Hello
Sorry about my absence From Model Boats Website and my builds, but once again, my health had other plans for me. Now I am feeling much better so will try to pick up the pieces - starting with NAXOS. So that I am reasonably comfortable that I am stroking with both oars, it will be a little time before I donany posting here. I have to assess what has to be done and how much $$ is available to do it and then go from there. With the economy what it is and the exorbitant grocery and other costs its a lot harder to justify casual or hobby spending than a couple of years ago.
Hope to see you soon

I have put the build for the ship on hold because I found that building with foamboard is not the best option....at least thats my opinion. It was not a complete waste of time because I learned a few things along the way. Therefore I will not proceed with that medium. If I am going to put the time and effort into this model, it will be plank on frame construction.
at this time I will devote my time to learning a 3D modeling software (Sketchup) so that I can come up with reasonable plans which is the foundation for any model.
hopefully I will be back soon with progress.
thank you to my followers

Well, started the actual build this morning. Cut the deck outline and the bulkheads and stuck together with Gorilla glue. The boat is built upside down and the pictures show her laying deck side down.

A bit of fairing on the bulkhead sides is needed, then will add the waterline sheet and finally the hull left and right hull sides. Once everything looks ok, I will cut the deck opening and bulkhead openings.

Looking at her now, she seems a bit small so if worse comes to worse, she will become a static ship and I will say she is a "learning model" and will go for a larger model once I find out what,I did wrong on this build. It's a bit early yet to say all is ok, but so far, so good and I will add the below waterline details later on in the build process.

I am kind of wondering about how I will accomplish the flair of the bow area between bulkheads 1 to 3. It is a compound curve and they are not liked by solid and mostly unyeilding covering material. I may have to use solid foam between bulkheads 1 & 2 as well as 2 & 3 and shape it as needed...we shall see.

Forward of bulkhead 1 to the stem will be solid foam shaped as necessary. I don't see (as of yet) any issue with the stern curve as that is pretty much a foam block shaped as necessary.

Here's a few pics of what I got so far.

Began the job of drawing plans tonight. From the image I have to work from, the sheer line appears to be level. That illusion may be caused by the fact that the image is not exactly perpendiculat to the camera.
Somehow I am betting that the sheer height offset is a bit shorter at the stern than the sheer height at the bow. Anyway that will be figured out as Inprogress.
I am finding out one thing for cure - at 80, my hand doesnt draw curves like it did when I was 40!

Sent my broadside image to rasterbator.com and processed it tiled to four 8.5” X 11” sheets. Printed them off and trimmed to the margin lines. Finally with the help of my Scotch tape dispenser, stuck ‘em all together. The final outcome produced a hull with overall hull length of 23” which suits me just fine. The scale calculator tells me she will be a 1:180 model.
Drawing of the top view of her is basically a guess and going by what I can recall of her lines tells me that the stem at the waterline was quite pointed and flared at the sheer to produce a top view of a rounded “nose”. This part will be made with balsa or basswood blocking.
According to her specs she had a 17’ draft which wheen scaled comes out to only a little under 2”. I will build her as a flat bottom at the waterline and build the underwater as a self emptying ballast tank because being mostly foam, she will be quite light. I have heard of this before and aparently it works quite well.

Power for her is planned to be dual brushless motors/ESC’s with reverse. All this will be fed with high capacity LiPo battery. Someone should advise me - considering she will have two props - how many rudders (single or dual) I should give her.

Thats about it for this post - will be adding more as progress happens.

Quite likely, most builders that read this already know what I am presenting here, but just to put forward what I have experimented with seems to work - so far. I welcome any comments and the subject of building materials and putting them together as a usable model is open. I am very new to modeling - especially watercraft, and therefore am very receptive to advice.

After carrying out some experiments with materials such as wood, Elmers foam board and after a lot of reading, pro and con for both types of material, I have come to the following conclusion: I will be using 1/4” [6mm] foamboard. Joints will be glued with Gorilla Instant Glue. Joints inside and outside will be sealed with brown paper soaked with an Elmers waterproof Glue-All/water mix. Final sealing will be with several coats of an exterior water based polyurethane. Final painting will be with a spray enamel.
Some of my experimenting with foam.

OK, NOW OFF TO THE DRAWING BOARD.

*****************💡💡 UPDATE - UPDATE 💡💡 Wed Jan 28 2022************

This morning, the brown paper experiment to seal and strengthen the joints and seams looks very promising. Upon drying, sure enough, the shrinkage has produced an absolutely smoothe surface with no wrinkles or bumps. When tapped with a fingernail, one would swear that the mockup structure was made from 1/8” plywood.

Ok, ok…I know…I havent quite completed the Pole Dancer (ne NAXOS) yet, but it is quite difficult getting the items I need to finish up. Shipment times seem quite long.
So, to take up the slack, I am pondering a 2nd project, the MV Bluenose - not to be confused with the sailing vessel Bluenose and Bluenose ll.
The MV Bluenose provided ferry passenger and vehicle service between my home town Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Bar Harbour, Maine from 1955 till 1982. I am seeking drawings for her from Davie Shipbuilding, Quebec but have not received any return mail from them as of yet. I have her dimensions on hand from her wikki and. if I have to will make my own drawings from many online images that I have obtained from the internet
I have thought about several possibilities as far as construction material and will include that info on my DIY “Blueprints”.
Scale? I am aiming for semiscale and her overall length will be between 32” and 36” and breadth approximately 8”.

Wish me luck