nicholashansen
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Mar 1, 2015
- Messages
- 126
after way too long a period of time with next to no activity on any forums, and virtually the same as far as progress on my boats, im happy to hop back on the bandwagon and get crankin, and hopefully have at least something decent to show for by the end of summer!
Now I may be wrong with this, but I get this feeling that perhaps this particular boat has been done several times and its associated topics that usually follow it have been discussed to death, but ive been obsessed with this boat for some time now and I just cant resist starting my own jab at building one and getting the real lowdown on it overall. Also, one thing thats always bugged me a little bit, is the common configurations I see the T4 in among builds, and as a result of these, I have a few characteristics that im very keen on properly producing with this rendition.
So this will be my first real experience working with wood, aside from minor components and pieces ive made (so im basically a total noob to say the least! xD), however, im not going a more traditional route somewhat. To start, ZenMaster Mike Luszcz provided me with the laser cut Newton 164 kit. Ive constructed most of the sponsons with the intent of using them as plugs for molds. However, this will be my first of such and it will be very minimalistic and just enough for me to produce 1 viable piece solely for this build. I dont mind having a slightly subpar plug as I intend to just take care of the imperfections/defects/etc. on the actual casted piece. I may not even create a top half deck piece, as in I might just skin the glass sponsons with ply. So that being said, ive modified the running surfaces and I dont intend to add the rear shoes until I have the glass made sponsons. In the end, Ill probably use anywhere between 50-75% of the laser cut kit. I still will construct the center section from wood mostly, but I know for sure I want to somehow cut alot of weight if possible as the T4 kit is very heavy overall and comprises alot of material. Ill most likely use the included bottom floor pan sheet, and maybe the tub walls. Then for the ram wings, ill probably either shape some high density foam or balsa and glass over them, or perhaps ill use the lost-foam method for many facets of the center section.
Now ive noticed that for every T4 build ive been able to come across, the sponsons have been very pointed either in a corner-like fashion, or a triangle-fashion, and also the tiplets are always installed at the rear. Additionally, I also sometimes see the rear horizontal wing missing, and front canards installed (these two particularly puzzle me). Personally, I have always disliked the aesthetics of the pointy sponsons and the rear tiplets, in addition to the one time it raced at Madison, these features were completely nonexistent, much to my delight
ive attached a few pics of the boat setup like how I want, a few at Madison and a few here in Seattle I believe!
Id really appreciate all sorts of information anyone can submit here, ranging from pretty much anything regarding the T4s history, performance (both as a scale and the real boat, as ive always wondering why it never ran after Madison, it seemed to perform well aside from the wing troubles??), etc. and any useful information obviously to apply towards plug and mold making, overall building, etc. I could really use stuff like this!
Ive basically grabbed the bare essentials from a local Tap Plastics store, and in addition to the typical building supplies I already have, I plan to make the molds based off methods I read off of CSTsales.com, using West systems mainly. I bought some preval sprayers, PVA liquid release, partall paste #2, some modeling clay, black resin pigment, a couple small mat rollers, and a range of different fabrics starting with .75oz veil.
Ive done a single coat of epoxy on each sponson so far, im going to block sand it with 180 and then ill use Evercoat to fill in imperfections and lips, etc. then block sand some more, add another coat of epoxy, block sand, and then hopefully itll be ready to be mounted and primered before I start molding off it.
thanks for reading!
Now I may be wrong with this, but I get this feeling that perhaps this particular boat has been done several times and its associated topics that usually follow it have been discussed to death, but ive been obsessed with this boat for some time now and I just cant resist starting my own jab at building one and getting the real lowdown on it overall. Also, one thing thats always bugged me a little bit, is the common configurations I see the T4 in among builds, and as a result of these, I have a few characteristics that im very keen on properly producing with this rendition.
So this will be my first real experience working with wood, aside from minor components and pieces ive made (so im basically a total noob to say the least! xD), however, im not going a more traditional route somewhat. To start, ZenMaster Mike Luszcz provided me with the laser cut Newton 164 kit. Ive constructed most of the sponsons with the intent of using them as plugs for molds. However, this will be my first of such and it will be very minimalistic and just enough for me to produce 1 viable piece solely for this build. I dont mind having a slightly subpar plug as I intend to just take care of the imperfections/defects/etc. on the actual casted piece. I may not even create a top half deck piece, as in I might just skin the glass sponsons with ply. So that being said, ive modified the running surfaces and I dont intend to add the rear shoes until I have the glass made sponsons. In the end, Ill probably use anywhere between 50-75% of the laser cut kit. I still will construct the center section from wood mostly, but I know for sure I want to somehow cut alot of weight if possible as the T4 kit is very heavy overall and comprises alot of material. Ill most likely use the included bottom floor pan sheet, and maybe the tub walls. Then for the ram wings, ill probably either shape some high density foam or balsa and glass over them, or perhaps ill use the lost-foam method for many facets of the center section.
Now ive noticed that for every T4 build ive been able to come across, the sponsons have been very pointed either in a corner-like fashion, or a triangle-fashion, and also the tiplets are always installed at the rear. Additionally, I also sometimes see the rear horizontal wing missing, and front canards installed (these two particularly puzzle me). Personally, I have always disliked the aesthetics of the pointy sponsons and the rear tiplets, in addition to the one time it raced at Madison, these features were completely nonexistent, much to my delight
ive attached a few pics of the boat setup like how I want, a few at Madison and a few here in Seattle I believe!
Id really appreciate all sorts of information anyone can submit here, ranging from pretty much anything regarding the T4s history, performance (both as a scale and the real boat, as ive always wondering why it never ran after Madison, it seemed to perform well aside from the wing troubles??), etc. and any useful information obviously to apply towards plug and mold making, overall building, etc. I could really use stuff like this!
Ive basically grabbed the bare essentials from a local Tap Plastics store, and in addition to the typical building supplies I already have, I plan to make the molds based off methods I read off of CSTsales.com, using West systems mainly. I bought some preval sprayers, PVA liquid release, partall paste #2, some modeling clay, black resin pigment, a couple small mat rollers, and a range of different fabrics starting with .75oz veil.
Ive done a single coat of epoxy on each sponson so far, im going to block sand it with 180 and then ill use Evercoat to fill in imperfections and lips, etc. then block sand some more, add another coat of epoxy, block sand, and then hopefully itll be ready to be mounted and primered before I start molding off it.
thanks for reading!
