Well, as I had feared, the Blue Toon is toast. John said that the hull can be saved, but it will need a lot of work. He had told me when we started this project that this hull didn't really suit itself well to a full-frame build, but he wanted to go ahead anyway so he could teach me the technique.

So, the hull is twisted, and could conceivably be saved, but the faster solution is to start again, but using plywood bulkheads rather than by building frames. The work will be faster and it won't warp. Tomorrow I'll make copies of the hull lines, and start cutting out the templates for the bulkheads, which I can start working on this weekend using some 1/8" plywood that I have in the basement.

In MTB news, the hull painting is finished. There was just a very small amount of bleeding of the light gray paint onto the black of the lower hull, so that will be easy to touch up. Portholes are installed, and now it's time to get back to work on the wheelhouse.

Supplies

I took a couple hours off work this morning so I could go to the local hobby shop. I picked up a few supplies for the MTB:

- a piece of flat brass, 1/4" wide, to make P-brackets for the prop shafts;
- a package of 1/16" brass rod, for all kinds of things;
- some 5/8" brass tube, for torpedo tubes;
- some 3/32" tube to make stanchions;
- assorted other crap to make other stuff.

We are very lucky here in Halifax to have an excellent hobby shop - Maritime Hobbies and Crafts - owned by two guys who do a lot of scratch-building. Because they scratch-build, they put a lot of effort into making sure their store is stocked with everything you might want for your projects. If they weren't here I'm sure I'd be placing a lot more online orders than I do now.

What they're less good at, which is why I place orders with Cornwall Model Boats, is stocking such things as props, shafts, motors, couplings etc. The R/C model ship community here is fairly small, and I think it's largely the model railroad community that drives the need for scratch-building supplies.

Finally, a new picture

Here's what the MTB looks like right now. Not the best picture, as it was taken with my phone under poor light, but you can see the holes drilled in the side near the bow for the portholes. The portholes themselves are small grommets, such as you see in the armpit of jackets for ventilation. The semi-gloss black is visible on the lower hull, and on the bow is the light sea gray that I put on before I ran out and had to go buy more. If I hadn't messed up my latest Cornwall Model Boats order, and missed the two crucial drivetrain parts, I could have had the hull in the water by this weekend, I'm sure. I can still put it in the water, but only to make sure it's watertight.

Quiet weekend

Not an awful lot of progress this weekend. After a week of rain, the sun finally came out for two days (it's raining again today) so I got a bit of work done. The exterior of the hull is all but finished, just a few minor bumps and divots to smooth out. I'll get at that this week with the Bondo. All the spots are on the upper part of the hull, so I took advantage of the sunshine, masked off the upper hull, and painted the bottom of the hull black from the waterline down. I'll see if I can get those last few bumps sorted out in the next couple days, and if the sun comes out Wednesday as forecast, I might be able to paint the upper part of the hull, which will be light sea gray.

Also on the weekend, I got the shafts put in place with epoxy. I forgot a couple items in my last order from Cornwall Model Boats, so have put in another order, and once that order comes in, I can do the final work to hook up the engines to the shafts. The engine bed is all built and ready to have the engines screwed down, once I get the connectors and have the final engine positions set.

I had hoped to at least have the hull ready to go in the water for an event July 1, but I doubt my order from CMB will arrive in time, so this might not happen. However, as I wait for parts to arrive, I can continue work on the deck of the boat.

Pictures later.

Ask and ye shall receive

Perfect timing. Unfortunately, they were pretty much out of stock on rudders, but I got one. I can use it as a template to build another.

In the picture are two prop shafts, two couplings, two motor mounts, two props, and a rudder. As I said, I already have the motors, so once I get the exterior of the hull nice and smooth, I'm ready to start installing the running gear. 

Missing info

I just noticed that I hadn't written about what happened with Blue Toon. Distaster is what happened. I wrote back in early May that I'd taken the frame home to sand the three frames nearest the bow. After sanding, I put the frame in a stand, so that I could begin marking the spots on the frames where the first plank would be placed, along the deck line. Hmmm, something is wrong here. The mark on one side is way higher than the mark on the other. A quick look along the frame showed that the whole thing had warped, and was out by about 3/4" along its length.

John figures that it suffered from being moved from one environment (his shop) to another (my house) and that the move between places with different humidity levels caused the warpage. So, after much cursing (by me, and by John) we clamped the whole works into a jig at his workshop, in the hopes that it could be straightened again. If so, we proceed. If not, then 50 hours of work is down the tubes. In that event, I will start again, but I'll go with bulkheads rather than frames, which will get me back to the same point in perhaps 10 hours of work vs. another 50.

I'm still alive

Whoa, a full month since my last post. I've been doing some business travel lately, so not much time to sit and post.

Not much time for model work either, so here's all that's happened in the last month:

The status of Blue Toon remains up in the air. The frame warped, and my friend John had to do some travelling as well, and since the frame is locked in his workshop, I haven't seen it in a while. Did it straighten out after being clamped back to its correct position? I'll find out tomorrow night;

I've done a bit more work on the MTB. I've started construction of the wheelhouse, and have finished the hull. The hull has now been fibreglassed, plus I've put another coat of epoxy on top of the fibreglass to smooth things out a bit. This week I plan to sand off any high spots and throw on a coat of primer, which will highlight any defects. Depending on what things look like, I'll either put on yet another thin coat of epoxy to make things smoother, or if it's just a spot here and there, I'll break out the Bondo to smooth things up.

All the running gear for the MTB has been ordered. I have the motors already (a couple 550s), and the props, shafts, motor mounts, and couplings are all winging their way here from Cornwall Model Boats in the UK. I'm hoping it all arrives this week so I can get started on installing the running gear. Once that's done, I'll head to my Friendly Local Hobby Shop and purchase the battery pack, receiver, and servos. My club has an event on July 1, and I know I won't have the boat finished by then, but I'd like to have something I can put in the water and drive around. It might simply be a hull, completely devoid of wheelhouse etc., but being able to get it in the water will let me suss out any problems that might exist with the running gear, and I can make certain that the hull is watertight.