Chinese junk ?

Stripped hull
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker

A fair bit of work with paint stripper cleaned up the hul quite nicely. The results initially looked very promising. This Chinese made model boat has a sort of chine hull - around a (obechi ?) keel there is a solid base and then thin ply sides.

The quality of the wood used looks pretty promising and the workmanship pretty reasonable. Exactly what you would expect in any mass produced product - they aren't going to waste time with filler at the price these things go out the door for !

I sanded the wood with both sanding pads and a detail sander. The keel was sharpened up at the front and made flush at the back end to allow for a single drive shaft and rudder. Things were looking very promising, until I looked at the back.

My plan is to have a copy made of this hull using vac-forming. This will require me to mount it upside down on a flat board, thus the deck has to be flat. This is where the problem appeared. If you look at the photo it's obvious that something is awry. The deck looks wonky. In fact with a bit of examination, the deck is fine, the bottom of the boat is fatter on one side than the other.

It may be that I can sort this out with a sander. Or just stick the hull in the bin and go and find something else to do.