Another BC fishing vessel...

[RCP57]

I have been working on this since last October and it has been a lot more trying than I ever could have thought. As all of you know I normally work with aluminum and really enjoy it. This one is modeled after our real 42 foot fiberglass fish boat so I had to make the hull out of glass. I have worked with glass before a little but not on anything where the finish really mattered so this was a real challenge and I have become discouraged many times with the build. I am building it for a friend and former co-worker so I want it to look good when I hand it over....

The mold started out as a cedar log which I chain sawed into the rough shape.



I then spent a few hours with an angle grinder smoothing out the rough spots and fine tuning the shape...It is very hard to get both sides the same.lol




After spending a bunch more time mudding and sanding I coated the mold in resin. After that was done I gave it a coat of wax(but not enough) and laid on the glass. The idea was to use the new fiberglass hull as the final mold but it didn't come off as easy as I had hoped. The wax I used didn't release in some spots and it pulled the body filler right off the wood leaving it stuck to the glass. When this happened I was really upset and gave up on the build for quite some time(enter KW 850 build here). My Dad offered to take the two glass halves home and carefully grind away the body filler so that I could get back on track with it(thanks Dad). When he was finished I spent some time filling some rough spots in the glass and tried again to make a hull.



When this was done I carefully popped them off the molds and gave them a trim. Once the two pieces were fitted together I taped them together with some glass.


At this point I also installed the shaft tube and poured resin in all around it.


Once the two halves were one the body work began...






I installed aluminum bulkheads with some body filler. The motor bolts right to the forward bulkhead and the steering servo mounts to the rear.




With that done I was able to make the deck. All the upper part of the boat will be aluminum....



Mocked up the cabin out of paper. The final cabin will have some small changes...


and finally here's where I am at today. The hull is finally done and painted. I had hoped to have this done in the next two weeks but I have run out of alum. and my local supply is out as well....I'm almost out of time! Guess I spent too much time on that 850...




Thanks for looking!
Reg

[louie r/c nut]

Very nice work

[Supermario]

Wow!

C'mon, boats too Reg!
you never cease to amaze! And the proud owner of this one will be too I'm sure

Quick question?..... You don't sleep do you? lol

Mario

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by Supermario

Wow!

C'mon, boats too Reg!
you never cease to amaze! And the proud owner of this one will be too I'm sure

Quick question?..... You don't sleep do you? lol

Mario

Haha, no not much sleep...

[ihbuilder]

I want 1






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oh crap now the white coats are coming :help:

[RCP57]

Haha.... My name is Reg and I'm an addict.... I'm a modelholic....

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by oztruck

Turning out very nice. What scale 1/16?

Chris

Thanks Chris, It's about 1/18

[doodlebug]

Originally Posted by RCP57

Haha.... My name is Reg and I'm an addict.... I'm a modelholic....

Great job Reg
Cheer's, Neil.

[TRUCKMAKER]

Very nice build as usual Reg, love the boats/ships. I have a question of curiousity, since you normally work with aluminum why couldn't you make the mold out of aluminum instead of wood?

[modelman]

RCP57-a classic "rookie" mistake of trying to get a release from body filler . If you had painted the plug with lacquer primer or a resin-based catalyst primer before waxing you would have got an easy release. But with a little extra work it turned out good. Nice looking hull!

[RCP57]

Originally Posted by TRUCKMAKER

Very nice build as usual Reg, love the boats/ships. I have a question of curiousity, since you normally work with aluminum why couldn't you make the mold out of aluminum instead of wood?

Thanks. I didn't think I would be able to get the right shape out of it with metal. The real boat is pretty round bellied with no hard lines so it would be hard to copy.

Originally Posted by modelman

RCP57-a classic "rookie" mistake of trying to get a release from body filler . If you had painted the plug with lacquer primer or a resin-based catalyst primer before waxing you would have got an easy release. But with a little extra work it turned out good. Nice looking hull!

I put a coat of resin on the hull prior to waxing but for some reason the resin reacted with the body filler in a few places. It was in those spots that it stuck to the fiberglass...Oh well live and learn. I probably will never build another glass boat again now. It ruined me lol!

[RCP57]

I did some work to the wheelhouse this afternoon...I bought a small sheet of 0.50 aluminum for this.






Reg

[modelman]

RCP57-To make a high quality fiberglass mold is not really that hard but there are a few things that need to be done correctly. However, looks like you just needed a-1-time mold and that worked out just fine because you have a nice looking hull. I enjoy boats so I will be watching your progress. Good job so far.

[RCP57]

I haven't had much time for this in the last few days but I did get some stuff done. I got part of the railing on the stern done and welded up the mast. I also just finished machining the pole brackets and mounted them.






Thanks for looking.

[RCP57]

Spent most of the day in the shop working on this today. I had hoped to go for a ride on my motorcycle today but I got the modeling bug and couldn't shake it...






Almost time to apply some more paint!

Thanks for looking

[Acadieman]

Very nice!

Booms are popular out west and in some other places, fishing boats here don't seem to have them. I'm more used to seeing lobster and small fishing operations though.

[Erick O]

I want to see one of these things go fishing. These boats look so real I can't get over it.

[modelman]

Your making good progress-you work really fast. I read at the top this is modeled after your full size boat. I was wondering how you got all this detail. Nice work. Also, forgot to mention- In the-1st-picture-nice chainsaw work!!

[RCP57]

Thanks very much guys. I've been tinkering around a little more with this the last few days. I even took some time to run it for a while in the pond yesterday. I had planned on running the boat off of 12v but it is just too fast so I swapped that in favour of a 6v battery instead. The 6v battery is a little heavier so I have to adjust the ballast in the bow but that's not a big deal. Still a lot of things to do and not a lot of time left to do it!

Outside for some painting..



In the spare tub for some ballasting...



Back in the shop after the wheelhouse was fully painted and the window trim was partially applied...



and finally today it got an anchor winch, anchor and life raft...



Thanks for looking!

[kaptain Jack]

That's one sweet boat