Tenshock/Minicat Racing Micro Hydro with a difference!

[hughb]

Hi guys,

This is a bit of a long term project, sorry it's not completed yet but I'm sure you will get the idea.

I really like the look of hydro drag boats, especially the large exposed V8, it just screams raw power. I have a micro hydro and thought it would be fun to make a new hatch which could represent one of these drag boats.

Firstly I traced around the outline of the stock hatch onto several layers of 0.020" thick styrene plastic. These were glued and laminated together along with an internal backbone made of balsa to form the front to rear curve of the boat.

Then it was time to make the canopy. I played around with different sizes till I found what looked right, and drew templates of the bulkheads onto cardboard. I then temporarily stuck these bulkheads onto the hatch to ensure the look and curves of the canopy was right. When happy, I then used these cardboard templates to cut out proper bulkheads made from 0.040" styrene. Sorry I do not have any photos of these early stages.

I then glued these bulkheads into position on the hatch. The tighter the curves were, the closer i had bulkheads.

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The spaces between the bulkheads were then filled with scraps of balsa glued in. These were then cut and sanded to match the bulkheads. A good trick is to colour the edge of the bulkhead with a black texta. When sanding the balsa down, soon as you sand the texta off you know the balsa has leveled out with the bulkhead.

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[hughb]

Here are some photos with the balsa sanded back:

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Now comes the fun job of filling and sanding, filling and sanding, and priming etc. Here is one about half way through the process

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With it all smooth this will now form the buck from which to make a fibreglass copy. This is where I'm currently at

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I have never fibreglassed before and think the transition from the vertical sides of the canopy to the horizontal deck section might be a problem, but all I can do is try. Any tips with regard to fibreglassing would be great

[hughb]

Also as you have seen I've made up a V8 engine to go with the boat. This is just a generic one made from balsa and styrene. The blower has been pinned to the case with dowel, though i think if the boat flips parts will break off, oh well maybe I'll just leave this as a display piece.

Here are some pics of the unpainted engine

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I also made a transom doubler from laminated plywood as I've seen several of these boats with cracking along the deck to transom edge so wanted to beef this area up. This was expoxied in. I then needed longer bolts obviously for the ruddder and strut mount. Also in the pic I made a doubler for the sponson where i have put a turn fin.

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[hughb]

And finally pics of the painted engine and radiator

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[Fast One]

Man, that thing looks sick!, well done!.

[Beaux]

Very nice .

[hughb]

Thankyou guys. I'll update when I get some further progress done

[Beaux]

what type motor , rudder and all that good stuff will you run?

[hughb]

Motor is a Tenshock 1020 3800kv, esc is a BX60 (both upgrades from stock). Rudder is just the stock one that came with the boat. Currently running it on 3 cell, but considering an upgrade to 4 cell batteries. They will have to be small mah though as there isn't much room inside these boats!