Amati riva aquarama model boat 1603

fergal.b

So with lockdown in place keeping me away from my bigger boats I thought I would get back into doing a bit of model building with this kit I bought on ebay, someone already made a start and I have no instructions so I am just going to try my best, plenty of info on the 1608 model but I can't find any info on building one of these so if anyone built one I would love to hear from you. I have bought the motor kit for the 1608 so hopefully I can fit it in, I have also ordered a Ess dual engine sound kit to bring some V8 engine sound

fergal.b

A few bits nicked from one of my planes.



I had to remove a good bit of resin to fit everything in.





Just dry fitted for now I will put it in the bath and find the best place to put the batteries to get the right balance.

beauf

Looks awesome.

coolwings

That's going to be a good looking boat.

fergal.b

So I found these little lights wrapped around a bush on the kitchen table and thought they would make perfect nav lights



I cut out the metal top and bottom and drilled a hole up through it.



Cut some bits off these pens to make the lens.







The colour doesn't show up well on camera but it looks good.



Started on the deck with the king plank.




I changed the bow a bit as the kit came with a plastic bow plate and I am going to use metal. Not sure why the bow looks so flat in the pic.



Started on the planking I should have done it 20 years ago when I had better eye sight, steadier hands and no arthritis in my fingers



I think this is harder than when I did it full-size .





Job done.

coastwatch

Looks great Fergal.
Looking forward to seeing it finished.
You wont even have to get your boots wet with this one.

fergal.b

A bit more done this week on the guitar 🙂 plywood down first.



And then the mahogany .









More strip planking on the engine cover.






Planking the transom.





Need to think of a name for her now.







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fergal.b

Some interesting bending to get the side planking on, I have gone with diagonal planks although I think all the original boats had straight planks.









Making a paper template for the bottom planks.



That should hold them



I'm glad I'm not paying someone to do this probably as much time spent as doing it full size.






Ready for sanding and sealing.

coolwings

It's looking good. When it's varnished that's going to look amazing.

fergal.b

Not much to show just been sealing and sanding, the first coat I applied with a fine grit 3M pad this will help fill some of the voids.




6 coats of sealer with a sanding between each coat, nearly time to start varnishing but I'm not quite happy with it yet so I have ordered a cellulose sealer for the next few coats.




Bottoms up.



Going to drill out the spotlight. I put a screw into my thumb at the start of last year and its only growing out now thats what the hole is






Should be handy for night time driving

Glad to see there's still some true life in the old dog that the Model Forum is, yet!

fergal.b

Probably a bit ott but I decided to coat the boat in 0.24 oz fibreglass cloth mainly because there are so many strips of wood I was afraid that with expansion and so on they might work lose and pop up.






I'm using Gurit sp 320 resin with a slow harder that should give a clear finish.




I do a coat every 3 hours to fill the weave then the next day I give it a light sanding and do another 3 coats.



It's hard to know when to stop sanding and rubbing down with 000 steal wool I seem to see more imperfections on the model than I did on the full size boat




12 coats of lacquer so far with a light sanding between each, I went with lacquer instead of varnish as it has a very quick drying time allowing me to do a few coats a day, it will now get another sanding going from 1000 grit working up to 3000 then rubbing compound and if I'm happy with the finish a waxing.



Feels like I could be sitting in Old's Cool or Sean-Nos two of the full sized boats I built.





I ordered some leatherette on ebay for the seating as I think this will look and feel better than just painting them. I'm starting to feel like maybe I should of built a full sized one it's nearly the same amount of work

fergal.b

Perfect tool for the job 🙂 putting the pleats in the leatherette .





Sun bathing area for the barbie dolls.



No I am not putting Bernie sanders on it



Everything is just dry fitted for now as I wait for some small magnets coming on a slow boat from China.



Temped but No Bernie



Bottom painted, almost seems a shame to cover up the lovely wood.



Aquamarine water line. I can understand why these models command such high prices they are a lot of work. Next I will start on the hardware and add a bit of bling.

AndyBoBandy

I can't wait for the launch of this boat.. I have you have the Champagne Prosecco ready to go...

Will she be for the inland waterways only? or will she see the high seas?

fergal.b

The way things are going this is the only type of water it will be seeing

fergal.b

The kit came with the plastic bow protector on the left it was cheep looking when painted and didn't look the part so I tracked a metal one down on ebay.




Making the cutwater and coating it with tinfoil to give it a chrome look, I was not happy with it so I will wait till I find some stainless steal or a shiny biscuit tin:D





This is a real set of head lights for a Riva.





For mine I used a solpadeine tablet packet








Did the job just have to put the cover on.



Steering wheel put together and painted also put in the gauges, spot light and windshield.




I used this car trim to make the windshield and the rub rails.






Made a suitable engine cover





And this is the ESS sound box that will give out the engine sound, only V8 I'm afraid I did try the twin V12 but it just didn't sound good enough.





Spot light, headlights and Nav lights.

AndyBoBandy

Incredible looking.

runnybabbit420

You are a true craftsman. This is spectacular work. I'm jealous.

fergal.b

Well thats her done and this is what she sounds like, the shafts are still a bit noisy as I have no oil in them yet.

dakar

Just stunning.

Try not to lose this one...

wheelo01

Wow, just wow. Theres a tremendous amount of work gone into this, and a lot of thought and craftmanship.
This is obviously not your first rodeo, great finish on it down to the little things like lights and engine noise.

Rodney Bathgate

Beautiful

fergal.b

wheelo01 wrote: »

This is obviously not your first rodeo, great finish on it down to the little things like lights and engine noise.

No I had practice building full-sized classic boats first.



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Thargor

Thats some transformation in the wood between posts #1 and #12.