Off we go again! First gripe, why doesn’t this website upload pictures in order? 🤬

Anyway, we open the box to find a wonderful smell of fresh cut and very good quality birch ply and other wood. I bought the basic kit off eBay as the extra items that can be bought at time of purchase, I.e white metal parts, brass stanchions ect I can make by hand from scratch, cutting down costs. The kit comes with a picture manual and written manual, but sadly no full size plan, not that you need it but useful for working out scale of deck fittings ect. I have bought extra the usual needs, ie motor (going brushless), prop, coupling, propshaft, servo, rudder, along with a few other odds. Still need ESC, lipo, glass cloth (I shall await Hobbyking UK reopening as I can collect as they are 4 miles away!). Paints and other items not to hand will be bought further down the line.

Onto the build! Today I’ve completed the first 2 stages and have set that up to dry solid overnight. So far using aliphatic resin to bond all wood.

My plan is to build this model to represent fairly closely the one pictured. The cabin may have some major surgery as the kit one isn’t that close to the real life one pictured, we shall see were I go with it as time progresses.

Last couple of days has seen a little progress in between other tasks around the house which included making a baby blanket for my daughter up in Hull!

Got all the formers in and have started step 4 which is building the 4 sets of doubled stringers. The first rows are in and everything is plumb square, crucial at this stage to keep and nice true hull! Will let that set up overnight before putting in the doublers tomorrow before moving onto stage 5 which is the hatch components. Very pleased with the wood quality in this kit!

Good progress today seeing stages 5-7 inc done. This included fitting the remaining stringers along with the extra short packing piece at the bow lower stringer making it 3 pieces thick at this point (thanks for the hint on that Robbob 👍). Note that to ease around the bow of the curve, light cuts using the razor saw every 8-10mm helped ease around the bend without forcing it into place.

Stage 6-7 saw the basic hatch frame built along with the bow and stern hatch supports. Key at this point was ensuring every thing was square before the glue set.

I Also built the stand with a couple of minor mods to add strength and improve the aesthetics of the stand. Cutting off the extended tips using my scroll saw (a fantastic eBay win at £20 posted a couple of years ago and invaluable!) and adding some 18mm dowel with brass screws and cup eyes. Stand fits flush on the work bench and the hull fits on the stand perfectly with no rattle or gaps where it sits on the stand, proving that the hull is as square as can be 👍

Today has seen Stage 8 which was the hatch sheeting completed, all still sitting nice and square on the hull. The key here is to ensure the hatch frames match the hull frames prior to sheeting. A little work with the dremel and sanding block had it all level before sheeting commenced.

Stages 9-10 was adding all the packers either side of the keel which will eventually have the bottom sheeting sitting on. As per the manual, made up the 2 sets of 3 laminations, followed by dry fitting, marking the bevel and creating a dust storm with the Dremel! Thankfully I have a good filter mask but still spent the day sneezing! At this point I deviated slightly from the manual which suggested drilling the prop shaft channel with a 8.5mm drill to ensure propshaft fits. What I did was to mark the piece either side of the keel at the prop shaft point and then use the sanding drum to creat a channel, much neater and less chance of ripping the wood!

Tomorrow will be shaping the stringers in preparation for sheeting!

Stage 11 was clearing the tabs from the propshaft channel in the keel, but after that I couldn’t put it off any longer! Time to start planing and shaping the stringers ready to start sheeting.

This took a few hours with the razor plane, Dremel, sanding block and fine sandpaper, but worth spending a bit of time at this stage to ensure sheeting sits right.

Then onwards with the first of the sheeting. Again, spending time fitting the pieces before committing the glue! The compound curve at the bow was assisted with some heat from the heat gun to the point that it was curved without any stress. Also sanded the exit hole for the propshaft, a lot easier now than when the sheet is glued! Formers were marked on the sheet to act as a guide for tiny brass nails to take the sheets onto them to ensure a tight fit. The manual recommends using contact adhesive for sheeting, however, I deviated by using aliphatic, lots of pins, 10mm brass nails And a heap of clamps giving more working time. At this point, another check to ensure the hull is still square and that no warping has crept in, all good, hatch still fitting flush👍

Let that set overnight ready to sand back ready for the side sheeting.

