Bread and Butter or Egg Crate Hulls

[Guest]

I was just thinking with the availability of GRP and other plastic hulls has the fashion for scratch building hulls using the bread and butter method of construction fallen out of favour to be replaced by double planking construction.

Working a big chunk of wood with a spokeshave and surform always seemed like a fun way of passing some winter evenings tho!

It was a nice method of construction and to me a lot of the skill of making the bulk of the model has been taken away by buying an off the peg pre made plastic hull.

[Guest]

I think Alan, like a lot of old traditional construction methods it is falling out of favour and, let's face it, Bread and Butter is probably the most difficult of hull construction methods.

People are happy to take an easier route with thier hull constructions nowadays and I think now even plank-on-frame is receding in favour of ready moulded fibre glass or ABS hulls.

To be honest for me I am currently making a model that is going to take somewhere in the region of 5-6 years to build and that is with a fibre glass hull. I could have added at least another year or two to that for a constructed hull.

There again of course there is nothing to stop anyone whittling away the winter evenings with a spoke shave and a lump of pine. Each to thier own I guess.

You only have to look at the popularity of RTF and RTS models to see where the business is going nowadays. I guess we are better off that people want to enjoy flying or sailing a model rather than having no involvement at all. It may then temp some to want to build as well rather than them being completely put off right from the start with the daunting task of a build project.