Here is a picture of my fully ballasted boat. It didn't take a whole lot of weight to get the job done. I just mixed some epoxy with some bird shot and put it where needed.
I placed some mesh over the flood holes to keep large chunks of debris out. The material I used was from the local hardware store. It's original purpose is to hold flexible heater ducts.
This device is the PBU unit. There are more details on it here.
The Albacore kit includes these dry transfer decals. At first I did not realize they were dry transfer and tried to apply them like a normal decal by dipping them in water. That was a wasted effort. All you have to do to get these is hold them in place and rub them on. All of the decals include an extra one i case you make a mistake.
I didn't think that the decals would stick well with the flat black paint I used on the hull so I painted a spot with some gloss coat. This turned out to be a mistake. I thought that the gloss coat would not be visible after I applied a spray coating of dull coat but that was not the case.
This is after two coats of dull coat has been applied. The gloss coat spot is clearly visible. I should of sprayed the entire boat with gloss coat, applied the decals and then sprayed the entire boat with dull coat. Oh well, live and learn.
I painted a small spot on the conning tower gray. I'm not sure what it represents but I have seen other models of the Albacore with the same marking. I hope t will make tracking the boat under water easier. Finally, I made a small antenna out of some brass tubing. Small antennas like this make sailing the boat just under the surface much easier as it gives you a clear reference of how deep the boat really is.
The final product. If I do say so myself, it's a handsome boat. Time to hit the water.