A day of swearing, cussing and other profanities! 😂

First thing this morning was to trim and sand back the bottom sheeting in preparation for sides heating. No dramas here, using the flat sanding plate to finish gave a nice finish to the edge of the bottom sheeting and stringers.

On to the side sheeting! I don’t know why, but I always make things difficult adding side sheets especially when they are plywood. It takes an age and at times 8 pairs of hands would have been useful, using clamps to hold it to the side of the hull to Mark it up and trim to a size that will be easier to manage. Again, use of the heat gun to get a good curve in the bow to help prevent a fight once we start to glue! Got there in the end, managed after a couple of hours of trimming, practice fitting and finally got some glue on the stringers and got both side pieces on using every clamp, pins and tape I had! Tomorrow I’ll sand them back and use a little filler if needed and put that part of the build to bed!

The instructions call for trimming the bow balsa blocks to a size and shape more in keeping with the final shape prior to glueing onto the hull. Both pieces have now been trimmed and will be fitted tomorrow.

Last job today was to fit the transom packing pieces and again, the transom sheet will go on tomorrow too. If your wondering what the hole in the false transom is, it’s an access hole to we’re the water cooling outlet will be on the transom. It will just make life easier putting on the brass nut on the outlet and getting some epoxy on to seal it too.

The weekends good weather has given me the chance to get the remaining deck pieces fitted, nose blocks fitted along with all the hull sheeting. This has been followed up with plenty of sanding, filling and finished with a couple of coats of sanding sealer, sanding between for an ultra smooth finish all over. Very pleased with the results, it will be shame to glass it, but belt n braces for piece of mind.

I’ve glass clothed the transom, but will cloth the remaining hull once ive fitted the propshaft tube, just waiting on the coupling before I can set that up.

In between hull tasks, I’ve started to prep the motor mount, servo mount and fitted an oiler to the propshaft Tube.

The day started with an early morning Start and a trip to the lake observing self distancing rules, not that it mattered as at 0700hrs I was the only sucker there! I gave my “Orca” it’s maiden (see my last build blog and harbour) and it sailed wonderfully. It needed a little more ballast in the stern as it was sitting slightly nose down at speed, but that’s since been rectified.

The remainder of the day saw the propshaft tube fitted and lined up with motor and mount (I used one of those red couplings to line it up which I brace solid for alignment, the finished boat will have the recommended coupling which Robbob advised which I’m waiting for mr postman to deliver)

Once propshaft tube set, I used a little P92 filler to fair it all around the keel, then final sanding before the application of the next piece of cloth and 1st coat of resin. Last piece tomorrow.

Final job was to sand, seal, prime and paint the motor mount, just because I could! 😂

Started the morning with a nice long walk with the dog, came home to find the postie had delivered my Turnigy 50a ESC. So, decided to get all the electronics configured. Soldered on the 3mm brass connectors to the esc, and the XT60 too. Hooked it all up to Rx, servo, esc, motor, connected a spare old LiPo and instant smoke and a big spark from the XT60! After the smoke and smell had died down, I checked my XT60 and noticed I had soldered the polarity the wrong way round! I’ve always, checked, double checked before soldering connectors and thought I had this time, clearly not! I thought I must have fried the ESC, but thankfully the only damage was the battery lost all its charge and a melted XT60. On went a new one and all worked fine with another battery, lucky boy and a timely reminder to double check polarity before committing heat!

Other jobs included painting the servo mount and motor mount base, making a couple of stand offs for the esc and rx and last job was to put on the last piece of cloth and resin. Tomorrow I won’t get much done if anything as I have another tasks on. Back Thursday!

So, after sound advice from Rob and Doug, I shall install a switch and fuse Holder/fuse, along with an MT60 connector for the motor wires. My box of fuses only go to 30 amp, so I may have to get a 40amp fuse, hopefully the watt meter will give a clue to my amps!

My next question will be where in the line to install the switch and fuse and I presume they go on the positive wire?