[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