RE: Scratch Built 1/8 Scale Azure AZ279 Build Thread
Thanks all for the comments. It has been refreshing to work on the Azures again, even though it is in 8th scale this time.
Moving along to the deck mold.
The deck mold did not come off the CNC'd foam plug very easily. It put up a fight, as expected, and held in the deepest areas of the engine well, and the storage buckets. A few chuncks of the plug broke off in the mold which was expected as well.
Included are pictures of the plug, after I pulled the mold, and then smashed it with a hammer. Intellectual property is governed very carefully, and destroying a plug before it gets thrown away is an important step to prevent "abandonment" of your patent.
The deck mold will now have all of the foam chunks scraped off, and then scuffed to leave a tooled gel coat surface. AFter the surface is free of foam and mold release PVA (the green stuff) It will be sanded on all of the flats that are accessible, and all of the concave surfaces in the mold (convex on the deck part). I will leave the foam impression on the foredeck to simulate the non skid, although the real boat had diamond pattern molded non skid.
After the deck mold is sanded, it will be used to create another fiberglass deck plug that I can do all of the detail sanding, and fitting of the deck vents, engine hatch, and dash. This mold will only be used to create the fiberglass deck plug. It will have no other purpose after that.
I made it in orange tooling gel and resin, since these shrink less than standard resin and gel. This will ensure that the hull to deck fit is right on.