Retriever Class Recovery Boat

[Sakura Maru]

Hello all, it's been a while since I posted here, but the boat bug has bitten again, and I'm just buildin' away. My local boat club here in Lancaster has needed to someone to fetch their nitro jobs when they die, so back to the work bench to the Retriever Class boats, the first of which is the Labrador Retriever. It's based on a Hobbico starter motor, and will be powered with two 6v 4 amp batteries.

[HorribleHarry]

Hello, great idea! what kind & thickness of wood are you using? What scale & what are the dimensions? Are you going to glass the hull or just seal it?

Harry

[Sakura Maru]

I'm using 1/4" balsa sheet for the sides, 3mm ply for the bottom (finally cracked open that package of lite ply I bought at Tokyu Hands!) and door ply (also from Japan!) for the deck. I have a lot of options for finishing the hull's wood. I could use resin, dope or balsa sealer followed by paint, or I can simply use model aircraft film such as Monokote....they use it on model airplane floats so why not? I thinking of the latter seriously. Wood is no great mystery, after all, boat models have been made of it for decades.

The model is 36" long and a has a beam of 8". It follows no particular scale as it's a freelance river tug meant to haul in wayward hydros.

Revell

[Sakura Maru]

The deck build up...

[Umi_Ryuzuki]

Very nice, That's moving right along.

:cool:

[Sakura Maru]

Thanks Umi, I like that coming from a fellow anime fan and garage kit builder. Fast forward to going up a floor

[Sakura Maru]

Drive line...

[blckgnx]

SWEET!!! I just replied to your other thread and totally missed this one!! This is one sweet build. Are you doing this from plans, or just plain craftsmanship and imagination. I hate people with talent! (jus kidin!) PM me when you get ready to launch this please. I ride down and get lots of pics.
NICE JOB!!!

[Sakura Maru]

No plans; just doin' what the voices in my head tell me too......

[gpzy]

Awesome build!!
Now why dont the voices in my head tell me what to build?

Manny

[blckgnx]

Voices? What voices? I don't hear voices? Of course I don't have any talent and no really cool projects either! LOL, Ron

[Sakura Maru]

While I ponder the covering of the hull, I'm working on the guidance systems. I made a Kort nozzle from irrigation pipe, the thin wall PVC stuff. This fits a 40MM prop with room to spare. Just thinking how to connect it all to the steering shaft......

[Sakura Maru]

Electrical and radio gear installed

[Sakura Maru]

Starting from the beginning....

[Sakura Maru]

I sat around deciding how I would prepare the hull for painting. Finally, I decided to do something daring: I clad the hull in .040 Sintra plastic sheet. This saves me reams of sanding, prepping, resins and glassing. Once installed, it was only a matter of filling the gaps between the sheet panels ( I could have used one long sheet for the sides but didn't want to fidget with CA glue running everywhere )

Now, it's only fill, prime, sand and paint

[Bilge_Snipe]

Revell, your recovery boat is looking pretty nice. I'm looking forward to seeing how well she handels at Appollo?