Note: Please be patient the pictures might take a while to load especially since this is an ongoing blog where pictures keep being added, Thank You.

Here’s a link to the RC Groups build thread I mentioned in my post: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=912460

Here’s the official website: http://www.dumasestore.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=47_54&products_id=180

If you’re planning to buy this search around. You can get it for as low as $255

Here is what the completed Chris Craft will look like. Once again (like the Carol Moran) it doesn’t come with the stand, but unlike the Carol Moran you can buy it off the Dumas website for $40

My Build

Note: you should not try this as a first model (unless you have a whole lot of patience), it requires that you frame and [double] plank the hull. Double planking is planking the hull (in this case with spruce and balsa) then planking over that (in this case with mahogany). Also it’s just plain big (40″x10″), which would make it hard to find a place for a kid to build it (I do have that problem )

Before you start building I recommend that you take out every laser cut sheet of wood (there are about 14) and label every one of them. It makes things much easier later on.

Here’s a picture of the all of the frames cut out with the supports (the lighter color wood) glued on using wood glue. for a size idea the grey thing under the frames is a 12″x12″ x-acto self-healing cutting pad. I recommend getting one of these because you don’t have to worry about cutting into anything:

Now to give you a better idea of the size of the boat, here’s a picture of the two sheers, this will be the full size of the boat. Once again I have the 12″x12″ cutting pad underneath it. Also tow notes about this; one: these are just laid out later I’ll go get a building board which I will hot glue the sheers to, and two: notice the blue tape line on the right side of the picture, that’s (unfortunately) the edge of my build area:

I have made lots more progress! The framing of the hull is completed and off of the building board. If you’re building this you have to hot glue the sheers to the building board board until you get all the frames glue in place. If you don’t there could be a twist in the hull. Up to here it’s a pretty easy build because almost everything just fits into slots and there’s barely any measuring to do. Except for before you begin framing where you have to put the support blocks on:

After that is a harder (and more annoying part). First you have to put a couple of big planks on the bottom.  Then You have to put on many individual 1 inch wide balsa planks on the side. Finally you have to sand them all to make the hull smooth this part took me a long time because I didn’t work on it every week because I kept getting bored of the sanding. The next step (putting in the bow block) also requires a lot of sanding but it should be more interesting (and much easier to mess up):