This is a sailing ketch called “Inga IV”. It is German kit of a sailing ketch which is now out of production. The model is approx 52″ in total height and 43″ from bow to stern. It has a traditional full length keel and almost sails itself when on the lake. All decks and superstructure are plywood with much of it being mahogany veneered and coated with many layers of varnish.”

I have just purchased an Inga IV which is in reasonable condition, however it looks as if its not been touched for a great number of years so I intend to repair and replace fittings and wood as required.
This is a picture from the web

To start this restoration it may help to see what I was presented with when I first purchased the model. I have to say that the pictures make it look a lot better than it actually is and many may be horrified at what I have done in the next few posts but its all necessary to finish up with a structurally sound model.

The deck is discoloured and cracked and will have to be planked to strengthen it and make it look the correct colour, the cabin structures are all veneered and are unfortunately suffering from delamination so will have to be re veneered.
On the plus side the wooden parts of the masts are all in excellent condition and will need little attention, however all the metal (brass) fittings are in need of restoration, at some point they have been plated (nickel) so they will all have to be cleaned and old plating removed and re plated. The rigging wires are all in varying states of twist and kink so again will have to be replaced.
So there's a lot of work to be done over the coming months

This is my way of starting a restoration by removing all the parts that will need attention and in particular the parts that are not firmly adhered in place
The two masts were removed and dismantled in terms of their brass/nickel fittings as they were all in various states of deterioration and would need to be cleaned and re plated.
Cabins are removable and would need quite some attention as the veneer was lifting in places and generally the glues used originally didn’t seem to be as solid/attached as they should be.
The rigging will all have to be replaced as will all the electrics, the motor drive system is still usable but will need an up to date control system and power packs.
The hull of the yacht is not the most rigid of structures so will need some attention in terms of some sort of internal structural framework to stop the possibility of it being pressed out of shape.

As I mentioned all the metal fittings are made of brass however some of them could be seen to be bright plated and some were just plain brass the railings being soft soldered were not plated (more later on that). The parts are for the most part in really good condition and only require some cleaning and polishing before plating.
The plating process is something I had not done before so some research had to be done; I came up with the following process and equipment.
So with a glass jar two 6mm Nickle rods a bottle of white vinegar and some salt and finally a variable power source.
The initial solution is created by using two nickel rods in the solution one connected to the positive and one to the negative using a voltage of about 4.5 – 5 volts, its left for about 3 hours and the solution turns green and is ready to use.
Remove the negative nickel rod and connect the component to be plated to it, leave the other positive connection to the nickel rod and immerse both in the solution. Now connect the 4.5 V power to the circuit, bubbles will be seen on the component as the process starts, as for how long you leave it seems to depend on the size/surface area of your component.
I have had varying results so far but I need to do some more recorded tests to achieve the results I want so there will be an update further in the blog, however results are promising so far.

As I said in the introduction there is a lot of work to bring this craft back to an acceptable standard, a major job was to replace the deck as the original laser etched/marked deck had been damaged and worn in a lot of places.
The first job was too stabilise the wooden structure as I was able to press and indent the ply and I also noticed that the whole hull structure was in a similar state again been able to flex the hull. It was obvious that in the initial build there had not been any structure in place to stop this happening. I first made a card template of the front part of the hull about half way down this was then transferred to a piece of 3mm marine ply and then epoxied in place, this enabled me to fill the bow lower half of the hull with expanding foam, this resulted in the hull becoming quite rigid.
Back to the deck I now needed to remove any fittings and wooden pieces that were not secure making it easier to plank the deck. Next I want to make sure the deck profile was even across its length and width, so some two part wood filler was applied where any low spots were found and then the whole deck was sanded to give a firm base for planking.
There wasn’t any gunwale on the boat so to enable planking and painting to be separated I decide to place a mahogany gunwale 6mm wide around the hull side and 6mm wide edging around the deck this was relatively easy apart from the stern which had some really tight curves.in order to replicate the original deck pattern I had to make a central piece so the longitudinal planks could be joggled as they are terminated, the cut-outs are made as each plank is laid along with its card caulking.
As the planks are curved I decided to steam enough planks and keep them in a jig until they were fully dried, this worked really well leaving very little force to secure each plank with wooden clamp with a pin holding each plank in place and flush with the deck base. All planks are secured using aliphatic wood glue. When all the planking is finished it will be sanded smooth and given a number of coats of varnish.

Doesn't planking take a long of time?; it has not been 6 months of no activity on Inga as I have been working on the Marlin Cabin Cruiser, which also has a planked deck. I’ve had to take this job very slowly as the planks are curved so you can only do 2 planks a day leaving them to set overnight whilst still clamped in position. Having finished the gluing stage it now needs sanding down to remove all the excess black card caulking and any uneven bits of plank. Next will come the final sanding before it’s sealed prior to varnishing. This sanding stage is the most satisfying as reveals the results of a lot of detailed work, It also shows any defects, for example a missing piece of caulking or a dent in the planking that you didn’t see on the construction stage, this gives the opportunity to correct any of these defects

For me this is an important process that should not be done without thought, I often see model with insufficient attention to deck preparation resulting in the applied medium cracking /lifting.

So my recommendation is firstly to prepare the wood surface using reducing grades of abrasive paper, however this should only be done down to about 240 grade, a big mistake is to sand to a super smooth finish such as down to 600 grade. This has the effect of closing the pores of the wood, which limits the ability of the varnish to “KEY” to the wood pores, also being careful not to squash the grain of the wood by rubbing the surface after sanding with any hard tool.

