Blog

Now Coating and Matting

On to Coating and Matting. (as well as sanding!) Now have at least finished all the stripping. Then did the ‘bright light in the hull bit’ to look for areas that needed patching. The major problem area was in the bow and that did not receive the light as it is a totally blanked off compartment. However, it was obvious from the outside anyway so, could I assume it was the only leak? Decided to put a fine matt over the whole hull, not deck, just to be sure of best chance of success. I can imagine what will be said here if it still leaks after all this! I had ordered some supplies ready for the next stage and drew up a plan view of the boat to help think through layout of electrics and other items. Made my usual mistakes about size. Some fittings purchased too small………However, never too large now that’s interesting. Some materials purchased too large. Now have a life’s worth of Resin……(when does it ‘go off’ by?) Also have a lounge floors worth of tissue matting! Also Sandpaper. Now there is a mine field. So now I know a bit more about that and which way the numbers work! When I forgot to put the mask on, I had some of the crispest 'bogies' in years.............. No images posted! On the plus side, although I never wanted to get into this stripping sanding, filling sanding, sealing sanding, matting sanding, painting sanding, painting, sanding bit……………. I now feel I started out with someone’s boat I had bought and now it has become “my boat” for real! I am at the stage now where I have put some filler in and applied the first coat of Eze-Kote from DeLuxe Materials To use Eze-kote read stuff from RNinMunich on this blog or the’ leaking boat’ thread. Washes out of the brushes very easily. There is such as this ..... Youtube link - watch?v=yP05qv3QtUk RNinMunich or Colin H. and the like have bits of extra comment and experience that is always very helpful. BTW, after that finer sanding before first coat, I did the dust down and vacuuming bit but it still felt a bit ‘chalky’ so I gave it a wipe with Methylated Spirits. Now I realise that has water in it, so if anything goes wrong it could be blamed on that................. Having left the first coat to dry I started to cut out the light matt to apply after the next sanding. The matting I have is called Glassfibre Surface Tissue EGlass from FibreGlass Direct. A part of Tricel Composites (NI) Limited. Available internationally in lengths from a metre upwards, it is quite fine in weave so we shall see what happens. I have left quite a wide margin at the moment but may reduce that when I have tried using it! This is another first for me so plenty of room for mistakes............... Will need to cover with the matt in stages as I cannot get around all the boat without changing its position. Going for the bottom of the vessel and stern board first as I figure they are going to be easier than some of the other bits. Then will leave that to cure before moving the boat. Really worried about the joins/overlaps and how well I will cope with those, not to mention the curved bit! Started to look at electrics and layout for a bit of a change. I will post again when I have had the first battles with the matting! TTFN. NPJ

6 years ago by NPJ

Forum

Bristol pilot cutter mascotte

Today I have masked of the boat ready for painting when the weather warms up . Materials used where frog masking tape and some paper packaging that came out of the last delivery box from Amazon. Firstly I went round taping of all the fidly bits before completely masking the sides of the hull before applying the paper

6 years ago by kmbcsecretary

Forum

Spraying/hand painting

Hi Colin, isolator is available in aerosol form, its about £10 from specialist paint suppliers, plus all the filler, paper, stopper, thinners and masking tape. Mark

6 years ago by jarvo

Response

Plating

Over the weekend I had been thinking maybe it would be easer to epoxy the plates together. Having almost finished the 2 bottom strakes I will continue soldering. Finding it easer with each plate, as I learn, little tricks. Cleaning the plates with a sanding drum (dermal), keep the plate flat on the bench. Otherwise the plate will cruel up and destroy the sand paper. Don't put to much solder on the iron, or I get lumps of solder as it runs down. I am now holding the plates in place with masking tape. That is working well. Two strakes are taking almost half a can, as there are 12 strakes I will cut up 2 more cans.

7 years ago by hammer

Forum

Billings Sea King in need of TLC

Thanks Marky. Hadn't thought of that. I have the waterslide paper which I used for some decals on my Grandson's RC car recently. Still think I will try to mask them if I need to paint the hull. Thanks again.

7 years ago by AllenA

Blog

The window glazing & frames.

