DISASTER! I left my yacht varnish to go hard for nearly 3 weeks. I put standard masking tape on in order to form a line of where to sand the bottom up to the waterline. It was difficult when applying this masking tape to cope with the curves leading up to the bow so I decided to order some 12mm Tamiya Masking Tape for Curves. I also ordered an Edding 0.8mm white marker pen because it was difficult trying to mark and see a pencil maker on the varnish.

I made up my own waterline marker with clamps and set square and a box with felt feet which made it easy to slide along the side of the hull. It worked OK.

I then applied the Tamiya Masking tape for curves tape.
It did the job I wanted but then I noticed a slight kink in it on the transom. I therefore lifted the tape off to reposition it and to my horror this tape pulled the varnish off! The other standard masking tape was fine. I therefore decided to take the tape off the rest of the hull and again in one place it has pulled the yacht varnish off! It would not have been so bad if it had just been the transom that I would have to sand and repaint but now it will be the whole hull again!! One step forward and 4 backwards. Depressing.
Any suggestions for masking up again after revarnishing without having the other problem of bleeding!

Thank you for all your suggestions for gluing the fittings onto the decks. I will experiment with your ideas and then choose. Cheers Duncan

Hi Everyone. Managed to get 4 coats of varnish onto first of all the decks and then onto the hull sides. The bottom had 4 coats earlier in the build. I will need to polish out the dust specks eventually. I tried really hard to avoid any dust by sanding and wiping down outside but still got dust specks! I've started to build the dashboard which I found very fiddly and inevitably got some CA glue on my figures even though I was using reverse tweezers. Unfortunately, the simulated light switches seem to have the glass domes missing from the kit so I've raided my wife's bead box and managed to find some small coloured beads to make the domed fronts of the light switches! I still need to fit the key sockets and keys, plus the gear levers and steering wheel to the dashboard. After a lot of messing about with paints for the seats I have found the Tamiya TS10 French Blue spray paint to be the best match. Having sprayed them I have then sprayed them with a Matt lacquer finish over the top of these seats. I decided to separate the seat sides from the main part of the seat to make the painting job easier as after my first attempt I found some leakage under the masking tape. I've just ordered an Edding white 0.8mm permanent marker to create my waterline mark prior to painting the bottom of the hull white. I couldn't see the pencil maker clearly on the varnish and this marker writes on glass and metal and is waterproof - so it should be OK. Pity in a way I'm going to be covering up the lovely mahogany bottom with white paint but in the end I think it will look better. I bought a 13mm wood drill from the Blackpool Model boat show to create the two holes for the cabin skylights. I drilled these holes with great trepidation! Added a touch of varnish around the inside of the holes afterwards. Just a warning to anyone else building this model - I measured the distance from the dashboard to the centre of the skylight on the full size plan. Unfortunately, this turned out to be right over one of the bulkheads which then involved cutting away a small portion on each side for the skylights. Once the bottom has been painted white, I will be able to get on with the deck fittings. Any suggestions for best glue for chromed brass fittings to be attached to the varnished decks. I wondered about using my Deluxe Cockpit canopy glue - any thoughts?

Just a bit of an update. Finished the deck planking which took quite a long time to complete! I've applied a couple of coats of sanding sealer onto the deck and also applied some sealer to the saxboards before gluing to avoid any glue staining. I found fitting these saxboards quite difficult as they need to bend in two directions. I heated them in boiling water and then applied them to the deck with masking tape and left them to dry for a couple of days to take on the shape of the deck. It was only semi successful. I then glued them on the deck and held them in place using strong car masking tape. I've had to do some filling using aliphatic glue and mahogany dust mix in places as I couldn't get it to follow the contours exactly. Fitting the rear removal hatches was also a bit of a challenge but got there in the end! Will soon be ready to apply the first coat of varnish - followed by several more coats. Weather is turning colder so my 'man cave' at the back of my garage is not very warm to work in. I'm worried about putting the heater on with the cost of electricity these days because it takes a lot of heating up. 'Catch 22'!!

Eventually managed to get all the mahogany planking applied on top of the lime planking finished. Spent the best part of 1.5 days sanding down the mahogany to a smooth finish. Just applied 3 coats of cellulose sanding sealer. The striped planking needs to be started on the foredeck next. I decided to apply the sanding sealer now before I do the final planking of the foredeck. No matter how careful I was a bit of glue got on the top of the mahogany topsides and it leaves a mark that is impossible to remove. In hind sight I think that it would have been better to have applied sanding sealer to these upper parts BEFORE fitting them! Wise after the event!
Yellow masking tape was applied to the foredeck so that the raw wood I need to glue the striped planking to isn't contaminated with sealer. I think the wood is looking lovely! Very pleased with the results as this is my first attempt at planking. I'll update again when the foredeck is complete.

