TWILIGHT 2007-2009 by MAGIC's Craig - Scale 1:16 - RADIO - Pacific Northwest cruising powerboat

[MAGIC's Craig]

This build will be a POF scale model of a planned sturdy powerboat for Vicky and I to "retire" to when we had to give up sailing our schooner, MAGIC.  This tale started in the early 1980's when we began exploring the channels and islands in the coastal archipelago stretching north from the state of Washington into British Columbia.  We were then sailing an engine-less gaff cutter and after a frustrating day of light winds and rude, large-wake-dragging Bayliners, we took the morning to hike ashore across to another cove.  An older converted troller was heading out and across the still waters of that cove , we could hear her slow-turning engine effortlessly (and quietly) pushing her along with little wake. It sounded like, "potato... potato... potato ..."  We decided there and then that if we had to give up sailing for a powerboat, it would need to be driven by something like that "easy-to-live-with" engine.

 

Many years passed by before it became obvious that we were aging off of our schooner, but we also had learned a bit about these heavy, old, slow turning engines.  A chance encounter connected us to a fellow who owned a "spare" rebuilt Gardner 6L3 diesel of 1956 vintage - which was not in a boat any more - and we struck a deal to purchase it.

 

These British diesels are large, measuring about 9-1/2 feet in length and weighing in around 7,000 pounds. They were designed to be reliable and idled at 200 rpms while putting out their maximum power at a maximum of 900 rpms. This one needed a boat to go back into, of course, so off to my drafting board I went to begin the process of designing such a craft.  Early on,  Vicky named the design, TWILIGHT and I carved a couple versions of half-hulls as explorations into a suitable hull shape. We had been befriended over the years by naval architect, William Garden, and after seeing my drawings and half-hulls, he offered suggestions on which hull and house shapes might work well in the often rainy, occasionally rough waters of the PNW. I drew up our interior preferences for a liveaboard boat and fitted them around the need for a suitable engine room.

And, as often happens, life made changes to our plans and the drawings were shelved. The Gardner Diesel was sold to a good home.

 

When the model of MAGIC was completed, I was often asked, "Well, what are you going to build next?"  Eventually last fall (and probably suggested by my better half), the idea of building a R/C POF model of TWILIGHT surfaced.  The drawings of the preliminary design were resurrected along with the suggestions and design revision ideas we had entertained before that project "sank".  A revised set of lines were drawn up to incorporate many of these thoughts. The wood racks were checked for suitable stock.  I started drawing construction sections in January, 2024 and I will pick up the build then to bring the log up to date (May, 2024).

 

 

I hope that you will enjoy the process.  I am inspired by the quality and work put into members' projects here and will strive to make TWILIGHT worthy.

 

[MAGIC's Craig]

Construction sections from the revised Lines drawings were drawn up to the planned build scale 3/4" = 1' (1:16).

A plank of Alaska Yellow cedar was used to mill the necessary futtock stock and double layers were glued up to make the sawn frames.

 

The frames were all marked with the location of the DWL and then suitable height cedar blocking pieces were made up for each station to position the DWL at a constant height.  After the frames had been erected and blocked in place on the building form, an inner stem profile was set up for laminating the scarfed-together Basswood inner stem to a laminated full length keelson. A "bread-and-butter" stack of basswood layers which would eventually be shaped to be the stern was mounted on supporting blocks aft.

 

 

[MAGIC's Craig]

The keelson tied the frames together along the centerline but additional stiffeners in the form of twin bilge stringers were glued inboard of the frames before fairing could begin. The stern "block" was rough shaped to the profile and checked with a cardboard template. Blocking was carved and fitted to the outboard locations of the forward continuation of the stern's "knuckle" on each side.

After a sternpost was glued in place, centerline wedges were added above and below the keelson to provide solid support for the shaft log.

 

As the fairing of the frames and keelson proceeded, I also realized that fitting in blocks to serve for the electric motor's mounting bed would be far easier to do before the garboards were fitted. 

 

To accurately locate these blocks in the vertical plane, we took the time to drill for the shaft.  From aft to forward, the propshaft rises at a shallow angle, so the model's building board was shimmed up at its forward end until a horizontal laser line defined the path for the drill.  Using a long drill, with Vicky calling out from amidships whether the laser stayed centered along the length of the drill, while I sited along the keelson's centerline to avoid wandering off to port or starboard, we managed to drill from aft to forward and were relieved when the bit emerged in the proper location.  (Unfortunately, we were too busy to capture an image of the drilling set-up.)

