Pilot Boat - Sunk

The pilot boat had made a little more progress since the last post - I built a stand for it. Sadly, had is the appropriate word.

You see there was a problem with the "kit". Namely, it was rubbish.

Putting the stand together, I noticed that the hull was not symmetrical along it's axis. Possibly this might have just been down to the flexibility of the vac-formed plastic and if I put a deck on I could pull one side in a bit making it look OK.

So I started trying to work out the deck. But I couldn't. You see the "plans" were, on investigation, little more use than doodles. Across the stern, they were the same as the hull. Along the length, they were a lot too short. And the lines along the sides didn't look like either half of the hull.

The side view made things worse. This was even shorter and also showed the deck should rise toward the bow - but by how much ? With the proportions being out there was no datum to work with. The superstructure didn't match what I had either, but at least it looked like the photos, sort of anyway.

What I need for this boat is a proper plan. If I could get one of those I could make up some bulkheads which would allow me to work out the rise of the deck and incorporate the camber that I'd seen on the other pictures of boats I'd found. But if I did that there was little chance that the plan based bulkheads would fit the hull I had.

At this point it became all too painfully obvious why the model hadn't been built. If I could get the information, scratchbuilding would be a whole lot easier for the quality of model I wanted. The best this thing would be good for is a bath time toy.

I did consider putting the boat back in the cupboard but to be honest I need the space more than a duff kit. eBay might have been an idea but how can you describe something you know to be junk accurately and sell it for enough to make it worth the effort ?

In the end I recovered the shafts and stuck the remains in the bin. All the bits I bought will be used on future projects so long term I've probably wasted less than a tenner in kit and plasticard. Perhaps that's worth it for a valuable lesson learned about buying old projects on a whim.

Which just leaves the Brede kit from the same maker. I've seen this made up and it can look nice. I also have a very detailed plan for the boat from the RNLI so I can make the bulkheads up to get the deck and hull shape right. What's the betting I flog the kit and scratchbuild the boat instead ?