Hi y’all, I’ll keep this short. I built the final superstructure for the cabin assembly, they are made from laser cut thin ply and 1/8 stripwood, then handrails are made up and glued in place. Then, it’s...time..to..assemble the cabin. The cabin is located on the hull. The aft 1/4 inch of the cabin lays over the hatch, from what I understand the hatch is slid forward under the cabins aft edge and pressed into place. Anyway, once I had my cabin in place I drew location lines on the hull, reset the cabin and taped the fwd edge down..this allowed me to lift the cabin up and place wax paper between it and the deck without losing alignment. I then had to glue the turrets to the cabin, and the lockers to the turrets. I would love to say that everything fit perfectly, but not quite. In fact, once you have it all tacked together with CA, the instructions quite clearly state to “fill any ugly gaps” I had a couple😂
Anyway, it looks pretty decent, once I finish sand and primer she’ll look better and be ready for some details and paint. Then it’s off to the guns and torpedos..
Cash

Hi y’all. Well, the next step in the construction of the cabin assembly is the gun turrets. They are cut from supplied pvc pipe, and the bottoms are sanded at an angle so they lean towards the bow a bit. This compensates for the slightly bow high attitude the boat has, especially under power.
The turrets look deceptively simple, which means they’re actually a pain in the rump. Let me explain...
The turrets are cut and sanded , marked port and starboard, then 2 rings of plywood are glued on top. Simple, easy-peasy. Then the fun begins.
You see, there’s tiny triangular supports under the rings glued to the rings and the pipe. Now, there’s a template to mark the turret..oh look, it’s not one support in order, they are in PAIRS!! Now, it’s my boat, I could have left them off, most people wouldn’t miss them. But I would know, and I suspect some, if not most of y’all would catch it too.
So..I hemmed and hawed and tried to think of an easier way to do this, then I had it. Instead of trying to cut matching triangular parts from .5 mm sheet, I decided to cut rectangular pieces, glue them in place, then cut and sand them to shape where they sit. It worked!! They’re not perfect, but good, I’m happy with the result. The tubes are then drilled for railings that will be installed later, and the gun mounts, which I bent, glued in place and soldered.
That’s all I have done this morning, took me about 4 hours to get from pvc pipe to gun turrets. I might be able to do a bit tomorrow, if I do I’ll post it that evening.
Cash

Hi y’all. Started on the cabin a day or so ago, it’s really just 2 pieces of vac formed abs with some wood and brass for details, and pvc floor and aft wall. It looks very simple, and essentially it is, but it could be really easy to flub it. The only hitch I had was the way the aft wall went into place. It’s supposed to butt against the floor and glue to the upper, curved aft end of the main cabin molding. It’s shown that way on the plans, and called out in the instructions. Now, I cut the cabin out close, but not directly on the cut lines, that way I can have a little room for error, and once everything is in place I can sand flush. There was now way in hades that the cabin wall would fit as directed, as doing so would have the wall lean forward by 10 degrees or so, and you would have to press down on the cabin top to mate with the upper edge, deforming the cabin as a result. So, I did what “looked right” glued the cabin wall on the upper edge of the floor and it fit 90 degrees and up against the roof almost perfectly. I’m kinda wondering if there was a running change in the kit that wasn’t adressed in the plans or instructions. Anyway, it turned out pretty decent, needs a little filler and sanding and then it’s off to the gun turrets.
Cash

Hi y’all. I’ve decided to go ahead and start on my Christmas present, a Dumas Higgins PT boat. This kit has an abs hull, a plastic deck, vac formed cabin, and numerous wood and metal fittings. Like most Dumas kits it does NOT come with running gear, nor shaft tube or rudder. However, I have those things in my “stock”, plus I’ve decided on a 1700 kv 36mm o.d outrunner. I’ve used this particular size and power motor on several other boats of roughly the same size, so it should serve me well here.
The hull needs to be trimmed, then the deck is assembled and installed. The deck is in 2 halves, split right down the middle. I glued it together, then added the reinforcements. The hull “droops” a few degrees from level around 1/3 baxk from, and to the bow, and the deck follows that. The reinforcements have that designed in, and when they are glued to the deck it builds that curve right in, and once trimmed, it fits almost perfectly. The deck was bonded to the hull with medium ca, and what little gaps I had were filled with ca and then top filled with putty.
I used a rudder assembly and stuffing box from Cornwall models. The rudder is from Radioactive, the stuffing tube a Caldercraft Fineline unit. I used the kits pine rudder support block and drilled it for the rudder tube, once I had it all sorted out I installed the rudder tube and block, run the nut down on the tube till just snug, and once I had it all lined up I snugged the nut another quarter turn and epoxied it all in place.
I cut the slot for the tube just a wee bit oversized, but no problem there. I used the kits skew to get the angle right, tacked it in place, checked alignment then ca’d it all in place. I then made a scab plate to help cover the slot inside, and epoxied the plate and tube.
I made a bulkhead motor mount from scrap plastic sheet. I put the coupling on the shaft, and “painted” the motor end with a red marker, and used that to mark my center on the bulkhead. I then drilled that out, and used that to line up my motor mount holes. I went ahead and installed the motor, added a reinforcement to the bulkhead, and tacked it in place to check my alignment with the shaft. Once I was satisfied I ca’d it in place then coated the joints with filled epoxy. It lined up true, and when I test ran the motor it was very quiet, no vibrations nor binding. I also built up the hatch, and added the chine strakes.
Next up is a final sanding of the hull, then I’ll start building the above deck details and cabin.
Cash