 

With the shaft temporarily in place, the motor could be attached and aligned, providing the necessary angles and heights for a pair on mounting blocks to be mounted to the keelson between stations 4, 5 and 6.

The shaft hole and motor mount blocking can be discerned in the above image taken while the initial frame and keelson fairing was proceeding. 

A batten was sprung along the deck sheer line to check the probable run of that plank edge.

 

The next post will take up lining out for the planking "belts". 

[MAGIC's Craig]

While I planned to sheath the hull with an epoxy/'glass layer for strength and watertightness, I wanted to try a proper planking technique as discussed on the "Modeling Techniques" portion of this site for practice.  My drafting board drawer still had some rolls of 1/8" wide drafting tapes, so I utilized them to help define the bands of planking which would be necessary.

The tapes certainly assisted eyeballing fair curves around this 3 dimensional curvilinear shape.  Once the locations seemed suitable, as recommended  I divided the space within the bands at each frame into equal widths and marked that frame.  To transfer the plank width markings to the other side of the hull. I overlayed a clear plastic strip on the marked frame, put dots on the plastic and then shifted the strip to the same frame on the other side. An awl was used to punch through the strip at the appropriate points. The divots were then highlighted with a pen.

The inboard edges of garboards would initially meet at the centerline "above" the keelson, so these planks were made about 2-1/2 times wider than the "standard" planks. The keel would sit on a flat formed by planing the garboards back from the centerline 1/2 the width of the keel, which would visually return the garboards to a more normal double width.  The two runs of broads would follow at a width of about 1-1/2 times standard plank widths before the rest of the planking was to follow.

The transition of the rabbet line aft was adjusted by gluing on thin, tapered pieces of basswood to each side of the projecting deadwood from about station 7 aft to the stern post.

By the end of March, planking began to progress (though there were the occasional mis-steps). 

Offering up a piece of planking stock for scribing in as a broad strake

 

Edited May 10 by MAGIC's Craig
missing caption & deleted comment

[MAGIC's Craig]

The broad strakes were fairly straightforward to cut and fit, though they were offered up multiple times each to permit making tight fits to the previous plank.

.

Once the planking sequence had moved beyond the curve of the forefoot, the landing for the keel was planed flat athwartships and a suitable thickness of stock was offered up to be scribed to the needed shape.  Here it is clamped in place to lay out the location for a stepped scarf to be cut for connection to the stem.

The next photo is actually posted upside down but it permits viewing the structure in the aft end of the hull (as well as a lot of drip-and-squeeze-out to be cleaned up).  The small "box" under the deck aft holds the rudder servo. I had meant to simply build the box into the stern prior to fitting the final piece of blocking and then remove the servo to keep it out of harm's way. However, I made it too tight of a fit and the servo remains in place.

The planking continued to be fitted working toward the stern's "knuckle" and the keel was tapered and glued in place. The design of the hull incorporating the"knuckle" was a suggestion of Bill Garden's for allowing some width to the deck level aft while letting the run easily release the water's flow without dragging a transom.  The "knuckle" blends into the rounded bilge as it goes forward by about station #6.

And as the plank strakes "turned the corner", this became clearer after the first topside plank went into place.

By April 25th, the rest of the planks to the level of the deck edge were in place and the stem had been bonded in place. Final fairing of the upper edge of the stern "block" awaits the turn-over of the hull as will the bulwark planking.

 

[Jim Lad]

That looks a good, sturdy boat. It will be interesting to watch her grow.

 

John

[Ian_Grant]

Nice work! Always happy to see an RC build!

[MAGIC's Craig]

Thanks to you all for the support and appreciation.  I will post again tomorrow.

[MAGIC's Craig]

Before skinning the boat with a fine-weave fiberglass cloth set in epoxy, there were a few details to be completed.  The first was to drill the hole for the rudder post. This rudder post is perpendicular to the DWL and after some careful measurements and a check for prop clearance, I used an awl to dimple where the hole should emerge from the hull.  Once again, we leveled the building board and set up the laser level on a stepladder (and blocks) perpendicular to the boat's centerline with the projected horizontal line at the DWL and the light of the vertical line "emerging" from the hull on the centerline of the rudder post. Vicky called out whether I was plumb fore and aft while I sighted along the boats fore and aft centerline marked on the bottom of the keel.  The technique worked well.

Because the hull is rising toward the knuckle (when right side up), a wooden bung was cut out with a plug cutter and, before being removed from the stock, a centered hole was drilled in it to permit the rudder post's upper bearing to sit square with the rudder post.  The "holed" plug (or boss) was slid down the drill bit representing the rudder post until it contacted the hull and scribed to accommodate the angle of the hull at that location.

