paint, at last, I have opted for halfords filler primer, dont know why, I was disappointed last time I used it , but will give it another go. The hull is quite nice and flat, after a LOT of rubbing down, I wanted a primer that will allow some good rubbing down to get rid of any Imperfections, and I am sure there would be a lot.
well my instincts where right, the halfords FILLER primer was rubbish! there wasnt any filler qualities at all, so off to my friend who has a car paint shop, call in a favour, no pics unfortunately, but he did filler primer, and then dusted over with matt black so I could see the Imperfections, now I have something decent to work with.
Apparently this is a trick of the trade, the dusting with black shows up all the dints and dents, as you rub down with varying grades of wet/dry soaked in washing up liquid, its easier to tell how you are getting on

As you can probably tell, I'm racing through the glassing, and paint prep. its a real Important part of the build, but I found it soooo boring!

Not long before the real interesting stuff comes along, especially the driveline 😉

Time to turn the boat over, and at least look at something interesting. Glass cloth on the top, using the west systems resin. The deck does not have to be perfect like the hull, as it will be painted with a none slip finish, like the real thing. As for the cabin sides, they will be a doddle to paint with the idea I have 🤐

The cabin sides, well if anyone is familiar with these aerokits boats, the cabin windows are never equal and straight, it really bugged me with my smaller 3 foot version, the cabin windows being unequal and not straight, so I have decided to use 2mm plasticard, make new sides, with equal and straight windows, and epoxy these to the original ply sides, this should then make painting very easy as the surface will be flat, sound and will not need sealing

Luckily I have access to a milling machine, so making the sides with the window cut outs is relatively easy once the job has been set out on the machine

on the previous picture, you can see how far out the windows were. The new plasticard sides are epoxied to the sides, virtually ready for paint with very little prep required.

I should have mentioned this at the beginning, my boat is modelled on the very early version of "93" pre any refits. There are some subtle differences, one being early "93" has seperate eyebrows over each window. This was quite difficult to do, I made a template to fit inside each window, and using a heat gun softened strips of plasticard around the template making the eyebrows. Got cyno and kicker all over my fingers, and burnt some skin off with the heat gun in the process 😀

My wheelhouse required some rebuilding, it was damaged, so I used the opportunity to do some interior detail.

Using an original picture of the interior detail, the dashboard was fashioned out of plywood. The dials cut out from some online pictures, with plastic discs for the dial glass. I turned the switches etc from scrap alloy on a lathe, and used plasticard (again!) for the dial and switch assembly, painted with humbrol alluminium paint.
I searched everywhere for a suitable steering wheel, could not find one, so made my own. Heated up some brass rod, bent around a former and soft soldered. The spokes where soft soldered which was real difficult, everytime I heated them up all the other soldering also melted!. The centre boss was turned on a lathe and painted.
I was really pleased with this, it was interesting to build, pity you can hardly see it when installed in the wheelhouse! (But at least I know its there, and now so do you! 😁 )

Throttle and compass made from scraps

Lets have a look at the drivetrain now. its time for some testing, no point in spending ages getting it pretty to find it does not run right.

I had a big idea for the power, my Huntsman uses a belt drive, but single screw. This boat being twin screw, I was expecting some high revs, but was concerned the usual plastic coupklings would not handle the power, as usual with my boats, it will look very scale, loads of attention to small detail, but will be well over scale speed, a contradiction really 😀

So here is the plan, direct drive, an absolute direct drive, no couplings, joints or anything. Using brushless outrunner motors, I intend to remove the motor shafts, and have the propshafts direct through the motors, 100% direct drive, big gamble, I have not seen this done before.
Peter hs93 was really up for this, and his engineering skills really came to the front, he wanted to do the mounts, I was a bit worried he was taking on too much, but he was really up for it, so over to his workshop!
As its a bit experimental, its cheap motors, from giantcod (or is it giantshark now?) I wanted to use M5 shafts, so had to find motors with removeable 5mm shafts, the kv rating was a bit of guess work, but after all the testing I did with the Huntsman I had a reasonable idea what I needed, a balance between torque and revs, something like 800 to 1000kv

Now the problem with this set up is there is no room for error, everything needs to line up right, or it will shake to bits.
I ordered the shafts from a UK supplier, who will remain nameless. I had a real bad time with them, spent a small fortune on the shafts, as I ordered them with the tubes, and asked for dead straight high quality stainless shafts. I also ordered them made up with glacier bearings at water end, these are lubricated by water, and are generally high speed applications, and fitted ballraces at motor end.
When they arrived they were very disappointing. it was clear the shafts had been cut to length in a vice, and were bent. We argued about this, a good way to test, a trick I picked up flying rc helicopters, roll the shaft on a perfectly flat surface, a mirror, or a piece of glass, you will see if the shafts are straight by the way they roll, or dont roll as was the case. it took 3 attempts to get straight shafts, the vendor just didnt understand I knew what I was talking about, trying to blame me for bending them> 😟

So, now into the boat, we made up disc shaped mounts, to be soft soldered onto the end of the shafts, which were supported by a bulkhead inside the hull, simple enough idea, so far!

Good question from Alan, whta happens if one of the motors dies, the only difficult part of removal is the can is an interference fit, so needs a bit of teasing off. There is a 3mm grub screw at the back of the motor that grabs the shaft. I changed this to two grub screws, for some added security, but bearing in mind I will be running big revs, but a lot less than the motors would be running if fitted in a rc helicopter or similar. At this stage of the build it was somewhat experimental, however the mounts where done in a way (you will see when finished) we could revert to standard mounts if this method failed 😭

time to see if it works!

so a brief recap 😀

hull is primed and ready for paint, after being treated with glass cloth and resin. Work has been completed on cabin sides, prop tubes are fitted, and the method for fitting the motors done (anybody looked at the video in the kitchen sink??)
Time for installation. 😯
The shafts are to be lubricated with oiler tube, I dont use grease in my boats, I prefer a drop of light oil, it lubricates, and "clings" to the shaft preventing surface corrosion when not running. I will have glacier water lubricated bearings at water end, ballraces at top end, the motor has a bearing front and back. Bit of a hiccup now 😯
We found with the Huntsman, which uses a larger outrunner brushless motor, whilst running, it stays relatively cool, but once stopped there is as latent build up of heat. it subsequently had to be water cooled, so we have decided lets do this now, rather than after its all finished.
Using alluminium blocks, a channel was drilled in a"U" shape, then blocked off with grub screws, leaving only an exit and entrance for water to run around the block. This was then fitted between the mount, and motor, creating very neat water cooling plates for the motor. We fitted another bearing, although not load bearing, it would Improve the running of the shaft (hopefully! )