I guess it should be said... I've never tried making a hull this way before... so this is a little bit of an experiment for me. If I'm successful, wonderful! We have a new how-to document, if I'm not.. wonderful! We have a new how not to document! Eitherway, if you are curious... I can't put fiberglass on yet. It eats right through foam.
Two things I find funny about the pictures... #1 the amount of foam shavings on the floor in the "block" pictures compared to the smooth pics #2 the date stamps. The first photo says feb 1; I wasn't here in feb.. so, I guess my clock was wrong. The block to smooth says I wasted 1 month. Guess I'm a bit of a slacker, cause I only remember about 4 foam shaving sessions.
Yeah, I took it to a couple battles back in michigan. But I was never happy with the look of her hull or deck. The curves that make a battleship beautiful just wasn't there. So now that I have a GARAGE and it is winter again... I thought I'd try again, and this time spend a bit more attention to details. The NJ (v1) is still there (you can see her in the background); this new hull is an experiment to see if I can do better. If I can't, then so be it & will continue with the original hull.
Well your plug is looking great, what are you going to coat it with, I used the wall stucko, because the first one I tried, I was told to use bondo, but guess what, it melted the foam, and boy did I have a mess.
I used surfboard like foam... and my plug was not rigid enough as constructed... so it flexed a lot... and the joints between the cross sections kept breaking where there was spackle. And there was lots of spackle, as any mistake sanding left low spots between the cross sections. If I had finished it, the foam coating before glassing I was recommended was pepto bismal... Apparently this is an airplane building trick. Are you doing a one of, or making a plug? Mike Horne
So you take the pepto bismal, so that when you messup, you don't get a upset stomach from all the work going down the drain?
I was planning on doing a "one of" and using a combination of the subwoofer fiberglass technique with minor molds where needed. Coating... I don't have that answer yet. I kinda did it backwards, should have decided on a coat before making the mold... but I let myself get excited with the building process. Now I have to "find something that works". I was planning on trying spray-on cooking spray along with PVA, different types of waxes, paint &/or primer, perhaps event pepto. Surely I'll be able to find something that seals it well enough!
