Waveney class lifeboat was designed in the USA, but after minor adjustments the vessel was used by the RNLI in British coastal waters. I managed to pickup 1/40th scale Billings Waveney Class Lifeboat Kit from Ebay for £25 including postage that had not been started.

This kit is designed for static display, but with some modelling skill it can be converted to R/C operation. This is now my challenge to convert this kit to R/C control and put as much detail on to as possible without spending fast amounts of money.

As the kit is designed to be static, the first challenge is to be able to provide access to the hull to install and maintain the electric's and R/C equipment.

I choose to cut out the middle section of the top of the boat. A way of fastening this back to the boat will be decided later but this will give good access to the hull to be able to install prop shafts, electric's and R/C equipment.

Tonight I have cut off all of the excess parts of the hull and deck so they fit together and are ready for gluing. Once the hull and deck are glued together I will tidy up the outer edging as this is only been rough cut at this stage.

I have glued the hull to the deck and smoothed all the outer edges to a smooth finish. Now it time to start work on getting the middle of the deck to fit back to the main deck so it's off to shop for some plasticard.

Haven't had time to go to the model shop to buy some plasticard so I decided to keep the project moving by starting to build the control room.

Firstly I carefully cut out the plastic base and plywood pieces before using some Deluxe Material Roket glue to glue everything together, however some sanding is going to be required once the glue has set to make all the edges smooth.

Finally I finished gluing all the windows together on the control room and put the roof on. I found this very tricky to get then lined up and at the correct angle, but eventually after sticking my finger together a few times, I managed to do it and get a result I'm happy with.

Have managed to get some plasticard from a local model shop and have put a strengthening bar at the front of the hull where the floor was cut out that will also act as a locating tab for the control room.