Thanks for all the advice. I am on with the sanding which will take some time.

Hi All,
Lord Nelson varnish appears to be a Krick product from Germany!

http://www.krickshop.de/Products/Paints-Accessories/Paints-for-Shipmodels/Lord-Nelson-Varnish.htm?shop=krick_e&a=catalog&p=435
produced for them by a Belgian company -
http://www.ghiant.com/brands/modellers/lord-nelson/

Must also be available in UK?
For example
http://www.anticsonline.co.uk/1368_1_2970537.html
There is also a spray can version-
http://hobby.uk.com/matt-varnish-300ml-spray.html

Happy varnishing 😉
Cheers Doug 😎

A layer of the lightest glass cloth applied with Ronseal water based floor varnish / sealer.Rubbed down between coats. /Use enough coats to fill the weave / grain of the cloth . . this should still show the grain through the coats and leave a brilliant shine. this can be polished with T/cut once thoroughly hard if so desired.

I have spoken to the person who built the boat. it is based on a Vintage model boat company design. it was scratch built and is made of strips of mahogany as I originally suspected.
Having looked at the Vintage model company site it most resembles a sea hornet, however another kit may have been available at the time it was made. The strips of Mahogany were the builder making use of the materials they had to hand at the time, hence the vertical strips! The interior is covered in fine fibreglass mesh and 3 thin coats of fibreglass resin.
Work on the restoration continues!

They have a sale on as well (bonus!). I have no idea how much I need? I was going to buy 1KG just to be on the safe side. I do not want to make 2 trips.

John.

I have found a local supplier for G4. Swell UK, they are 20 minutes from me. 😁

John.

Thanks Doug, the drive is plan B. I hope to find a local supplier 😁

John.

Good luck, Drive safely!
Fingers crossed 😎

I will find out on Sunday why the boat was constructed this way and I will let you know. if I don’t have any luck sourcing the G4 locally I will give them a ring before I set off to check they are open and have some in stock. I will go during the week around 10am when the motorway should be quiet ish.

John.

No, the planking IS the side of the boat. No ply. We don't know why yet!

Martin

Had a thought!!! if the planking has lifted slightly try a pointed scraper between the planks, scraping down to the ply, then thin your varnish to allow it to soak into and under the planks, then varnish over all, might stop it happening again

Mark

John
They are not open weekends so best to phone before you set out
Dave

John
You can order on line, but you may need to be home to sign for delivery.
Dave

Hi Doug, the Proxxon is the same price in quids here (£118) as Euros there 😁. if I get fed up I will treat myself 😁

John.

Thanks Dave, Martin and Doug. As I have started rubbing the varnish off I am worried it could end up with a patchy finish if I don't finish the job now. I will try and source some G4 locally next week. if not I will take a trip to Sandbach which is just under 50 miles away.

John.

PS about €110 over here ~ 92 quid at today's rate. 😎

Small band sander; 6x4 cm Proxxon BS/S😎

John, as it has glass cloth on the inside anyway it will be strong enough and so Dave's clever polyurethane varnish will be ideal on the outside as a waterproof skin, the glass cloth being the dimensional stabiliser on the inside. Looks like we've cracked it for you (Ooh, pun NOT intended!)
I haven't used that stuff, but I HAVE heard excellent reviews of it and that schooner looks very tasty.

Martin

John
If you can get a smooth surface you will not need to remove all the varnish with G4.
Dave

Hi Doug. A very small sander would be perfect I will have a look. I will not give up; she will sail again! I am thinking give it another chance with the wood look and if it fails I will resort to the paint option.

John.

@ Vic, hi
if the wood starts to swell it was too wet and the water soaked in 🤔
I use a flat dense sponge damped only, wiped against the grain.
But in John's case this now seems to be academic. Looks like he's heading towards paint! (Back to the acrylic/ enamel discussion ?? 😲)

@ John; whatever,I hope it is still 'fun' to do and you don't despair and jack it in. Cheers 😎

Nice schooner Dave 👍

Check 'em out anyway, they're pretty small, there is also a 'Pen' sander with a band width of 1cm (As a radio man that sounds odd!) , sanding area 10cm (4") long. 😎

Hi Doug, due to the shape of the hull I would not be able to get a machine which would remove the varnish evenly. I am trying to minimise reducing the thickness of the wood as much as possible. it is not a bad job it is just going to take some time.

John.

Thanks Dave, the schooner looks good. The joins at not bad below the varnish and the inside of the hull is already covered with fine glass cloth and resin. The previous varnish is very hard so removing it without removing the wood will take a while.

John.

