308jockey

Evening all,

I hope eveyone had a good Christmas and found something cool under the tree. This evening while at my folks house I picked up a pair of Hot Shot .21 hulls that I've mentioned in a previous post or two. They come under the classification of stuff we have but never run and that's getting to be a large category. Built in the mid-'80's they've been in the basement since about 1990 collecting dust and a little mildew but are in pretty decent shape. I also got out a pair of K&B .21 outboards of the same vintage that were re-built by the factory and have not been run since. Last but not least there was a Futaba Magnum 3-channel radio that's never been used. Neither of us can remember where it came from but it's in NIB condition. I was going to do some touch up work and get them back in the water but have decided to wet sand them and re-paint a new color scheme as well as update the fuel tanks, pushrods, new servos and mounts, generally give them a complete re-build. With any luck I'll find a place to race them but if nothing else there are a few good ponds close by to scare the fish. I thought I'd photograph the overhaul and post it here as I get both boats ready to run. At the risk of boxing myself in here I hope to be done by the end of February. I've got some other builds in progress and too many things that go to maintain. Anyway, maybe it will be of interest to someone over the winter and maybe not. It'll be fun to do. Now to see if I can attach photos......

Rick H.

308jockey

So here, I hope, are some photos. The engines are factory overhauled and have been stored in a climate controlled room ever since. The orange boat may give you some clue about where I live but will have a very different look when it next sees water. As I recall this boat kept wanting to fly and more than once tried to take off from the water only to flip over on its back. Not sure if it was a balance issue or a trim problem. I suspect the latter. Maybe it was just stored in close proximity to my airplanes. The red boat was built at the same time and is in generally better condition. It hasn't been run as much and has not tendency to flip over. It will also be getting new colors. Both are glass boats and the construction is much heavier than the glass boats we've purchased in the last couple of years. Heavier glass and wood, no lite ply. Both first used Kraft servos, KPS 14's I believe. They'll be getting some kind of digitals. The motors have different props. One has an Octura I believe, 3 blades. I recall being told it was made of beryllium copper and could be carcinogenic. I don't know but will play it safe. The other has a factory 2 blade prop on it and is very prone to cavitation. It'll be getting replaced. I'll be making new radio compartment covers, maybe wood or maybe plexi and cleaning up a lot of little things like worn screw holes. Bot have some cracks that were repaired with epoxy, probably 5-minute. All that will be coming off and some new sealant applied. Hopefully both will end up with interesting and more complex color schemes and not look like escapees from the bargain paint bin. Wet sanding starts in the morning....

Rick H.

OK, getting a 500 Internal Server error message. I downsized the photo files, saved as jpegs. Any idea why this is happening?

308jockey

Still getting the same error message, no idea why. Trying to download jpg files that were re-sized in Photoshop. Moderator, would you please just delete this thread? If I can't post photos for some reason I see no reason to continue it. Thanks.

Rick H.

advanced builder

Yes use the post reply not the fast reply ,bottom left column just below your name and location. or create a tinypic account after download a pic grab your code and copy the imfo on the left side 1/2 inside your tool box. .paste back onto this reply post.wow a pic you can size the upload you have a few options

308jockey

Holy crap! Today it worked. No idea why it wouldn't have uploaded photos earlier. Since these were made I've been wet sanding both hulls and finding all the cracks and other leaky places. The orange boat clearly ran into something at some point and I know these two boats collided at least once. I'll post more photos of the progress later this evening.

Rick H.

bdog1

Hey Rick :It will be fun to watch your progress !
K&B and Dumas sure started alot of us in the hobby way back when.
Technology and price have gone up in leaps and bounds but I don't know that the fun factor has....
bd

Blackout

Those pictures bring back memories! Thanks for sharing!

308jockey

Thanks guys!
About three hours of wet sanding with some 120 paper took off the paint nicely. I dug out some old epoxy that we used for quick fixes back when, revealing a little more damage than I first noticed but nothing serious. Resin and micro ballons and a little glass will fix most of it. Still brainstorming paint schemes.

skyhawk172n

My Feedback: (3)

Hey, Rick!

Progress is looking good, gotta come over and see those rockets run.

Roy

308jockey

Got some more work done on the Hot Shots. Had to do some work to one of the transoms, it was in pretty rough shape when I looked at it more closely. I guess that shouldn't suprise me as old as it is. Got both motors mounted and am ready to put in new servo trays. I also photographed all of the stuff I pulled out of both hulls. Lots of junk bouncing around in there. Never seen so many rusty screws. The fuel tanks were pretty nasty as well. Take a look at the two drivers. Both are retired F1 electric car drivers from the early '80's, both ex-Tamiya employees I believe. We put them to work in these boats and they did pretty well. If they pass drug screens we'll probably keep them on. They'll need new faces though. I talked to a couple of SOWEGA members this week and plan to have both boats in Sycamore for the February race. With any luck I'll be able to get a boat together for the .45 outboard too. But 50% nitro? Really?

