Hi y’all. I thought it about time that I started on my 60th birthday present, a Krick Grimmershorn. This will be the largest boat, both in size and displacement I’ve built to date. I plan to add a MrRcSound sound board, lights, and radar...maybe another function too.
I started on her last week, so far I have the keel, stuffing box and rudder made up. The keel is built up from several pieces of ply, and it sandwiches the stuffing tube. I had to trim it and almost took too much off, but in the end it came out okay, although I had a gap on either side of the tube. I filled that with epoxy and balsa. The rudder is also made up of a ply sandwich then carved and sanded to shape.
I’m using an old 3.8 to 1 planetary gearbox for the drive. I should be okay for power, and it’s a real smooth box, very quiet. I tacked the motor mount in and then adjusted the alignment using a 4mm I’d brass tube. I added braces to the mount, and built a little seat for the motor to support weight being that the motor mount is ply. The seat just contacts the bottom of the motor. I then installed the radio plate and assembled and epoxied the deck in place. That’s where I’m at now, hopefully I’ll have the bulwarks installed, and everything from the bulwarks down sanded smoothed and painted by this weekend.

Hi y’all. I spent this week trimming the hull/deck flange, started with a Dremel then finished with 80 grit sandpaper. This will be covered by a large rubber rubbing strip so it doesn’t have to look perfect, but it was too wide hence the trim. I also trimmed and glued the bulwarks in place, and gave the deck and interior bulwarks a quick first coat of paint, plus filled and sanded the keel.

Hi y’all. It’s been a bit since I posted. I wanted to get the hull painted before I posted again, but I ran out of paint. I finally got most of the paint work on the hull done, I still have a little touch up to do. I then decided to add the rubber rub rail. This is a c sectioned rubber channel that is glued to the hull/deck flange and goes completely around the circumference of the boat from stem to stern. I’ve noticed a lot of Grimmershorn pics and vids showing a bow, and sometimes a stern fender, although there’s not one in the kit. There’s a good reason for that..the channel tends to bunch up at the bow and stern. The instructions state using a heat gun to get it to shrink up a bit, but I tried that and thought I was gonna melt the bulwarks or bubble the paint first, so I resorted to cutting notches to make it fit better. It looks okay, but I can still clean it up a bit. I also had a bit more gap at one section between the rubbing strip and the hull. What I did was to use some RC56 canopy glue. This is an aliphatic resin that dries clear and waterproof. I made a bead between the strip and hull topside. Once it dries you’ll never notice it. I then started building the cabin, which is going along smoothly so far.
Anyway, that’s it for now, I hope to have more done this week and weekend.
Cash

Hi y’all. Got the bulk of the superstructure built, the upper bridge windows took some serious finagling, but I got it handled. Once the superstructure was built, I gave it a coat of EZEDope, once that was sanded I primer Ed it. The primer, among other things, brings out any flaws in my work, so I can sand, fill, or fix to get a decent finish. One the primer was dry I used Mr Hobby MrWhiteputty to fill any blemishes. I will sand this down and apply another coat of primer later. I’m about to start building the details, lockers, anchor winch, etc. I’ll probably clean my bench before I get too involved so I can have less clutter and hopefully do a good job on the remainder.

Hi y’all. Nothing really interesting, just a few details. The Grimmershorn is equipped with an anchor winch forward. Now, except for the dingy, life raft canister and a couple of other parts all the detail parts are built up from ply, pine and balsa. I had a Graupner anchor winch kit in my stock that I got in a trade, so I used that, except I substituted the kits metal chain pulleys for the plastic ones in the Graupner unit. It’s looks a bit different, but the size is right, or at least close, and I like the look of it. I have the dingy built up and primered, the aft lockers are built up and the doors sanded and primered. The lockers had me scratching my head, as the aft walls had an angle cut into them that took me some time to figure out, finally I realized that wa to compensate for the aft cabin curvature, you just have to finish sanding to mate up with the bow of the cabin. Didn’t say a thing about that in the instructions...🤔
Anyway, it’s coming along. There’s a few things that have slowed me down, and I’ve noticed that the laser cut sheets are laid out differently than the identification pics on the plans, I think the kit was updated but the plans weren’t. This boat is making me think!! Ow!😂
Cash

