then some strip around the edge followed by some filler and the job is done.

The general wonkiness of the hull hasn't made this job easy, but I'm happy with the results. To be honest, the freeing ports aren't going to let much water out as they finish 3mm above the deck, but I decided against cutting through the quarter-round strip bracing the side/deck corner. 

Mohan needs a battery. Plan A involved using a 6 C-cell lump like the one shown on the plan that came with the kit.

It didn't fit. Maybe if I hadn't put a propshaft in then it would, but looking at the plan, I'm pretty sure this hadn't occurred to the original designer.

Plan B. A much smaller set of 8 cells bought second hand somewhere. It had the wrong plug on and too much voltage, but both these are fixable with a soldering iron.

The plastic covering was peeled away.  The connecting strips were levered off the top of the end cells. You should be able to desolder these - I tried and it wasn't happening so brute force did the job instead.

Then I re-connected the end pair to give me a 6-cell set. Some soldering using a non-corrosive flux was required. Hot iron, in and out fast, don't worry how horrible the result looks.

While I was at it, a new Tamiya socket went on the end. Then I realised my mistake and fitted a plug instead.

The pack now sits in a tray over the spot where the prop exits the bottom of the hull adding valuable weight. 


With all the gubbins fitted, it was time for a first sail on the pool. My impressions are it sits too high in the water, but that's easily fixable. Speed and steering aren't bad although the turning circle is larger than I might like.

But - IT FLOATS!

Happy with the superstructure, I'm fitting the working parts in the tugboat hull. There didn't seem to be much point in doing this any earlier as I wasn't convinced the kit was going to sail anywhere other than the bin!

I want a large propeller and this combined with the shape of the hull, forces the shaft to be fitted at a steeper angle than I'd normally aim for. This means the motor is going to be high up and after considering a big block of something to support it, I realised it could just hang upside down from the deck.

A little messing around with bits of plastic, a metal motor mount and some epoxy glue sorted this all out. The prop spins around happily enough and I've pored plenty of epoxy into the holes around the shaft to keep the water out.


Sticking with the deck-hanging theme, the servo also naturally found itself fixed well above the hull. A small mounting plate was made from plastic, the servo screwed in and then the whole lot glued in place with plenty of solvent. There are some blocks of more plastic behind the plate to make the whole lot nice and solid.

Everything seems to work OK, leaving me to work out where all the other parts are going to go in there. 

Modern boat designs tend to need large areas of glazing. Providing the operator with the best field of vision properly is essential so no more peering out of tiny windows!

 My material of choice is some thick clear plastic from Bayer, which I now can't find to provide proper details. It comes with peel-off pale blue plastic coating if that helps you identify it.

Cutting is no problem. It's a bit more brittle than plastic sheet, but both Olfa cutters and knives will do the job. It snaps a bit like plastic too.

Glue is the challenge. Even Superweld wouldn't stick it. The only stuff I had handy that did anything was Revell Contacta plastic cement. The joints are OK, and it is easy to control, but I'd like something more solid. Please note: Superglue is not an option, I don't want foggy windows as the fumes find fingerprint grease!

Framing from black plastic finishes the job. I'll paint it but don't want to do the fiddly edges, hence the colour. 

With a mockup I'm happy with, the next job on the tug was to reproduce this in plastic. It's the bit of the job I really enjoy, messing around with bits of plastic sheet. The work is pretty simple - cut, stick, cut, stick - and the model grows quickly in front of your eyes.

I like to do this while half-watching something on TV. I'm not very good at properly watching telly, my finger itch to do something, but it's demanding enough to entertain me but not so much I can ideally cast my eye to the screen occasionally. Like listening to music while working, the trick is to watch something you know well, or at least don't care that much about.


To achieve nice smooth joints, I'm trying out Liquid Green Stuff from Games Workshop. It's an interesting product, a bit thinner than toothpaste, that you are supposed to brush on to wargaming figures. I didn't know this and scraped it on any joins that looked like they needed help using an old scalpel blade.

I suspected the filler would shrink when it dried so I put a bit more on to allow for this. Once dry - I left it overnight - it sanded back very nicely. I'll get a better idea when the model is painted, but first impressions are good. Not sure it will replace Perfect Plastic Putty as my favourite filler, but I can see it being something I reach for again. Not least, because it's easier to get out of the Games Workshop pot than anything in a tube!

