Shaping the bow

 We made lots of progress on shaping the bow and blending it into the forward hull section.  In this first photo the bow has been shaved and sanded to match the hull.  This is the second layer of filler putty applied to fill the remaining gap between the hull and bow, as well as any slight blemishes.  The green squiggle in the middle of the bow marks the middle layer of foam in the original foam block.  I tried to keep track of this layer to help carve the bow symmetrically.

In this view we flipped the hull over, so the outside half of the bow is now on the bottom.  I finished sanding down the putty applied previously so the bow is perfectly blended on this side.  I am waiting for a skim coat of fairing putty to fully cure on this side as well, so we rolled the hull over so I could work on the inside half.

Here is the inside half of the bow after initial shaping and sanding to match the hull.  I used a hand saw to slice off layers of foam using the hull as a guide, then I shaved the foam smooth with a "cheese grater" style plane.  Final shaping is done with the rigid long board keeping the board moving parallel to the length of the hull off the bow end.  The result is a quick and fair match of the bow to the hull.  I applied putty (150 mL epoxy + 1 cup balloons + 1/4 cup cabosil to reduce running) to fill in the seam and imperfections, then skim coated the forward hull with the extra.  It looks good already!  Unfortunately, winter made a late spring appearance, so the epoxy is slow to set with temperatures stuck into the 40s.