Hi y’all. Got the first few coats of paint on the superstructure this weekend, finished painting the anchor winch and built up the skylight/liferaft and life saver support. The sides of the support are supposed to be built up from 2 sides of 2 diecut 1.5 ply apiece, but I didn’t like the way they fit, so I made up the sides from 2mm plastic. Everything else is to plan. I also built up the funnel, but I changed it up a bit. First thing is that is a part of the funnel that is elongated, the radar mounts to that. I’m building up a working radar, and the scale position won’t allow enough room to swing the radar. So, the radar will be mounted in the upper cabin roof, and the shelf eliminated. Now, I know it’s not totally scale, but the kit represents the boat as she was built in ‘57, and who knows what refits took place over a couple of decades? That rationalizes it enough for me. The second change is that the funnel is supposed to be made up of about 15 or so 3 mm light ply sections, you then rough sand it into shape and work it from there. I made mine up out of balsa and sheathed it in very thin plasticard. Came out pretty good, but I still need to clean up the top where the mast step and exhaust are at in the top. I also resprayed the deck with one final coat of gray. The pics show the anchor winch and liferaft station installed, but they’re not glued down yet. I still have some touching up to do to the superstructure and probably one more coat of paint, then it’s time for rails, windows mast and lights.
Cash

Hi y’all. Im putting the Grimmershorn aside for the time being…I’m getting in too much of a hurry with her, culminating with the windows looking like Errol did them. Seriously, they’re awful, and it’s all on me. My only recourse is to buy some 2mm t strips, make frames for the windows and glaze them with clear plastic then install…so, to save my sanity, I put her aside and am now building another Paula, as the last one ran so well I almost immediately regretted trading it. After that, it’s back to the Grimmershorn.
Cash

Hello gentle readers. In our last installment, our hero found himself thwarted and frustrated by the seems-so-simple task of installing windows in the superstructure of the Grimmershorn. Ashamed, he withdrew to building more familiar models…will he prevail? WILL HE???!?!!😂

Okay. So, if y’all remember I really botched up installing the forward window/frame assemblies in my Grimmershorn. The windows and frames are molded together as a unit, all in one large sheet. I botched cutting one or two out and then made it worse when I tried to fix them, resulting in a mess. What I’ve decided to do is to remove all the glazing, sand and respray. the superstructure, and then I’ll glaze all the windows from the inside. It’s cheating, I know, biput it’ll look okay. Also, I’ve removed the rubber rub rail from the hull, as it just didn’t fit to my liking. I have what looks like a better fitting rubber channel coming in a week or so. I need to sand the heck out of the flange, and trim it up. This will result in a repaint of the black part of the hull, but I want this boat right, at least to my standards of “rightness”.
This is going to take a while, and I’m not hurrying this along, as that’s what got me in a bind last time I worked on the boat. I figure it’ll be after Christmas when she’s finished, so the updates might be slow, but they’ll be here. I have a couple of pics of the sanding and first coats of the superstructure.
Cash

Hi y’all. The past week I was sidelined with an upper respiratory infection AND pinkeye!! I felt better toward the weekend,so I spent a couple of hours removing the old rubrail and associated adhesive. The original rubbing strip did not want to fit well, and in my frustration I over glued it. I was successful at getting all removed. I found a c channel rubber strip off Amazon that is very close to the same dimensions, it’s a thinner material but testing shows it lays in place much better!! Once I finish sanding and repainting it should install with less issues and much less adhesive.
Cash

Hi y’all, I’ll keep this brief as it’s 1 am here ( woke up at 1230 can’t sleep). I got the hull flange cleaned up, trimmed a little better and sanded. I also cut the freeing ports out of the bulwarks. My goal is to try to finish the repaint tomorrow and get the new rub strip installed, once that’s done to my satisfaction I can resume the build from where I left off.
Cash