Thanks will! Hull production continued on a day off today Had a defect on hull 5 that I suspected during layup, from one part contracting when it kicked Steve A has made good progress on his. Here are a few shots. Direct drive brushless, 900kv I think. Huge props for a dreadnought. These are the cut down versions Featherlite water channel. Very neat stuff, I think I will pick some up. Way easier than sanding balsa to the hull shape, sturdy too I cut excess off hull 4 Layed up hull 6. I changed my sequence to prevent the defect that happened on 4 and 5. I did each side first, then middle and bow/stern last. I also used a lighter weight mat since I ran out of the heavier stuff. Thinner mat was nice for soak characteristics, but need to use more layers to get thickness. Probably a mix of the two would be best. I think hull 6 will be a good one Took hull 5 home to clean up and fix bow The forward section poped in Defect is large enough that it needs fixing Plan was to fill with mat and filler, put cloth on outside for smooth finish. Surface prep with light dremeling Mat plan And done Should be good, I used micro balloons here and I was very pleased with how it spread This one should be ready to ship to beaver next weekend. Only 2 more to lay up!
You're cranking them out Kevin! My second pull of the Hawkins Class hull resulted in more mold defects but relatively minor this time. It'll take a couple of hours to fix the mold but frosty nights and almost daily rain have arrived; I might get one more hull made before it's too cold for hulls to cure outside.
7 in the books Steve has made good progress Matt poured water channel, great stuff Hull 6 came out great, heading to el presidente And hull 7. Only had light weight mat, felt like I had to use a lot of layers Had my first batch kick, I was using more catalyst each batch, also large batches and less diligent counting I’ll see how thick this one turns out, and adjust layers for #8 tomorrow. Maybe start on mine on Sunday
And just like that, 8 hulls are in the books. 7 ended up being like a normal hull weight wise, still probably thicker than average. I cut down 6 and 7, and layer up 8 today. We were able to set up a photo op with 5 hulls on hand Kinda like destroyers lined up 8 was drying in the background Planning to prepare/ship 3 hulls shortly, and the 4th after I retrieve it next week Should be marking ribs and cutting mine soon, maybe by tomorrow
Marty has been kind enough to let me use his garage for the past month to do the fiberglass work. I don’t mind the smell, reminds me of my childhood in my dad’s woodworking shop
I think Steve said it was a couple cups, doesn’t change volume really. The small containers of it would probably be enough for a few boats, I’ll go with gallon size
I was checking out the gallon size Featherlite kit myself, it's just so much cheaper per lb of product vs the smaller "trial size". Planning on using it for all future builds, after using it on @Justin Ragucci 's Cleveland hull I'm sold on the product for water channeling purposes.
I'm intrigued. Doing sections at a time it should be easy to get sloped channeling towards the center. Will give this a try on my next build.
I'll give it a try too. It's probably a lot lighter than the driveway filler compound I used in the CVL Ibuki. I did that in stepped down sections.
Interesting stuff. Looks to be about 5.5lbs per gallon as prepared. Slightly buoyant but not excessively so. Shouldn’t upset the meta centric height of the model too much when submerged. Especially with care concerning proper weight distribution. I’ve seen some odd sinks from excessively light waterchanneling combined with poor weight distribution.
Got the three hulls boxes up, will ship tomorrow Hopefully these four hulls will be reunited pondside this coming season. Running out of floor space. At the time this made 22 total hulls of various conditions in my build room Had to protect the package from the pointy stern. Planning to ship tomorrow Started marking hull. Boxes took up more time than planned Sunday Here is the 45 degree marks on the stern, not a whole lot of target in the extreme stern Marked the bottom 3 in down from deck, which would leave 1.75” freeboard forward and 1.125” freeboard aft, then 1/8” for waterline, and 1.125” below waterline for a small buffer. Taped out deck rim and some stringers. I will have to get creative with rib placement to preserve all of the hull features above the stringer, required more thought than I had in me tonight. Work in progress. The turret hump will be tricky to maintain 1” center to center, planning to make the aft hump rib wider to shift the center far enough away Overall plan is two 3/8” ribs forward at about 1.5” spacing and 12 1/4” ribs at about 3” spacing for the rest of hull. Casements will be a PITA but that’s the price you pay. Should get it all marked tomorrow, maybe up to drilling holes
Hulls are on the way. Marked the first side, decided 14 1/4 ribs and 1 3/8. I’ll have to trim one down a hair since I don’t get 14 full. Casements will be cut separate, probably just drilled and grinded out Stern half was simpler
Marked up the starboard side Quicker than first side Whole boat Marked turret locations in the hull, starting to think about internal arrangement. Pretty set on death Y, drive motors will go slightly forward of fwd turret, toed out, 1.5” kort props, traxxas gearboxes, my standard setup. Pump maybe between motors if it works out Was planning on 3 gnat guns, duals in one turret and single in other. Might shift to dual bow guns in upper fwd turret, maybe with a ‘yam 15’ could work out Lightly marked a legit 15, should be able to get inner barrel by the fwd turret and to the casement inset. Plan is to drill holes and cut hull Sunday, then probably move towards shafts/gearboxes
describe this "Yam 15" concept. I'm planning a similar forward mount for my New Mexico. are you going to use it for taking on major combatants while minimizing your profile and gaining the significant down angle associated with mounting in B turret?
