To fit the plant into the model I decided to use the two thwarts that were cut from the model as bearers for the plant.  They were fitted to the base plate of the boiler with some small stainless steel allen screws and nuts, trimmed to size and then glued into the base of the boat with a couple of pieces of wood on the ends to stiffen up the joint.  The positioning needed to be fairly central for stability purposes and still leave enough room for the shaft and a coupling at the rear:

Once the boiler bearers were set in place I decided to fit some wooden gratings to a couple of longitudinal supports level with the boiler base to finish off the lower area of the boat.  These were made up from wooden gratings kits:

While there is a huge range of 1/6th scale action figures available a great number of them are at an eye watering price.  This was meant to be a low cost project so it was decided that a cobbled together approach was probably going to work best.  Consequently all parts were sourced from an on line auction site where the body of the figure was purchased separately from the head and the German Naval uniform which, when all brought together looked the part:

All the other accessories that would be placed in the boat would reflect the time and location and would fit in with the figure.  Buying all the bits and pieces in this way made a big difference to the overall cost and kept it in reasonable levels.  The figure was going to be sat in the rear of the boat in what I would expect to be a fairly typical location for such a boat.  This meant he had to be close to the engine control servo, which I anticipated would be fitted to the next thwart along.  He needed to be removable but also secure so two holes were drilled into his rear and two brass tubes glued into them with epoxy:

I put a lot of thought into where the electronics would be located to make the arrangement as easy as possible to put into the model while still keeping everything hidden.  I decided that the engine servo would sit on the thwart next to the engine with the cable running below the thwart:

The steering servo would sit on the aft deck with the cable running in a brass ‘conduit’ so the receiver and battery pack would sit very nicely on top of one of the nearby side compartments.  This meant that two scratch built lockers were going to be needed to hide the bits.  These were built in place from sheets of dolls house flooring and scraps of softwood:

They were detailed with dolls house hinges and fitted with magnets to hold them in place.  Being built in place they fit the side of the boat perfectly:

So not only do they look the part but they hide the receiver, battery and on/off switch:

Probably what ended up being the most difficult part of the build was fitting the stern tube.  Using a ready built model with the aft end enclosed it was never going to be easy as you basically had no idea what you were drilling into.  I tried drilling from the aft end and ended up coming out in entirely the wrong place so I tried drilling from inside the hull and again came out in entirely the wrong place.  The only thing for it was to remove the aft decking:

That way I could at least see what I was up against and then, hopefully drill partway in from both sides and finish off with a long tapered reamer and files.  Removing the deck revealed an odd assortment of keel and stern frame, which had obviously pushed the drill off line.  I hacked out a lot of the wood with chisels and knives to free up the space, drilled from both sides exactly where I wanted the tube to sit and fitted the stern tube in place:

At this point I also removed a section of the stern frame to allow the propeller to sit back in the hull:

A similar recess was also cut into the forward part of the rudder giving the 40mm brass propeller clearance all around at all rudder angles:

When the tube eventually sat exactly where I wanted it with the end lining up with the engine shaft and because I had removed quite a bit of the strength I decided to fill in a large part of the space with poured resin.  This was also painted internally up the sides of the hull  in a number of separate pours to seal this compartment completely and give it some of the strength back before making a replacement deck, out of the same doll’s house flooring as I’d used for the side boxes, and fitting it to new runners glued to the inside of the hull.  I also put the steering servo in place at this point:

I must admit to being pleasantly surprised that the spare shaft and tube I had was a perfect length for the job so that was another item of stash effectively put to good use.  I even had the pouring resin on the shelf so quite a few items that has been sat on the shelf for some time were finally being put to good use.

Moving to the outside of the hull the first job was to strip off all the evidence that this was a model of a Titanic lifeboat so the company flag, the name plates and the rope grab handles were all removed and the holes wiped with Tamiya filler.  The rowlocks were also removed and the holes filled and, when dry all the filler was rubbed down:

In the knowledge that I had discovered the hull was not sound when I did the initial stability test I knew I had to do a complete sealing job.  I was very loathe to either take anything apart or even to strip back to bare wood so a little research on line revealed a couple of products that would help with the job.  The first was Captain Tolley’s Creeping Crack Cure, which I had never heard of before. It is basically a sealant that has a viscosity lower than water to it seeps into every little crack and gap by capillary action then sets to form a seal.  I ran a bead of the fluid into every joint on the outside of the hull, let it dry completely and then went over the hull a second time:

The options then were to either paint the outside with some more pouring resin, which can be a little tricky on such a large surface as it sets so quickly, or a coat of Eze-Kote.  This is supposed to be a water based alternative to pouring resin and, while I have seen some arguments that it is not quite as strong as resin based products, I didn’t need the strength in this case I was looking for the sealing properties:

