Making the Hull
Cut out the top, sides and bulkheads for the hull.
You can remove the plans from the all the parts
except for the top. To position the bulkheads you
need to glue ¼” wide strips of foam ahead of them.
Starting from the front lift the plan from the top
until you get just past F2. Put a scrap piece of
foam under the plan and cut it in front of F2. Put
the plan back down on the foam and use it to
position and glue a ¼” wide strip of foam slightly
narrower than the top of F2. Do this for the
remaining bulkheads. Glue F4 and F5 together.
Starting with F1 glue the bulkheads to the top
making sure they are square to the top. Any of the
glues will work but I like using Perfect glue #1 for
this because grips the parts very well. After the
glue is cured you can glue on the sides. I used
Weldbond for this because it’s cheap and has a long
working time. Starting at the step align the side
with F4,F5 and pin it in place rechecking that the
bulkhead are square. Repeat this with the other
bulkheads using lots of pins to keep things in
place. Repeat with the other side.
Let things dry overnight and then using a sanding
block flatten the bottom edges of the sides so that
when you glue on the bottom pieces they will make
good contact with the sides. Don’t glue on the
bottom pieces yet.
Floats
You need the floats to help determine where to
put the spreader bars through the fuselage so it
is helpful to make the floats now. Design of the
floats was based on the following;
1. With my heaviest battery pack that I plan to
use mounted on the SS I wanted to be able to
push the wing tip to the surface of the water
and have it tip back up and not rest with the
wing tip on the water. My first floats were too
small and it took a few testing iterations to
get it right.
2. Because the SS has no ailerons to keep the
wings level I used slanted floats to help keep
them level.
3. I mounted the floats so the rear bottoms of
the floats were in line with the top of the
step. I reasoned that when the boat was at rest
the floats would be in the water. When it comes
up on the step they will be out of the water. I
can’t tell if this actually happens but the boat
does work well.
The final floats came out to be 2” wide so I
just cut them out of ordinary 2" thick white
Styrofoam. This is the insulation stuff or the
foam people often use for packing for shipping.
The blue and pink foam although slightly heavier
should also work fine.
To make the floats cut out the float pattern and
trace around it on a small block of foam. Using
a scroll saw or small band saw cut out the
float. I drilled the holes for the spreader bars
just short of going all the way though the
float. I show the approximate location of the
holes but wait until the spreader bars are
mounted in the hull to locate these holes.
Spreader Bars
I ended up with the spreader bars being 18”
long. I used .157” dia graphite tubes. The .157”
or .125” graphite rods would probably work as
well. If you don’t have any graphite available a
3/16” dowel should work.
