Hi everyone
Ive taken the plunge and decided to make my first model boat, ive been at it for a month or so. Thoroughly enjoyable and addictive, alot more goes into it than meets the eye.
Iam making a FV Northwestern from Deadliest Catch, i love the elegant old girl and havent seen too many try and make her, so hopefully ill do her justice.

Total Scratch build

I am a complete novice so some methods may seem bizarre, started out by carving her hull out of high density foam, which was reasonably fast and productive. having already made myself full sized 1:32 plans. I struggled for a while to adequately seal the foam for future fibregalss layup, but i got there in the end with plain old pollyfilla yes i was surprised how well it worked, it was easily sandable and took to the foam well.
So my journey onwards full of self discovery lol, alot of materials id never used before, the next was fibreglass, which was reasonably priced, my technique however for a first time was pretty good, the odd tear in the gel coat where i added the matting, however the resin and strength was all good.
Hull is ready for deck and rib fit outs, wheelhouse is formed, sadly the cold weather has halted recent progress, however nothing is lost and i have whipped up 100 odd pot frames.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgillespie1/sets/72157628647156587/

So i did my first water test last night, watertight and is very well balanced. However im going to need an awful lot of weight/ballast.

I have a selection of motors, this is because ive been given some contradicting information i may have to trial and error it. There is a Johnsson 600 which some claim will be too fast..i think it might be the best option as the northwestern model will be very heavy and will need power, in real life she does 11-14 knots which is pretty decent. The other engines are a 540 6:1 which ive been advised as giving better scale speed, i have my concerns as scale speed is diffult to get right, at that size the water is like soup as opposed to water therfore more power is needed, which maybe makes it look a bit faster. The last one is a graupner 600 that is 8.5 volts so id need to run it off of a 6v battery. A friend has a lifeboat which is a bit shorter than my model but has twin triple 7s, this worries me as the speed isnt that fast. Anyway plenty of time later on to decide.

I did a mock up of the wheel house just to see how it looks, the wheelhouse was only taped together and put on temporary supports, the wheelhouse and captains quarters need to be trimmed too, but im very satisfied with the look and realistic form. I may have to look at the bow as it appears a bit sharp, not a lot though.

Another amateur mistake i made was to buy poundland epoxy, it was terrible stuff, didnt set properly and was very brittle when an area did eventually set. I already did my ribs and deck with the ‘rubbish’ epoxy so redid it with araldite which im sure will be far superior and trustworthy.

[url]http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisgillespie1/sets/72157628647156587/[/url]

Edited By Chris Gillespie 1 on 03/01/2012 01:11:09

Ive been working on the hull details, these are all pencilled on and are ready to be cut/drilled added to etc. Ive added the first coat of red anti foul, lightly sanded. This is all the paint work ill do on the bottom until all the running gear/keel/and bow thrusters etc.

The weather here in scotland has been on the cold side, so struggled to get much done with glues and epoxies etc. Ive set up a form of heating in the garage and have managed to do the framework for the deck ive already cut. Much like the hull supports many little pieces to be cut and glued together.
I have taken pictures, but there isnt a great deal to see, i have still been plodding away on it most days, just seems im floating about in different sections doing little bits. The hull below water just needs to be finnished with paint, bow thruster grills and to glue on the fake anodes and sonars. Ive done a fair bit on the hull above water, all holes have been drilled and cut including hawsers, the only hole to do is anchor.Much like the bilge keel, ive found the trim that was formerly the deck height a bit more difficult than anticipated, it is so thin in all directions but they are done, just the bow one to do.
It would be very easy to just paint the former deck line, also easy to paint the detailing for water escapes and tank in/outflows, but ive done it the hard way, in my mind im hoping it will give greater depth and realism to the model.

The deck water escapes and tank flows, i drilled out and cut to there shape, the tank flows are in line with the deck supports i put on earlier and i managed to drill and cut to a decent depth. Because these naturally lie close to the waterline, i prethought about how to tackle this as i dont want water coming in. The holes are sealed from the inside with resin, resin is also applied from the outside. ( havent tested yet)
The deck run offs, i will be sealing with clear plastic. Id love to have it all real, just cant afford water in about the electrics i just dont have the space for sealed tanks and water collectors.
Ill post pictures again at some point, just not a great deal to show that is different.