Its always guess work even if you have a drawing, You can never be sure until it meets water. You can know where it should be, and hopefully ballast down to that, but there are many factors that will change it. That's the difference between theory and practice.

I couldn't agree more with Malcolm. Unless you have accurate plans of the real thing, with the waterline marked (in which case use that), I would suggest leaving any painting of the hull below the w/line until you have tried out the model in the water in various conditions (e.g. flat clam, Force 12 etc). Whe you've reached a reasonable compromise with the ballast for all conditions, mark and paint the waterline to suit. Cheating I know, but I promise not to tell on you……………….. Don't forget to spread the ballast out along the length of the hull to minimise "porpoising".

Dave M

Edited By Dave Milbourn on 02/10/2012 09:52:28