It is a lot more convenient to use and apply and it doesn’t cost you a paintbrush every time you use it so I went for three coats of EZE-Kote all over the external surfaces of the hull:

When the Eze-Kote had set properly and before I applied any paint I did another test in the bath and was pleased to see no leakage whatsoever into the hull.  After that the upper hull was given two coats of Humbrol Gloss Ivory:

, and the undersides a coat of Crimson Lake Coach Enamel from Craftmaster:

The top of the bulwarks was finished off with a Humbrol Matt medium grey to frame the white neatly:

Interesting background Dave, thank you.  My own model boat club has discussed diversifying many times over recent years and have now introduced a military vehicle section as we have a number of military vehicle enthusiasts.  I think as numbers in most craft based hobbies continue to dwindle the only way clubs and organisations are going to survive is by diversifying.

Myself I have never really stayed in one area much but tend to see myself as a general modeller, willing to use anything and everything to achieve the goal.  I play a lot with steam, not surprising as I write about it and inspect boilers but I will put together a model and it will almost certainly contain at least some elements of plastic construction, woodwork, metalwork, electrics and electronics, scratch building and anything else that catches my eye.  I see no shame in taking short cuts and I’m always willing to look for ways in which something can be repurposed to save some time.  I started off as a teenager working in a toy, pushbike and model shop, which remains the job I have enjoyed most throughout my life.  So I’m no expert in any area but I like to think I’m open to anything and try to see imaginative aspects in something that other may miss.

Anyway, on with the German Launch.

Turning attentions to the steering servo, which I had mounted in the aft deck, I wanted the linkages to look credible so used neat stainless steel clevis ended 2mm rods to attach to a metal frame made and attached to the rudder and bent a ‘Z’ in the servo end to make a push/pull arrangement.  The cable had to be across the deck so it was disguised with a brass conduit, mounted with pipe brackets onto wood battens.  The connecting rods were led through holes cut into the aft of the hull, well away from the water line and bearing in mind that the model is probably not going to see much in the way of heavy weather.  Rudder movement is not very great however it has since proved to be sufficient:

The engine control linkage was a simple clevis connection again but I also wanted to play around with the option of having the figure ‘operating’ the engine.  To enable this I connected a vertical lever to a pivot at its foot and through the extended arm on the servo.  The problem is that the figure is quite stiff to move so may well prove to be impractical anyway but having the lever gives me the option to try.  The cable from this servo was simply led below the thwart to keep it neat and out of sight:

A few bits and pieces came to mind during the build that I thought would enhance the finished appearance and so deserved to be included.  One of these was the forward stern seal.  Most boats have them but rarely do you see them modelled so I found myself two suitable sized washers and drilled them out to 8mm to suit the shaft before glueing them together.  I then glued two rings of plastic nuts around them to make what I think is a very credible stern seal arrangement.  A coat of enamel, a little dark wash and a puddle of oil in the bilge below it finishes it off.  While this job was being done I also fitted a shaft tube oiling point, which is the type that you glue on with epoxy then drill through the tube to penetrate the shaft tube.  Again painted up in matching green enamel:

Another item that I wanted to include was an oil lamp on the bow.  After playing around with where it could be located I eventually used a boat davit from the spares box, painted it up with the Humbrol Ivory enamel and drilled and glued the deck to take it.  The lamp was bought from a supplier of 1/6th scale accessories and attached to the davit after a little weathering to reduce the brand new finish.  The lamp actually contains a button battery and a LED so it also operates if you want to put it on:

The lifeboat was supplied with a mast and I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to add further detailing.  Unfortunately the mast mountings were out of alignment so the hole in the thwart required shifting over and a plastic flange was used to hide the required filler.  The mast then gave me the opportunity to add four shrouds, each with its own bottlescrew, shackle and eye bolt to give a much busier look at the forward end.  The tensioning arrangements were all painted up and spotted with a wash to bring them to life:

Interesting Jason.  When I first got into model boats around 30 years ago my club, The Kirklees Model Boat Club, used to attend many annual shows.  One of my favourites was the Harrogate Model Engineering Show.  When I first started there were usually in the region of 12 to 13 model boat clubs displaying.  When the show moved to Doncaster Racecourse the last show I did there, which I think was in 2019, there were only two model boat clubs displaying.

It really saddens me to see how interest is falling off in all these types of hobbies.  I always used to take advantage of the opportunity at Harrogate to have good nosey around when it was quiet and was always fascinated by the levels of skill on display.  Some of the experimental clubs had some real characters in them who were always ready to take time chatting away about what they were doing.  Good days.