Delta Force Explorer Cat

[bill34207]

I usually do my builds over on RCG (probably because I have been there "forever"). When I bought this one and sent Steve a thank you email for getting it out so quick he told me to send him a photo when it's done. So.. this time I'm going to do one here and send the photos as I go so don't y'all laugh at me too much.
I've had the hull for a week now and haven't gotten much done so far since I'm waiting on parts to arrive. The FighterCat stingers should be here tomorrow or Monday though. Maybe then I'll get a little more ambitious.

If you have looked at the DF cat on the website and wondered how much room there is, these 1st few shots should give you an idea. It's like a cavern in there. Photo 3 has a Castle 1520 laying in the sponson along with a SF 200 and pair of 4000 ma 6s packs. There is actually room to put a pair of 5000ma 6s on the tunnel and still close the hatch too. There is a lot of room in this boat for it's size.

[bill34207]

While waiting on stuff to arrive spent a couple of evenings working on the seam line wet sanding with 400 grit. Some of our USA big name boat manufacturers could take some lessons from China on the way to join hull to deck. This one cleaned up a lot quicker than my Miller or Thunderbolt.
Last night decided to tape it off and get it ready for it's 1st color. Shot that as soon as I got home from work this evening. Guess I really should have used a little primer on the seam and re-sanded as it's still slightly visible in places. It will still pass a 50/50 inspection though.

[bill34207]

I let temptation get the better of me and added the gold today. Paint didn't lift so I got away with it.
Still plan to let it cure a bit then give it a light sanding with some 800 before shooting it with a couple of coats of clear. Thinking I'll add some accent stripes between the blue and gold since there are a couple of places where I was just a hair off with the tape. It doesn't really show in the pix but in person you can see a little fine line of white in places.

[Jedi Master]

Great colour choices, bet the clear coat will really set it off! Nice!!

[bill34207]

Thank you Jedi. I was beginning to think I was all alone in here.

[tiqueman]

Looks really nice bill. Great job

[JPriami]

Looking good. I was wanting one of these hulls. But for some dumb reason I didnt see them in the hulls section of ose, so I bought the 32" cat im doing meow

[tiqueman]

nice hull too. They did sneak n there though. Id been watching on and off wondering if when they were released Steven would be carrying them. Then for some odd reason a couple weeks ago I was poking around looking at hulls not even thinking about it and there it was.

[bill34207]

Thanks Scott & JPriami. The stingers and rudder showed up late yesterday afternoon so was up late last night getting them installed. The stingers fought me prety hard so didn't get around to updating last night. Didn't take that long to take them apart and drill the holes but had a heck of a time getting them back together. Was beginning to wonder if I'd ever get the nut that holds the barrel where it plugs into the base to start.

[tiqueman]

Looks like you may finish ahead of schedule?

[bill34207]

Looks like you're up early ths morning Scott, or have you not been to bed yet?
Made some pretty good headway yesterday but don't see having it done in time for next Sunday. The Tacon motors shipped UPS ground from Cali and won't be in til the latter part of next week. I've been building a shopping cart here on OSE for other tid bits and will pull the trigger on it later today. Steven is out of reverse rotation .187 flex cables (unless some stock has been added since the last time I looked). South River has reverse Hughey's but is out of the standard rotation ones. Guess I could do a standard OSE and a reverse Hughey.

[tiqueman]

Sleep? What's that? Check Phils for the cables. He usually has both lays in Prather or Aeromarine. If hes got them I could use a trip up there.

[HYDROJERRY]

Very nice looking so far Bill,, the struts look like they have plenty off room back there, way more than a Genesis hull,, I saw ose was out of those flex's when i was looking too but Jeff Wholth made me one, nice job too..

[bill34207]

Found the flex's here after all. Just had to buy the long ones.

Cosmetics are done as far as I'm concerned. Today I have pulled the hardware back off, opened up the stuffing tube holes to accept 1/4 stuffing tubes, wet sanded the hull with 800 grit, added a couple of red accent lines, painted the windshiled, clear coated the whole boat and re hung the stingers & rudder. In between did laundry, paid some bills and got he Genesis hull I sold on RCG boxed up and ready to ship tomorrow. :whew:

The hatch was/is a disaster. Think the aluminum paint I used for the windshiled must be going bad. I sprayed it early this morning, went and had breakfast, came home and started pealing the masking off it. The paint was still wet and got a smudge of silver on the blue.
After letting it sit a few more hours finished peeling it and found some more mis taped lines so had to do a hand brush black molding around the windows. My hand painting skills have not improved with age.

One of the accent lines is wider than the other but other than that am satisfied with the paint on the hull.

[tiqueman]

Looks pretty good from where Im sitting. We must be running in parallel universes this weekend. Today I: paid some bills, got a boat ready to be picked up tomorrow that I sold and worked on detailing out the two hatches I painted yesterday. Since the pictures, Ive cleaned up the hatch lines on the popeyes boat and added a red window frame. Im done painting for a while.... I was hoping to have my DF painted for next weekend but I dont see it getting done that quickly. Plus I couldnt do it til later in the week which would make it un-usable for Sunday.

I really like how you "uniqued" the Bacardi scheme. Cant wait to see it at Ackerman. Shes gunna look good in the water.