Hi Everyone,
Managed to find several hours in my busy timetable (Raising and doing basic training of a Guide Dog Puppy plus doing some fund raising!).
I've finished the 1st layer of the side planking and planked the foredeck. As can be seen from the photo I used my hot plank bender to get the curved deck planks. The deck may look level but as you can see from the plank on the grid there is a fair bend. Unlike the instructions I have decided to plank the stern before gluing the mahogany ends onto the hull. Otherwise trying to fit these as a close fit to the mahogany curved piece would I believe be more difficult. Again I will apply the mahogany planks before fitting these curved ends. I've used a water based filler thinned down over the hull and then sanded to a reasonably smooth finish before starting the job to finish the mahogany planking of the sides and foredeck. I've tried to keep as much dust out of the hull with paper towel! Before starting the sanding I applied automotive masking tape (thicker) along the raw edge of the existing mahogany planking to protect this during sanding.
Following a recommendation by Skydive130 I've painted the metal parts and part of the steering wheel with a chrome pen. The chrome pen is fantastic and far superior to any 'chrome' spray can. Also I tried a few spray cans of car colour for the seat cushions but found the Valero light turquoise was the best colour to use. Because it is water based I've then put a coat of matt varnish over the top to protect it.
I now need to find a lot of time to do the final mahogany planking so my next instalment will probably be quite some weeks away! Thanks for following my blog. Cheers Duncan😊

Just a small update. Nearly finished the first layer of planking. I thought this tip maybe of help others when planking. I found that as I nearly completed the the 1st layer of planking I could no longer use bulldog clips to assist in butting the edges of the planks together. Instead I have found using paper clips does this job well in tight confines. I still nail the planks to the bulkheads but between the bulkheads it helps to keep the plank edges tight together. Keeping the plank edges as smooth as possible will no doubt help in cutting down the tedious job of sanding it smooth before applying the mahogany planks! I've added some foam buoyancy in the transom for safety!

Hopefully the photos that I'm attaching will explain why I'm not following the instructions for a radio control version! The Amati instructions indicate that the rudders and control linkages are fitted at the end of the hull construction. I decided that this will be virtually impossible to get your hands in to accomplish this task so I have planked almost up to the waterline with both 1st and second planking in order to still have some reasonable access to carry out this task. In order to protect the rudders whilst the rest of the hull is completed I've cut out a polystyrene block (or could be balsa blocks) and covered it in gaffer tape to go over the prop shafts and rudders to provide the protection.
It still took all afternoon to get the supplied R/C rudders in place. I've C/A glued a nut onto the bottom of each rudder horn. I found that with the shape of the hull, the rudders when turned fully were catching the bottom of the hull so I've added two small 2mm white plastic spacers which I made from some tubing. Hope this will help anyone else who attempts to build the R/C version of the kit! Next stage is to epoxy the inside below the waterline before continuing with the rest of the planking. I've also installed a 3mm light in the cabin and also added 3mm bulbs for the headlights rather than using the dummy headlights.

Hi Everyone, Just a small update on progress. Having applied several coats of Cellulose Sanding sealer I have now applied one coat of yacht varnish. Hopefully you can see from the photos the reason I decided to apply the masking tape. This was to protect a raw wood edge in order to get a good bond to glue to when I start the side planking. I'm pleased with the overall finish so far. I forgot to do a test of the varnish on the sealer so there were a few anxious hours of waiting hoping that they wouldn't react with each other!

I've completed the second layer of mahogany planking on the bottom of the hull and have now applied the first coat of Chestnut Sanding sealer which will require sanding before another coat is applied. Before applying the sealer I applied Vaseline to the BBQ bamboo skewers to ensure they didn't get stuck in the rudder tubes (they are a perfect fit!) and also applied the yellow masking tape around the last planks fitted in order to ensure a raw wood edge when I'm gluing the side planking on after fitting the rudders and linkages (This method of build is the only way I believe I can get my fingers in to fit these parts!). My plan then is to do another coat of sanding sealer and then two coats of yacht varnish. Not sure whether I should also apply a finishing epoxy resin coat before doing the varnishing. Any thoughts? The bottom of the hull will then be painted with white enamel - Humbrol. The sides once fitted will be the beautiful mahagony. That is my thoughts so far. Any comments please?