24' Sport Fisher model

[TheCopperDog]

Here is my first model. It's a 26' 6" sport fishing boat with a full cabin with cuddy. I'm not familiar with scale designations, but on this model, 1 inch equals 2ft in full size. So the model is approximately 13.25 inches long.

I designed the boat from scratch and lofted it on to card stock. My main purpose of this is to learn to design and loft hills so I can one day own a boat shop and build my own line of aluminum boats. I am an aluminum boat builder working for a small manufacturer, so this is more of a natural career progression for me, rather than a really cool dream. Well, I suppose it's both. Anyway, I am building this to prove my design.

My thought is that the critical components of the hull and cabin are large, so building a small model should tell me if my methods are in the ballpark. At this point, I think my weakness is in the cutting and gluing. I've been using scissors and a razor blade to cut. I just received an x-acto kit with the handle and a couple packs of replacement blades. Still using the mini hot glue gun for assembly. For the keel, I slathered 3 layers of cardstock in Elmer's glue, placed it between two small pieces of plywood, and set a 30lb bag of dog food on it for a few hours. Worked nicely.

I'm using pencils, rulers, and protractors for drawing out my lines and labeling parts before cutting. I use a flexy ruler as an improvised batten.

Once I know that my design works at a small scale, I'd like to do a larger one that gets paint and detail and all that. Maybe 1 inch representing 1 foot. If I do it nicely, I may be able to use it as a tool to help potential customers decide they want to pay me lots of money to build a real one for them.

What is the preferred method of cutting long curves? I use a 1/4" hole punch for the radius corners of windows and other openings and then connect with a razor. Is there another method?

Is there a better glue for this? Preferably a paintable glue. I'm using hot glue right now. It's nice, but messy. What do you use for clamps?

It's very difficult to hold a flexy ruler steady and precise to draw a fair line. It often comes out a tad squiggly. Those of you who draw and cut manually, what do you use for battens? Do you have any advice on setting them and keeping a fair line?

What might be used for a door hinge? I've heard that some use packing tape.

How do you make a nice fold? I taped a stiff ruler to the counter and used a second stiff ruler to mimic a metal brake. It worked fairly well, but I feel there's a better way. Scoring and folding by hand seemed alright, but difficult to get a nice, clean fold.

I'm sure more questions will pop up. But, thanks for the input. I've been saving templates of most parts in case I mess up. They've come in very handy.

[Wyvern]

That’s awesome. I think there’s a real need for more models of sports watercraft.

Wyvern

[Mike1158]

Going very nicely.

[TheCopperDog]

Here is the finished boat. I still have some wonky shapes to work out of the front of the cabin, but I'll do that at a larger scale where I can get finer with the details. At full scale, the hull is 24' from the bow to the transom. The outboard bracket adds another bit to it. LOA is closer to 26'6". It's meant for a pair of 250hp outboards. Maybe one day I'll be able to build a real one.

[TheCopperDog]

Also, you can see the wreckage of a previous lofting attempt.

[shipbuild]

Nice work and new design looks great. I'm thinking of doing a Chris Craft 42ft motor yacht from the 50's out of manila folder material.

[whulsey]

1/2 inch to the foot is 1/24th