Light is faster than sound. That explains why some people appear bright until they open their mouths!

Prop shaft and rudder - The propshaft process started way back before the hull panels were fitted. Because the keel already had a part drilled shaft hole, I drilled this out before with small and then larger drills up to the prop shaft size, in my case 4mm. Doing it in stages ensured that I could keep the drill as central in the keel as possible. As the first skin was attached I cut away a section to mark it, so I knew where the shaft would exit. Once the skins were attached and sanded to shape I set about opening up the shaft hole in the skin and again took care so as to not over enlarge the hole. Once the skin was opened I fitted a round file to the electric drill and carefully worked the hole shaft to obtain a good angle and for the shaft and kept testing the shaft for fit. I repeated this process for the rudder, which was also pre market in the keel

I spend time between the important task of getting a fine finish on the hull and superstructure in readiness for painting and bringing the whole model together. I decided to plank the deck to make it look really great. I didn’t want a mahogany finish and have chosen 4mm wood strips in something approaching teak with a 1mm white colour wood between them. I pinned the sheet to the board and planked all the deck that surrounded the cabin hole, considering how the bending of the deck would influence the gaps between the planks if I bent it too much. Once I had sanded this part of the planking (shown here) I will glue and pin the deck before finishing the planking

The inner hull was coated with a fibreglass resin to seal it from water. This has just been painted on and allowed to flow into the deep corners at the keel.

I bought another shaft at 12” because I thought the 10” one I had wasn’t long enough to make the motor fitting easy. Once the deck is bonded I will fit the shaft and rudder and then paint the hull.

The hull is painted and the boat has undergone sea trials. I am disappointed that it is so fast (though I should really enjoy it, but don’t) and so I need to finish the fitting of the deck components but have switched my attention to my yacht. This is certainly a lovely boat but I’ve fallen out of love with it for model yachts. I’ve just had no time to get it finished and don’t want to take it to the pond unfinished.

Fitting the screen

Another task I held off, unsure how to get it right. In the end it went well.

I temporarily fitted the screen, clamping it around the cockpit. Applying a light weight to the front, I could get it to touch the top of the cabin and mark it with a knife. I then scratched the paint away and using canopy glue, glued it in place with clamps and a weight to the front on a piece of wood that I cut a slit in to rest on the front of the screen and hold it down, where I laid a thin layer of glue in the channel. I then made a simple mast and cut a slot into the cabin roof, gluing it to the screen

Fitting the cabin hand rails

I purchased a dark hardwood dowel and an 8mm x 1.5mm baton to construct the hand rail. I cut a 30-40mm pice of the baton and created a rounded edge to sit the rail in with a file before cutting into 6mm lengths. Once glued, I ran it through the bandsaw to cut the rail supports to the desired height. In fact I glued 4 rails on and thought they were too high, so removed them and trimmed the height. I’m really pleased with the result. 1st gluing with 2 part epoxy didn’t hold, a second attempt with super glue worked well. Tip: If you put a slight angle on the bottom of the rail support you can make the rail appear upright on the sloping roof section.

Examples of other modellers Huntsman models. Click pictures to enlarge.

Construction of the Huntsman 31 Model Kit - Fit Out

Bow rail construction

It’s taken me 5 months to finally get around to finishing off the model and this one thing was what I couldn’t figure out how to do.

• Bending the brass only resulted in it springing outwards. A retired engineer finally came up with the solution, to heat the frame while bent into position. This I did by building a grooved frame template of the front deck and attached two side pieces to form the vertical bend. I heated the frame with a plumbers blowtorch, having a water spray bottle to hand to douse the flames. Releasing the brass from the burned frame, it did not spring out like before. Success.
• I held the bent frame against either side of the deck and cut excess with side cutter. Then I drilled the deck at the appropriate angle. Make sure the front of the frame is level or slightly forward of the front of the boat
• Next I cut the pieces for the uprights and drilled them the to angle I thought relevant. Once one side is done you can set the drill at the angle of the other upright.
• I filed the tops of the uprights with a round file and at an angle to allow the rail to sit into it.
• I thoroughly cleaned the frame to make sure when I soldered it, it would flow. The frame was glued to the deck with superglue
• Phew. It looks good!

I cleaned and filed the solder, sanded the frame and cleaned with meths, masked it up and spray painted the frame, touching up the bottoms where they entered the deck with a brush

Painting the screen edge - I masked the four posts using a modellers tape and painted them in and let them dry before removing the tape, Though I wanted to tape the top of the screen, I couldn’t see how to get it even all the way around and so hand painted the line along the top of the screen with a good result.

Hatches - I chose to make the hatches from new hardwood, as I didn’t want coloured varnish on the supplied, pale coloured ply. The only problem I had was centring the hatches onto the cabin roof. Watch this

Battery Compartment - I built this to stop the battery floating around in the compartment and to tidy up the cabling

Prop Vibration - Because I had to extend the propshaft to accommodate the large motor, it caused a lot of vibration and took a lot of effort to stop this. I ran the motor in my hand and adjusted the packing under the motor to get the best position then mounted it onto a rubber, cut from a car inner tube.

Trim - I trimmed the boat in the water with lead shot in the rear compartment. I really would have liked to have added this to the hidden compartment but wasn’t sure that I could seal it with resin. I have since covered the lead shot with a wooden platform to tidy it up.

Carry Box

After an initial frame to sit the boat in, I struggled to the pond and worried that I would knock off the delicate deck items in transit and my “busy” workshop. I made this carry box AND a deck cover to protect the cabin. It doesn’t look pretty but it does the job and has a space for the radio, spare batteries and the like.