Lets start off with a disclaimer "Vac-u-boat" has out now a better hull with 3/8th inch added, even has double rudders so you get a Sumner class if you want. For this build, I want to see if I can make the 1st gen hull work, so lets get to kit bashing!
I want to make a Gearing so I get to use the 1.5 units. To do that, I need to make a jig to cut the hull and add in 1.4 inches of hull. Funny story, they actually did this in reality and the added frames were labeled with A-G while the original frames were numeric. The cut the hull between the funnels, basically so they could add fuel storage.
I cut a shallow groove so the keel would be centered. Then I used Dado blades and made two channels for the extenders to fit.
Picked the area, will go between the panels so they do not need to be adjusted. Using two sizes of tubing, glued the larger in 4 places in the cut area.
Glued the tubing on the other piece of the hull, glued the wood stringers (to keep it straight) and removed the spacer block. Now to let it dry.
So, by doing the above work I have ensured the hull is straight and true, next will be to skin it and remove it from the build board.
Time to fill in the plastic. All this has been done with an xacto knife, no dust or complaints from the significant other.
I added a cross beam to the bottom to give the plastic something to grab onto, this will be removed later.
yep, I want to test the theory that the bow gun added too much mass too high up and that caused them to flip "a lot" Goal is to see if this hull can be done, but I will wait for version 3 gearing and just transfer guts before battling.
Do you have anymore pictures. I am going to need to do this as well. I was also wondering what material did you use to fill in the voids?
Do you have the latest version of the hull? I would not recommend this to the original version, just not enough hull depth.
