Well, while I'm waiting on various things for my other projects, I thought I'd dig this out of the cupboard...
I've put it in the general section as I'm not yet sure what I will actually be doing with hull in the end. Some of you may remember a few months ago I made a post about a boat I'd found at work, and took home with me, well now I've also acquired the moulds, for the hull, and for the deck. Using these moulds it makes a small speedboat, but I think the hull could also be suited to a little sailing dinghy, or a rowing boat, or it could make a nice looking speedboat with a wooden deck.
So I'm using the ready make hull I've got as a bit of a prototype, see how it handles, see if any modifications need to be made to the mould for the final model, and to give me something to do today. I had to use the various bits I had lying around from other projects that never got going, and butchered some from boats I don't use. So I ended up with this selection of bits...
First job was to mark and cut out a hole for the rudder, and a slot for the prop shaft. I have to say its a lot nicer working with fibreglass than with the plastic of Revell type kits! Very dusty, but it actually cuts ok, instead of melting! To cut the slot I drilled a series of very small holes, using a dremel type tool, and then used a file attachment to 'cut' through the remaining parts separating the holes, then used a small file to try and smooth and square it up.
The rudder was fitted 1st, and as usual, the thread didn't go down far enough on whatever the black tube that the rudder fits in is called.... sorry if you don't understand the technical terms.... So I had to use and old favourite of mine, a bottle cap with a hole cut in, to act as a spacer. I smeared silicone sealant around the base of the bottle cap before fitting it over the shaft and them tightening up the but to 'hopefully' make a watertight seal.
I then used the rudder as a visual aid in lining up the propshaft, and used a hot glue gun to set it in place, before using some ModelBond Gel to firmly fix it. Unfortunately it seems that at some point the prop shaft shifted to 1 side slightly as the centre of the prop is now about 4mm to the left of the centre line of the rudder (looking from the stern). I'm hoping this won't cause too many problems, but as this is only a test bed it shouldn't matter too much. So at this stage the rudder and prop shaft are now fitted....
I had a quick tea break, had a packet of biscuits, and soldered some wires on to the motor. At which point I looked away while picking up the soldering iron and burnt the tip of 1 of my fingers.... So 10 mins later and a lot of cold water run over my finger, I decided to get on with the internals. A quick check of the best layout showed my splitcell battery pack would be best, each half sitting either side of the prop shaft, RX mounted using sticky back velcro as high as I could get it, and the ESC mounted in the same fashion on the opposite side of the hull. The rudder is fixed using both ModelBond Gel, and hot glue, and the motor is fixed using hot glue. Though at first I hadn't taken into account the fact I need the bend the motor mount to get the right angle to connect the motor and shaft, as such when I did bend the mount, the motor was moved backwards and didn't leave enough clearance, so I had to take it out re-mark it and re-glue it.
At that point I thought a quick bath test would be good, this revealed that the batteries needed to be shift back towards the stern, and that I'd forgotten to tighten the grub screws on the shaft couplings! And that water seemed to be getting in from 1 of the holes I'd made, but I couldn't see exactly where from. To seal this hidden leak I made up some Fastglas resin, and poured it into, and around, the hull making sure it went all around the prop shaft and rudder, and left it in the garden to dry. The intention was to leave it until tomorrow, where I'd use a carrier bag taped over the open part of the deck to seal it, and take it for sea trials. But I got bored....
I decided a little screen might look quite good, so used paper, taped to the deck, and gradually trimmed down to the right shape, to make a template...
This was then taped to a sheet of litho-plate, and carefully (but quite badly) cut out using a sharp craft knife.
I'll be using small bolts to attach this to the raised lip around the opening in the deck, but I don't think my GF or son would appreciate it much if i started drilling at this time of night. I've also used paper to make a template of the opening, so I can make a cover out of litho-plate to stop water getting in while on trials tomorrow.
Mods feel free to move this somewhere else, I'm just not sure what type of model this will end up as so could well go in several sections here....
