Roof making

Regular readers will know I'm a fan of dry-fitting kits together to spot possible problems later in the build. Looking at the sides on the barge, I'm not 100% sure where they sit. Logically, the bottom of the side sits atop the sides of the hull. But there is a gap at least one layer of card could sit in. Get it wrong though, and the roof won't fit. Looking at the photos in the instructions, I think I'm right, but there's one way to be sure, make the roof. Work starts by putting a curve in the piece of card forming the roof. A set of metal rollers would be ideal, but mine are buried in a cupboard, so I just rolled a bit of dowel back and forth, with the card on my thigh - less chubby people can use a couple of towels. It worked fine, so the next job was to fit some MDF formers in, which are clipped in place as shown. Finally, a spine fits into these. I did all this quite quickly so the glue didn't have time to dry until everything is in place. The cutting of the MDF ensures very tight…