T37 RC Sailboat Blog

I told myself that I would not rush through this build and would take my time and do it correctly. That was then... a couple days ago while I was out of town I received an email from the PNMYC ( Pacific Northwest Model Yacht Club ) regarding their "Learn to sail your T37" clinic to be held in two weeks on Nov. 16th. I'd really like my boat to be seaworthy by then. To get there I'll need to get the deck finished and the entire rig up and running in two weeks. I think I can do it! Update on the hull: Painting is done. The finish looks... OK. I sanded down the red paint as far as I dared and then worked through the papers down to 2500 grit. Then sprayed on several coats of spray lacquer. You can still see orange peel (some of it the spray lacquer itself) but it did shine up the paint a bit. I may have to try some car polish on it at some point. I'm not 100% happy with it at all, but really don't want to mess with it forever, especially now that the boat nee...

Well, after a few days off I was able to make a lot of progress today! And I'm pretty happy so far with the results! Phew... First an update on the base coats of white. I had some 1000 grit sandpaper I picked up recently and decided to give it a try on the orange peel issues I've been having. That fine grit paper opened up a whole new world to me! I discovered what many others have been talking about and it works. Here's what I've settled on... 1. Sand the orange peel with 400 wet/dry just until flat. 2. Then work your way through 600 grit, 1000 grit, 1500 grit and finally 2500 grit paper. In the end you'll have a hull that is smooth as glass. No, it's not as glossy as it was when sprayed on, but the finish is so much smoother that it's worth it. Now I'm exploring if a spray lacquer over the top will work or not. I've got an email into Klass Kote paints to see if I can use Testors Gloss Spray Lacquer over Klass Kote's epoxy paints. We'...

This morning I looked and sure enough, the orange peel is still there. Erf... So here's my plan... It's a busy week and I'll not be able to get to the boat much until later next week. But when I can get some time I will: 1. Sand most of the hull again. The rudder and transom look great though. At this point it's really just the keel I'm most concerned about. The hull needs to be sanded for the red paint though too. 2. Give it one more coat of white paint. This time I will set the boat upside down and really lay on the paint using nice, full, close passes. Being a modeller I'm very hesitant to spray too much, but it seems that with this gun (and using a full size air compressor) that I need to really lay it on. So far when I've done that on the rudder and transom it hasn't run or sagged. It feels like I'm close to it sagging but hasn't. I just need to trust that I can get the same results on the entire hull and keel. Worth a try! 3. Let ...

So yesterday I put on three coats of paint on the hull and the rudder. Wasn't enough and there was orange peel. Second try today. I sanded everything with 400 wet/dry paper and pretty easily flattened out the orange peel. Then mixed up some more paint and when it was ready sprayed it on. The rudder I experimented with and layed on what I thought was a ton of paint, but it took it well and I think I'm done with it. I tried the same heavy technique with the hull but for some reason wasn't as able to get as much paint on it. I've been hanging it by a cord and perhaps I'm not able to control it enough. Next coat I'll lay it upside down on something and spray it that way. Should be able to get a heavier coat on that will flow better. I'll be able to keep a more consistent distance too. Third coat tonight and I only did the hull. Sprayed on a lot of paint but still have orange peel in some areas. The rudder looks professional though, so I'll have to ke...

Today is the day for my first attempt at painting with two-part epoxy paint. I have a hobby airbrush, but this boat is just too big for it, and I'm not sure what the epoxy paint would do to it, so I bought a $15 sprayer that I could hook up to my garage air compressor instead of my small hobby compressor. I sanded the hull with 200 grit until as smooth as I dared go, then did the hull lightly again with 400. Wiped it down and started to get geared up to paint. The hull was very smooth and "plastic-like". There were still the very few little scratches and goofs that I just didn't want to sand out or I'd risk making a big indent. Hopefully the paint will fill them and any remaining ones I'll just have to live with. I then masked the deck with auto-body masking tape. It worked much better than normal masking tape. Noticed some small orange peel after the first two coats but added a third coat anyway to see if it would go away. It didn't although ...

Did some final sanding this afternoon and then rolled on the final filler coat of Interlux Primekote 404/414. Then I took one of those edging paint pads and smoothed it out. Should be pretty nice final coat, but if I took off too much using the pad then I can always put on a fourth coat. Dinner guests tomorrow night so I'll let this cure well into the weekend at this point. That should make for very easy sanding using only 400 grit. The idea is that the surface looks like plastic before I start painting. By the way, if you are a local Seattle area person and want to use the same Interlux Primekote 404/414 and reducer (I bought mine from West Marine for $32 because they make you buy a QUART when I only need less than a 1/2 pint!  GRRRR!), I've got plenty left (see pic below). I've used about 1/3 of the kit or less and only about 5% of the reducer. Since I'm now into this filler epoxy primer for about $80 I'd LOVE to sell the rest to someone who would also l...

It's one of those weeks where life is getting in the way of messing about in boats... but it's OK too because the boat needs some time to rest.  Last night I sanded down the second coat of filler (Interlux Primekote 404/414). There were still a few pretty noticeable gaps and indents and imperfections and such that the filler is just too thin to fill. So tonight I made a small batch of thickened epoxy and carefully filled in those last few spots. Tomorrow I'll sand those down and put on the third coat of filler.  Here's what it looks like tonight, ready for it's third coat tomorrow. I wasn't too impressed with the first coat, but now that I can see two sanded coats it's obvious that the grain is being filled quite well. I have little doubt that the third coat will be sufficient, but if a fourth coat is needed then I'll do it.  Pretty nervous about the painting job coming up though... yikes. I've decided to use Klass Kote epoxy paint and ...

