I’ve assembled the bottom portion of the hull. It is made up of six separate pieces and it’s entirely 3D printed. The total print time is somewhere around 70 hours. The pieces are held together by a combination of Epoxy and a hand held 3D print pen. Once it was assembled, I wanted to sand it down so the seams where the individual pieces are connected were smooth. I applied sandable filler/primer to the hull for a few coats and let it cure overnight. I started sanding, but I didn’t apply enough coats of the primer, so I ended up sanding all the way down to the plastic. I soon realized that sanding down PLA plastic was not as easy as I thought. After sanding down the PLA as best I could, it ended up being pretty smooth. I still want it to have a better finish, so I am going to apply a few more coats of sandable primer and then sand it more gently to get that smooth finish. Even though it’s entirely 3D printed, I want it to look like it wasn’t 3D printed at all. Once the hull is done and painted, it will be time to start the water testing phase.

After sand #1: