In a nutshell, it requires some skill, a lot of patience, and is easier when one has a hotwire cutter, plenty of space, and good lighting. Rather than cardboard, it's easier to start with a thin plywood that is cut according to hull stations and carefully glued squarely onto a board. The space between the "ribs" is then filled with blocks of foam which are subsequently cut down to the level of the ribs. after it's been roughed-out, filler (such as bondo) is added to build up the plug followed by alternately sanding down the material and adding filler until the desired shapce is reached. Once the plug is done, the surface needs to be made sufficiently smooth to yield a quality mold surface prior to building the mold on the plug.
I can tell you that by the time you get good plans, references, and all the materials and tools for it, it will not be cheaper, easier, nor faster than buying a hull But if you really want to, there's a how-to on the MWC website at: http://www.mwci.org/howto/QuickFiberglassHulls/FiberglassHull.htm
Well ... maybe. I have no doubt that the wood Richelieu hull was built cheaper than a fiberglass hull. Of course, the plans I used were very low cost and I already had the tools and knowledge to build a wood hull. Cost was lower in money ... on the other hand, it took a lot more time to build a wood hull.
I meant starting from scratch, Mikester... No one who's seen your Richie will think you had insignificant woodworking skills before starting Is the wood shop on the weapons station still open?
I need to check if it is still open. The AF base closed thier wood shop about 9 months ago. The Richey was build using a borrowed scroll saw from a local hobby shop owner and a bunch of hand tools. Heh. We (as in the warship community) really need a step by step guide to building wood ships. I have plans on doing a guide as soon as I start another wood ship. That'll happen after the MWC Regional in April. The guide will help new builders with the basics, but it won't be all encompassing because of the many diffrent construction styles out there. I did think of doing a guide during the Suffern plug build, but that project is made diffrently than a normal wood hull.
