Lots of progress today! I finished the deck! Here's how it looks. First, early this morning I was able to epoxy down the last few bits of planking. By this afternoon it was dry enough so that I could sand the entire deck. It was pretty rough looking before I started sanding: It took about 30 minutes or more to grind it smooth with my random orbital sander and 60 grit paper. I then followed with some 220 grit. Afterward, it looked great. Then added a layer of 1.4 oz. fiberglass cloth for added strength and waterproofing. Here's how it looks now! Later tonight I'll trim the edges when it reaches the "green stage". Then tomorrow I'll lightly sand it with 220, and then add a second coat. Aloha!

Did the trim around the aft hatch (for the rudder post and control arm access) today. Looks OK. I've never been very good at getting the ends of my planks to perfectly match the parts they are flush to. Ugh. I'm such a rookie. The walnut "caulking" is looking OK too, but not perfect. Sigh... The rough look of the planking will obviously be sanded down, and will look much better. That's the funnest and most satisfying part of this whole process! Should be there in about a week or ten days. Aloha!

The mahogany deck trim-work is completed. Here you can see the dowel pieces I've been using. They are just 1/8" dowels.  The transom piece. The bow. I'll probably put a small decorative piece on the very front bow to hide the crappy matching I did. It'll all look fine when done. The mahogany bow trim pieces added. They will look great when sanded down, and in contrast to the light-colored Alaskan yellow cedar that I'll plank the deck with.  You can also see the varying heights of the trim pieces. Not to worry, they will all be sanded flush with the deck planking before being covered with a layer of 1.4 oz. fiberglass. It will eventually all be perfectly flush.  Here are the edge trim pieces, one on each side, that are to mark where the shroud deck eye-bolts will go. On my Sun Wind HF, I screwed up this part and made them much too short. So this time, I've made sure they are plenty long. Probably too long... sigh... Next step: Start ...

Got the sheer rail trim pieces epoxied on today. Oh, and I plugged the hole that I stuuuupidly drilled through the hull... God... Tomorrow I'll work on the king plank, the transom piece, the bow detail bits, and probably the planks for the shroud deck eyes. Lots of detail work, and then the planking. Aloha!

I'm starting in on the planking my Wampum VM RC sailboat. First step was to mill some mahogany to 1/8" thick. The sheer trim pieces are 3/8" wide and the king plank is 1/2" wide. Then I drilled holes on the sheer rails that are each 3" apart. I actually stacked the two rails and drilled them together to ensure they would be even. Then I carefully (mostly) aligned the pieces as best I could and drilled through the deck. The pieces are held in place with 1/8" wooden dowels. When actually epoxied on, the dowels will hold the pieces in place until the epoxy cures. When sanded flush, the dowels will add a nautical touch to the rails. It will look nice. Here are the guide lines. The holes however were drilled using the pre-drilled mahogany strips. I laid the strips on the deck, and starting at the bow, held them in position. Then would bend the strip to conform to the curve of the deck and then drill the next hole and insert a dowel. You do this all the w...

Got the 1/32" sub-deck installed. And it conformed to the compound-curves of the deck. The Wampum curves both fore-and-aft, and amidships. The isn't curved either way THAT much, but I was still needlessly concerned. It took two pieces of 24" plywood, and then one shorter 5" piece for the bow.  Next step is to mill and install the mahogany king plank down the center, and the mahogany sheer rails/gunwale strips. After that, then I'll start in on the deck planking, which will take forever... Aloha!

It's sanded! Thank God... Finished with the planking and tonight I was able to sand the deck of the Sun Wind II RC Vintage Marblehead sailboat. It looks pretty good. This weekend I'll do some finish sanding, and then probably put some epoxy along the hull/deck joint to fill it in. Then will fiberglass the deck. Aloha!

It's taken forever, but I'm finally getting near the final deck planks. Just a few more to go and I'll be able to sand the deck flush. I've been using many clamps, as well as crosspieces to hold the planks down onto the plywood. Otherwise the clamps tend to pull up the inside edge. At this point, I really can't wait for this step to finish. God... but it should look good when all sanded down. Hopefully in a few days... Peace!

Planking on the Sun Wind II continues at a very slow pace. I'm only able to get about 1 plank per day. Ugh... But so far I've done the rudder access hatch, and several planks. Looks OK, but will look much better once I'm done and can sand the entire deck flush. Until then, I'll keep slogging away. The pictures below are obviously before I've been able to sand, so excuse the raised planks and such.  More updates later. Peace!

The deck planking continues. Had to make an additional investment in small bar clamps though. Bought ten at Home Depot, and then ordered another eight online. But, they work, so I can't complain. The planks are 1/8" thick x 5/16" wide, milled from Alaskan Yellow Cedar.  I'm making a curved plank deck, so the clamps are needed to hold the curve in the planks until the epoxy sets. This is going to take a long time! Peace!

Well, this is how I decided to solve my deck planking dilemma on my Sun Wind Vintage Marblehead RC Sailboat. The king plank and sheer planks are going to be mahogany wood instead of Jatoba (or whatever it is that I found at Edensaw Lumber). The Jatoba was just too hard and too brittle. Also, when it was cut thin enough to use, ended up being very wavy. The tension in the grain must be incredible, and the wood ended up curving in many different directions. Too much of a bother to use. So I switched to mahogany. It's traditional and relatively easy to work with compared to the jatoba. I'm using small bits of dowel as fasteners for the outer, sheer rail planks and for the king plank. They will sand down pretty easily. Yes, you will see yellowish dots, but that will only add a nautical look... right? Tomorrow I will start in on the main deck planking. I'm using Alaskan Yellow Cedar. Should look pretty nice against the mahogany. Cheers!

Ok, I admit it... I'm stuck. I'm not sure how to proceed at this point. Let me explain. Yesterday I epoxied on a sub-deck of 1/16" plywood. It took two sheets, and you can see the seam in the middle. No worries there. In the picture below you can see the deck being epoxied on. You can also see much of my classic wooden runabout book collection! We have a 1952 22' Chris Craft Continental in the driveway that we just adore. Anyway... back to the Sun Wind II radio control sailboat... Here is how it looks today. It's been trimmed and cleaned up around the edges and hatch openings. It's not a great picture, and it actually looks much better than this... So, what's my problem, you ask? I will be making a deck planking from some dark redish exotic hardwood (Jatoba I think) that I found at Edensaw Lumber in Port Townsend, WA, and Alaskan Yellow Cedar. It'll look great, but I can't figure out how to start the first outer planks. How do I clamp...