Well y’all, the ST74 is almost ready to go to work. I finished up the towing bitts, manhole covers and mast, decals are in place, just needs some tidying up and buttoning up. I built the towing bitts today, and the masts. I did NOT use the 1/8th wood dowel for the aft mast as I would probably break it handling the boat..so I cheated. I used a styrene tube with a piece of fiberglass rod inserted and glued in, for the tip I glued on a bb. Y’all, there’s a lot of things I’m capable of, but carvings not one of them. I can carve balsa block to profile for a fuselage or hull, but there’s no way I’m going to be successful at carvin a round knob on the end of 1/8 diameter dowel. Just no. I admire people who can do that, and people who carve their own free flight propellers I’m just in awe of….but I know my limitations, hence the cheat. I used the 1/8th dowel for the fwd staff, and glued a bb on top too.
The kit uses steel washers for life preservers, I have quite a few of the righ size that I cut off the plastic line surround, sanded smooth, painted, decaled and installed.
At this point she’s pretty well done. I’m going to need about a pound of ballast, and I need to secure the fantail grate and do a little touch up here and there. Also, my waterline is off, I’ll probably repaint it at some point, but aside from the aforementioned tasks and rigging the flag, she’s done, and ready for the test tank!
Cash