ML Boatworks 1/8th Scale 171 Extreme Build Miss Elam

[Luck as a Constant]

Looks awesome dude


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[785boats]

Beautiful.

[HRC]

Awesome Mike, she turned out beautiful.
Dave

[Speed810]

Morning Dave!!!

Thanks for the compliment!! It gets the final clear coats when I get back from vacation.
Should really have those colors poping out.

Hoping its as fast as it looks...LOL

Mike

[T.S.Davis]

It's absolutely mind boggling how much work these are. I'm cussing the paint on our little 10th scale.

[nichismo]

just curious, which do you consider more work, if you intend to run a brushless setup:

ML Boatworks kit and associated parts (epoxy cowling/cockpit, and wing sets)

or

a fully epoxy glass hull with no gelcoat, made for nitro? (fix pinholes, seal off electronics, accomodating lipos)

i mean i know how so many reslky enjoy or perhaps even moreso gaining enjoyment in the build process than the actual driving itself, but personal satisfaction aside, purely from a labor intensive perspective.

even though I havnt built a wooden kit yet and should probably start on something simpler, I just love this hull/kit and watching it being built with all this documentation by others just makes it 5x more tempting!

[don ferrette]

Looking good Mike!

[T.S.Davis]

Wood kit is way more satisfying. Cutting the wood yourself from raw sheet is super satisfying too. Especially if you design something yourself. Its a lot scarier though.

I meant a scale. A scale requires more attention. More work. The canopy for instance isn't an exact science. You have to figure out how to mate it to the boat. Then have to engineer a way to keep it in place. The tail feathers have to look right but they also have to get attached to the boat, stay put, be functional, and also be able to come off in a crash without destroying the boat. Mike from ML doesn't spell all that out for us.

Add all these tid bits together and some won't get through it. I've been working on a 10th scale for months. I don't think I'll ever be happy with it.

[nichismo]

well yes I already know the whole satisfaction aspect of it, but I know you have built both and im curious as to which you believe requires more labor all together

[T.S.Davis]

Wood is still more work I think. You still have to seal the wood and make it worthy of paint like a glass boat. It all looks like flat surfaces but if you look at Mikes thread you can see where he filled little valleys here and there he didn't think were quite straight enough. Then any place two piece of wood come together usually gets visited multiple times after it sucks up all the epoxy and leaves a gap. Those seam to pop up when you prime. Annoying.

I was just flipping through this thread again. Mike, the right side transom where the fin mounts is fantastic. There's no instructions on how to do that.

I suppose it depends on what your building though. If you build a Thomas T5 at least the canopy and the hull are designed to fit to each other. Sure you have to fill pin holes and such but that's just paintwork. Same thing with the West Coast Customs 10th scale boats. It's all intended to fit together. Phil and Craig already solved some parts of the riddle for us. Less invention required so to speak.

[T.S.Davis]

Mike, shoot me an email if you want. We need to get this on a course for you before the cup. Just to sort it out a bit. I'll figure out a place and time for you to get some laps. Maybe at the Elks. I don't know.

[email protected]

Maybe I can get Ken Joye to come out and take a look for you. He's my go to guy for all things 1/8 scale.

[nichismo]

ya, I'm struggling quite a bit just fabricating my sub hatch cover, ive literally made up 3 different pieces and 5 different extension boxes just trying to find a workable middle ground. the way I see some guys craft their work with such precision, once it's all painted it's amazing to me how well the CF parts perhaps blend with ply or even balsa.

not being able to install hardware with the hull top-deck-less is a nice thing that wood hulls possess too, in my opinion at least. I am still really foreign to woodwork in general lol. really want to order a kit from Mike but incredibly indecisive as to which.

[Twood]

Does anyone have any pictures of the shoes on the sides of the transom

[Speed810]

Finally ready to Maiden the Miss Elam

Evening All!!!

Apologize to everyone for not being on here for awhile, but was at a stand still until the replacement tail feather graphics arrived. Was really looking forward to running the boat in the Michigan Cup race this year...but I guess there is always next year.

Terry...actually just saw your post, wish I had seen it earlier so I could let ya know that the boat was not going to be ready...... Never did get a notification that any of the last 4 or 5 posts were even made. Usually I'll only get back on the forums if I get a notification. Guess I'll have to keep checking in once in awhile. It sure would be nice to get Ken Joye to meet us say on a Saturday or Sunday to go thru the boat and see if he sees any problems. I was planning on giving it a float test and possible run test this Saturday morning out at the lake were on around 7am before all the boat traffic starts....Maybe I should wait and drive over to have Ken go thru it first.

But I finally got the replacement tail feather graphics a week ago Friday. Mike did a great job in matching up the color with the paint color. Its much closer. I really appreciate Mike going the extra mile for me to get a closer color match. So the graphics went on Monday and finished the prep work for the clear coating. Had a buddy at a local auto body shop lend me the use of the paint booth and give me a hand in applying the clear coat. WOW....what a nice set up. I did a thin mist coat to initially seal the paint and graphics. This also prevents any fish eyes from developing. We mixed up another batch of clear with a slower reducer which was the ticket to get a nice flow out. The reducer I was using was to fast for the temps. Probably should have used a much slower reducer when applying the colors also....would have allowed for a much better flow out before flashing. Live and learn....,,
Well the last 2 coats of clear went on beautifully and flowed out to a great finish. We then baked it at about 130 degrees for 30 min. Bingo...nice hard clear shell. I think the only thing I'll do differently next time is use a graphics clear sealer around all the edges before putting on the final clear coats. Some of the very tips of some letters and sharp graphic points are sticking up slightly. Again live and learn. But overall I am super pleased how it all turned out, especially for a first boat build project.

Spent most of the weekend out at my RC club flying field and lake re-assembling all the hardware, plumbing, mounting the tail feathers and some electronics. This week I'll be finishing up installing/gluing in the canopy windshield, installing some foam floatation in the canopy. Also need to grind down flat spots on the motor shaft and prop shaft before installing the collet and prop drive dog. Other than that it should be ready for its maiden by this weekend. Hopefully it performs as good as it looks...LOL.......

I'll have someone taking plenty of video and get it posted as soon as I can.

Thanks to everyone on here that helped make this project a success. Your advice and encouragement was terrific and I learned a ton.
I had such a great time building this boat that I know I'll be starting another soon. Possibly a P-Sport or Q-Sport boat.....

MikeFinish 3.JPGFinish 8.JPGFinish 6.JPGFinish 2.JPGFinish 7.JPG

[Luck as a Constant]

ML Boatworks 1/8th Scale 171 Extreme Build Miss Elam

Looks good.
Pretty sure I told you your reducer on the basecoat was too fast.
Next time.
Oh well ... Nice job!


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