The boss was glued in place and the drill retracted. 

While we had the laser set up, I took the opportunity to put tick marks along the line of light representing the DWL.  While I know where it should be from the drawings, it is always a bit of a treat to see it in 3 dimensions.

The next phase is to seal the hull with the epoxy and fiberglass cloth sheathing. After doing this with MAGIC, I realized that this would be easier for me to do one side at a time. I attached some planks to the side of the building board to permit the whole structure to lay on its side.  Once clamped to the trestles, the cloth wa smoothed on dry and then wet down with the epoxy.

Once both sides were initially sheathed, the building board was returned to its usual position and additional smoothing coats of epoxy and sanding filler were applied, scraped down and sanded

I will pick up the rudder construction next.

 

[MAGIC's Craig]

For the rudder, I borrowed ideas/techniques from Ken Foran's excellent  Model building with Brass as well as Cangarda 1901 by KeithAug .  The rudder post is 1/4" dia. brass and the through-soldered fore-and-aft supports are 1/8" dia. brass.  The notched-out core portions of the rudder are Alaska Yellow Cedar and the cheeks, laminated to each side, are made from 3/32" baltic ply. A card template was used for reference.

The cheeks had recesses carved in them to accommodate part of the diameter of the rudder post to keep the rudder assembly from being too fat. The various layers were epoxied together.

 

The shaping of the rudders foil was a process of filing/sanding the cheeks and core , evenly exposing the parallel glue lines of the ply until a satisfactory shape was achieved. 

A removeable brass lower gudgeon was soldered up to accommodate the lower rudder bearing at the correct distance aft of the sternpost.

It was then epoxy-sealed and (temporarily) fastened in place.

And with that, we are current with the build (as of Mother's Day, 2024)

[MAGIC's Craig]

For the fun of it, I decided to do some initial priming with the bottom paint color (which darkened nicely when dry) - prior to making a cradle to hold the hull upright for the next series of steps.

With hull rightside up, the cross spauls were cut away and the interior surface of the hull planking was scraped and lightly sanded, before it was sealed with a coat of clear epoxy.

In addition, the motor location was finalized. This also permitted the fine tuning of the shaft length and a bit of shortening of the shaft tube to match.

Ultimately, the after propeller thrust-bearing (white collar) position was adjusted about a 1/4" further forward than in the above photo.

With the motor placement completed, beam shelves were fitted port and starboard and a couple of bulkheads were made up to define the motor space. I cut some dimensioned wooden blocks to check the sizes of the additional components which needed to be fit into the motor room*. Once it appeared that the lot of them could be accomodated, a bit of aluminum paint was applied.

The mail man delivered a timely package about this time which contained the (4) 12vDC batteries plus other bits and it was gratifying to see that the battery support platforms located either side of the motor would work.

* Aboard the diesel-electric tug I served on, the (4) Cat D399 diesel generators were mounted in the "Engine" room, while the 12' diameter, 440V electric motor was mounted in the "Motor" room.  Seems logical, even for the USN.

 

(More to follow)

 

 

[MAGIC's Craig]

In preparation for completing the topsides planking, the stern bulwark was "beavered-up" from a laminated block of cedar and then bonded to the hull at deck level, using masking tape to hold it stationary while the glue cured.

 

A set of deck beams were made up and glued atop the main deck clamps and to the additional raised foredeck pair of clamps. For the support provided while the planking continues, these beams span the full beam at their locations.  Once the planking is completed, the fitting of carlins to the deck framing will trim out the middle portion of many of them.

The rudder has been connected to the servo with a link to its tiller arm.

I will finish this update with a (somewhat washed-out) photo taken this afternoon showing TWILIGHT awaiting further planking in the days to come.

Until again,

Craig

 

[Jim Lad]

I've been a bit slack on commenting on your beautiful build, Craig, but she's coming along very nicely indeed!

 

John

[jerome]

Nice to see this beautiful boat being built.

[KeithAug]

All very beautifully done Craig. It was a pleasure to view your work. I look forward to seeing how she develops.

[MAGIC's Craig]

My thanks to you, John, Jerome and Keith for the compliments and to all who show their appreciation.

I am enjoying the build process - it sometimes stretches the mind to come up with solutions to whatever the day's building challenge is - and deriving the sequence of the presentation of photos in the blog helps me organize what should logically (?) follow.

The quality of your works serve as guideposts to us all. 

