Hi ya FrozenRabbit
In this hobby, as all hobbies, there are many ways of doing things - and each way of doing something has its good/bad points.
Personally, when I build a hull, I try to plank it to the best of my abilities and try and minimise the amount of gaps/filling I have to do. The hull is never up to my expectations and I always have to do lots of filling.
In the olden days, before glassfibre/polyester resin - a lot of hulls which were built from wood were only sealed with lead based paints and varnishes - and that was the barrier between the timber and the water.
In theory The wooden hull should have sufficient strength on its own; to withstand the knocks and bumps at the lakeside.
With the arrival of plastics e.g. polyester/epoxy resins we should be using that as a barrier between the water and the wood. So its good to aim for that. i.e. to create a smooth finish on the wood, then create a smooth finish using the epoxy or polyester resins. Adding matting/tissue matting will help suspend polyester resin on the hull - in other words - it prevents thickened resin running away.
When epoxy resins are used - use woven roven material which is totally different to tissue or chopped strand mat. You cant mix chopped strand mat with epoxy resin because the chopped strand mat contains a resin which bonds the strands together and will not break down with epoxy.
So, proceed the way you are doing by filling the outside of the hull and then coating with epoxy resin.
On the inside - I would coat with epoxy resin only to seal the timbers in.
There are two trains of thoughts here - some people think the timber should be allowed to 'breath' but the only thing that is wrong with this is that the timber can expand when its wet. Therefore it will break away from the epoxy on the outside of the hull.
If the timber is completely sealed, no dampness should be able to reach the timber and therefore it wont expand.
John
Bluebird,
This is a fine example of the impact a few words can have on somebody first starting out. I appreciate the knowledge you have offered. I keep all advice for reference and criticism for its value. The latter is sometimes challenging.
You're spin on the pros and cons on our subject will help me move forward. Your opinions on glassing is fair. I feel a little more comfortable with what I wanted to do. Plank, fill, sand, glass, figure it out from there.
I will epoxy the inside of the entire structure as well, well the planking at least. Oh, and my 3/4 Oz cloth is woven.
I have medium Grey "spray" primer. Rust red for the bottom color, medium-dark blue for the upper hull, meduim-bright yellow for accents, god-awful green for the decks and bright white for the superstructure.
My next query will be in the electronics branches of the forum. I'll harass those guys for simple, cheap RC components tricks. Peter has helped with this a good deal, but it never hurts to keep researching.
You and Peter have helped me get my footing.
Now I'll work on my sea legs!