171 Extreme Build - 1/8 Scale Boeing

[nocebo]

The next sheet is relatively easy to place as its a nice flat surface to glue to. Usual process, press paper over the part to create an outline, cut out paper and glue to plywood:



Laid down roughly in place - I leave about 5mm each side for later trimming:



Lay down your epoxy and clamp the crap out of it. With these long pieces its really important to clamp the whole lot to the table so it dries straight:





After drying this is the result:





Its actually amazing how much stronger the whole thing becomes once the sheeting is in place. Really ties the whole lot together and prevents a lot of flex.

[nocebo]

Once it is dry you can use you plane/razor/sanding block to trim the excess nice and flush:





Really important to use a sanding block and not to freehand sand if you want a straight surface. Later on I will come back with a fairing compound to fill in the low spots but i want everything to be as fair as possible before adding any compound.



Finished and ready to move onto the next steps:

[nocebo]

Next thing I decided to tackle was the ride surfaces. Mainly because these are pretty flat and so seem a bit easier to fit. There are some funky edges you have to maintain though so tried to capture that in photos. The ride surfaces I am tackling are:

Main ride surface on here:





As well as the two front surfaces just in front of the main ride pad



First thing i did was glue on a batten to give the front most ride surface something to land on. As usual, glue this on then plane/sand down to make it fair with the sponson. Here it is clamped in place. This photo also shows the three ride surfaces i am tackling in the next few posts:



Following the same process as before, make a paper template, glue to some plywood, and cut out with a razor:



And finally here are all the ride surfaces cut out and ready to be glued into place. As you can see each one is slightly different so need to be fitted individually. I will show you the overlaps in the next few posts.

[nocebo]

I put a second batten in here to support the main ride paid. Important - note this sits flush with the main ride pad and slightly below the middle ride pad. Next photos should show what i mean:



Here it is in place - note it sits slightly below the forward ride pad. This is important as when the forward and aft pads are in place there will be a sharp lip between the two to encourage the water to separate:



Here is the ride pad sitting in place before gluing. Notice the front is flush with the bottom of the forward ride surface



Again a test fit - this is what it should look like when its glued in, a nice sharp edge:





Another test fit showing the overlap i left at the rear - about 3mm, although you can probably get away with less. This is the port sponson - you can also see that inner edge of the ride pad i kept it flush with the edge. You could overhand this slightly if you wanted to help the boat slide sideways over the water more effectively. I decided to keep it flush. Not sure which is better...

[Ayles]

What spray on adhesive did you use? I have some pretty strong stuff left over from doing the interior on my car but I can't imagine using that to create the templates. The paper wouldn't come off without leaving a big mess.

[nocebo]

What spray on adhesive did you use? I have some pretty strong stuff left over from doing the interior on my car but I can't imagine using that to create the templates. The paper wouldn't come off without leaving a big mess.

Its some stuff i got at an arts and crafts type store -if anything i have the opposite problem, its not particularly strong at all. Comes off easily with a bit of acetone.

[nocebo]

Time for an update:

Once i had everything lined up, was time to glue the main ride pads down. I noticed the support ribs that they were to be glued to were not perfectly straight. After raiding my toolbox for something to use as a brace that was the right size, i settled on some allen keys. You can see what i mean below:



Clamped into place while the glue was drying for the sponsons. I then laid down some epoxy, and taped the whole lot together with a crapload of tape:



As usual, clamp the lot to the table while its drying to prevent warping:





The finished product: Its starting to come together!

[nocebo]

So the edges of the main ride pads are different on each side. See below for what i mean.



The outside edge of the starboard ride pad overlaps the sponson by about 1.5mm. The inside edge is flush. Both sides are flush on the port sponson.

Next step was to fit the forward most sheet/ride pad. To do this properly i borrowed a small block plane which made the whole process much much easier. Is a great tool to do sheeting, allows you to carefull shape the sheets and get them perfect before fitting. Also good to fair all the battens etc. Wish i had it earlier. If i could find a smaller one that would be even better - maybe my next boat. Here I am getting it razor sharp.

[nocebo]

This is the front piece cut to shape:



Im not sure i did this next bit correctly, but it seemed to work in the end. Rather than overlapping the sponson former, I shaved and sanded down the edge of the sponson sheet so it would sit at an angle and meet at a perfect edge at the tip of the sponson. Took a bunch of photos to explain. Again you could probably do this differently but it seemed to work for me.





To get a really solid glue joint at the front, i mixed up some thickened epoxy:



Laid it down right on the edge where I will be gluing the sponson. MAKE SURE YOU SEAL THIS PART WITH EPOXY BEFORE YOU GLUE ON YOUR SHEET. I forgot and now its super difficult to get under there to seal properly.



Clamping down:

[nocebo]

Here is the leading edge. I might round this off later on with some thickened epoxy. Ill do this after the top sheeting is complete



Finally, a bunch of very creative clamping to hold it all to dry.





Really happy with the finished product - came out very straight and neat. Next step is the final two upper sheets on each sponson.

[nocebo]

Starting on the upper sheeting on the starboard sponson. I did this sheet in one piece, on the port side i did it in two pieces.

Here is the rough shape of the template:





The way I fitted this was to lay the straight edge down against the side of the sponson and clamp it into place. I then basically slowly whittled away at the front until i had a perfect (or as close as i could get) fit. This was the only way i could get this complex shape (and sharp bend) close.





Tacked it down with superglue

[nocebo]

Some photos of the leading edge. I started to feather the edges together as the next sheet i am putting on will overlap the sponson former. This sheet is sort of the transition piece so feathered both the sheet and the sponson. Hope this makes sense. Lots of pics for reference:









Again not saying this is the best way, but it seems to work. The other option would be to overlap the sponson edge all the way around.

[nocebo]

The port side sponson was done a little differently. There is a little step i incorporated in this sponson so needed to do the sheeting in two pieces. Its also a sharper bend so was easier as two sheets.

If you look really closely in the below photo, you can see how this step is incorporated:





Front piece:



Was able to get a really close fit because it was in two pieces:



Also was able to pre-bend the piece so it fit in place perfect. Surprising how well the plywood holds the bend without breaking.

[nocebo]

Second sheet:



Notice i put in a piece of balsa on the sponson for the front of the sheet to land on.

Trial fitting:



Tacked in place with superglue



And finally, how the two sheets interact. I think it makes a really cool looking transition, and very neat:





The way i did all of these sheets was to overlap slightly on the top edge. Once it was glued into place i came back with a hand plane and sandpaper to get it perfectly flush:

[nocebo]

On the home stretch, one final sheet on each sponson to go.

Before moving to the final sheet, first thing i did on both sponsons was to use the plane and some sandpaper to fair the framing to accept the sheets. In the photo below i concentrated on the sponson former (top of the photo) and getting it shaped roughly in line with the underlying frames



The usual process of paper template, wood template, hold the template to the sponson and adjust a little bit at a time.



Glued in place. I left a heap of extra material on top of the sheet which i later planed and sanded down to be a perfect fit with the sponson.







Did both sponsons at the same time - here they are clamped to dry overnight