Star 45 RC Sailboat Build Blog

Waited 12 hours and was able to epoxy down four more planks. I'm out of the dark cedar now and will simply have to finish the out planks with the lighter color cedar. It'll look great! Back again tomorrow for more planking. Had a great time today sailing my T37 in the first of the Winter Frostbite series. We changed venues to Gene Coulon Park in Renton, WA because the Seattle Model Boat Pond was completely crapped up by Canada Geese poop. Huge turds floating everywhere and the Seattle Parks Dept. hasn't gotten around to cleaning it yet. I think they need to reconsider their filtering system! Stay warm! 

Trying to do two rounds of plank epoxying today. Just finished adding four more planks this morning and will try to do two more tonight if these ones are dry enough. I'm really happy about the rubber band clamping system that I'm using! It allows for some very creative rubber banding that can address most of the issues that pop up with clamping cedar bottom planks on a wooden RC sailboat like the Star  45x. In the pictures below you can see bands going up and over the top to generally hold planks down. You can also see some rubber bands that go inside the hull, and then are routed up and over the planks and back down the other side on the inside of the hull. These are to hold the outside edges of the planks down onto the frames so the epoxy can make contact. Finally you can see rubber bands wrapped around the planks with clothespins holding the two ends of the rubber band together. These bands are to keep the planks gently snug to each other. Hopefully they'll b...

Four more planks tonight. At this pace it should take me 5 or 6 more days to completely plank the bottom. Sigh... I might be able to get two planking sessions per day over the weekend if I get up early enough and do four planks, then do another four in the evening. Should be enough time for the epoxy to set enough to hold it.  It's getting easier to hold down the planks at the bow now that the most extreme curve has been epoxied. As the planks move to the outsides and aft of the bow, they don't have to bend as much. This rubber band clamping system works really well for model sailboats! I'd imagine that it would work well for any wood framed model boat actually. You can sort of get the idea of how much holding power the rubber bands exert on the cedar bottom planking in the picture below. I'm off to race my Tippecanoe T37 tomorrow for the first of the Winter Frostbite series... and it will be frosty too. Looks like it will be in the high 20's o...

Got four more planks on the Star 45x RC sailboat. Sticking with the alternating color scheme, and also sticking with the epoxy clear coating. It takes more time but it'll probably be worth it in the end by not having to clear coat the inside. Not sure I have enough of the dark cedar to finish the job though... fingers crossed. I had to be quite creative with the rubber bands in order to not only hold them down but together. Also have to use some rubber bands routed through the inside and up and over the planks to keep the outside edges down onto the frames. The plastic clothespins you see are holding the ends of rubber bands together. I wrapped a rubber band down underneath the planks and back up the other side and held the ends with the clothespin to keep the planks gently held together. How to build a wooden model sailboat. Wood model RC sailboat. Wooden radio controlled sailboats. Model sailboat. Wood framed model RC sailboat. Aloha!

Added four more planks today. Decided to alternate light colored cedar with darker colored cedar. We'll see if it looks great or dorky. Also decided to do these four planks using the epoxy coating method described yesterday. However, it's a real pain in the ass so I think I'll probably revert back to the Titebond III edge gluing method that I used on the first Star 45. Although I'll see how I feel tomorrow night for the next four planks. Aloha!  Building a wooden RC sailboat. Wood RC sailboat. Wooden Star 45 RC sailboat. Wood framed model sailboat. Wooden model sailboat. Wood model RC sailboat. Wood radio controlled sailboat. Model RC Sailboat. Cedar RC sailboat. 

Today I milled up some vertical grain cedar into planks 3/16" thick by 1/4" wide. I certainly could have gone wider to make my job easier and take less time, but I did 1/4" wide on the first Star 45 and it looks great. It looks "scale" for you model builders out there. Wider would look silly, and if you go too wide then you'll end up with large gaps between the planks. Narrower looks best and is best for fairing the hull when all the planks are installed. That said, going narrower will take a lot longer. The last time I used Titebond III waterproof glue and only applied it to the edges of the planks and then to the tops of the frames. Today, at least for the first two planks, I used epoxy instead. And I may just continue using it and clear coating the edges and what will be the inside of the plank. My reasoning is that it will accomplish a few things. First it will clear coat the inside of the hull right now and save me a step later. The last time I clear...

Both sides are now faired and ready for the bottom planking. Ended up using my random orbital sander with 60 grit paper again. It is very aggressive though and there are a few spots where I took off entirely too much. However, since I am filling and painting the sides it should be OK in the end. Tomorrow I start milling and installing the planking. Need to make some decisions about what species to use and if I'll use any sort of accent colors of wood.The majority of the bottom will be cedar, but I'm not sure if I should have a lighter colored plank down the center. Peace!