Careful, Mark! Don't do too much on the superstructure until the insides are nearly done. I always do the superstructure and sheeting last, because once that's done I start pushing the boat around on the floor, going "pew pew splash!" and my productivity falls quickly
Thanks for all the replies on the waterproofing. I will probably use West epoxy for the places I can easily reach, but I might use the spar varnish to make sure I get into the cracks and under the deck. Once the glue on the balsa dried, I sanded everything off that didn't look like a hull. Overall, it came out OK, some washboard between the ribs as expected. After masking the sides to prevent any drips, I glassed the bottom with 3.1 oz satin weave fiberglass and West epoxy. The bow was a bit difficult, even with a couple of pieces. The stern went well, I was able to take the cloth from the top and continue it right down the back.
3 ounce cloth might be a little bit of an overkill, yet as long as it lays out and sticks it should work fine. I tend to use around 1 ounce cloth and double up on layers on the bow. The bows of these things take some punishment. There is a few guys that live in the Dayton area. Mikey Deskin for one. Maybe he'll chime in here.
I would have like to know that before I put the SECOND piece of 3.1 oz cloth on. Oh well, both layers together were only about 4 oz, and right now I'm about a pound under my estimate weight, so I can afford a little extra armor. I have met Mikey Deskin already, it's his fault that I'm building this ship. Two weeks ago I went to one of his build sessions thinking I would learn a little about the hobby and maybe start a ship during the coming winter building season. He got me some hands on building time on one of his models and I spend some time browsing his copy of Conways. When I came across the Roanoke, he said something like "that would be an interesting ship to build". I left there all fired up and now I have a 50% complete ship and a bunch of fittings on order. I think I caught some sort of bug when I was there. Back to the build... After the first coat of glass, I filled in the low spot with epoxy mixed with light weight filler and then sanded it down. After the second coat of glass, it looks like this:
I fit checked the rudder and installed the rudder servo. Having the servo tray designed and installed when I did the rest of the ship made it pretty trivial. I did cut off the rudder post tube a little lower than I needed to, so I had to add a spacer between it and the rudder arm. I found some 1/4" x 1/8" brass tube that worked perfectly for a spacer.
Mark, and all. The boat is coming along nicely indeed. And it will certainly be way cool to see something different ot there on the water. Your boat will be a niceaddition to the growing U.S. fleet. I am planning to start on my Alaska in the very near future. Great built so far. Keep up the great work. Mikey
Mark, you may want to revise your rudder linkage. Right now, it looks like your tiller arm is longer than your rudder servo arm. If your servo moves 45 degrees, your rudder will move less than that. I don't know about you, but I prefer having more rudder throw than I need, and dial it down with dual rate/EPA after initial sea trials than to have too little rudder throw.
Yes, you're right on that! I'll put a new hole in the arm to make sure I have plenty of throw, I just grabbed an old nosewheel steering arm out of the used parts bin and put it on. I also need to change the linkage to make sure it cannot over rotate and jam in the wrong direction, as Phil showed me this weekend it could do.
I got home from work today and there was a box waiting for me - my CO2 bottle and regulator from Strike Models. I didn't even take off my tie, I went straight down to the shop to try it out. Previously I had added a hole in my bow middeck to accommodate the bottle. After cutting the hole I used a surrogate bottle to check the fit and sand the hole clean. Unfortunately, the glue bottle was not quite as big as the CO2 bottle. The CO2 bottle does fit, but I cannot get the regulator off without pushing the bottle back, which I will be unable to do once I have a gun mounted. You can see where the tab for the hatch magnet is in the way. So I'll enlarge the hole a little, letting the bottle sit back a little further and tilt down a little more.
I think the servo will be strong enough. It has 36 oz-in of torque plus the rudder is pretty well balanced, with at least 1/4 of the area in front of the pivot. I'm a little worried about the gears if I hit something, but I'll keep this servo to start with.
Since the fiberglass is done, I started working on the stuffing shafts for the props. For the drive props, I turned a 1/4 x 1/8 bearing out of oilite bronze and fit it in a 9/32 brass tube. For the dummy shafts, I started with the same 9/32 tube and soldered a 1" long piece of 1/8 brass rod, using a short piece of 1/4 x 1/8 brass to line them up. The holes for the shafts were already predrilled, but I needed a little sanding to make sure they seated at the correct angle and were running parallel. Overall I'm happy with the result. I didn't glue them in immediately because I was concerned that I may have forgotten something on the hull. So I took the ship over to Mikey to check out, and he gave me the thumbs up to glue in the shafts.
Finally got some time to work on the Roanoke again. I cut out the motor mount in 4 pieces. The two braces act to support and position everything in the right place and at the right angle. Then the third piece is glued to the braces to give support to the motor mount piece. The motors are mounted on a piece of 1/16" fiberglass, which is attached with three screws. Here you can see the dry fit of the parts with stuffing shafts and dog bones in place to ensure spacing. When I glued the braces in, they were set parallel, not angled as shown here.
I worked on installing my pump this week. Since the water channel is fairly wide, I just used 2 pieces of 1/4 ply to get the right spacing. Overall, it was easier to mount than I was expecting. I also completed the waterproofing. I started with West Systems epoxy on the ribs and decks because I figured these would take the most abuse. Then I used spar varnish to coat everything. At this point the hull and hatches weigh in at 3 lb, 2.6 oz. I'm very happy with that weight - including all the rest of the components that I have on hand, estimated final weight is sitting at 8.0 lbs. This gives me 3 lbs left for ballast and those things I have forgotten to include.
