Building the Micro Magic

In May 2005 I started building my second Micro Magic after gathering all the tips I could find online and preparing the translated plans and instructions. It was completed in March 2006, not because it takes 10 months to build this kit, but because other things (a move, a summer..) intervened. Below are pictures and descriptions chronicling my progress from beginning to end. The numbering corresponds with the instruction booklet and plan figures.

The intent of this page is to offer some general guidance and interpretation of the instructions and plans during construction of a completely stock MM kit. If after construction you're looking for performance modifications, review the other resources on this site for construction and tuning, and also at the Dutch and particularly the German MM websites.

	1. Stand. The stand's construction is self-explanatory. This time I sanded everything well, including particularly the edges of the plywood, before applying urethane. I used UHU Hart per the plans but I think a thick CA might be as good. The self-adhesive foam strip that comes with the kit does not stick to the top edge of the stand very well so I helped it along with some CA. I sealed it with 4 coats of semi-gloss, oil-based Varathane, thinned 50% for the first 2 coats.
	2. Keel Trunk and Servo Tray. I roughed the mating surfaces of the keel trunk with some 80 grit sandpaper and used Stabilit Express to bond them (again as specified in the kit). I did not have the stomach to try acetone welding as has been suggested here and elsewhere -- I didn't want to risk destroying the parts altogether. I used small clamps and bulldog clips to hold the seams together while the adhesive cured.
	While the picture is slightly blurry, you can see that I added a small disc of ABS (cut from scrap) to the bottom of the mast socket. The idea here is to provide a bit more material where the bottom of the mast makes contact with the hull, to protect the thin hull material a bit.
	The servo tray does not stray from the plans. For bonding I used a great CA product, Loctite Super Glue "Easy Squeeze" Gel. It goes on like traditional "thick" CA but is much tidier, seems to have a quicker bonding time and a better resulting bond. The squeeze bottle applicator works well. I sealed the parts with 4 coats of Varathane, again thinning the first 2 coats 50%.
	I screwed in one of the eye-hooks so I could handle and hang it while the Varathane dried. I'm replacing the metal eye-hooks with brass from the hardware store to avoid corrosion. More important on the deck than here, but for now I plan to replace them all.
	3. Deck Underside. I used Loctite CA gel for affixing all the wood parts to the underside of the deck, and as you can see I used a wide variety of clamps. I find endless uses for bulldog-style spring clamps borrowed from the office. It is obviously critical that the wood reinforcements closest to the edges of the deck leave clearance enough for the hull to mate properly.
	It's hard to see the parts for all the clamps in the way, but I wanted good bonding contact between the parts and the ABS deck surface.
	Once the glue dried I used Varathane polyurethane to seal all the wood, thinned for the first coats as described above. I tried to avoid overbrushing around the edges to keep the deck lip inside surfaces clean for a good bond with the hull edge later.
	The original grey deck label looked awful on my last MM so I got rid of it and painted instead. This time I thought I'd paint before bonding deck and hull. I used regular grey auto primer for the grey, then top-coated with a clear acrylic enamel. What a mess. I don't know if the paints conflicted or if the sealer was old but it went on very poorly -- lots of orange peel and it never really cured. This is how it looked before I stripped it all off again with Easy-Off oven cleaner. I've now redone it with more success. All the masking was done with hockey tape, razor-knife and a hole punch.
	4. Keel Trunk and Rudder Bush Installation. The rudder bush fixed to the hull. I found the alignment was about right using the stock holes so didn't need to make any adjustments to line it up with the keel. I followed the instructions and taped the deck in place while the glue dried to keep the alignment true. Word to the wise: I test-fit the rudder post in the bushing tube before installing and found that the post was an extremely tight fit. I had to file the two openings on the tube in order for the post to move freely inside. This would have been much tougher if I hadn't noticed until after installation.
	5. Bonding Deck and Hull. This was tricky. I opted to join the hull and deck with Stabilit Express ("SE"), which sounded (and probably was) more fool-proof than using CA. The hull needed quite a bit of trimming and dry-fitting prior to bonding. After mixing the SE I drew it into a syringe and began running it around the inside edge of the deck, but found it was starting to cure before I was even half-finished. So I dropped everything and scraped off the SE as quickly as I could before it cured completely, which was messy and difficult. I got some advice on the Int'l MM Forum suggesting refrigerating the SE resin for a half-hour first to slow the cure time. This worked like a charm, and my second attempt was better. As you can see I held the hull and deck together with elastic hockey tape while the SE cured.
	I opted to go with the kit decals for the hull. After the hull and deck were set hard, as per the instructions, I applied the decals using a bit of slightly soapy water. That way I could float the vinyl into place without it adhering until I was ready. To get the vinyl to take the shape of the hull I found stretching it a bit at the ends helped remove waves. This and the next picture were taken after completion of part 6, keel and rudder, described below.
	As noted above, for the deck and hatch I used paint instead of the stock decals. I tried the stock window decals on the hatch but getting the vinyl to take the hatch's shape was very difficult, leaving it with waves and bubbles. The black paint was easier, looks better and is likely more durable and more easily fixed if nicked later.
	6. Keel and Rudder. Here's the assembled tiller. Note that the D-handle is supposed to be angled downward a bit from the tiller. It's roughly parallel with the control horn mating to the rudder, so when it's installed the tiller will be angled up from the cockpit floor but the d-handle will be parallel with the floor. Make any sense?