Craig

[MAGIC's Craig]

Over the past weeks, the planking of the bulwarks and bow rail were glued in place, faired to the existing hull, the stem was detailed and a revision was made to bow rail:

When I viewed the photo above, I (finally) got "far enough from the trees to see the forest" to realized that there was a discrepancy between the profiles of the bow in the drawing and that of that of the actual model. The model's bow "kited-up" excessively to my eye compared to the earlier version of the bow as drawn above it.  I used a batten to mark a revised bow profile on the model and decided to ponder the potential change while we were away on a trip.

Upon our return from Duluth, MN, the proposed revision still looked to be useful (the deck structure forward would require some fairly major surgery/rebuilding to flatten the sheer further), so out came the fine saw and planes to trim it down.

The next task was to cover the newly added upper planking with F/G cloth and epoxy to seal it to the existing hull.

The cloth was epoxied on, the weave given a couple of coats to fill the weave and for fairing purposes and then it was time to glue on the rub-rail "sponson" (or base) prior to painting.

 (I will break up this posting into another to keep sizes in check).

Edited July 14 by MAGIC's Craig
deleted duplicate imaged

[MAGIC's Craig]

I apologise about the last photo, which for some reason I cannot delete from that post.  It belongs here:

The stern portion of the sponson to support the hardwood rub-rail was laminated from 1/16" thick red cedar around the stern against small wooden wedges glued to the hull.

The sponson sides were gotten out of 1/8" thick basswood strips, tapered slightly, then glued and doweled to the hull sides.

Having grown tired of looking at a "splotchy"-looking hull, it was deemed time to do some priming and painting before moving on to decking and interior construction.  the hull of TWILIGHT was sanded, masked and primed, sanded some more (one never does enough of this, right?) and then given a couple of fresh color coats of paint.

She was brought inside and given a trial fit for a possible display location.

Until later,

Craig

 

Edited July 14 by MAGIC's Craig
correction to basswood

[Keith Black]

 Craig, congratulations on the successful bow surgery. 

[KeithAug]

1 hour ago, Keith Black said:

Craig, congratulations on the successful bow surgery. 

Yes a nose job often improves the look. 

 

Craig - The hull is looking very smooth and blemish free - clearly you build process worked very well. I guess from your comments she is going to be both a working and display model. I hope she doesn't get bashed up during playtime.

[MAGIC's Craig]

5 hours ago, Keith Black said:

 Craig, congratulations on the successful bow surgery. 

Thanks, Keith Black. It is surprising to me how often a model (or half-hull) allows one to see overall details better than the full-size version.

[MAGIC's Craig]

3 hours ago, KeithAug said:

Yes a nose job often improves the look. 

 

Craig - The hull is looking very smooth and blemish free - clearly you build process worked very well. I guess from your comments she is going to be both a working and display model. I hope she doesn't get bashed up during playtime.

I share your hopes and I have also been discussing this whole "climb all over a model" thing with our current feline, Ballou.  She will, on occasion, flick an ear at me while I am speaking to her.  I suppose that is as much as I might best hope for.

Thank you for the compliment on the finish. 

Craig

[MAGIC's Craig]

It has been a couple of months since the last posting, so I will endeavor to bring those who are following the build of TWILIGHT up to date.

 

The next sequence commences with the fitting of the deck carlins for the house along with some centerline blocking on the foredeck.  The carlins were half jointed to the deeper beams and once glued in place, the inboard portion of the deck beams were cut away.

Card (paper) patterns were cut and fitted around the frames for the two side decks, the stern deck and the raised foredeck.

A Trial fit of the ply pieces also permitted checking on a method for clamping/holding the ply into the required (faintly compound) curves.

With this sequence established, the 1/16" 3-ply baltic birch plywood was glued to the deck beams and carlins.

The finishing of the construction of the bulwarks is next.

 

[MAGIC's Craig]

I decided to fill the between-frame spaces of the bulwarks with blocking of basswood and then, after fairing, skin the inner face of the bulwark with more of the 1/16" ply.  The intersection of the deck and bulwark inner face was planned to be filleted with an epoxy mix prior to sealing the decks and bulwarks with fiberglass.

The side deck bulwark faces and the stern bulwark face were glued in in one session. The stern inner face was a bit of a challenge to clamp tight to the existing stern structure.

The foredeck bulwark strips quickly followed a similar procedure. Vinyl tapes were then utilized along the deck and on the inboard sides of the bulwarks. These defined the limits of the fillets which were to be shaped to ease the transition from horizontal to vertical of the fiberglass cloth and epoxy waterproofing layer.