A full set of laser cut perspex windows is supplied in the VMW kit along with corresponding frames for all and they are all a pretty good fit in the window apertures of the engine room, forward cabin and wheel house rear walls, only requiring a light easing with a file for a secure fit. I left the protective film on the screens whilst gluing them in place with a very small amount of canopy glue applied to the window edges with a dressmaking pin and pressed into place so that they were flush with the outside of the cabin walls. The wheelhouse windows were a bit trickier as they are glued to the inside face of the panels and I had to remove the protective film around the edges of the outer face of the windows by running a fine sharp blade around the window aperture with the perspex held in place by hand. Canopy glue was then used very sparingly on the face of the perspex and the windows clamped in place. The central screen of the wheelhouse has the Kent Clearview in it and this needed to be carefully centred before fixing in place. When all had dried and set the protective films were peeled off to reveal nice clear ‘panes’ without any unsightly glue smudges. The CNC cut window frames are made from a flexible plastic material with accurate and well defined edges. They were all given a light sanding with abrasive paper as a key for the paint and were then laid out on a large piece of card paying particular attention to getting them the correct side up, in particular the wheelhouse frames which are ‘handed’ for either port or starboard. They were all held to the board with small pads of double sided foam tape and sprayed with two coats of Halfords metallic silver paint followed by two light coats of Halfords gloss lacquer. After a couple of days to dry they were removed from the board and fixed in place with canopy glue applied with a pin as very small dots around the inside face, aligned with masking tape ‘guides’ and a straight edge and then held in place with small tabs of masking tape. The installation of the glazing in the wheelhouse was made a lot easier because I had previously cut away some of the bulkhead and rear wall to give better access to the wheelhouse interior for detailing. This is not mentioned in the building instructions but is well worth doing for all the above reasons 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

The Hull Markings

The paint on the hull has sufficiently hardened and needs a couple of coats of clear lacquer to protect it but before that happens I need to apply the hull markings. The waterslide decal set that was supplied with my kit was probably at least 5 years old when I bought the kit on eBay and they had deteriorated so badly that when I put the large ‘FIRE’ lettering panel in some warm water it fragmented and clearly was not usable. I called Mike Cummings at vintage Model works and explained my dilemma and he very generously agreed to supply me with a replacement set, and in addition a set of the recently available printed vinyl letters and markings that they now produce. I decided to use the vinyl set as a quick test piece with the waterslide set revealed that the white ink is not solid and therefore not completely opaque. Furthermore I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ effect that happens on waterslide decals despite using various lotions and potions such as Humbrol Decalfix and Microsol/Microset solutions. A test piece with the vinyl lettering sheet was far more successful and when over-lacquered on the test piece the results were very acceptable. Starting with the large FIRE lettering I cut a paper template the same size as the complete word and fixed this with low tack masking tape on the hull, this paper was then outlined in more masking tape to form a window and the vertical spacing of the letters transferred to this to keep the correct spacing. Vertical strips of tape were then used as positioning guides for the letters which were individually cut and placed so that I could eliminate all but the solid white letters and give them a hard edge. Feeling very pleased with myself I removed the masking tape guides and realised to my horror that I had set the baseline of the letters far too close to the waterline and the vertical proportions were completely wrong ….disaster 😱 Feeling ashamed that I could make such a basic error I abandoned the lettering and called Mike at VMW and described my foolish error, no problem he said, I’ll send you another vinyl sheet and also some additional drawing that were missing from my kit that would help with detail finishing. My second attempt with the new vinyl sheet employed the same process but I was careful to measure, mark and check the positions (several times!) before starting. The roundel and numerals positions at the bow and the stern were carefully measured and marked using the supplied drawings and masking tape ‘guides’ used to fix their positions before application. Lastly the roman numerals that span the waterline at the bow and stern were marked, cut and individually applied. I also took the opportunity to fix in place a couple of modified 6mm portholes to replicate the aft cockpit drain outlets, in the photo is the ‘94’ waterslide decal which I later removed and replaced with vinyl when I could not eliminate the ‘silvering’ problem. A big Thank You to Mike Cummings at Vintage Model works for replacing the lettering sheets TWICE! and for the extra drawings, I call that exceptional after sales service !. Cheers Mike 👍👍 .

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Spraying the hull black.

