Working on reconstructing the bow. When this ship was converted into an Emile Bertin the bow was cut down and squished together to make it shorter. I started fixing this by breaking apart the bow and inserting a plywood profile of a Gloire bow. I used some green insulation to get the correct shape and then fiberglassed it. It's coming out nice, but still needs a bit more work. I've been trying out silicon tools for epoxy work. I got tired of trying to find suitable containers every time I wanted to mix some epoxy. I ordered this off Amazon just to use for epoxy. This silicon cup has been working great and any cured epoxy can be scraped out, so you can use the cup indefinitely. The basting brush has been working ok. Cured epoxy comes out pretty easily. The bristles are very soft so it's difficult to move the glass around with the brush at times. I'm liking it so far though.
Started the water channeling. Used dollar store foam board. Coated it in epoxy to give it some hardness. This ship is going to get limited channeling because it really doesn't need much plus I don't really want to get too fancy with it. When I try to get fancy I usually stall out. This will be a simplistic man's boat. lol
Giving the foam an epoxy coat was not durable enough. The epoxy was thin and cracked easily with nothing to give it strength. To give it some backbone I wetted some lightweight gardening row cover onto the water channeling and it really gave it some hardness. Here is the stuff laid out ready for epoxy. After the epoxy had started to harden but not fully cured I trimmed the excess off and gave it another coat of epoxy to smooth it all out. With that done, my plan is to get all the internals mounted and hoses/wiring run and then attach the aft subdeck. Then it will just be a matter of sheeting and making one deckpiece. Superstructure is optional, right?
Happy New Year everybody! One of my new year's resolutions is to get this ship done so I can build another. Lol So I've progressed slightly over the last few days. My old rudder servo mount wasn't working out so I ripped it out and built this. The servo is held more securely and it's mounted to the hull better now. Starting on securing the decks. I'm using threaded brass inserts in the subdeck and ss thumbdcrews to hold the decks down. I'm try to use as few as possible just for simplicity's sake. I think I can get away with just one for the front deck. Not sure about the after decks yet. Thumbdcrew will need trimmed shorter of course. View looking aft. The solenoids are mounted and ready for plumbing. One of the drive motors is in place but needs a mount yet. Wasp drive esc is waterproofed and ready to be tied into the electrical system. Aft subdeck in place. Not ready to be glued in yet though. I need to route an access hatch in the subdeck for the rudder area plus finish up mounting most of the stuff in the hull while access is easier. That's my next build, the Tromp, sitting beside the Gloire. Till next time...
Getting closer to installing the rear subdeck. The motors are now installed. I used a similar method to what @SteveT44 used in his Mogador build. Clippard 1/4" hose is used for the universal joint with collars to secure it to the shafts. Also put a small access hatch in the aft subdeck to make tightening the rudder shaft easier. First started out my marking the cutout. Then routed it out. 1/16" fiberglass hatch was cut to cover it. I still have to cut out the hole, but that won't take long. I'll probably secure this with magnets. Later...
