Schnellboot - My Build of Jack's Robbe S130.                                      
Part 3 - Glue everywhere.

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Click photos to enlarge.

 (As you can see, this week I'm now working on our French polished dinning table.... and soon after found myself sleeping in the spare room! )

 This next stage is a critical one ( another one! ) the fitting of the rubbing strakes along the sides. I would have designed this differently using one long length along the entire hull but Robbe supply a 3 piece setup. The problem with this is that the alignment of all 3 bits along the hull is quite tricky.

 The first piece to be attached is the middle piece, a 'L' shaped plastic girder. The plans are quite clear on the dimensions and how this is to be aligned along the hull .......... "quite clear" but not precise! I aligned the middle piece along the hull, held it in place with plastic clams and tacked it in place with superglue.

 With the first piece in place the rear rubbing strake can be fitted. This piece is described as "4.3-Rear rubbing strake, 1x 3x230 - Profiled." The trouble is, it doesn't say what the profiled shape is and there are 20 lengths of plastic to chose from!!!?! After an hour of deliberation and elimination, I picked a flat strip of plastic with enough length to fulfil the job and super glued it in place.

 As you can see, there's now a problem. I didn't quite get the 2 pieces aligned. Never mind, it will look better once the front piece is in place.
 The front strake in place. This one lines up with the middle one - so the rear one must be wrong!
 Overhead, the 2 rubbing strakes look true and straight.
With all rubbing strakes fitted the hull is transformed into something much more purposeful looking.
 This is the Starboard view, not bad! Fortunately, this side was much better aligned than the Port side strakes, so.......

 .... as you can see, the Port side middle strake  was recalled for further attention! Have you ever tried to remove a piece of plastic, stuck to plastic with super glue???? Not an easy job I can tell you. A lot of very careful knife work later, I got it off in one piece and almost no damage!

 The hull and rubbing strake were sanded back and cleaned up, realigned and glued back. A much better job second time round. ( Superglue is much harder than the plastic so the superglue can be quite easily sanded off without damaging the base plastic. )
 Getting back to the deck, the plans and instructions are Very precise about the alignment at the front.

 Unfortunately using these dimensions produces a 10mm overhang at the back???!??! I wasn't too worried about this at first but there are fixtures, rails and hatches all to be aligned up with the back! This is going to take some thought.....!

 Fixing the deck down was causing sleepless nights as there seemed to be something that didn't make any sense to me.

This is a cross section through the deck ( taken from the plans ). After reading, re-reading and then reading the instructions again, this diagram suddenly made sense. This is what it will look like AFTER it's finished!

 This is what you get in the box! The edges of the deck form a trough / groove that the hull sits in. Once the deck and hull is aligned, thin superglue will be poured inside and out of the joint - several times until a strong joint is formed  and then the outer edge of the deck trimmed and sanded back flush to the hull.

"Very clever Heir Robbe!" ( An extra diagram is the instructions would have saved me a week's worth of head scratching though! )  

 But before all that, the deck has about 20 reinforcing pieces, frames and beams to be glued in / on.
 An inner plate is fitted under the main hatch. The hatch it self will sit on this edge.
 Same with the rear / tiller hatch.
 Front girders and frames glued in place.
 Main hatch pieces in place.
 The rear deck has a pronounced curvature and the girders needed quite a bit of help while the glue set.
 Drilling the mounts for rear gun emplacements.... and setting myself up for a divorce!
 The brass mountings fitted in place from under the deck.

 The deck is now fully prepared. The hatched trimmed to shape and test fitted. I also sanded the 'shine' off the deck in perpetration for the later painting.

 Test fitting of the deck and hatches. The deck is much stronger now as you might guess.
 As above and in the instructions, the precise dimensions of the front of the deck are clearly stated.
 Test fitting of the cockpit  / "Control dome" fits these dimensions and the hull perfectly, but.......
.... the deck still over hangs quite away. I think I will have to 'add' to the instructions when it comes to the point of finally fixing the deck down.

( "I used newspaper, cutting mats and drilling blocks all the time dearest! Honest!" )
                                                             
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