Mark, The Master Modeller

Stage 45 gives us the first two lifeboats and another piece of decking. Stick the self-adhesive decking to the boat deck. Make sure that the holes line up. Now we start on the davits. These are quite easy, but there are several similar shaped parts which are subtly different, so pay close attention to the instructions. I couldn't show the differences between the similar parts in photos very clearly, so I've included the relevant step from the instructions. For the first davit, take a davit arm type A and a bade type A and glue them together. The instruction highlights the locations of the pins and holes to identify the correct parts. Superglue is the best glue for this. The completed davit looks like this. Note how the davit arm is angled forward. The second davit uses a type B davit base, a type B arm and a type C2 arm. The completed davit looks like this. Note how one arm angles out to match the first davit arm, and the other davit arm is pointing vertically upwards. The third and fourth davits are simpler. Use type C bases and a type C1 and C2 arm on each davit. Both davit arms point vertically upwards. Glue the assembled davits to the boat deck using a small amount of super glue on each pin. The first davit goes closest to the bridge and the second goes next. Note how the davit arms for the first lifeboat both point outwards. The next two davits are then glued in place. Now we assemble the two lifeboats. Don't glue these together yet. Push the tarpaulin onto each lifeboat. Push the block gear into to front and rear of each lifeboat. This completes the stage, and you can also see the winch behind the fourth davit that I forgot to mention. 🤦‍♂️ It simply glues in place.

Stage 44 gives us the boat deck centre section. Apply the self-adhesive wooden decks, making sure the holes all align. Turn the deck over and fix this to the for boat deck/bridge deck with a couple of screws. Glue the two reinforcements in place. Add the glue to the front and back of the recess for the brackets. Keep the glue away from the join between the decks as you don't want any glue seeping onto the wooden decks. Hold them with clothes pegs while the glue dries. Take the two sections of superstructure with the funnels and fix them together with screws. This completes the stage and the pack.

Stage 43 gives us the bridge bulkheads and a strip of LEDs. Fit the larger bulkheads first. Scrap any mould lines from the bottom the bulkheads as they will stop it sitting neatly on the deck. Apply a tiny drop of superglue the pins of the bulkhead and also to the grooves in the roof section. Push it into place. Take the smaller bulkhead panels, scrape any mould lines from the bottom and glue them in place. Glue the lamps to the top of the bridge wing structures. Turn the deck over and clip the LED circuit board in place. Plug the connectors in and then plug your test board in and check that all the lights, including the navigation lights, are working. This completes the stage.

Stage 42 gives us all the details to fit in the bridge along with the forward bulkhead. Take the green sticker and apply them to the nav light holder on the starboard (right) side of the forward bulkhead. Repeat the process with the red stickers on the port (left) nav light holder. Now we fit the forward bulkhead. This is a bit of a puzzle, but went fairly easy using the following method. Clip the nav lights in place, leaving the bottom of the bulkhead below the deck. Now rotate the forward bulkhead upright to its correct position. You'll need to spring the pegs into their holes. It should look like this from the top. Fix the bulkhead with 2 screws. Push the red and green navigation lights into position. Be careful as these will make a lovely snack for the carpet monster! Here are the two lights with the LEDs lit. Fit the small piece of self-adhesive deck. Note that the short legs are different lengths. Now we start adding the details to the bridge. Start with the telegraphs. These all need gluing, but only apply a tiny amount of glue as you don't want to get glue on the deck. In fact, all the following details can be glued. Add the platforms behind where the tiller wheels will go. Add the compass binnacles. Add two pillars. I didn't glue these in case they need adjusting when the deck head (ceiling) is added. Fit the two pelorus, on port and one starboard. I've only shown the starboard one. These are devices that allow the navigator to take compass bearings of other ships or objects. Finally we assemble and fit the tiller wheels. The pins are tiny, and very tricky to handle. However, here's the easy(ish) way. Place the pin on your cutting mat. With a pair of tweezers drop the wheel over the pin. Apply a tiny drop of glue in the hole in the column. Then push this over the end of the pin. If all goes to plan, you'll end up with 2 ship's wheels. Glue these in the bridge. This completes the stage.

Stage 41 gives us the forward boat deck and navigation bridge. The first job is to fix the LEDs. These are for the navigation side lights which are red and green of course. Both LEDs are white, bu there will be red and green lenses fitted in the next stage. Clip the LEDs in place and then clips the wires in place. It's a bit tricky to get the wires under the clips, but I found that the flat bladed small screwdriver helped push them behind the clips. Be careful not to damage the wires though. Finally feed the connectors through the holes in the deck. I tested the LEDs with the test board after fitting them, just to be sure they worked since the wires will be trapped under the self adhesive deck. Peel the backing from eh deck and carefully stick it in place. Make sure that the holes all line up. This deck stuck firmly (unlike the earlier ones) so I didn't need to use an additional adhesive. This completes the stage.