In search of ideas for Mohan, I spent an hour or so trawling the web looking at small, modern, tugboats. Eventually, I found the BRatt design by Robert Allan Ltd. I like the look of it and the hull I have isn't so far away from the prototype I can't live with the discrepancy, so I let it influence my efforts.


I made a few changes as I only had photos to work from at the time - and of course, my hull is a different shape. The result looks OK. Once in place I felt it needed to move forward slightly, but that's easy enough with cereal packet card and masking tape.

Next, it was time for plastic:


I'm keeping things simple with 1mm sheet cut out as neatly as I can manage and glued with MEK pack. This is the stage I really enjoy, noodling around with plastic watching the model come together. Not following a plan helps now as I get to say if it looks tight, it is right.

The "kit" is supplied with a plan for everything apart from the hull, leaving the modeller to cut up some plastic sheet and build the thing themselves. Maybe the plastic was included, but if it was, I've lost it. No worries, there's plenty more in stock.

Before committing myself to good materials though, I mocked the parts up in cornflake packet card.

I'm glad I did. The drawings didn't look promising, but rendered in 3D, I'd say this was from the 5-year-old with crayons school of design. It looks awful to my eyes, and not just mine either. Trawling through old photos from model boat shows, I found a couple of these kits made up.


There are some similarities, but not many. Even 14-year-old Olly decided he could do a better job, and did.

So, back to the drawing board for this one.

Andy from the excellent Workshop Shed blog asks:

I was just reading about your boat building and realised you'd be a great person to quiz.

I've got a couple of ABS parts I've printed and wanted to fix them together.

What adhesive would you recommend?


Good question. ABS is a harder plastic than styrene so a more volatile solvent is required. I've tried several and find that Pheonix Precision Paints Superweld works best for me.

Applied with an old paintbrush, it seems to grab really quickly and harden fast. Other ABS glues are available, but this is cheap and very effective so it's the one I return to. Even the bottle shape is good, as the wide neck and fat base seem to prevent accidental knocking over, although having said that I'll probably do it next time I use the stuff...

Right, the bulwarks. They are too short for the hull, so either I make new ones or find a way to use the kit bits.

For a while I considered the scratchbuild option, but in the end decided that if I cut them in half, I could fill the join later. It's mostly flat with a curved top and being plastic, loads of solvent will melt everything together into a single piece. No-one will ever know what I've been up to.

So, cut the part in two and glue the front end so it matches the deck. I've already got a plan to cover the horrible join around the middle.

Oh dear. Things aren't starting well. Comparing the bulwarks of the boat with it's hull, there's quite a difference. The top and bottom you see in the photo should match, and the top part is quite a bit short.

At this point all I can think of is the Brede Lifeboat kit I bought a few years ago and ended up throwing in the bin as the parts were beyond saving. I appreciate that kit development isn't free, but you would think that the bits could be better than this. Fortunately, the makers of this one have long since retired, so I can say what I like...


Matters don't improve when I cut out the deck using the plan either. It's quite a bit bigger than the hull! Not consistently either, so this isn't some weird photocopying error.

In the end, I cut the access holes in the deck and stick the hull to it with lashings of Precision ABS glue. A least a deck too large can be rimmed back.

I'm going to build this thing no matter how it fights me!

Time for a new project, and I'm in the mood to build a model boat. I've even set myself a punishing deadline - it's entered in to the International Model Boat show on the 9th November. Even though I'm posting a week or so after each stage is built, that's still tight. I have taken the precaution of describing it as "A work in progress" on the form...

The kit is a Waverley Models "mini tug" kit. Bought at least 10 years ago, I kept finding the model in the store and since the 16mm Hunslet has reminded me how much I like noodling with plastic sheet, a "kit" that will require a lot of that is just what I need right now.

In the box are some vac-formed hull bits 35cm long a plan and a few resin bits that don't look like much on the drawing. After this, I'm on my own. I think there was some plastic sheet in there to make the superstructure out of but I can't find that. Not to worry, I've got loads.

In another exciting change, I plan to take the photos on a grey background where possible. I want to see how this looks, and save myself time sorting out a nice white background to contrast against the white materials I'm building the model in.