Build log · Phase 6, Mouldings, head and rudder

Catheads secured, toilet bowls and the bumkins

10 November 2019 · How-to · Problem and fix

It did not sit right with me that those catheads were held on with nothing but a bit of glue. So off they came again after all. Three pins in, a tiny drop of CA glue on the pins and then fixed with PVA glue. Solid as a rock now.

Toilet bowls

Also made the toilet bowls for on the grating. The kit says to use 4 mm dowel for these. The hole in the grating, however, is a good 5 mm, so you would drop straight through. So I sawed discs of a little over 5 mm diameter from 5 mm thick walnut with the fretsaw, drilled a 2.8 mm hole in them, and there you go. Now glue the ‘seat’ on top and done.

The bumkins

Now a small challenge after all. I copied the grating almost exactly from the drawing supplied. On that drawing both spars (bumkins, I learnt later) run across the seats of ease, and so they do on mine. On Piet’s model the spars run in front of the seats of ease instead, with a modified top rail. Because I followed the drawing, that is no longer possible, the angle becomes completely odd. Should I cut the seats of ease at a slant so the spars can pass them?

My grating on the drawing: so the same on mine

Jaques suggested placing the seats of ease a little further forward. In the photo on the box the spars do indeed run in front of the seats. The angle does become sharper then. But what are those things actually for? Piet explained: the bumkins serve the tacks of the foresail and are stayed with two stays to the underside of the bow. In Dutch those stays are called ‘strondstagen’, because they sat beneath the seats of ease. The forward angle does not matter much, as long as they point forward.

Herby63 added that the bumkins must not sit too far inboard, because then you pull the lower corner of the sail inwards. His advice: make the grating once more, with the holes for the seats of ease a little more towards the centre and the grating wider at the back, so it meets the top rail better. I had not thought of that. Quite a job, but third time lucky. And fun to do.

Beyond that I cannot get on with the head, because I am missing decoration parts: the kit only came with the right-hand pieces and too little decorative strip. Emailed Cornwall Model Boats, they are sending them on. That will probably take a while.