Stage 40 gives us the props and shafts, and the starboard anchor. Fit the props to the shafts, but don't glue them yet. They will need to be removed later. Note that the props are all different. The centre prop is smaller with 4 blades and the outer props are three bladed. They are handed so one engine rotates clockwise while the other rotates anti-clockwise. Push the shafts into their sockets in the gearbox. fit the 4 plates that hold the shafts in position. Two forward for the outer shafts. Two towards the rear for the centre shaft. Plug in your test board and check that the shafts and engines still rotate smoothly. Feed the starboard anchor through the hawse hole. Clip the chain to the clasp on the winch rope. The instructions make reference to using the longer clip if the chains are different lengths. Mine were the same so I didn't need this. This completes the stage.

Stage 39 gives us more details to be fitted to the engines. Fit the 7 grips over the shafts. The rearmost grip is for the centre prop shaft that isn't fitted yet, but the shaft will slide underneath it easily, Take the turbine and condenser assembly and clip it in place, making sure that the seam pies locate with the steam pipes on the engine. Take the central walkway and place it between the two engines. Note how the tabs on the walkway fit into the slots on the engine standards. Clip the walkway in position. You shouldn't need any glue. Task the various detail parts and fit them to the engine base. They will need gluing in place. The photo shows the port engine. The starboard engine is a mirror image. All the parts are identical except for parts 39F & 39G. These should be fitted on the port and starboard engines respectively. Take the pump detail and glue it to both the vapour separator and the top of the nearby pipe. Repeat for the other engine. Glue the shaft plate in position on the front of the engine. This completes the stage.

Stage 72 gives us the left rear wheel arch and we also continue with more of the plumbing. First, fit the oil tank cap and feed the breather pipe towards the rear of the engine. The other end is connected to the oil recovery tank. Take the two braided fuel lines and test fit them so you can see where they need to be bent. They go in front of the engine, underneath the air covers. Bend them as accurately as you can. Fit them in place on the fuel manifold. I'd suggest not gluing them at the moment in case they need to be removed to aid fitting the other ends. EDIT: Do not glue any of the fuel or oil pipes at the moment. Some of these will be replaced in a later Pack. The other ends are just left loose for the moment. Push the brake cooling duct onto the wheel arch. Put the wheel arch in place. Make sure that you don't trap the wires for the rear lights. Fit the single screw on the top first. Now turn the model over and snap the front of the wheel arch into place. Secure it with 3 screws. Finally, finish securing the wheel arch with the 4 screws on the top of the wheel arch. This completes the stage and the pack.

Stage 71 gives us the oil tank. EDIT: Do not glue any of the fuel or oil pipes at the moment. Some of these will be replaced in a later Pack. Screw the bracket to the oil tank body. Screw the other half of the oil tank body to the bracket, completing the main oil tank. Screw teh oil tank to the support frame that was provided on stage 70. Fit the strap over the oil tank and support frame. If the strap springs out as in the photo above, remove it and bend it carefully so that it springs against the oil tank sides. It's made from thin metal and bends easily. Push the thermostat onto the oil tank support frame. Screw the oil tank support frame to the left chassis plate. Take the long oil hose and cut a length 40mm and a second length 140mm long. Push the filler cap handle onto the filler cap, then push the longer oil hose onto the filler cap. Store this safely as it will be fitted in a later stage. Take the 40mm length and fit it to both the thermostat and the oil tank. Take the thinner pre-cut oil hose and fit this to the other pins on the thermostat and oil tank. This will need trimming to length. Push the support rod onto the oil tank support frame. Locate the hoses that were fitted in stages 37 and 66, and make sure they come through the chassis framework as shown, then hold them up out of the way while you fi the left chassis plate. Fit the oil tank to the chassis. This is a bit tricky but it helps to fit the top of the support rod to the chassis. Then push the lower screw posts on the chassis plate into the holes in the chassis. Finally fix it in place with a couple of screws,. It should look like this when it's properly secured. Take the oil hose 37B and fit it to the oil tank. Take teh cooling water hose 66H and fit it to the thermostat. You can just about see the thermostat. It was almost impossible to get a decent angle to photograph this. Take the braided hose and pre-bend it to fit between the fuel pump and fuel filter. When you're happy, push it in place. You may like to glue it with superglue. On my model the fitting for the fuel pump was quite loose and needed gluing in place. This completes the stage.

