Scratch Built Scale Pontoon Rescue Boat

[sammyha]

I turned these plastic pins on my lathe, drilled them for small body clips and tied them with fishing line so I can't drop and lose them. It's faster to setup the top than using screws and nylok nuts too...

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[sammyha]

A word on E6000. I was using so much for this build, I started to worry about the weight. I did a test and found out it loses 70% of it's weight after it dries.

I put exactly one gram on my mini scale and checked it 24 hours later...

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[sammyha]

I built the captain's chair after the console. Wrapped the material around the foam seat pads and glued it down with E6000.

Everywhere you see seams, that's separate pieces of foam wrapped with material. Then glued it all together. Yup, with E6000...

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[sammyha]

Made the seat base adjustable too. A bit tricky to figure out. Made up the seat adjustment handle and it loosens and tightens the near side to the inner rail.

For the seat adjustment handle, I dremmeled a groove in the screw head, super glued in a piece of wire, glued a plastic cap over the wire and the head of the screw, and glued a hand carved plastic knob on the end of the wire. Tedious work..

The square styrene nuts can't spin being they are next to the rails, the screws are self tapping.

The other side is just tightened snug enough so it will slide but not rattle around.

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[sammyha]

Next I built the seat with the backrest that can be switched so you can sit looking back too.

Had to cover the servos that actuate the front deck, and also figure out how long to build the back couches. The other servo is under the console...

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[sammyha]

Here's some pics of that seat build, in random order. I inlaid a styrene frame in the seat back to screw the side brackets into.

In one picture I'm taping and clamping the foam while the E6000 cures, in the other picture I tape and clamped the covering material while it cures.

The bump stops for the backrest are pieces of black fuel tubing over the screws. The spacers on the sides of the seat back are servo grommets. I'll use anything I can find that works for scratch builds, lol.


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[sammyha]

More pics of that seat...

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[sammyha]

Then I built couches for days!

That's cutting out the frame from styrene, gluing them together, sanding the corner radii, primer, paint, build the upholstery, glue it down, rivet the couch to the deck... rinse and repeat...

Here's some pics. The back L-shaped couches double as radio compartments...

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[sammyha]

The back half of the boat interior finished...

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[sammyha]

Some details on building the latches for making the seats removable to access the radio compartments.

Push the black buttons circled in red to remove the seat...

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[sammyha]

For awhile there it felt like I been building boat furniture my entire adult life. There's a LOT of furniture in a pontoon boat.

Some shots of building the front couches and armrests, with built in cup holders...

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[sammyha]

Eventually if you stay with it you'll get it done...

I think these are some really cool shots.

Inspired by the screenshot I was using for making pontoon boat interiors.

It's also cool because I remembered to take these pics before I riveted them in the boat.

You can see where I made cutouts in the frames of the furniture to save weight on the front deck...

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[sammyha]

Here's an interesting bit of info I stumbled onto...

The servo on a pull- pull setup using push rods (but not cables), does not have to be fixed in place. The length of the push rods is a constant. The servo just cannot rock side to side.

When I mounted the steering servo for the smaller outboard motor, I made guide rails from black delrin so the servo can slide forward when the motor tilts up. Two layers, the bottom one is slightly thicker than the aluminum plate.

The fit to the guide rails must be close, no play side to side, and be able to slide freely forward and backward.

The servo is just mounted to the aluminum plate. Also the sides of the aluminum plate must be parallel.

The 1/5 scale outboard does not tilt, BUT, the extended mount allows for adjustment of the motor height. So it was no problem to adjust the motor height for tuning it at the reservoir. Without ever having to change the length of the pull- pull rods.

Pretty cool...

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[sammyha]

The motor mount on a pontoon boat has a leading angle plate on the bottom. To add some lift to the back of the boat I assume.

I made it so the height is adjustable. There's five holes on both sides under the screw the red arrow points to.

Set the transom too high and there's not enough down adjustment in the set back motor mount.

Set the transom too low and it blows a big hole in the water and the prop cavitates.

I did a fair amount of adjustments at the water to get it right. Got the transom height right first so there was clean water coming off it and the prop had a clean bite.

Then I played with the motor height and angle on the setback mount until the front of the boat wasn't running too wet or too loose.

It runs a bit like a catamaran, holds air underneath and lifts the boat. It actually runs strong enough that it got a little scary loose at one point...

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[sammyha]

Did you notice the wrinkle finish on the lower end paint?

Rustoleum's own clear coat was not compatible with their paint. But it cured nice and hard, and I kind of like how it looks now.

I was upset at first when it wrinkled, and used a different brand clear polyurethane on the cowling that did not wrinkle...



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