Now that the red oxide has dried and hardened it’s time to mask it off in preparation of spraying the upper hull black. First I had to very carefully flat back the ridge in the red oxide paint left by the edge of the masking tape that might prevent the new masking tape laying flat. I chose two types of Tamiya tape, the first is the very thin and flexible type to get the sharp edge and this was then overlaid with the wider flexible variety. Once this initial masking edge was established all round the hull and at deck level I could mask up the rest fully. As an experiment and to prevent any possible bleed through of solvents through regular newspaper onto my lovely red oxide anti-fouling I chose to mask with some ’Bacofoil’ which actually works very well for this purpose as it is quite strong and easily folded and formed to the hull shape. I didn’t use too much of this from the roll, and my wife never noticed it’s absence from the kitchen whilst I was nicking it …result ! The hull was thoroughly wiped over with a tack cloth and panel wipe to remove any traces of contaminants that could spoil the paint finish and then it went into the booth. The pre-warmed paint went on very easily but at one point I noticed a bit of blooming on the surface in a few places but much to my relief this soon disappeared. Even after only one coat the finish looked very smooth and glossy. I left this first coat for a day or two to fully harden before wet flatting it down with an 800 grade abrasive. The second and third coats were applied in the same way, each left to harden for a day or more before flatting with a yet finer grades wet & dry paper. With the final coat on the finish greatly exceeded my expectations 😎 The masking tape and foil was very carefully removed to reveal a very sharp line where black meets red although this will be covered with the white ‘Trimline’ tape I bought from SHG Model Supplies at the Bristol model show in the summer. After a further couple of days drying and hardening I gave the black paint a bit of a polish with some Halfords cutting/polishing compound. I’m extremely pleased with this finish and at the same time frightened to death that I’ll ruin it in some way with a clumsy knock or in the lettering and lacquering stages 😓 …

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Strips

The pictures are slightly out of sync but no matter...Now ready for the chine (cedar) and spray rails from triangular section plasticard strips glued with rubberised cyanoacrylate. Paint used was auto acrylic spray cans; lots of filler primer sanded back and a couple of topcoats.. I thought masking the waterline would be a problem but using thin lengths of blue masking tape to get the line then adding full width with , it worked out fine.

7 years ago by manyboats

Blog

Fibreglassing the hull bottom skins.

The hull was prepared for fibreglassing, any pins are punched below the surface, filled and rubbed down with a fine grit paper. The wood does not need any sanding sealer applied as this will react with the epoxy resin. I cut the cloth roughly to size and shape and laid onto the bottom skin, the upper edge was lightly taped with masking tape to hold it in place. The resin is mixed to the correct 100:30 ratio and stirred well, the pot life is 95 minutes and will allow me to take my time to get this right. My previous test was very helpful in establishing a working sequence and I know how the materials will react when I start working them and how much time I have before the brush stops brushing and starts dragging the resin. The cloth is folded over to the other side of the keel and a thin coat of resin applied over the skin and the side of the keel and then the fabric is carefully folded back onto the wet resin. The resin immediately starts to draw the cloth to the surface and a very light brushing from the centre outwards helps to make it smooth and flat, the remaining resin can then be gently brushed onto the cloth so that there is an even coating. The cloth needed to be pushed up against the keel sides and I used a steel rule edge to get it into the junction of hull and keel. I decided to trim the cloth just at the bow along the line of the join in the skins whilst the rein was still wet so that I would have a clean butt join in the cloth in this region instead of an overlap, probably not really necessary as an overlap should sand down ok and that join will be covered by the chine stringer, but it seemed like a good idea anyway. I did a similar thing on the keel below the propshaft and around the skeg. This was done with a sharp new Stanley knife blade without disturbing the cloth and the excess cloth removed. Once the cloth is on you must resist the urge to brush on any more resin or smooth it out any more, this first resin coating only needs to be light as subsequent coats will build up and fill the cloth weave. I let it to cure overnight and the following day is still felt tacky so I erred on the side of caution and left it for a further day until it was entirely dry to the touch. The excess cloth was then trimmed back with a sharp blade. Caution, be careful because the cut edge of the cloth is itself very sharp, as I found out the hard way! Feeling quite satisfied with these initial results and a great deal more confident I repeated the process for the other bottom skin. At this rate of progress, allowing for proper curing of the resin, it will take 8 days just to cover all five faces of the hull with cloth alone, but a wise man said 'a job worth doing is a job worth doing well' 😄

8 years ago by robbob

Blog

espania IV

As this is a static model I wanted to curve the sails, as though the wind was blowing. First stage soak cord in white glue over night. Pin the cloth down over polyurethane sheet. Mark out around a paper pattern with pencil. Stick the wetted cord on the pencil line with pins & masking tape, leave to dry. Next day remove the tape, cut out with a scalpel, leaving a margin outside the cord. Mark the seams with pencil, with this small scale the only way? Tape the sail on to a window with the marks against the glass, the light will show the seams so the other side can be marked. Lay the sail back on the poly sheet and paint with watered down white glue, the water prof variety. Suspend sail so it forms the required shape. Do not let the sail inside the cord touch any thing, it may not stick but will leave a mark. Cut with a scalpel tight to the outside of the cord job done. One other trick I use a lot is place a model on an old pillow, will not damage model & will hold it in various positions securely.

