Riva Aquarama by aydingocer - FINISHED - Amati - RADIO - A new challenge for a so-far static ship builder

[aydingocer]

Glued the lateral cushions on the cockpit and rear deck in place, as well as the cockpit floor pieces:

 

 

Edited October 21, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

This is the status at the end of the day (front seats and blue cushions around the cockpit dry fitted at the moment). Thanks for watching!

 

[WackoWolf]

Looking good

[cog]

Nearly went cold turkey ... bujt you made up for it! Your seats turned out rather spectacular. I don't think I will take a chance getting some rays on that sun deck, not with the double engine

[EJ_L]

Looking sharp! Those seats are fantastic.

[gjdale]

Looking great Aydin! Nice to see you back - hope you had a good trip.

[aydingocer]

Build day 44. Decorations continued.

 

Continued today with installing the metal ornaments and parts. 

 

First, the metal covers in the bow (whatever it is called in marine terminology). Nailed them all the way:

 

 

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Next, the small 3-piece metal components as in the pictures. There are about 5-6 of them in several locations on the boat:

 

Instructions:

 

 

Parts:

 

 

Drilled, hammered and glued in place:

 

[aydingocer]

Installed the borders on the floor:

 

 

Earlier I had glued the sun bed on the rear deck to the plywood hatch which it sits on. Now I think it is not a good idea, since the sun bed will not fit in its place because of the white cushions around the frame. You will need to bend the sun bed a little to insert it, something  impossible while it is glued on the hatch. So I  detached it. Now in the photos you see the hatch without the sun bed:

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Covered the rear lid with white leather and installed the flag post as well as other stuff:

 

 

[aydingocer]

Painted the brass sheet with spray metallic color (the rear view mirror, which is not supposed to be painted, is covered with masking tape, on the top right) :

 

Before:

 

 

After:

 

Edited October 23, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Glued the turquoise cushions around the cockpit. I had to do this in order to be able to position the other components correctly easier.

 

These cushions accommodate 2 pieces of metal stripes, which are supposed to be nailed. They had "simulated" nail holes which were not fully drilled. So I drilled the nail holes and nailed them on the cushions.

 

 

[aydingocer]

End of Build day 45

3,5 hour today.

130 hours into build in total.

 

Along with several other small metal parts, this is the status at the end of the day. Thanks for watching:

 

 

 

 

 

[CDW]

Spectacular! Love the model.

[EJ_L]

All of those accessories have really made an impact on her appearance. She is looking fantastic and I'm getting excited to see her in the water!

[Robin Lous]

Ah! there's the Riva bling bling!

 

It gets better and better...glad you're back, I missed your build reports.

 

Robin

[aydingocer]

Build day 46. Decorations continued.

 

Today I was able to spare some 6 hours with my build. Here is the progress:

 

Front seat bases are finally glued to the place:

 

[aydingocer]

Exhaust pipes.

 

 

Here I made the mistake of installing the pipes first and the round frames afterwards, making it too hard to hammer nails to the holes on the frame. I leave them as they are for now, until I get a piece of iron rod to help hammer the nails without hitting the exhaust pipes.

 

 

 

 

[aydingocer]

Windshield installation. 

 

Drilled 3 holes for inserting the windshield, 1 in front, 2 on the sides.

 

 

 

Bare windshield frame in place (DRY FIT):

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Drilled hole for the rear view mirror, before installing the windshield permanently:

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Installed the windshield glass (made of acetate):

 

 

Windshield installed in place. Note also the L shaped rubber profile around the lower frame:

 

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Name plates:

 

 

In place. Nows she is officially an Aquarama!!! 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[Mumin]

 

Here I made the mistake of installing the pipes first and the round frames afterwards, making it too hard to hammer nails to the holes on the frame. I leave them as they are for now, until I get a piece of iron rod to help hammer the nails without hitting the exhaust pipes.

 

Wouldn't it be better to drill small holes and use the pin-pusher?

Edited October 30, 2016 by Mumin

[aydingocer]

Windshield wipers:

 

 

 

The rubbers are made of 1x2mm lime strips, painted in black:

 

 

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

There is this round frame in front, at the back of the windshield ( I don't know what it is called or what the purpose is):

 

 

 

In place:

 

 

Windshield wipers also in place:

 

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Next on the line is the dashboard decoration. Seems to be a lot of fun.

 

Instructions:

 

 

The current status of the dashboard:

 

 

Gauge stickers (they don't actually stick, you'll have to use glue) and a few frames:

 

 

Stickers being glued in the frames:

 

 

Example of more components, here the keys and its slots:

 

 

Installed them one by one on the dashboard. Quite annoying sometimes to run after small pieces which snap from the tweezer and run under the table:

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Steering wheel. NOTE: The instructions sometimes deviate quite a lot from the parts which come with the kit, I guess due to the version updates the kit has gone through in years. I would appreciate if they would update the instruction manual, too, to match the new list of parts. The steering wheel is one example. It comes in a single piece in the kit, however according to the instructions you have to assemble it from several parts:

 

 

Painted and waiting to dry, before installation in place:

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Gas levers. There are altogether 4 of them. 2 on the dashboard and 2 on the left side of the cockpit. The latter ones have to be chopped (like in the photo below):

 

 

 

 

Compass, installed similar way as the dashboard frames:

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

End of Build day 46.

6 hours today.

136 hours into build in total.

 

Overall quite a productive day at least from model ship building point of view. This is the status at the end of the day. 

 

Thanks for watching.

 

[aydingocer]

Wouldn't it be better to drill small holes and use the pin-pusher?

 

That's a good idea, too. For that, I'll have to buy a nail pusher 

 

I have something like this (photo googled from internet), to hit with hammer in the final few milimeters:

 

Edited October 30, 2016 by aydingocer