Mr Ben in Model Boats magazine

 

My second cover photo in a month!

This time it's Model Boats magazine that does the honours with a photo of my little boat Mr Ben occupying the bottom corner.

Inside, I run through the process of building a very traditional wooden boat from a Vintage Model Boats company kit. 

It's a very nice boat although since the article was written I've re-waterproofed the hull as the sanding sealer and paint wasn't doing to the job quite as well as I would have liked. It's not essential but nowadays I would cover the hull with Deluxe Materials cloth.

At least the piece mentions that I didn't get the first attempt at the drive train set up properly. This fried a motor and resulted in me eventually ripping out the propshaft to get things working as well as I would like. To be fair, if you weren't trying to build it in a hurry as a Christmas present for my Mum then I'd have got it right first time.

Oh, and the name. The kit is called "Mr Tom" but the farm where we sail has a cat called "Mr Ben" who is lovely and often comes over for some fuss.