The Taming of the Mould
Conclusion
After much time had passed, the first layer was complete. Some extra carbon fibre strips were laid around the boundary. Much painting of corrosive, toxic resin was involved and, since, Lucy’s favourite stripy jester trousers had been bleached by the foul stuff, she took no chances and fully suited up in one of those protective things. Despite this, she still managed to get epoxy up her nose. This was not pleasant. Some unplanned extra composite material was also made when Lucy’s hair dipped in the resin by accident. After everything was laid up and resined, release film, felt and finally a vacuum bag were placed on top of the mould which fully sealed it. After some false starts with the vacuum cleaner and then the pump, most of the air was removed and a good 30 minutes spent listening for and plugging leaks. By 1am our heroes had almost reached the end of their task, at which point Kento, overzealous in his electrical safety of turning everything off, unplugged the pump which steadfastly refused to start until Rob did something magical. But Rob had almost run out of magic.
At the end of our tether, our heroes left him tending to an overheating pump, sitting contentedly amidst the large piles of dry plywood and two canisters of flammable gas. Kento was suitably reprimanded with an eyeful of resin.
And so our heroes passed the third task.
When all the tasks were complete, our heroes were overcome with an irresistible sleepiness, and soon fell sound asleep. When morning arrived, the crude layers of wood, CFRP and nomex had vanished, to be replaced with a mysterious-looking black shiny object. After much poking with sticks, it came unstuck, and was finally free, although some buckling was noticed in a region of nomex which may or may not have been in the vicinity of a small screwdriver incident earlier on in the evening.
As the item was turned over, Kento saw once more the beautiful shell of his dreams and knew that he had at last found his true love. Lucy the Jester was rewarded for her months of faithful leadership, bravery and cunning, with the valiant Honda, and nearly ran over a rabbit.
Our heroes began their return, reaching 106mph on the dual carriageway and arriving back in the kingdom victorious, to the joy of the king and queen, who showered them with gifts.
And they all lived happily ever after.