Hi John,
to ease the agro of sanding try these
http://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/28520.php?list
and/or (depending on the management!)
http://www.proxxon.com/en/micromot/28526.php?list
😎

Hi John
I omitted to add the pic of one of our schooners so you can see the finish
Dave

Hi John
Having looked closely at your hull construction and joints it would appear that over time the joints have failed. I have a Mercantic with exactly the same problem. if you can sand the raised joints flat then there is a method we use on our mahogany planked schooners that provided a water tight seal and produces a very high shine finish of great strength and resilience.
We use G4 pond sealer which is a polyeurethane paint available from Garden Centres. ABL Stevens are my local supplier
http://www.resin-supplies.co.uk/sealants.htm
Its a one-pack polyurethane varnish hardened by moisture in the atmosphere or from the material being sealed, used as a sealant for timber or a barrier coat for concrete, preventing resin being attacked by moisture or alkali's.
It's brush painted, touch dry in a couple of hours, dried in 24 hrs and is fully hardened in one week. We usually apply one coat then after 24 hrs wet and dry any blemishes and apply a final thin coat.
We also coat the inside of the hull.
If your hull has thinned in places then you could use tissue or thin glass cloth inside the hull to give added strength as others have suggested.
Hope you manage to get the result you require.
Dave

Thank Doug, Martin and Vic, I have started the sanding today. it is slow progress as the varnish is hard and well stuck to the wood. The inside has already been covered with fine glass cloth and epoxy it is just not clear in the picture. I can see this job will take some time. I will keep you updated. Thanks again for the advice it was much needed.

John.

Agree with your generally used methods for varnishing, but these narrow vertical planks with all their joints will never go away. They will crack if it gets hot they will crack when it's cold and damp. Ask me how I know! They all need to be bridged by a single surface. I will be using J-Cloth and epoxy on my yacht as J-Cloth is very strong and cheap as chips. The only other method is to cover the vertical planks with a single horizontal layer of veneer, but that might be difficult to cover if any compound curves have crept in at the bow due to sanding of blocks or whatever.
But somehow those joints have to be covered. Filling won't work.

Martin

Hi John,
Suggest you sand as this will flatten the planking, no doubt each plank has curved slightly as the wood had dried out. Hoover out all the dust from the cracks and fill with a mahogany filler and re-flatten. The inside of the hull will also need varnishing to stop the wood drying out again. Would not advise wetting the planking to raise the grain as is normal practice as this might swell the wood and loose the filler. First use a good quality polyurathene varnish, brushed on but avoid runs, lightly sand to give a key before recoating. At this stage do not worry about the brush strokes showing. After at least 8 coats use wet and dry paper to sand the surface flat. Now apply a yacht varnish that does not dry so quickly and brush strokes will on the whole disappear. I suggest at least 3 coats to finish lightly wet and dry between coats. The more coats you give the deeper the shine. Use a good quality brush, a cheap brush drops hairs and does not give a smooth finish. if you look at my harbour and look at 'River Dance' you will see the finish this method can achieve. Good luck and hopes this helps.
Vic

Because Aerokits were done in ply, the sections, like a Thames Slipper Launch were all straight lines. That involves a lot of twisting, but with vertical strips that twist can be accommodated, being finished off with sanding to shape. Of course, if you view a twisted surface it will appear to be concave, but it ain't necessarily so, as Aerokits and slipper launches prove. I think that's what's happened here.
The joints twixt every vertical plank will always be there, causing trouble. I would say fill the grooves, then cover in glass cloth and epoxy to give a single surface that won't crack again. I'd be inclined to do the same internally, then paint the model.

Martin

I'll say non-standard!!😲 Looks like someone tried to make life easier - didn't trust himself to do the bending necessary. Wonder how he got round the bow? What's the outside looking like now? 😎

Thanks Doug, I have taken a picture of the hull from the inside as the boat would appear to be of a non standard construction.

John.

I still have a very vivid memory of my Dad sitting watching the haunted fish-tank with a damp piece of ply bent over his knee to get the bow curvature into it for my Sea Scout!
Bon chance mon ami, looking forward to the results 😎

Thank Martin and Doug. I am removing the old Varnish as suggested. I have no idea why it does not have a ply skin, leave that one with me and I will find out!

John.