Stage 70 gives us more details to add to the left chassis plate. Push the cap onto the fuel manifold. Push the fuel hose onto the pin on the cap. Fit the fuel manifold to the left chassis plate. Trim the fuel hose to length and push it onto its pin on the plate. Fit the electrical switch to the oil tank support frame. It pushes in, but it's quite stiff (at least mine was!) so make sure you get the alignment right before you fit it. Don't try to twist it round after it's fitted to the frame as it will probably break. Finally, attach the two connectors to the braided pipes. This completes the stage.

Stage 69 gives us the left chassis plate and the fuel pump. EDIT: Do not glue any of the fuel or oil pipes at the moment. Some of these will be replaced in a later Pack. Fit the fuel pump to its protective shield/mounting plate. Fit this to the chassis plate. Fit the braided fuel line to the fuel pump fitting using the connector. Fit the fuel line connector to the pump. This is just a push fit, but not that the fuel line is pointed away from the pump. Be careful with this as the connector fits on a round pin and can point in any direction. This completes the stage.

Stage 68 gives us the cockpit housing and handbrake. Put the right hand panel in place and fix it with 3 screws. 2 in the top and one at by the cockpit floor which is a little fiddly, but a magnetised screwdriver will help. Looking at the bottom of the model, the bottom of the panel should fit like this. It was a little tricky trying to get the panel to locate fully until I realised it was the lugs on the chassis not going in the holes in the chassis panel. Once I turned the model over, it was easy to get them to click into place. Handbrake next. Push the handbrake cable onto the handbrake. Push the handbrake into the hole in the cockpit panel. Trim the handbrake cable to length and push it over the pin on the fire wall. Push the cooling water pipes out of the way and fit the left cockpit panel. This is fitted with 4 screws. From the underside you can see how the panel fits to the chassis, and you can also see the cooling water pipes running between the panel and the passenger seat. This completes the stage.

Stage 67 gives us the cockpit floor panel. A nice easy stage after the intensive previous two stages. First, remove the screws that hold the suspension brackets. Be careful not to dislodge the brackets, but they stayed in place on my model so it wasn't a problem. Fit the cockpit floor plate with 6 PM screws., fitting the ones holding the suspension brackets first. This completes the stage.

Stage 66 gives us the radiator and associated pipework. Screw the radiator front panel to the body with a couple of screws then push the two sides in place. Be careful to get the sides the right way round. It looks like this from the rear of the radiator. Push a connector onto the hose coupling. Push the metal hose into the connector. You may need a touch of superglue to secure the coupler to the connector. Repeat for the other end of the metal hose. Repeat the whole operation to complete a second identical hose. Push the pins on the couplings into the holes in the radiator. Bend the metal hoses so that they point down toward the floor. Fit the radiator to the front floor panel with 2 screws. Remove the water hose (37B) from the water pump housing (8A). This was fitted in Pack 5 stage 37. Cut two lengths of water cooling pipe, each 285mm long. You may find that they are somewhat kinked from being wrapped up in the bag. Easily fixed; just drop the in very hot water and they will straighten up like magic. Push one of these pipes onto the pin on the water pump housing where you just removed the old pipe and feed it under the firewall and along side the passenger seat. Feed it under the wiring board (electrical panel) and forward tower the radiator. Note: I finally decided on fitting it behind the wiring board as it looked neater. The instructions are correct according to the prototype, but I preferred something that looked neater rather than was strictly accurate. Up to you which you prefer of course. Your model is your model. Now connect this to the bottom radiator hose. You may need to trim the hose to length to get a good fit. The second hose is fed underneath the fire wall, along side the passenger seat and behind the wiring panel. Note that the end towards the rear of the model is not connected yet. The photo below shows both pipes tucked behind the wiring panel. Now connect the front of the hose to the radiator upper metal hose. This completes the stage.

Have you looked at my entry on the official build diary? It's towards the bottom of the page. It is a bit fiddly, and I did find that there were the odd links that were poorly moulded and wouldn't link properly. There are enough spares provided so that a few discarded links didn't matter.

Stage 65 gives us the front floor panel, and we also install the dashboard. Take the dashboard and route the cables as shown in the photo. I tamed the cables with a spare piece of black tape. Half place the dashboard in position and feed the cables the chassis framework. The instructions say to reconnect the plugs and sockets now, but I preferred to leave them until after the dash is finally fixed. Remove the fire extinguisher pull from the dashboard frame. Put the dashboard in position, making sure that the 4 posts on the underside of the dash are sitting squarely in the recesses on the chassis framework. Turn the model over and fit the four screws. Well, fit three of them anyway, I couldn't fit the front right screw as the cockpit floor gets in the way. Not to worry, three screws hold the dash firmly. Fitting these screws is quite tricky. A magnetised screwdriver is essential. This photo shows the rear left screw hiding in the shadows. I couldn't get a decent photo of the other screws as they are hidden in the depths of the model. I reconnected the plugs and sockets after the dash was completely fitted. You can replace the fire extinguisher pull handle as well. You need to remove the headlamp LEDs before you can fit the front floor panel. I taped the loose cables to save them getting snagged. Fit the front floor panel with 4 screws. This completes the stage.

