Taking a deep breath, I hacked the rudder support box off the back of my vintage speedboat. Reaching the point of no return, I sawed it off and looked at the resulting hole.
I'd done a really good job of sealing up the inside of the box with epoxy glue. Sadly this was now on the workbench and my hull would now float in exactly the way a brick doesn't* what with a gurt big 'ole in the back.
Plastic sheet built up in layers and ABS glue made a big difference. This was followed by more epoxy to seal things up. The flange around the edge was built up to match the rest of the model - I know this isn't a prototypical feature but I'm not deseaming the hull now.
Next, Milliput was applied lavishly and left to dry for a couple of days. I never have a lot of luck with this stuff normally, but this time it was OK. Most of the filler was filled and sanded away and the results feel smooth.
Finally, a plastic post supports the new rudder. The boat side of the hinge is soldered to some brass U-channel and the plastic fits inside this.
A new piece of wire connects the sterring servo to the blade. It doesn't seem to have much movement, but we'll find out when the boat goes back on the water next week.
*thank you Douglas Adams.
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