Hi,
I'm building Corel's "Flattie" kit, modifying it to be sailable via remote control. Since I'm new to both ship modeling and RC, I decided to build the ship initially in a "barebones" form, with minimal planking, painting or decoration, just to test it on open water. If it turned out to be a disaster, with all hands lost, I didn't want to waste weeks worth of painting. Once that was sound, then I'd move on to do the final planking and painting.
I've since completed the testing, and it seemed to sail fairly well. The pictures below are from the initial build. Now I'm moving on to the final aesthetics.
Deviations I've made from the kit are 1) I enlarged the deck houses to allow more room for the electronics, 2) repurposed the centerboard slot to house a fin keel with weighted ballast, 3) attached extra rigging to main boom and tiller to allow them to be actuated by servos.
I'm a complete novice, so if you have any suggestions or comments, they'd be appreciated. To be clear, this isn't a completed model. My plan is to make it look as similar to the box photo as possible, minus some creative liberties taken to make it easier to maintain and sail as RC.
Is there anything I should use to seal the external planking against water? It'll be completely painted with acrylics. Do I need to apply any water sealant first or will primer and paint be enough?