I panted both hulls before bulworks&rail....I have never had an issue...I pull my boat from the lake using the mainhatch and the left bullwork. I did do 1 inch spaceing...I also planked 1st then cut out the bulwark slots then installed deck..wish I had known aboult simulating caulking then but will get the next one.. I just used ca glue and after dryed treated the whole deck with thomsons water seal.. been over 8yrs and haven't had one come up yet and I do mainly blue water sailing at my lake. I used a gm engine sealant to glue my deck down..i also advise filling in the keel areas behind the bulkhead where the propshaft comes going all the way back to the rudder..as I personaly didn't have enough sealant between the hull frames and the abs hull.i also coated the wood with a polyurethane for water proofing..remember to renforce the bow curve( I used bondo filler) area where it is weak so you wont experience the split and repairs I had to do on frey's gold..



to be clear I have 2 hellen hulls..the 1st pics are Freya's gold standard rudder..i did have to go back and cut off the rudder skeg later to fix a rudder issue so might as well get that out of the way now..

the 2nd pic's are for the unnamed as yet hull and I am going to make a new deck with a forward wheelhouse and convert it into a hand troller like the ones I grew up with in southeast Alaska.. it has the beckner rudder... but im redoing the waterline again to incorporate a stencil of this at the bow 1/2 in and out of the water line..oh and another tip..if you have a family member who is into scrapbooking and has a wishblade(a cnc machine for paper)..it's awesome.. had the wife cut out" Freya's gold" on sticky backed paper,stuck it on and used clear embossing ink and gold embossing powder to do the name.. they use a heatgun to change the powder to melt..stays on very well.. soon as im happy with the positive for the outline I will have her cut the stencil out..

Originally Posted by downunda

Fixing The Deck - I fitted the deck over the weekend, I was unsure whether to use Cyano or epoxy to fix the deck in place, however, I ended up using epoxy as I wanted the extra curing time to allow time to ensure that all sections of the deck were properly seated. I used a combination of weights and foldback clips to hold the deck down firm while the epoxy cured.

Looking good downunda !

Selecting The Deck Finish - :- We are back from our extended RV trip and now its hobby time. Before I went away I planked the deck but going no further as I couldn't make up my mind as how to finish the deck (and in fact the whole boat).

After getting back home I made up what I call a “Deck Finish Test Palette” on the lid of a chocolate box. To this I applied various finishes varying from clear, through grey to brown and a few tints in between. This sat there for weeks while I tried to make up my mind, in the end I decided that most of the boats at our club look either new or if not new they were very clean.

From my limited wandering around a few marinas recently I rarely saw a fishing boat that was new or spotless, many were grubby and looked neglected from years of hard work and not much TLC. This prompted me to make the decision that my Hellen was going to be a very well used and somewhat neglected fishing boat.

I may regret this decision as I don’t have much experience with weathered finishes, just one weathered model railway Box Car under my belt.

The deck finish was done with a brush applied mix of Vallejo light grey wash with just a dab of Tamiya XF-60 dark yellow then scrubbed with fine steel wool. The attached photos show the various finishes:- 1) my Deck Finish Test Palette, 2) the deck with the finish half applied, 3) the finished result ready for Testors Clear Coat.

Will I regret my decision to create a grotty old tub of a fishing boat instead of something straight from the boat builders? Only time will tell.

And oh yes, did you notice the simulated black calking between the deck planks? Look back a few entries to see how it was done. I think it worked out quite well.

I think your deck looks perfect .

Mark

Agreed ~

Downunda....I've had a Hellen model for several years & it is a great boat...in our club we have different theme computations each month & I've run the Hellen, renamed the "Pelican" in several & generally place high...it is sea-worthy, quite maneuverable & fast...have fun & enjoy...CplFuzz

I've just painted (airbrushed) the hull. I still need to paint the Rubbing Strakes blue, that will be next week. I will probably apply a few coats of Dull Cote all over then consider how I'm going to weather the hull.

I've made up and painted (the same as the hull) a weathering test rig as shown in the photo, with that I can play around with various weathering techniques before I commit to weathering the hull.

Well I've really procrastinated about weathering the hull. A good way back I downloaded a lot of photos of fishing boats to get an idea of what I can do. The photos varied from nice clean boats to rusting hulks and everything in between. The thing I did learn is that you can do almost anything regarding a weathered finish.

I tried a few different techniques (airbrush and non-airbrush) on different materials with different paints and wasn't really happy with any of the results. My main worry was that I was about to spoil a pristine paint finish and wasn't sure what the outcome would be and if I messed it up recovery would be very difficult.

However, as we are off on our five month Winter RV trip next week I knew that it was now or never so I bit the bullet and mixed up a few colours of wash and got spraying. I went back a few times and lightly over-sprayed with different colours until I thought that's not too bad. I also scraped paint of the rubbing strake in various spots and touched up with various colours representing what happens when bumping into docks and other boats etc.