Second coat of Interlux Primekote 404/414: I waited a full 24 hours until the first coat was cured enough to sand. It ended up sanding pretty well. I was able to sand about 80% of it off leaving a nicely smooth surface. You could still see some grain though. From reading about other people's experiences that sounds normal. Then mixed up another batch of the stuff and this time I rolled it on with a disposable roller. It went on much smoother due to the roller but I'm noticing some orange peel. Could be due to the roller, or due to the fact that it's only about 55 degrees out, or... perhaps I should have wiped it down with reducer after I sanded it? Oh... or... it could be that I reduced it too much, although I followed the directions. Or it might just settle down on it's own. Hmmm... will just have to wait until tomorrow to see. I did read somewhere about someone else who had orange peel but said it's not a big deal as you sand most of it off. Befo...

RC sailboat things I did this week: 1. Went to the Seattle Model Boat Pond at South Lake Union and watched the T37 races. Met a couple of guys named Ken and Pete who are building them too, and had a great time getting ideas from those who have already built theirs.  2. Fiberglassed the deck on my T37 . Because I made my own deck instead of using the standard kit deck, I felt it needed a bit more strength. So I added one layer of 1.4 oz. glass.  I cut a piece of fiberglass a bit over-sized and set it aside. ( NOTE : I purchased the 1.4 oz. glass from ACP Composites . They sold small enough pieces at reasonable rates! I've got enough extra to do several more decks/keels/rudders/hulls, so if you're in the Seattle area send me an email and I can sell you some. I bought two yards for about $20 including shipping... so enough to do your deck will run you about $5 if you get it from me. That's cheap! ) ( Complaint time : WEST System needs to sell their 105 and 205...

Upside down deck So if you've read earlier posts you may remember that I made my own laminated deck instead of using the standard ply deck that came with the kit.  The question I had to decide was whether or not to cut it down to the standard size and mount it "inside" the hull as the instructions say, or if I should mount it on top of the hull instead.  I opted for on top. It may give me a bit more room to mount the servos, but it may also make my boat more top-heavy. I'm not really worried.  So then the question is how do I mount the deck. After talking with some guys who have made some pretty clean boats I decided to try an idea of theirs. The idea is to carefully line up the deck on the hull and mark with pen the outside perimeter of the hull. Then take the deck off and have it upside down on your table.  I glued down some backer plates where the shroud eye-bolts may go later. Because my deck is soft fir and not ply I felt I needed some reinforcement. Y...

Drain Plug idea day! So I got many of my ideas from Dan Newland from Port Hadlock/Port Townsend, WA. He made a phenomenal T37 that I was lucky enough to see in person last Saturday at the T37 National Championships.  Dan's boat is simply a work of art. He's a professional boat-builder and his boat shows it. He was generous enough to share many of his ideas and I'm incorporating as many as I can into my boat.  One of his ideas was to install a drain plug before installing the deck. Other T37 sailors I've talked to agree so I thought I'd do it.  STEP 1: I started by gluing into my transom a small wedge of mahogany that I had sitting around. I bedded it quite well in thickened epoxy, as well as the back bottom edge of the transom.    STEP 2: Went to the local hardware store and bought some 10-24 x 3/4" stainless screws as well as some nylon screws in the same size. They also sold both tiny O rings and some flat neoprene washers that fit snugly over ...

Went to the T37 National Championships yesterday, Oct. 5th, 2013. Took my nieces so I couldn't stay too long though.  There were some very nicely built boats. I took the opportunity to look at certain things that people have done to make their boats better and more unique. There were 27 boats in all and you could tell that people spent a lot of time custom building their boats. Lovely paint jobs, creative changes within the rules, etc...  Today's tips:  TIP 1: UPDATE : If I were to build another boat, I would at this stage, after the hull has been glued up but the deck is still off, also sand down the fillets along the inside bottom of the boat. Sand just until nicely smooth and even and then give it a light clear coat of epoxy. It will look super clean and professional. Mine is OK but it could have been cleaned up more when I had the chance. Also an update: Gluing in the rudder post and keel before gluing on the deck worked out wonderfully! Do it. Although I wo...

Hi! I purchased a Tippecanoe T37 RC Sailboat kit with the racing upgrade in September, 2013. In trying to research the best techniques for building a T37 online I came across some other people's building projects and a few chat sites. They were helpful but we can always use more ideas so I thought I'd start my own T37 build blog and see how it goes.  The instructions that come with kit are quite comprehensive, and there is even a webpage run by Tippecanoe that shows some of the assembly steps, so my focus will be on: 1.) Techniques that I found to be helpful, and 2.) Those times when I didn't follow the instructions and did things my own way.  STEP 1:  Buy a T37 kit Go to the Tippecanoe website and see what they have. I saw their display at the Port Townsend Wooden Boat Festival in September and was captivated. They have some smaller toy sailboats. Then they also have their more serious kits starting with the T27. They also have boats larger than the T37... T5...