	The keel was a very tight fit in the keel trunk. I ended up sanding the sides of the in-hull portion, removing material from both the fore and aft edges, rounding the edges and finally using a round file to shape and blend the previously sharp edges where the keel blade exits the keel trunk, as shown.
	The keel bulb installed. The instructions call for drilling two 1.5mm holes and fixing steel through-pins after gluing the bulb in place, for extra strength. However my drill bit was binding so bad my Dremel was stopping altogether every time it got into the lead ballast. After a half-hour I had a hole, so I'm going with only one pin. Also it's tricky getting the angle of the bulb right -- angled a couple of degrees up from parallel with the waterline -- since it's hard to know where the waterline will be.
	I opted to use the ABS shells over the lead keel bulb, mostly for appearances' sake. The two halves took quite a bit of trimming and test-fitting before I bonded them to the lead bulb with Stabilit Express. I wrapped it with hockey tape while the SE cured. After bonding I sanded the seam but there were still a few small gaps, so I buttered the entire seam and areas around the keel with more SE as filler (shown). Once dry I sanded again, ready for paint.
	Here's the keel and bulb after sanding and a coat of white Krylon "Fusion" paint for plastic. This paint goes on well and has been very durable on my other hull.
	7. Controls and Deck Hardware. The completed servo tray with servos installed. I had to hog out the servo openings somewhat for the servos to fit but I tried to leave it tight. The instructions aren't that clear but as you can see the kit's sheet lever mounts under an existing servo horn.
	Here you can see the deck hardware -- rings and hatch clips -- installed. I had planned to replace the kit parts with stainless but couldn't find any, so I clearcoated the metal parts with lacquer prior to installation. This picture also shows the pushrod connectors on the tiller and steering servo horn with the pushrod in place. I aligned these parts before cutting and installing the aluminum tube through the bulkhead. Again the plans aren't clear but the aluminum tube only needs to be 30mm long or so, cut from the 100mm piece supplied. I painted the pushrod, tube and part of the tiller horn white.
	8. Sheets and Tiller Pushrod. The pushrod is illustrated above. I added the rubber accordion seal to the inside of the bulkhead tube after the glue dried. I also Dremeled a small flat area on the back of the rudder post for the tiller set-screw to seat on. For this picture I removed the pushrod and threaded the sheets (polyester cord) as described in the plans, from the front back. I loosened the servo tray to better get at the rings for threading the sheets.
	From what I've read and my experience with my other boat, the rubber seal is best installed on the hatch, not the deck. I used gel CA.
	9. The Rig: Mast and Booms. The mast is fabricated from two pieces of 420mm aluminum tube. I decided, contrary to the plans, to go with a 2-piece collapsible mast, bonding only one side of the "connecting piece" between the two sections. I had to reduce the dowel reinforcements a bit to make them fit into the tubes, so I chucked them in my drill and held them against sandpaper until they fit easily. Here are the pivot rings installed. I took their position directly from Plan Sheet 1. Note that the pivot rings look the same but the one with two holes must be above the other one.
	The plans call for the spreader to be installed directly over the seam between the two sections of mast. Since I'm leaving mine as two pieces I mounted the spreader just below the seam. This picture shows the top of the bottom section of my mast, including the connecting piece and the dowel reinforcement inside.
	Here are the two mast sections as the CA on the spreader, pivot rings and masthead dries. I haven't drilled any holes yet.
	The boom in place, after drilling the holes for the main sheet hook. My drill bit wasn't as sharp as it should have been so even with pilot "dents" made with a nail the holes do not line up perfectly. My holes are also drilled at 1.6mm, rather than 1.0mm, since my kit did not seem to include the steel rod for fabricating the mainsheet hook. I used 18-ga. mechanics wire instead, with a larger diameter. At this stage I also drilled the holes in the mast and jib boom.
	10. The Rig: Sails. While the glue on the mast assembly set up I cut the "tabling" from the thin rectangular piece of ABS included with the kit. I roughed up the side contacting the sail before gluing with thin CA. After the tabling dried I used a piece of 18-gauge mechanic's wire, heated with a lighter, to make holes in the tabling and leading edge of the main as indicated in Plan Sheet 1. I found this part much easier with the plan sheet open in front of me -- the illustrations are much clearer than the instructions.
	The forestay needs to be threaded through the leading edge of the jib with the length of wire included in the kit. I bent a tight 1 cm hook at the end of the wire as flat as I could make it, then ran it through the jib's hem and out the other end. I then threaded the polyester cord through the bent wire and carefully pulled it back out, taking the cord with it. The hook needs to be flat so it doesn't snag inside the seam.
	The completed jib boom.
	The jib attached to the mast at the head. Note that the hole through the tabling for the jib halyard is as far back as possible on the head of the sail, away from the forestay, in order that it can be adjusted separately from the forestay. Not to get ahead of myself, as you can see I took this picture after attaching the mainsail.
	I installed the backstay as illustrated on the box, and the shrouds mostly according to the instructions. The instructions aren't particularly clear on attaching the upper shrouds through the hole in the mast, but I did it my own way with a bit of CA and all's well. If you're using a carbon-fibre arrow shaft for a mast then you won't likely need the shrouds or spreader at all. This picture shows the shrouds at the deck; the "kicking strap" or boom vang; the clips attaching the main to the mast, and the "luff tensioner" or downhaul.
	And I'm done -- here she is in all her glory. But for some adjustments at the lake CAN-2 is ready to go. I plan to make a new reed-style radio switch that can be turned off by magnet so I won't have to open the hatch to switch off the receiver and servos, but that's a story for another day. If you find any aspect of this log unclear please drop me an email and I will try to explain what I did. Happy sailing.