A note about the flow of the dirt and rust down the hull sides... I've lined those runs up with where the slots are in the Bulwarks so it will seem logical once the upper deck work is finished. The colours in the photos appear more red than to the naked eye, however I couldn't be bothered doing any colour adjustments. You will get the idea I'm sure.

So as far as I'm concerned I will fit the propeller and the hull is finished from the deck down. In a way I've made a rod for my own back as the rest of the boat (wheelhouse, bulwarks, fittings etc) will also need to be weathered... that will also require a lot of thought.

Wow, over twelve months and no progress until now. Well we did go away in the RV for the southern winter then some unwanted health issues slowed me somewhat.

I had been mentally wrestling about assembling, fitting and painting the bulwarks, stanchions and gunwales as I was concerned that design of the bulwarks only allowed for a small protrusion to attach them into the deck. From a previous build I learned that the bulwarks are prone to being knocked and can easily break away so I decided to glue brass strip extensions to the them and cut slots in the deck to allow them to seat below the deck (first image) . Hopefully when glued into the deck the brass extensions will provide additional strength to make the bulwarks more robust.

To do this work I covered the deck with shrink-wrap (I didn't want them to adhere yet) then taped the bulwarks in place and measured, cut and glued the stanchions in place (second image). My intention at this stage is to again trial fit the bulwarks and attach the gunwales then remove the whole bulwark/gunwale structure and paint it. Then when other deck work has been completed I will fit and glue it permanently back in place... I wonder if I will stick to that plan?

After fitting the stanchions to the bulwarks I trial fitted them to the deck then removed them for airbrushing. I figure it was much easier to paint them away from the hull as I didn't want to bother with the chore of masking everything.
Before painting I put small pieces of masking tape on the bulwarks where they would be glued to the deck and where the gunwales would be glued on top of the bulwarks.

After painting, the bulwarks were glued to the deck and the ends pinned and glued fore and aft.

Next step will be to fit cleats to the bulwarks and to trial fit then paint and glue the gunwales to the top of the bulwarks.

your weathering is very good..i didn't do it as im not good at it..i think your bulwark idead is good to..on frey's gold I just beveled and trimed fush and used a marie epoxy.is very firm.i usualy grabit by putting my fingers in the main hatch and the thumb on out bord hull..i realise this might be a little late but I used auto tape weights below the moter board.a full stick of 3 oz will fit I used about 12 of them..also I use gm engine sealant rtv as my adheasive's for putting down the deck and moterplates and upper flats for rudder servo area..you can cut it with a hobby knife and peel it up.holds good never had any problems with it.water proof and I get it from work free..i did use a pasticoate sealer on all internal wood and thompsons waterseal on the deck..also as to the rudder I ran a keel strip from bow to stern like you did buy I sawed it off where the triangle blok the prop shaft comes out and used 2 screws to hold down the rudder skeg so it is removable..then I used bondo to fill the gap between the deadkeel and the hull all the way back..never to late to go back and fix that..also now is the time to start thinking about lighting..i have lots of idea's for that and you can pm me and I can tell you how to not only light the masts but the wheelhouse and not have to deal with wires and still have the roof removable to show interior detal and add more bits later instead of wishing you could later..(im like that so I try to plan for it..i would also recommend mounting your electronics up high..frey's gold is like this but the pick is from the komando with the beckner

Where to start... its been over a year since I last updated this Build Log, however as we (in Melbourne Australia) are in corona virus lockdown I had no more excuses not to work on this project. The boat is now finished, ready to launch and is named after our eldest daughter Suzanne.

One would have thought looking at Build Log 12 that getting to completion would be simple, unfortunately it wasn't that straightforward for me as many of the finishes I tried I didn't like and had to re-do them a number of times, particulary the wheelhouse.

The Wheelhouse:- The kit provided for a planked wheelhouse, I decided I wanted something different and as I had many sheets of white styrene I used that for a smooth wall finish. The wheelhouse was painted a number of times in various colours and although each time the finish was good it didn't go with the rest of the boat.

I'm reasonably happy what I ended up with... the roof of the wheelhouse is painted white mixed with a dash of roadside sand to dirty it up a little and to provide a rough surface. The walls are blue (the same blue as the trim under the bulwarks) and dusted with a light grey mist to provide a weathered effect. I have three LED lights on the roof of the wheel house that can be switched from the radio.

The Masts:- The masts were painted brilliant white, I then aged them with a grey wash rubbed in with a cotton ball. My wife sewed the sails, however the way I have set them doesn't show off her handiwork. In addition to mast stays there is a radio antenna that spans the masts.

Assembly-Transport:- For transport and storage the masts can easily be removed as they simply plug into brass tubes installed under the deck. The radio antenna and the mast stays are retained by clips or wrapped around cleats.