 
Once the fillets cured, they were faired to a cove shape. 

 Lightweight fiberglass cloth was cut and fit to cover the decking and the inboard faces of the bulwarks.  It was epoxied in place and when cured, given an additional two coats of an epoxy fairing mix in preparation for priming and painting. 

 

Rest assured, it was sanded fair and smooth. 😉

I will continue with the tale later this evening.

 

Edited September 23 by MAGIC's Craig
photo out of sequence

[MAGIC's Craig]

When the deck and bulwarks were sanded and ready for painting, I thought that fitting the upper rubrail at this point would simplify later varnishing.  Fortunately, "T" pins and a few clamps were sufficient for clamping the rails in place.  Once the rails were secured, the exterior of the hull as well as the open cabin interior were taped and masked off to permit spray- painting the primer and Tamaya acrylic topcoats onto the decks and bulwarks.

Once painted, the film masking was removed and additional tape masking placed to protect the hull during the installation of the teak bulwark caprails. The cap rails were temporarily screwed down to the bulwarks while the epoxy cured.

After the glue set, the screws were removed and the holes bunged with bamboo treenails.  The treenails were cut off nearly-flush with the rail tops, sanded fair and then the end-grain lightly dyed using a furniture color touch-up pen.  The caprails were initially given 4 coats of semi-gloss varnish to carry them through the future wear-and-tear of model building.

I will finish up this update with a few photos of the painted and varnished hull as of September 22, 2024.

Until again,

 

Craig

 

 

Edited October 19 by MAGIC's Craig
deleted duplicate image

[PvG Aussie]

Great job Craig. Your attention to detail is paying off.

[MAGIC's Craig]

On 9/22/2024 at 10:27 PM, PvG Aussie said:

Great job Craig. Your attention to detail is paying off.

Thanks for the compliment, Peter.  While a shoulder replacement revision surgery has slowed progress over the past couple of months, I am pleased with the general development of this imagined craft and look forward to working out not only the interior joinery, but also figuring out how to tuck the necessary R/C equipment and wiring away unobtrusively as possible yet to still be accessible. A fun challenge!

 

And while I am at it, a tip of the "thank you" hat to both Keith Black and Roger Pellett.

[KeithAug]

The hull is looking very sharp, good job craig

[MAGIC's Craig]

First of all, my heartfelt thanks to all who have dropped by and left comments.  I find that your presence and well wishes are good motivators to moving forward on this craft.

 

November. 2024 update:

I did cobble together the various R/C components - sometimes with longish temporary lengths of wiring - to "dry run" the set-up.  It was a pleasant surprise to activate the transmitter, turn on the receiver, switch on the electronic speed control (hereinafter referred to as the ESC) and discover that the rudder worked and the prop spun in both directions.  However, as it turned out, (because of my poor soldering technique), the attached sound module did not make any noise. With the kind troubleshooting assistance of Nick Scalone at Harbor Models, the problems were discovered.  Once I corrected the bad connections, the engine "rumbled " to life, the horn worked and the bell rang! With that trial completed, it was time to go back to building up the model.

 

My focus was to first develop the joinery and furniture of the aft cabin area.  Like most stern areas, the hull curvature and converging structures of the aft portion of the hull required a bit of pattern making to make the most of the space prior to shaping wood.

 

Card material was cut to fit a time (or three) before the 1/16" th. 3-layer ply could be cut out.

The major furniture in the cabin is the bunk but this model's bunk required  a notch-out to accommodate the rudder servo.

Side panels for the joinery were laid out on fitted pieces of card.

Various blocks of basswood were carved or scooped out or assembled to represent the tub, WC and vanity and then temporarily slipped into place. A piece of no-longer-used yoga mat became a mattress. Mahogany drawer faces and cabinet doors were fashioned and glued in place. A lovely piece of walnut was made into the desk top.

 

The process continued pretty well according to the plan.

 

The cabin sole was planked with 1/16" WRC strips and varnished. The various components had their respective mahogany/walnut joinery varnished. Once the varnish was dry, those pieces to also be painted were masked off and sprayed.

All of the bits were then assembled in place to give you a look at the (nearly) finished appearance in the aft cabin.

 

I will next probably move on to the commencement of the main cabin and pilothouse in order to begin work above the level of the main deck.

 

So, until again,

 

Craig

 

 

Edited November 11 by MAGIC's Craig
spelling

[Keith Black]

Graig, that's some dandy work on the tup, sink and WC.