8 years ago by hammer

Forum

Crash Tender Shaft Installation

A photo would help but repositioning the shaft will make the model sail much better. I have restored several Aerokits from the 34" Crash Tender to a Sea Queen and all sail beautifully. You are effectively elongating the slot that passes the shaft thro the hull and will need to fill the space left above the tube inside the hull and restore the outside to make it waterproof. Plastic padding, as used for car body repairs, is easy to use, sets quickly and can be sanded to a fine finish. I have a long drill but you can use a piece of dowell slightly thinner than the shaft. Use evostick to attach some coarse sandpaper and shape the slot to the required angle. it's important that you do not force the shaft as this may result in a bend. I usually leave a mm of play all round and when satisfied with the fit smear the shaft in plastic padding and refit, making sure it's all square and free running. Once set I check again and if all is OK I apply more PP to finish off the inside and outside. I use several small mixes as heat is generated in the curing process and a big mix will generate lots of heat. Some people are intolerant of the resin/hardener so use in a well ventilated area and wear rubber gloves if required. The dust is fine so a small face mask is a good idea and hoover up the dust when finished or it will get everywhere.

9 years ago by Dave M

Response

Coast Guard Life Boat

After you have finished planking I use a matt fibreglass cloth. Put it on in very rough squares or odd shapes to suit. Do not worry about overlapping or odd lumps. Sand down higher bits with power sander. I use a WORX tool that has a triangular sanding pad of carbide at this stage. You need not be too fussy. P38 is a fibreglass filler having a 2 part mix. Used by car repairs. Easy to mix, do not mix too much at a time as it can begin to set in 5 min. Again spread P38 filling any hollow areas. I use a piece of 2x1 wood about 18 inch. long with sandpaper strips of different grades stuck on each side for sanding the hull along the easy to reach areas and for inside curves a round or half round file followed by hand sanding. it may take 3-5 applications of filler before an acceptable finish is achieved. I then use car spray paint red primer to achieve a good finish but the first coat may show up any blemishes that may take more filling. if you have pin size blow holes these are filled with gell coat filler, it is very difficult to fill such minute holes with P38 as is is too course. I you want a devorce do the sanding in the lounge otherwise I suggest you wear a mask and do it outside...lol Hope this all helps.

9 years ago by HoweGY177

Forum

Spraying hulls

Alan P Be careful about WD40 or any of the other type of surface oilers/ cleaners some of them contain silicone as a water displacer, its superb for displacing paint. If your masking tape is leaving residue it is probably out of date, paper absorbs moisture and can leave the glue behind. Good for sticking parcels but not on our precious paintwork. Vinyl tape is ok but again use it quick, don't by bargain packs of tape, by top quality, 3M etc, or talk to your local car body shop, they might sell you a roll of the tape they use, they might even offer to give you a master class of masking up. Mine did, thought I was a bit of a nutter at first but showed him my Tug Amsterdam and he was very helpful. Still thought I was a nutter but who cares Mark

10 years ago by jarvo

Blog

Stripe pt 2.

Once the blue outer colour band was almost dry, the masking tape was carefully removed to allow the paint edge to bond to the underlying paint. Word of warning here, dont leave the masking on too long or you can end up tearing the edge of the new paint as you lift off the masking tape, always try to remove when it is still "touch dry", test this out on the overspray on the masking paper. When you can only "just" leave an Imprint in the paint, it is time to lift the masking off. I then painted in [by brush] the centre red stripe, this going over the white base colour gives a nice bright red colour, but still too 2 coats to achieve an even coat.

12 years ago by Gregg

Blog

priming the superstructure

Now that all the holes are cut and finished in the superstructure, its time now to apply its white primer coat. The grey primer was purely to make it easier to spot any blemishes in the mould and alsoits an easier colour to work with, when making alterations or repairs. White is too bright a colour to spot defects in. Firstly, the antI slip coating was applied to the roof and engine cover area. For these areas I used a sheet of emery cloth, 300 grit. I first cut a paper template to the roof shape, remembered to cut out a section for the roof number and then mixed an ample supply of epoxy resin, coated the back face of the emery with the glue then carefull placed on the roof, making sure to gently smooth all the air bubbles out. I then cut similar templates for the engien covers and hatch tops and glued them on too. yes, I do know there are aerosols available to put this type of finish on, but being as this is a flat surface, its just as easy to do it this way and less messy having to do loads of masking off. Once the grit paper has had a coat of primer, then a couple of coats of top colour, the roughness smooths out a little, but leaves the antI slip effect visible. Don't what ever you do, use a hogh number grit paper, or once you have applied all the pain coats, it will be too smooth as you have filled all the gaps up with paint, be brave and use a low number grit! You will notice in the latter pics, the orange top coat has already been applied to the hatch openings, prior to them being masked off for the top coat to go on.

12 years ago by Gregg