Rick H.

308jockey

Not a lot new to show but there's been plenty of Z-Poxy and glass and a lot of sanding done. Most of the dings and gouges are now filled with another hour or so of sanding to do. Got the paint schemes figured out at least partly. I've nicknamed them number 1 and number 2. Number 1 will be black and number 2 will be silver. Number 1 will be trimmed in silver, red and yellow. number 2 will be trimmed in black yellow and red. Why? Because those are the colors I have of course. I came up with another surface frequency radio so all the electronics are ready. Why 72mhz you ask? Again, because I have them. I'll post some photos tomorrow probably after some colors have been applied.

Rick H.

Blackout

Looking good! You can run less nitro if you want, but the little .21's do like the nitro. If you are trying to save money, try some 30% or 40%. I have run 25% Omega from the local hobby shop in my .12, .21, and .45's with good results.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

Boy, those things brought back memories! I had one way back in 1979 or 80.

308jockey

Got the base colors on both. I'm happy with the silver but need to work on the black. Black is my favorite vehicle color but probably the toughest one to do well. Moral of the story, when you get in a hurry to start painting, stop and drink yourself senseless and come back another day when you aren't in such a hurry.

Rick H.

308jockey

The more I looked at the gloss black finish the uglier it got. Every imperfection showed itself. A little more wet sanding and then I found some flat black paint. Tried it out and it looks really good. The flat is cooler than the gloss plus it hides all those imperfections that were jumping out with the gloss finish. Just starting to put on some trim color. That's going to take a few days. Hoping to have them in the water in another 10 days or so.

Rick H.

308jockey

Well they are out of the paint booth as it were and what a pain that was. I had some serious compatibility problems among same brand paints, namely Lustrekote. Too much krinkling, sanding, re-sanding, re-spraying. I'm dissapointed in the black boat finish. It looks great at five feet but closer and the flaws start to show. I suspect I'll bring it back in the shop in a month or so, sand it and make the whole thing flat black with no trim. I'll call it Black Widow. The silver boat is much better but still shows my shortcomings with paint. I just have to practice more. I'm also changing to Klass Kote. I spent a lot of time going over each hull and checking for cracks or other leaks. Got them all apparently. We put both .21's in the pond today along with the Hot Shot Sprint I recently aquired. The silver boat ran well and needs a few minor adjustments. the black boat has a crappy prop and did nothing but cavitate to the halfway point and quit which meant getting out the retrieval boat. It was the only one we had to go after today. The Sprint was fast as hell, caught me by suprise. The five-acre pond was almost not big enough for me to be comfortable. Then one of the steering cables came loose and I hobbled it back to shore. This one shows a lot of promise especially considering it's not been in the water in over a decade. Same is true for all three actually and I was very pleased to find dry radio boxes all around. For that matter there was no water anywhere there shouldn't have been. I'll get all the little stuff squared away and we are planning to take these and some others over to Hodges Saturday to run with some SOWEGA members and find out what other trimming needs to happen. One thing I did notice on the silver boat was that in the straights the nose started to hop. I suspect had I leaned things mout more it might have gone over backwards. The hopping stopped when any kind of turn was applied but I love long fast straights. Guess I'll put some washers under the upper mounting bolts. I attached all the photos it would let me in one post, I put the others up in another and maybe some from next Saturday later. It's been a fun project and I'm glad I did it. Looking forward to some racing action this year.

Rick H.

308jockey

A few more on the water. I'll put some more out after Saturday if I can get someone to drive. It's tough to steer a boat and photograph it without hitting something.

Rick H.

308jockey

I haven't posted much on this topic lately but haven't been running these boats much. Crappy weather. I spent some time re-trimming and upgrading radios. Both of the .21 boats were running way high in the water and the black one finally went flying. At least it landed upright. This boat is really having an identity problem. After trimming about 3/16" forward the boat started running nice and flat, so well that I took the nose wieght off. Then it decided to be a submarine. I think I hit a wave or else a fish and the boat completely submerged at WOT then popped back up. Never seen that one before. Drained the water and it ran again, got the needle set right and am very happy with it. I may try some high nitro next weekend. The silver boat is lacking on power, not sure why but I'm working on it. I also upgraded the Sprint boat to a 2.4 system. We'll see how it all goes, I plan to run the SOWEGA race at Hodges in two weeks.

Rick H.

Ron Olson

My Feedback: (1)

I know where there is still a NIB Dumas OB tunnel with a matching vintage short-skeg K&B but I don't think that I could talk the owner out of it. I did offer to build it for him but never heard back.
Have fun at SOWEGA, I know a few people that should be there. Look for Jeni Johnson, a real sweetheart as she should be taking lots of pictures and possibly racing.