Hi Rude777,

I built an Eagle. Be sure not to trap your fuel tanks under the deck. Make hatches on the bottom that you can screw and tape closed. Tanks always leak eventually, unless you go with all metal tanks and solder everything. Either that or locate your radio box in back and run a fuel tank up front where they show the radio box. I dont like that long push to the rudder anyways unless you go with a carbon fiber rod.

There's an old trick that doesn't hurt to use before you resin the inside of the hull so the resin doesn't sink in as much and stops you from using too much and that is to spray the inside good with a can of cheap hairspray. All it is, is laquer and pre-seals the wood and weighs nothing even if you use a whole can of it. Final Net is what I use. Just hose it when you spray it, not like your spray painting...point it up close and juice it.

What your trying to do is keep the epoxy on top of the wood, without hurting its ability to soak in a little. This is what the hair spray will do for you. It holds up just long enough to slow the rate of sink, without hampering the epoxy's abilty to soak and desolve past it into the wood until your long gone from the area, leaving you able to use just a thick enough coat to do the job.

I wouldn't glass the outside of it either. Glass can leave too much of a thickness and makes corners look like blobs, unless you really get into sanding and body fillers. Just use the good old K&B epoxy paint, or go with the new KlassKote epoxy and primers. I haven't tried it but that's next for me.

Another tip I'll suggest too building a Dumas kit is don't try and goop all the loose seams up with epoxy. Buy a couple of 1/8" strips of balsa and chop some glue blocks for all the joints. Wet the joint and the four blocks you'll need for every corner, and stick those in to dam up the epoxy to the joint. You'll get away from having to "web" such a large amount in the corners to make up for the huge joint gaps they have, and probably be much stronger besides. Looks ugly as sin before the decks are put on, but who cares after.

I have also been using a hot glue gun to scab some tack joints to hold everything in position exactly where I want it before I start going around to each seam with epoxy. When I get to a spot tack, I'll pick it off and glue that spot. It's a good idea to do only half the joints at first and let the epoxy cure, then go back and do the other half. Otherwise there's no point, and will move on you.

That hot glue comes in different heat ranges. Get the coldest stuff. You don't want to get the super hot stuff because you're not trying to make a permanent joint, and it will cook into the wood too good to pick off easy.

I also bought a cheap electric staple gun along with some short staples. If you practice your shots on some scrap joints first, you can get pretty accurate with it's aim, and be able to adjust how much hammer it has with its adjuster knob.

I used it putting on my curved decks on the Eagle and worked awesome. Lots better than trying to tape to wood. I left the staples a little high, so when the epoxy dried, I just gripped what I left sticking up with a pliers, and filled the marks with filler before I painted.