compound curves in plywood

As a naval architect, and at one time, a budding yacht designer, I've
got a lot of familiarity with "Cold Molding", which is the amateur's
version of the Lockheed process for making molded plywood shells.

The best book on the subject is "The Gougeon Brothers On Boat
Construction"
http://www.westsystem.com/webpages/p...m#publications
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/AS...874798-1028916

It's available in many libraries near the water, so you don't have to
run off and buy it yet. And you shouldn't, for once you realize how
much work this method will be for a One-off, you may, you should, think
twice.

Due to the small sized, and compond curves on the Baby Bowlus fuselage,
cutting and trimming the veneers is going to be your key challenge.
Each piece of veneer will need to be fitted to it's mate PRIOR to
gluing it up. All this hand work is why I don't think vacuum bagging
is going to buy you much on this project. You would have to vacuum bag
EACH piece of veneer seperately, clean up the glue squeze - out at the
free edge, and then fit the next piece of veneer. At least using this
method, you won't have to pull all the damn staples!!

I can easily see spending upwards of a 1000 hours just on the fuselage
alone, between building the male form, spiling (fitting) the veneers,
glue up (you need 3 layers), fairing, etc.

Some respondents have mentioned steam bending plywood. I've tried
that, and it's a non-starter, for the most part:
http://users.lmi.net/~ryoung/Sonerai/MySonIIL.html Scroll down to find
my tale of woe.

Note the mention of special "bending plywood". I got the stuff from
Woodline - The Japanese Woodworker in Alameda, California, it was
Italian Poplar, and was extremely easy to bend. This may offer you a
way out of a lot of labor, albeit at a high price in matierals. You
may be able to use ONE layer of this stuff, cut into "gores" and faced
inside and out with the lightest weight fiberglass and epoxy you can
manage. There is a similar product out of Gabon made with some
tropical hardwood, and a Hoop Pine product from Oz.

http://www.marineply.com/stagflex.htm
http://www.australply.com.au/pr_bendy.html
http://www.tapeease.com/plywood_panels.htm
http://www.lumberproducts.com/Produc...ingplywood.htm

Good Luck,