By way of a break from filling and sanding which is getting boring but necessary I decided to attempt to make the masts and booms in wood as with the original model and of course the real thing. I had considered Groovy Alloy but rejected that idea as it would stray from the original rig and also the price and difficulty in sourcing it.
I have a router and Dremel and considered how I could best use these to achieve a slot and a channel for the sails to sit in. Having seen a few friends with serious finger damage inflicted while using routers, and it seems a common injury decided to think of a different method.
The solution seemed to be using hardwood machine moulded lengths from off the shelf, the photograph of what I ended up with is self explanatory and I am quite pleased with the result although it needs tweaking and reducing in size. Certainly an idea worth considering, anybody out there done something similar?
Regards ChrisG

I have nearly finished the initial pre primer filling and sanding and my impressions of a very white Santa. I have now decided to remove the hull from the very large building board to have a first look inside the hull, I am actually very pleased with the result and surprised that with the frame supports still complete and in place the whole things weighs in at only 1600g.
She is now back on my workbench in the house with me trying to decide my next task.
I think a 5mm inner gunwale will be a good start then a tidy up to remove unwanted sections of the frames and then one or two coats of resin before trying to calculate ballast weights and position. I have acquired some unused lead roof flashing, not I hasten to add from the local church roof, but need several kilos more. I have given myself so much to do this winter it is frightening but hey ho.
Good wishes to all and I hope you have all managed to avoid all or most of the flooding which has been shocking.
All the very best ChrisG

Inner gunwales fitted and glued, this has made it an extremely rigid and firm hull and not yet resin coated on the inside.
I have been looking at the positioning of the motor, the couplings and the length of the prop shaft and it looks a very tight fit. Before fitting the motor and prop shaft I need to decide on ballast, how much and where it will go in the hull, complicated by being unable to do a float test with the hull as it is to identify the waterline.
Decisions, decisions, decisions.
ChrisG

I am in need of help associated with my Inga1V build please.
I am finding it impossible to calculate at this stage an approximate weight of ballast for her and comparing with my donor hull does not make things much clearer.
My hull weight as seen in my last post is 1.2kg
Motor and battery weight anticipated 1.6kg
In the assembly instructions it states "The complete hull with RC system, motor, power packs but excluding railings, cabin superstructure, masts and tackle should weigh between 8.5 and 9.5kg".
It then goes on to state that the difference between my all up weight of 1.2 plus 1.6kg and the 8.5 and 9.5kg is ballast weight. This gives a ballast weight required in the region of 6kg.
The weight of the kit hull in GRP is an unknown but this ballast weight of over 6kg seems a lot.
I have 4.2kg of good clean lead should I resin that in the bilges permanently and expect to have to do a final bath trial to finalise the weight positioning and distribution or have I missed something glaringly obvious.
My donor hull to confuse me even more weighs in at 5.4kg and that is an original kit supplied hull with ballast and motor and generous battery.
I would be so pleased if at least one of you could confirm that I am on the right path.
Thank you ChrisG

This week has seen me requesting help, getting help and being able to proceed with confidence. After masking the wooden parts I wish to glue wood to wood I painted the whole of the inner hull generously with GRP resin. With this in a heated garage to cure I cut and hammered the lead flashing into three compact lumps to fit between the three central hull sections. The Lead flux was cut into 100mm lengths which were positioned for the most part in the five most central sections of the hull. This resulted in four kgs of ballast in the central part of the hull as recommended by Roy, thanks.
This ballast was floated in 600cc of resin and has now cured and is solid. The weight of the hull inclusive but without battery is five and a half kgs.
I now have the flexibility to position the two kgs of bagged lead shot anywhere in the hull and the size and position of the battery to be decided.
All up weight 8kgs +/-
Thank you all for your help ChrisG

