Masterclasses > FAIREY SWORDSMAN - A PLAN FOR BEGINNERS

THE FAIREY SWORDSMAN - A PLAN FOR BEGINNERS by Bluebird

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John W E:
Once dry, the outer piece of the laminate is glued and clamped into position over the top of the first piece.   This is now left alone and allowed to dry for a few hours.

The next stage is what is known as ‘fairing in’.   If you have access to a razor plane, they do help to speed things up.  My personal choice is a mixture of a sanding block and the razor plane.    First of all we shape the keel to the correct shape.   This should be similar to the roof of a house with an apex.  Care must be taken whilst doing this, and not to catch or gouge the frames.  Tip here, mark the centre line down the centre of your keel AND when you are removing material do not cross the line  - and if you place either electricians’ tape or sellotape down the edges of the frames, when you start catching this tape you are getting close to the frame.

Once we have finished fairing in and light sanding of the framework, we are now ready to begin the next stage of the build, which is skimming the hull.  This particular hull we are going to put the transom on first.  The transom shape is already drawn out for us on the plan and all we need to do is trace the shape of the transom from the plan, transfer this to the material we are going to use to skin the hull with.  In this particular case, it is 2mm Liteply.    I cut this out at 5mm larger all around than the actual drawn transom shape.   I also made sure that I had marked on the centre line on both sides of the transom.   

This transom is curved and also tapered towards the keel.  So, the method I adopted was, apply glue to the transom framework of the hull first and then pinned the transom down the centreline to the sternpost of the framework.   Working from the centreline out towards the edges of the hull and this ensured that the transom bent around the curves of the transom framework.    This was allowed to dry and then sanded so it was at the correct width across the hull and the correct ‘V’ for the bottom of the hull.

John W E:
The next stage in the build is to apply the panels for the bottom of the hull.

Working from the centre of the keel and allowing an overlap of about ˝ inch or say 10mm – these were glued & pinned in place.  To prevent distortion in the hull, I applied the two back panels first and then allowed them to dry.   I then moved on to the front panels.

If you note the front panels stop at the bow frame.   This is because the front section is going to be made of solid balsa which we will come to later on.

Also, note that the grain of the material runs from the keel to the chine – across the hull.   This is to allow for easy bending as the panels move towards the bow of the boat.

Once these panels have dried, they are trimmed so that they are flush with the sides at the chine.   We have checked that we have no uneven runs in the length of the chine as well.   

John W E:
When we are quite happy with the bottom panelling, we move on now to panel the sides.   I started at the opposite end (the bow) this time and the bow panel are also drawn out for you on this particular plan.

So, once again, I traced from the plan and transferred to the 2mm Liteply, but, take note of which way the grain runs.  It runs from top to bottom this time and if you take a look at the picture you will see I have added a black arrow to show this.

Once I have cut this shape out (I cut larger than drawn) I soaked this piece in hot water, for about say ˝ an hour.   Pinned it to the front of the model and then allowed it to dry out.    Once it had dried out, removed it from the model and then applied the glue to the framework and re-applied the outer bow skin, using clamps and pins to hold it in place. 


We carry on skinning the sides of the hull; with as large as possible panels, thus minimising the joints. I managed to do this in two panels.  It is the same procedure of clamping and pinning and allowing the glue to dry.   Once the glue has dried, we can then set about trimming the sides and the top to somewhere near size.

When sanding the sides of the hull, care must be taken, as the grain runs vertical.  If we sand in the wrong direction or back sand, it has a chance of lifting the veneer off the balsa wood and also splitting it.  So, sand from the chine towards the keel; thus avoiding the said situation of splitting etc. and once we are happy that enough sanding has been done.  We now move to fill the bow section in – with balsa wood.   In the plan it says use two solid blocks; well at the moment I do not have balsa wood that size so I am going to do it by the process of laminating the balsa blocks together.

John W E:
As you can see, I have offered up the balsa wood to the bow and I am marking the profile of the bow onto the balsa.     I then proceed to cut the balsa 5mm larger than the marked line.   I will carry on this procedure until the full bow is blocked in with balsa wood.  Once this has been completed I then sand the balsa blocks and fair in with the rest of the hull.

You will see in the photographs how I have actually sanded this.   I started off with sanding the same profile as the hull sides and then moving on to the same profile shape as the bottom of the hull.  Then, I gradually worked in – sanding a little piece at a time – from either side until I have the correct bow profile.

It is then a case of filling in the gap that is left at the stem post.  This is done with commercial car body filler – I use P38 manufactured by Isopon and it does sand fairly easily.   After we have finished dressing in and we are satisfied with the hull as far as any bumps and nicks which have been filled and sanded are concerned, we move on – beginning to fit the hardware now.

John W E:
The prop shaft in this hull is 204mm long (8 inches long) and it is a 4mm shaft.

I took measurement from the plan from the stern to the approximate centre of the prop shaft where it exits the hull on the keel, transferred this to the model and drilled a small pilot hole of about 4mm.  Then I gradually opened this up with a rounded file.  (You will know if you have got the wrong – because there is already a hole in the keel to take the prop shaft).

Once the prop shaft is a nice neat fit, I then went back to the plan.   I made a small template out of a scrap piece of 3mm Liteply – which corresponds with the angle of the prop shaft and the keel on the plan.  I temporarily tacked this with superglue onto the edge of the prop shaft.  This serves two purposes; it gives me the correct angle of the prop shaft and also the correct length of the prop shaft sticking out of the hull.

What I did next was with a felt tip marker pen; mark the prop shaft where it exits the hull on the outside and where it enters the hull on the inside.  Remove the shaft, and abrade the area between the two black felt tip marks with some coarse emery paper.  This is to facilitate a good adhesion of the epoxy to the prop shaft.  I then replaced the prop shaft with the triangular wedge back into the hull.

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