Mike's models: St CANUTE (Wall mounted in frame)

I bought the BILLINGS boat kit of the St CANUTE from a guy in our model club.

When I started to build it I discovered that the hull was constructed in two halves and then joined together.

This gave me the idea to construct two complete half boats and then frame each one with a reflective background to simulate a whole boat.

I have two grandsons and so each one would have a boat with his name on it.

Each side of the hull was built separately and the decks planked.

All the deck fittings including the wheelhouse, funnel, winch, cabins and skylights etc were constructed individually and then cut in half down the centre.

They were then fitted to the separate hulls. The fittings such as the ventilators, bollards and ladders etc. which were not fitted on the centre line of the boat were fitted individually to each hull deck.

I got the names vinyl cut from a local signage firm and fitted them to each hull.

I then constructed the two box frames into which the half boats would fit.

Using 2mm glass as a backing would have left a 2mm gap between the model and its reflection, apart from the problem of sticking the half boat to it.

From our local plastics company, I obtained some self adhesive mirror chrome vinyl. This comes in 610mm and 1m wide rolls and is sold by the metre.

I cut two pieces of styrene to the size that I wanted for the backboards (I buy it as a 2m x 1m x 1mm sheet from the same company).

I cut the vinyl to size and then stuck it to the styrene.

Wooden blocks were glued to the insides of the half funnels, hull and deck cabins and then the models were placed on the backboards and the outlines of the funnel, hull and cabins marked on the rear.

Holes were drilled in the backing board and countersunk for attachment screws and then the boats were screwed to their backboards from behind and the screw heads covered with a 0.4mm piece of styrene glued on.