The hull has been primed after being sanded and finished with P38 filler and upturned looks so much like a dolphin that I am thinking of naming the finished boat just that.
That or Aquarius not sure.
I also did a float test and was pleased overall with the trim although she is still light, the two 1kg bags of lead shot put her right so now the hull weight including ballast is 7.5kgs and she sits nicely and very much in line with the waterline marking on the Revell plan. I also like that the two bags of lead shot can be repositioned or removed as necessary and will allow different batteries as required.
I intend to paint the hull as my nervousness with the use of GRP resin continues and is not helped by the cold weather.
Best regards ChrisG

Just a quick update, firstly as mturpin013 also has a build blog running for his beautiful build of INGA1V and to avoid confusion we agree to arrange to change the titles of our build blogs, soon no doubt.
Meanwhile I have hopefully completed the rubbing down and painting the hull of my boat finishing with 1500grit wet and dry, what a long job but so satisfying when all seems to go right.
Photo attached and I am scared to touch it 😂😂😂and it no longer looks like a beached Dolphin thank goodness.
Regards ChrisG

To anybody attempting building from scratch then think it through stage by stage very carefully to avoid the stupid and basic mistakes by myself. When building the hull try to anticipate all of the through hull holes that will be needed and where they should be located you will then avoid having to use drill, files, wood chisel and Ford spanner (hammer) in a desperate and unprofessional manner.
I think I have been lucky but my design of the stern although solid had to be basically rebuilt fortunately no change to the boats outward appearance nor its inherent strength.
The photos describe the work done better than words, now I am past the trauma I am enjoying the build again. I just hope for no repeat performance on another part of the build.
Forgot to mention the rudder is made from 2mm brass sheet braised onto a brass rudder stock. The servo controlling it is a Futaba S3003. The motor is a 500 with no known pedigree, Prop shaft, tube, coupling and prop are all easily recognised off the shelf components.
I will now go for a lie down in a darkened room to recover from this and the mountain of emails that have been flying around today from our website, amazing.
Best regards to all ChrisG

There has been so much going on in the modelling world these last few weeks I thought I had better "extract the digit" and get on with something.
All of the below decks radio and servo stuff seems to be working and holding together fine thanks to help received on this website so I intend to move on from that.
For a while I have had doubts about building Inga superstructure onto my hull and as there are so many beautiful Inga 1V belonging to MBW contributors I could name 4 all of which are finished beautifully or about to be finished. So I have decided to try something new and am working towards reproducing as close as possible a William Fife designed ketch circa 1914. a fine example can be viewed by googling Sumurun for anybody interested. These hulls were designed to be very sheer and are similar to J class, the Inga hull is shall we say

just

similar.
I started by putting a cardboard deck on my hull and am in the process of making ply silhouette type structures to be able to gauge their proportions against the hull and to ensure they clear the masts and booms. All fittings, mast stays etc are all temporary.
What the photo shows is something akin to Noah`s Ark or a series of chicken coops for that I apologise and would like to assure you the real thing will be made from mahogany.
I do reserve the right to revert back to plan A if things go pear shape😂
Regards ChrisG

It has been great watching all the great model making going on, my progress has been slow but steady and not without set backs.
I have strengthened and widened the inner gunwales to make robust anchor points for the 14 eye bolts and later stanchions for the hand rails. It has all been sanded ready for the deck.
I believe I have sorted the lever arm on the servo for the sail control and have had a successful dummy run which I am happy with. I have run three plastic tubes from close to the servo arm one runs to the jib, one to the main and the last to the mizzen, I have a mouse in each ready for being replaced with the Dyneema sheets.
Cardinal error today when I cut by hand the deck using my earlier cardboard pattern, so silly yet so nearly right. The reason is, I do all serious cutting in the garage and the hull including ballast which lives in the workroom upstairs in the house and threatens a hernia whenever I look at it so I thought I would use the pattern. I will not make this mistake again😠.
Apart from that I am having fun and the build certainly makes me think.
Happy modelling to you all ChrisG