And it was all going so well! If all else fails, read the instructions and look carefully at the drawings.
Having removed deck camber beams, mid deck bulkheads and longitudinal stringers from the CNC sheets, I glued the assembly together and taped it to a flat surface to dry, as per the instructions. However, as you can see from the two magnified sections in picture 1, the deck camber beams and stringers are not flush. I only became aware of this after glueing the assembly into the hull and trying to dry fit the aft deck.
Once again, the trusty Dremel with cutting disc attached came into its own and I managed to rectify the problem - not without difficulty.
Before glueing the bulkhead assembly into place I fitted the
motor
s. As I have already mentioned, with the propshafts parallel to the hull, there is very little clearance for the
motor
s. However, with the offset shafts on the 2.5:1 540 geared
motor
s, this was not a problem.
I used vac formed plastic 'cradle'
motor
mounts and standard universal couplings.
I am now a great believer in using proprietary silicone sealant to fix the
motor
s onto the mounts. This not only cushions vibration but allows tweaking of the final line up, which I do by eye. Before the sealant sets, I run the
motor
s and further tweak to get as little vibration as possible. See pic 4.
With
motor
s in place it was time to fix the bulkhead assembly into the hull. Instructions suggest using slow cure epoxy, but I used Gorilla glue, which does the job just as well, without the trouble of mixing. Included in the bulkhead assembly is the servo tray for the rudder and with that connected and the power plant -two 12v 7ah lead acid batteries - in place, sea trials were fast approaching.