Copy Commander

I was given a pair of part complete cabin sides by a friend along with a lot of other used wooden parts that had been taken from old broken model boats. These two cabin sides were in poor shape and delaminating .  Any sensible person would have either thrown them straight into the nearest bin - of drawn around them and worked out what the missing areas looked like and then cut a fresh pair out of some decent wood, but I like to renovate classic model power boats from the 1950's onwards and always try to preserve as much of the original wood as I can.

In this case, I didn't have too much to work from, but like "Triggers Brush" (Only Fools and Horses) my restoration will be perfectly "original". 

The shapes were recognised as being most likely from an Aerokits Sea Commander, and there just happened to be a set of plans for this model for sale on eBay, so I bought them and started work - firstly by pouring some PVA down in-between the various layers of delaminating wood and leaving them under some weights to dry overnight.

When these part cabin sides were dry, I laid them on the plans and cut some wood of the same thickness to fill in the missing areas so that I ended up with two complete cabin side shapes.

Kit plans give no bulkhead shapes so I bodged-up some drawings for them that looked about right on ex-cereal packet cardboard,  and after marking a centre line I folded the new shape in half and then cut them out and make sure that they were totally symmetrical.

I have a thing about symmetrical bulkheads as they determine the "squareness" of the finished hull and I have found that making copies of any bulkhead taken from any kit can be checked by drawing around it and folding the shape in half.  The centre line provided by the fold shows any discrepancy  between the left and right hand sides of the shape.

Doing this can be quite disappointing as very few kit bulkheads that I have seen since I starting building model boats in the 1960's have been anything like symmetrical and makes me wonder how many of our old boats needed "adjusting" during building to get a straight or "true" looking hull!

As I cut my new wooden bulkheads and laid them on the freshly cut keel and doublers that I copied from the plan,  I took care with the alignment as I wanted to avoid the "banana shaped" deck line and "bowed" front cabin sides  that I had noticed on almost every Sea Commander and Sea Queen model that I had seen over the last 50 or so years as I wanted both of these areas on my Copy Commander to be straight and more pleasing to my eye.

Some adjustments to the bulkhead shapes was needed to achieve these deviations form the original kit, but when assembled it was worth the effort and I am happy with the result so far.

The first picture shows the Copy Commander after the side and bottom skins had been added.

The motor mount had been fitted after the bottom skins were glued on (but before the side skins were fitted)  to help me see what I was doing when I aligned the motor and prop shaft using a solid coupling.

A second picture shows the assembly to date just prior to fitting the front deck skin  - I like to use plenty of glue (!)

The next images show the deck skins fitted, these were cut from templates made from various saved cardboard packets.

 I cut some triangular section obechie strips to make some strakes out of and fitted them to the bottom skins. This is deviation from the Aerokits design, but I thought they would look smart and add a little charactor to my Copy Commander .  I gave the bottom of the hull a good coat of wood primer and then a heavy coat of household paint to help protect them during the rest of the build when they would be spending a lot of time sat on my basic "orange box" style boat stand.

I wanted some access to the front cabin that does not have any way to getting in to it for general servicing and maintenance, so I cut a roof hatch and fitted an under shelf to give the cut section something to sit on and to help keep out any water splashes.

The main cabin roof was made with plenty of formers to prevent it from warping before skinning.

The main cabin roof skins were held in place with brass nails and the elastic bands were used to help hold its shape until it dried.

Various cardboard patterns were being tested to see what shapes were to be made before cutting wood to fashion the windscreens, mini-mast and the front cabin mounted wave breaker.

The rear cabin roof was made in the same way with stiffeners to prevent any warping.

All of the cabin tops have now been made from scratch along with a windscreen frame and mini-mast.

A Sea Commander "wave breaker" has been made and fitted to the fore cabin and some paint has been added to experiment with colours while I make up my mind abut what the final colour scheme is likely to be.

Lots of sanding to give a nice finish has to follow along with adding any extra detail that may be needed, but this boat has been built to get a lot of use in all weather conditions so it has been built strong and will not be given any delicate detailing that could get blown off in heavy water conditions.

The next stage will be to glass fibre reinforce the engine mounting base and then paint the inside of the hull.

Once this is done I can re-fit the motor, coupling, shaft and rudder, then the ESC and radio can be re-fitted.

These were all previously "test fitted" with any holes for the water cooling tubes and mounts for the servos and ESC fitted before the side skins were glued-on.

With the water cooling tubes and battery fitted  I can give it some "sea trials" before final finishing and making any changes that may be beneficial after seeing the results.