Stage 66 gives us the front right brakes, but we assemble the hubs that were provided and started in the previous stage. Take the right hub and put it in position. You can easily identify the right hub as the steering arm points forwards and the lug for the track rod end point upwards. Clip the track rod end (steering arm) over the lug on the hub. Fit the hub to the wishbones with a couple of screws, one for the upper wishbone and one for the lower wishbone. Repeat this with the left hub. This completes the stage and the Pack.

Stage 65 gives us the front hubs. Rather embarrassingly, I forgot to take a photo of the parts, so I've used the parts picture from the instructions. Firstly, we assemble the brake disc provided in the last stage. The two halves just push together. Push the right angle drive onto the right hub. Push the left angle drive onto the left hub. This completes the stage.

Stage 64 gives us the from left brakes, but we assemble the front upper right wishbone provided in the previous stage. This stage is a report of the previous stage, so I'll be brief. Fit the upper wishbone, securing it with the two supports and screws as we did in the previous stage. Fit the torsion bar as before. However, the hole in my front subframe was clogged up with paint and flash, so I had to drill it out with a 2mm drill bit. It was a bit tight pushing the torsion bar pin into the hole, so a 2.1mm drill bit might be a better choice if you have one. This completes the stage.

Stager 63 gives us the from right upper wishbone, but we fit the front left upper wishbone provided in the previous stage. Put the front upper wishbone in position. Make sure you have the bolt details facing up. Rotate the wishbone up so you can get to the slots where the supports will be fitted. Fit the supports in the rectangular holes in the front subframe. Note that the longer support goes toward the rear of the shock and the shorter bracket goes in front of the shock. These are tricky to get into position, but a pair of tweezers will help. Secure them with screws when they are in position. Take the torsion bar and push in into the hole in the from subframe. Then push the other end onto the square post on the wishbone, This completes the stage.

Stage 62 gives us the front left upper wishbone, but we assemble the right lower wishbone provided in the previous stage. This stage is a repeat of the previous stage, so I'll be brief. You will need to sand the wishbone, wishbone brackets and shock absorber as you did in the previous stage so that the parts fit newly and rotate smoothly. Then screw them together. Push the wishbone brackets into the holes in the front subframe and secure them with two screws. Secure the top end of the shock absorber to the reinforcing bar with a screw. Do this for both front shocks. This completes the stage.

Stage 61 gives us the front right lower wishbone and shock absorber. However, we assemble the left suspension provided in the previous stage. The shock will be a tight fit in the lower wishbone and you'll need to sand the paint off the shock bush and the inside of the bracket on the wishbone. You can use the sandpaper provided, or a needle file. I used a needle file and it's a bit easier than using the sandpaper. Sand the paint off until you get a nice fit that is free to move. You'll also need to repeat the sanding exercise with the ends of the wishbone and the wishbone brackets. When you're happy that the wishbone brackets and shocks can move freely, secure with the long type G screws. Make sure you get the brackets the right way round, others you'll have problems fitting the wishbone to the front subframe. Push the brackets into the square shaped holes in the front subframe. Make sure the go in far enough so that the holes in the brackets line up with the holes in the bottom of the subframe. Secure the brackets with screws inserted through the bottom of the front subframe. This completes the stage.

Stage 60 gives us the front lower left wishbone and shock absorber. However, we assemble the front reinforcing bar that we provided in the previous stage. Push the cap onto the horn actuator body. Push this assembly onto the reinforcing bar. Push the windscreen washer bottle into the reinforcing bar. Fit the reinforcing bar onto the front subframe with two screws. This completes the stage.

Stage 59 gives us the front subframe reinforcing bar and some details, but we will assemble the forms provided in the previous stage. Take the horn trumpets and push them onto the bodies. The horns are different, but the bodies are identical. Push the horns into the brackets. Make sure you get them the right way round. Push the bracket into the slot in the front subframe. This completes the stage.

It has a good weight to it and it feels nice and solid. Certainly not weightless and hollow. The magnets do not need to be glued in with too much superglue. They serve to hold the skin in place during assembly, but are pretty much superfluous once the skin is finally fixed. However, it does need a fair bit of superglue to glue the skin sections to each other.