| The rudder linkage is then bent to match the full scale drawing in the plans. Before you do this however, read the next step! |  |
| With the linkage bent, it's not possible to get the aluminum tube into position because the bends are too tight. The tube should be put in place while you are bending the linkage. I had to straighten the linkage and then bend it back. |  |
| Once the tube is in place, the rubber bellow is glued to the it. |  |
| The tube is then glued to the hull. At this point, it's time to install the drive line. |  |
| The first thing to do is check the driveshaft tubes. Mine had some metal fragments left over from when the oil holes where drilled. |  |
| The oil fill tubes are then fitted. |  |
| Although it wasn't mention in the instructions, my hull required trimming to fit the gearbox. The rear had two indentations but according to the plan, they should not be there and the lip should not extend past the inside of the indentations. I tried fitting the gearbox as is but the stern tubes did not extend past the hull like the should have. I ended up trimming the lip to match the blueprints. |  |
| The gearbox is suppose to be held in by a couple of self taping screws but I decided to put some blind nuts in so I could swap the motor out without having to worry about stripping out the plastic. |  |
| Wondering how the rudder linkage makes it past the gearbox? It goes through this little hole. |  |
| The next step is the glue the stern tubes into the hull. It's a tight fit. I dry fitted the assembly several times before I figured out the easiest way to do it. I put down plenty of tape on the hull to prevent glue from getting over everything. I then glued the grease tubes to the nipples on the drive shafts. Once that was done, I put the stern tubes in the gearbox without any glue. The grease nipples where on their sides pointed toward each other. Now I applied a thick bead of stabilit express glue to the ends of the stern tube and placed them in the hull. I managed to get them into the holes without touching the side of the hull. The gear box was fastened temporarily. I then put a bead around the exposed end of the stern tubes on the outside of the hull. |  |
| Now that the stern tubes are glued in place, it's time to finish up the hull. The frames for the rear trim tabs are glued into place and then smoothed in with some putty. |  |
| While gluing the frames, make sure that the hinge hole doesn't fill up with glue. If it does, clear it out with a drill bit before the glue sets. |  |
| The rear trim tabs are not controlled remotely but they are moveable. They are held in with a single screw. I used squadron green putty to fill in the gabs however I should have used a white putty because the green required several coats of paint to hide. |  |
| The front dive planes get a small trim piece glued to the non-movable surface. These are also smoothed in with putty. Once this is done it is time for painting the main hull. |  |
| I used Krylon fusion safety yellow. It's very bright and should be easy to track under water. It's a brighter yellow in color then the picture on the box and much brighter then your traditional marine yellow. |  |
