Time for another update.
To give the deck some extra width, to glue down on, supports were fitted to the inner edge of the hull.
The last portion to be tackled was the flare in the bow area. To tackle this, a sort of plinth was glued in and then layered with P38 until just proud of the hull.
This was then sanded level.
The hull was then inverted onto a sheet of 3mm ply and drawn around to rough out a sub deck, which will be planked later on in the build.
During the above, a lot of dust had accumulated, in and around the running gear, so this was all removed and stored away until needed.
The hull inner was then given a couple of coats of white paint, just to make things look a bit neater.
The sub deck was then trimmed to fit and epoxied in place.
While the glue was setting a start was made on the superstructure. First, some of the bits I'd managed to save from the original were taped together, to get some idea of the shapes and dimensions.
So, the 2 sides and the front and back were roughed out with 3mm ply and taped together. This gave me the oblong but now I needed to get the longitudinal curves in the sides.
To this end, a framework was made as a sort of former, followed by some cambered beams for the deckheads.
Finally, a topsheet was fitted and trimmed. I had originally fitted the windscreen and rear screen in recesses but then realised this would make it very difficult to make a mould from, especially as this will be my first attempt at producing anything in GRP.
I could have sanded away the recesses but this would have then shortened the overall length of the superstructure and so I opted to fill the recesses instead - false recesses can be fitted later, using plastruct or similar.
Window frames were drawn, as "best guess", onto cereal packet card. These will be glued in place and, hopefully, will reproduce on the mould, to give an indication of where to cut the windows out.
Anyway, the structure has been given a few coats of sanding sealer and is now feeling smooth enough to take a couple of coats of primer.
Unfortunately, my spraying has to be done outside, so now I'll have to wait for the warmer weather to return.
Still, this gives me some spare time to get on with a couple of other builds.
The photos.
Photo 1: Applying deck supports
Photo 2: As above
Photo 3: Getting the parts to come together (trimming here & there)
Photo 4: Fitting the lower frame
Photo 5: Upper frame work in progress
Photo 6: Filling and sanding
Photo 7: It's pretty smooth now.
Afraid that's it for now...
Regards,
Ray.