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

[aydingocer]

END BUILD DAY 13-14.

 

9:30 hours in two days.

 

50 hours into build in total.

 

This is the status after 50 hours of work. Thanks for watching.

 

Edited June 5, 2016 by aydingocer

[cog]

Aydin,

 

Even whilst working during the week you make good progress. Thanks a lot for the Watt, Volt, Ohm explanation (not my forte) it cleared some questions for me ... Still looking forward to your posts. I enjoy your build tremendously!

 

Cheers

[gjdale]

Great progress Aydin.

[aydingocer]

Thanks for the good wishes and encouragement.

[AntonyUK]

Hi Aydin.

I am getting withdrawal symptoms.

More updates please.

 

Regards Antony.

[aydingocer]

Hi Aydin.

I am getting withdrawal symptoms.

More updates please.

 

Regards Antony.

Not at all!! . I twisted my wrist somehow badly last Sunday and had to give a break. It was in wrist support until yesterday preventing me from even tying my own shoe laces. I can't wait to resume in 1-2 days (hoping to get effected as less as possible from Euro 2016 football cup)

Edited June 11, 2016 by aydingocer

[gjdale]

Sorry to hear of your strained wrist Aydin - best wishes for a speedy recovery. I too have missed your updates.

[EJ_L]

Sorry to hear about your injury. That has to be frustrating on many levels. Rest up and heal and we will be here ready for your return!

[AntonyUK]

Hi Aydin.

Give it time and you will be fine. No rushing back to the construction just because I want a update

 

Regards Antony.

[cog]

Hello Aydin,

 

Be careful with that wrist, for if you do not heed it, you might be bothered by it for a long time. Better take your time, even though I do miss the updates.

 

I don't like soccer, besides the Dutch team made a mess of it as usual , you might aswell sit back and enjoy the competition ... take care

 

Cheers

[aydingocer]

Thanks for all the good wishes. My wrist has almost healed totally, I hope to proceed tomorrow at least a little bit, before I go for a long weekend vacation to France (to watch Euro 2016 Football Cup tournament of course)   .

 

Before I continue, allow me to share with you an excellent example of customer care, which is increasingly harder to find nowadays. I am talking about a model hobby shop with online sales, named Static Naval Models, based in Italy. Their website is http://www.snmodels.com. I found this website totally by luck while looking around to find more information about the upholstery kit of my Riva Aquarama. While surfing their website I noticed a chat service on the bottom of their page. I started chatting with an Alberto who was very helpful and the chat last about half an hour. He gave me long descriptions and what's more, took several detail photos of the kit and emailed me afterwards, and I was not even their customer (yet). Their shop is apparently located in the same town as Amati therefore they have access to all kinds of info, stock and resources about Amati products.

 

Several days later I ended up ordering this baseboard for my Riva from their page (http://www.snmodels.com/en/snshop/floor-stands-and-supports/baseboard-for-runabout-200x600). I also sent them an email afterwards about one part which arrived broken at shipment (I had shared this with you guys in one of my earlier posts). I hadn't even bought the kit from this shop, they replied me that they contacted to Amati about this piece and obtained it from them and are sending them to me with my baseboard for free and at no extra shipment cost. Plus, the shipment was extremely fast. Now that's a customer care or what?

 

Here is by the way the part in question:

 

 

 

Needless to say, now I am a big fan of this webshop and I cannot recommend them strongly enough. They don't have very big selection but if you are especially after Amati products I suggest you to check it first.

Edited June 14, 2016 by aydingocer

[mtaylor]

This excellent customer service and lesson for certain other companies (and not just models or tools) to learn how to get and keep customers.   

[gjdale]

Great news Aydin. Customer service like that is hard to find these days. I'm sure they now have one more loyal customer, and through your recommends, likely several more. Good to hear the wrist is healing - enjoy the football vacation.

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 15. PLANKING CONTINUED.

 

1 hour today.

 

51 hours into build in total.

 

I was able to resume today after my wrist injury even though for a short time amongst the football games. 

 

Started with replacing the cockpit protection with a new one. The previous one was mostly worn out. 