Next, wipe the surface with a tack cloth to remove any remaining sawdust in the pores. Using a solution of appropriate varnish thinner (white spirit in this case) wipe the surface to clean away any remaining dust (you only have to look at your cloth after this process to see what you have removed).

I next use a 60 white spirit/40 varnish thinned solution to apply a first coat. After it’s dried then a light sanding before a second coat of 50/50. From this point, it is a personal choice as to how many more non-thinned coats you apply, but to get a gloss finish with that “depth” look then probably five or six coats will be required.
Finally, with the best will in the world you will get bits of dust land on your final coat. This is where I would leave the finish to harden for two/three weeks.
Then using a 1500 grit wet/dry with water and a dash of washing up liquid (to break the surface tension of the water), lightly sand the surface to remove any pips. The last process is to use a car rubbing compound followed by using a resin based polish (I use Autoglym Super Resin Polish) this polish has a very superfine abrasive in it, which will bring a super high gloss to your varnish with a silky feel to the touch.

This sounds a longwinded process but if you require this type of finish that will last then you have to invest the time and effort.
The pictures are at the 3 coats stage

The hull when I got the yacht was still with its white GEL coat finish. However, I wanted to have a two-tone colour scheme, which was to be a lower hull in white and the above waterline in a pale green (this was a colour I had seen on a Fiat 500, so I looked up the code and had the paint mixed)
So a nice sunny day and the first 2 coats of etch primer are applied, a light sanding and its ready for some minor filling with grey stopper fine filler, this dries fairly quickly but it’s advisable to let it harden for a couple of days otherwise it tends to shrink, usually after you’ve applied the final top coat. A final light sanding and it’s time to give a final coat of grey primer again time to dry and a final sanding and its ready for the topcoat of white, I decided to paint the whole of the hull rather than just below the water line.
I am now ready to draw the water line, the plans give details of this, and dimensions so I level the hull as per plan and then using a Vernier height gauge with a pencil attached I can draw a line all around the hull. Now all I need to do is mask the lower hull, the top deck is still covered from priming, I now have to wait for favourable weather conditions to spray the green top coat.
Aside you will see in the pictures another hull, this is the Marlin Cabin Cruiser which has shared the same colour scheme and has gone through the same paint preparation as the yacht.
Another fine day and the top coat is applied it takes 5 coats before I’m satisfied that the depth of paint is right and the gloss acceptable, apart from final polishing.
I will leave the paint to properly harden before final polishing and then apply the dark green line around the water line.

The deck has had some months to harden so I thought I would give it another rub down with wet and dry to remove any of the remaining low spots and in preparation for a final coat. I also thought it time to look at how the masts are secured; they seem to be poorly located allowing them to move from side to side. The masts themselves seemed to be in good repair however, the main mast had a brass square tube running its length, which I am assuming were to carry power to a mast light, again these were poorly fixed with small pins soldered to them. I have now machined a slot along the length of the mast to enable the brass tube to be sunk in flush to the mast. The rear mast also had a brass wire running up its length which according to the plan was an antenna, this is now not needed but I have sunk a brass tube up its length the same as the main mast to put a light at the top of the mast.
The securing of both masts needed a better location method, the mainmast has had a brass ferrule added to its bottom and I machined a socket to accept it which was epoxied into the original location. I used a card template with accurate vertical lines marked on it which I used to hold the mast in its true vertical position while the epoxy set

I have worked out that I need 390mm for the main sail to move a distance to bring it to 90 degrees to the hull. However the two other sails don’t need as much so I think the solution will be to attach each line to the appropriate point on each boom so the distance travelled will be the same for each sail.
The winch is a HiTec 785 HB, which with a drum that gives a cord pull of 390mm at 3.25 revolutions. The winch can be set to different revolutions by altering the end points on the transmitter which makes it easy to set the length of cord that is wound onto the drum.
I found in some early mock ups that as the cord is wound onto the drum and overlaps each previous revolution,the cord gets tighter which means some sort of tensioning system will be required to allow the tension to remain the same throughout the 3.25 revolutions. I think a spring which applies tension to the winch will allow it to move back and forth as the tension varies, A spring in the line is the easiest solution but it takes away some of the available travel distance.
The size and shape of the hull means I will have to run the cord around a system of pulleys, which look a bit odd but is required to enable the unit to be removed from the hull in one piece making it easier to run the cord around the pulleys.
There will be three attachments to the cord run, two on the port side and one on the starboard, each then running into copper tubes, which ultimately end up on the deck. Each exit tube is anchored to the appropriate pulley leading the cord to the next tube that takes the cord to the deck.
The Mizzen and Foremasts are relatively easy to guide the cord as they leave the pulley via a copper tube and then to another tube that goes up to the deck. The main mast is somewhat more difficult as it exits through the top of the cabin, so this cord leave the pulley and then goes up through a copper tube and exits through a brass ferrule on top of a pillar.
In the pictures you will see the trial system on plywood which demonstrates the general layout works , however as mentioned before about tension in the system it tended to bend the 4mm ply so a more substansial,6mm Perspex is being used in the final product.
I have looked at a number of different attachment options , being the Knot, the cable connecter, the Fishing snap Swivels which may be the best option, to be confirmed.