I knowed Martin could put the icing on the cake.👍 Good on ya mate. 😎

Can't really add much to what Doug has said as he's covered the ground pretty well. I don't ever use paint stripper these days. I once used it to remove factory paint from a Matchbox toy when I was making a series of "Code 3" modified steam lorries. Very oddly the paint strippered ones refused to dry when sprayed with cellulose paint (yes, it was available then no probs.) if I sprayed over the factory paint it dried in minutes as cellulose will do. I hadn't had the problem before, but I certainly got it this time and I haven't wanted to use it since.
On wood anyway, I wouldn't use anything liquid as it could always soak in and do who knows what damage.
I would scrape the finish on your wood , but make sure you have read up on how to sharpen a cabinet scraper. The shiny ones are pigs to sharpen because they are stainless and you cannot get an edge on stainless. The best knives are NT stainless. As an ex clay modeller for the car industry, I can assure you that all slicks, which we called the thin flat scrapers, were spring steel. They had a nice gun blue finish, but would go rusty if you didn't look after them between contracts. Because you really need two hands to properly control a scraper you'll need to find a good way to hold the boat, but a sweet little job like that Sea Hornet will sit twixt your knees. Because you have all those fractures in a vertical way along the grain, keep your scraper in a diagonal way or it will pick up wood grain and damage the model. it may work if you work down the grain, perpendicular to the deck, so you are crossing the fissures in the varnish. I would suggest that if you want a varnish finish you will need to go over the wood with epoxy and possibly a light weight (1oz.) glass cloth. This will stop any tendency to split again. Surprisingly it does allow the grain to show still and after you have flattened the epoxy, you can then apply 2 or 3 coats, rubbed down in between as Doug says with a very fine paper, of a spar varnish. I have a no name tin which I am using on general stuff, from garden items to the spars of my "Vanity" model. When I did a model of a Rive Aquarama Special, I used an international Spar Varnish which has a slightly golden tinge.

Now, the hard part. No boat I can ever think of had wood in a vertical lay on the hull. Ecen double or Riva's triple layer was diagonal, finishing with incredibly well selected horizontal layers. The Sea Hornet would be improved no end, I am sure with a layer of horizontal nature. What passes for mahogany these days is horrible stuff (and I would say that on your boat could even be teak, which should never be varnished), so I always used Steamed pear veneer, which has no figure and a very close grain. Sanding sealer, then stain with you idea of mahogany(from an orangey colour to a rich reddy brown), then spar varnish. DO NOT stain the wood/veneer, always stain the first coats of finish. Riva do that too!

I want to know what makes you say the mahogany is the only stuff on the hull. The Sea Hornet has 1/16th" ply skins like all Aerokits, so why not yours?
Personally, I think it would look best if you painted the hull and spent your efforts on doing a nice laid deck in Pear veneer and caulking. A gloss black hull and a laid, varnished deck look very tasty, like a Greavette gent's Racer. Pic attached.
Cheers,
Martin
https://model-boats.com/media/np/s/200/1494407879

Goodnight Admiral Sir! 😎

Yes I will count it as a day of exercise 😁 Good night.

Thanks Doug, it will sand with the grain which of course runs up and down or the hardest way to sand this boat! I will do small areas at a time and see how it goes.
John.

More power to your elbow! Good night 😎

Sorry, I forgot (getting late here!) you probably know this any way but JIC; sand with the grain and NEVER in circles; that leaves marks that you'll never get out again without removing some of the wood. This applies to any surface when in the final finishing stages. And on any scale; as I discovered when sanding my ancient pine table with a disc sander. Result; I bought a Bosch linear band sander and did the job again - properly! 😎
You may not see the marks when it's freshly sanded - but you sure as hell will after the first coat of varnish! From one who has learned!
The Germans have an expression for that 'Lerngeld' - Learning money! 😎

I will start with the sanding tomorrow.

John.

Congratulation Captain Doug!
I must admit I have not really noticed the ranking (and don’t ask me how it works because I have no idea 😁). I am not a wood expert but I think it is mahogany. it is an unusual construction but it looks very nice when it has an even coat of varnish. I also enjoy this site and I have learned a lot reading the posts.

John.

By the way: 'flour paper' has a 'grit' probably of about 8000. DON'T use it wet or it'll fall to bits in your hand! 😎 it's also used LIGHTLY between coats of the finishing varnish to give that deep glass-like finish. 😎

Know what you mean! I just made Captain and I've only been active 2 months 😉 Although I registered over 3 years ago I was so busy gallivanting round the world to various navies and shipyards I had little time to do more than dip in now and again. Now I'm retired and I'm enjoying this, and also picking up some tips. You CAN teach an old dog new tricks!😉 in between I'm continuing with my Sea Scout and Taycol renovation.
What is the wood? Don't think I've ever seen vertical strips on a hull before. most unusual 😎

Doug at this rate you will be getting a full time job at the model boats website. The wood is 1.5mm thick; so the hull itself is 1.5mm the wood strips are not laid on anything. I the boat is very light but it feels quite solid; it does not feel fragile.

John.

PS Unusual to see so many vertical joints! How did that come about?
Re 'making it thinner' - you only want to sand off the varnish - not the wood!
So - gently Bentley 😎

Oh je! Six reply notifications in the last 10 seconds! Think I need a secretary 😉 Understand, how thin and fragile is the wood? Hope you don't run at speed! An alternative I ended up using on my pine doors is very very careful application of a heat gun and a thin chrome-steel scraper, the bright and shiny ones - not the dull mild steel crap, max 1 1/2 to 2 " wide,. Was tedious on my doors but might work for you. After that sponge down with the original varnish solvent to remove the rest stuck in the joints and grain. Don't soak it! 😎