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Painting the hull – Part 1 primer & anti fouling.

There’s no putting it off any longer, I need to start painting the hull before I do any more on the boat so the hull was given a final rub down with a fine abrasive and then the deck and gunwales carefully masked off. I used some panel wipe to thoroughly de-grease all the surfaces and then put the hull in the ‘spray booth’ on my turntable and applied two coats of Halfords grey primer. I left this for a couple of days to dry and harden off before setting it on my bench. The next stage involves levelling the hull fore and aft and side to side so that the waterline can be established. Fortunately the well deck floor is meant to be perfectly level when the boat is afloat and at rest and this is the datum I used to level to using a couple of spirit levels. The rough waterline points were measured off the plan and transferred to the hull to be used as approximate starting points for the waterline. For my previous build I bought a self-levelling laser to indicate the waterline so this was brought out for the same purpose. The was placed on another workbench a couple of metres away and gradually raised with packing pieces until the projected line agreed with the rough position marks I’d made on the hull and then finely adjusted until the line was correct and pencil marks made at intervals along the projected line. The process was repeated for the other side of the hull and then also marked across the stern, fortunately the stern line and bow markings joined up accurately confirming that the levelling was spot on. Good quality low tack masking tape was then applied all around the hull and the area above the line masked off with a couple of layers of newspaper. The exposed hull was then keyed with a fine Scotchbrite type pad and cleaned off with panel wipe before two coats of Halfords red oxide primer applied as the anti-fouling.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

Metal sanding plates

They sound similar, but sure mine are by Sandvik. I never thought to clean them with paint stripper. Thanks for that, I'll give it a try. The new laser etched one's from Japan are highly flexible though, perfect for sanding a round bilged hull. At £6.99 including P&P I'm going to order a course and medium to make up the set. My main interest is static sailing ships and my new NT Sander has already made itself indispensable, levelling veneer planks. Their durability remains to be seen. Mike

6 years ago by Nonsuch

Forum

Plimsoll Line

I get the boat absolutely level and, using a , mark the plimsol line on hull. After checking, join the marks up using Tamiya masking tape

6 years ago by Rowen

Response

Marking the waterline.

Have used a variant of this for some years. Get the hull level in both axes, on a flat, level, surface. I use a spirit level to do this. Then, using a , carefully work your way around the hull, marking the laser points at regular intervals. Join the points in pencil and then reinforce them using masking tape. Have also used this technique to ensure bulwarks are level during construction and even the mast is vertical as my laser beam can be turned through 90 degrees. Makes this task much easier and more accurate.

7 years ago by Rowen

Blog

Marking the waterline.

This is the bit that I have not been looking forward too very much as I recall making a real hash of it on my last attempt as an enthusiastic teenager . I had read a few blogs and forum topics on this and there seem to be a number of techniques employed to do this including the use of pencils on blocks, bathtubs and talcum powder and lengths of elasticated string all of which I’m sure will eventually achieve the desired results but I think I’ll adopt a slightly more ‘Hi Tech’ approach. First of all I don’t really know how the boat will sit in the water until it’s completely fitted out and finished and even then the waterline could look wrong so in the interests of scale accuracy I have decided to work from the Vosper drawings and do it ‘to scale’ because in reality this model will spend more time out of the water than in it so I’m not too bothered if the true waterline is a bit off. As I’m quite a ‘DIY’ buff and I like tools and gadgets so I decided to treat myself to an late Xmas present and invest in a Bosch , the model I chose has a self-levelling feature and projects very fine and totally accurate ‘cross hair’ lines. I know I will find this gadget useful for lots of DIY projects so I don’t mind the expense, (as I decided in self-justification!) The Vosper drawings were used to scale from to accurately mark the waterline points on the bow and the stern and then the hull was placed inverted on the bench. The was clamped to a stepladder about five feet away and then the hull was raised/lowered on blocks fore and aft to get the horizontal laser line to hit the bow and stern marks accurately. The point at which the laser line crossed the rubbing strakes seemed to correspond with the same positions as per the Vosper drawing so I’m quite confident with the measurements. A pencil was used to make a series of dash markings on the hull following the laser line. The hull was then spun 180 degrees and levelled and the ‘laser guided’ marking process repeated. Joining the lines across the transom and some measuring confirmed that the waterline was the same on both sides at the stern. A final check was made by standing the hull on it’s transom and projecting a vertical line along the keel so that the projected horizontal line intersected the points at which the waterlines crossed the rubbing strakes, happily they did so within a couple of millimetres. I applied some good quality masking tape around the hull, paying particular attention to the points where it crosses the strakes, in preparation to masking and spraying the ‘anti-fouling’ red oxide paint.

7 years ago by robbob

Forum

About the Waterline on Serenity

HI Mark, I'm not sure what happened any way the talc didn't work at all. and I don't have a , what a Meths is that like alcohol?

8 years ago by figtree7nts

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About the Waterline on Serenity

HI Mark I set my models up with a laser, it's on a sprite level, so you get the line on the right angle. The one l have gives line, and a cross, and it only cost £6.50. hope this helps. Regards Dave 👍

8 years ago by EAGLE

Forum

About the Waterline on Serenity

Good suggestion, well worth trying. Must admit the pointer was free and s are quite a bit more costly!

8 years ago by Rowen

Forum

About the Waterline on Serenity

Never even thought about a pointer, could be even better with a , would give a constant line to mark of the hull, would give you time to adjust the hull for level as well Mark

8 years ago by jarvo

Blog

Detailing continues on RMS Olympic - Windows and Rigging

The outside window detail was copied from the plans and transferred to overhead projector film and printed using a laser jet. Each window was cut just around the printed detail and fixed to the correct window using clear canopy glue. The water jet cut windows are consistent size so everything matched up perfectly. Took three days to print/ cut and fit all the windows. The catlines up the fore and aft masts were drafted onto a sheet of paper which was pasted to a piece of wood. Nails were used to secure the verticals and the horizontals were made by cutting slots in the wood and wrapping cotton into and round the wood. White canopy glue was used to paste all over having waxed the template to protect the jig. When dry I used a sharp knife to cut off the surplus leaving some nice relatively self supporting ratlines. As I sail the model rigging needs to be easily removable. For fore and aft running lines I attach small springs which clip to hoops at deck level. All other mast rigging is fixed to each mast and I have used small berylium (ex brushless motors) magnets superglued to the bulwarks. A small metal tab attached to each line can then be place over the appropriate magnet and adjusted to tension. The aerials run from fore to aft and I used shirring elastic as this keeps everything nice and tight and is self adjusting as the temperature and humidity changes.

11 years ago by Dave M