 

 

After that I planked altogether 4 strips (two on each side). The hull planking (first layer) is almost done with these ones (except stealers and 1-2 full strips). Of course with all the work of removing the nails, filling the gaps with wood filler, sanding etc still remaining. I am planning to just remove the nails for the moment and do all the rest of the work once I have done the deck planking. 

 

 

 

 

That's all for today. Thanks for watching.

Edited June 13, 2016 by aydingocer

[cog]

Aydin,

 

Instead of nailing you could use push pins, which hold the plank down, the only disadvantage is, you cannot put multiple planks on ...

[aydingocer]

Aydin,

 

Instead of nailing you could use push pins, which hold the plank down, the only disadvantage is, you cannot put multiple planks on ...

 

That's true, Carl. I had actually bought these push pins long time ago ( photo credit http://www.micro-mark.com ) but never actually used them. Maybe I should give them try, even though I am close to the end of planking, just for experiment.

 

EDIT: Actually on a closer look, they may come quite handy during second planking since you will not be inserting the nail to the strip itself, but to the first planking layer underneath instead, hence no holes on the final planking.

 

Edited June 14, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 16. PLANKING CONTINUED.

 

After a short holiday trip abroad, a friend visiting from abroad, some busy times at work, combined with Euro 2016 football cup games on TV, finally I am back to construction of my lovely model.

 

Returning from each break, the smell of wood and glue makes you realise how much you have missed building your model.

 

Anyway, I was able to spend some good 4 hours today on continuing the planking.

 

First of all, some complaint about the kit: The amount of nails which come with the kit is simply insufficient. I can tell this by saying that I haven't even used half as many as shown in the instructions but still I have run out of them. So what I did was to recycle them by removing carefully from the planks.

 

On the left, the ones which I was able to recycle. On the right are those which go directly to garbage after serving a single time:

 

 

Just for reference, this is how generously they are used in the

instructions:

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

So, I started the day by removing the nails which have been there for several weeks:

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Next, I decided to do a bit more cleaning up and trimmed the excess planks from the edges:

 

BEFORE:

 

 

AFTER:

 

 

and

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Next step is to plank the front deck. Here I had to remember to finally glue the leather mattress under the deck:

 

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Planking of the deck starts. According to the instructions, first you plank the 2 center strips and then continue with the left side first, even though it is usually customary to plank one on each side, proceeding evenly. I don't actually know if it makes any difference, but anyway I decided to follow the instructions. Maybe they have a point, which will show up later. The front deck planks terminate at the dashboard, with the last 3 strips at the sides following the same alignment:

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Trimming the excess planks with a saw.

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Left part of the front deck 1st planking complete. It feels weird that the below the deck is completely hidden. There will be only a small part of it visible through the cockpit when the model has been completed. 

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

END BUILD DAY 16.

 

4 hour today.

 

55 hours into build in total.

 

This is the status after today. Thanks for watching.

 

Edited July 10, 2016 by aydingocer

[Keith_W]

She's really coming together now. The last picture shows off nicely the sleek lines of this boat. Very tempting as a next build.

[EJ_L]

She really is shaping up. Looking good and it is good to see you back and hard at work on her again.

[cog]

Trimming those planks makes a lot of difference. She is starting to look like a boot.

 

I'm curious as to how the finish of those drive shafts will look where they enter the hull. That are some rather big holes to fill ...

 

Cheers

[aydingocer]

Trimming those planks makes a lot of difference. She is starting to look like a boot.

 

I'm curious as to how the finish of those drive shafts will look where they enter the hull. That are some rather big holes to fill ...

 

Cheers

 

I am thinking of filling the gaps with epoxy from inside, after the second planking. In this case the second planking would have much smaller hole around the shafts. 

[aydingocer]

BUILD DAY 17. DECK PLANKING CONTINUED.

 

Today I continue with 1st layer of deck planking. First the right half of the front deck. There are no straight lines in this beauty and the front deck is no exception. It is necessary to bend the stripes a little, even though they look like straight in the photos. 

 

Edited July 11, 2016 by aydingocer

[aydingocer]

Front deck complete. The excess planks on the edges will be trimmed once the glue has dried.

 

Edited July 11, 2016 by aydingocer