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The well deck floor & sides.

The ‘box’ of the prototype I’m building is made of balsa wood, later production models are produced in ply and have the planking lines laser etched on the floor panels, and as balsa doesn’t take stain particularly well I have used separate obeche panels to line the box internally that can be finished with the Teak stain that I’m using. This does, however, mean that I can apply the deck lines using a black indelible marker pen and incorporate some detail lines around the motor housing. I started by cutting and shaping two obeche panels that join along the centre line of the deck and fit neatly around the motor mount and prop-shaft, then I used some tracing paper over the panels to make a test pattern for the planking lines. When I was happy with the layout of the lines I first applied two coat of Teak stain to the panels, and when that was dry I used a .8mm pen to mark the deck lines, the ink takes a while to dry fully and I found it all too easy to smudge some lines 😡 which had to be very quickly taken off with a dampened cotton bud and re-applied. After 24 hours the ink had fully dried and was impervious to smudging and resistant to removal by any means (except a solvent). The floor panels were then glued down to the balsa floor with an even spread of aliphatic glue and weighted down over all of the area as there was a tendency for the panels to curl and lift. Each side panel was made in one piece and then separated into two parts to make the fitting easier, the join will be covered with a vertical detail strip, and they were also stained before being glued and clamped in place. No lining detail was applied to the side panels as I’ll do this with other surface applied pieces later but only in the area outside of the cabin. All the panels were given a couple of coats of lacquer to enhance and protect the finish.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

The deck planking.

Hi Mike. I chose to use .8mm black plasticard after doing a test pieces with it and comparing it with another using card and I found the plasticard far easier to cut and fix, and it trims very neatly with a sharp chisel. No special primer required at all, the obeche strip is stained with several coats of teak water based stain and finished with a couple of coats of acrylic lacquer. It was great to meet you at Ally Pally on Saturday and compare notes on Crash Tenders, I hope you enjoyed your day out to London. Very Best. Rob.

5 years ago by robbob

Response

Fitting the rubbing strakes.

Hi All. I'm frantically trying to get the boat to a reasonable state of completion for showing at the London Model Engineer Exhibition next weekend. I've finished painting the hull, just need to apply the white water line and lacquer the hull with a finish. The pictures (taken today) show the current state so there's still a lot of detail to add to the decks and cabin. It will be definitely be displayed as 'work in progress'. Robbob.

5 years ago by robbob

Forum

Pretend deck planking

May be too late, but have you thought about real planking? This was my first attempt following advice on various youtube videos and studying pictures of the full sized boat. Planks supplied by Jotika. They have various sizes and woods and worked out to quantity when I gave them the deck measurements. I used cyano to glue to a plastic deck and sealed with a proprietory outdoor varnish. I found it very satisfying and was pleased with the end result. Ps. Please excuse the black dots of fly sht. on the deck in the first picture. Steve

6 years ago by cormorant

Forum

Pretend deck planking

Hello from Australia, First start off with a scrap piece of plywood the same as you intend to use for the deck. Work out the width of the planks and score lightly with a scriber (not to deep). Using a ruler or suitable guide ,mark the lines with a no 3 fine tipped marker pen. wait till dry(usually 24hours to stop bleeding) then either spray or paint on laquer. (3coats). Always works for me. Good luck. Sid

6 years ago by sidley70

Forum

Pretend deck planking

"Danish oil is a hard drying oil, meaning it can polymerize into a solid form. it can provide a hard-wearing, often water-resistant finish, or serve as a primer on bare wood before applying paint or varnish. it is a "long oil" finish, a mixture of oil and varnish, typically around one-third varnish and the rest oil. Rags used for Danish oil have some potential risk of spontaneous combustion and starting fires from exothermic oxidation, so it is best to dry rags flat before disposing of them, or else soak them in water." 😲 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Paints

Hmm! Let's 'Cut to the chase'! First; I've never been on a ship, naval or civil, and I've been on a few during my 30 odd year career designing COMMS systems for ships, mostly naval, that used gloss paints OR matt paints. Matt paint, whether for scale or full size, rapidly shows the wear marks where folks tread or grab or where we habitually grab it on models. This rapidly creates a shiny effect, like the seat of your favourite, most comfortable and ancient trousers (which the Missus probably wanted to throw out years ago but you are fighting a REARguard action) 😁 During WW2 the emphasis was on reducing the reflectivity of paints on warships. Gloss on a ship / boat MAY not look any different from or matt at a distance BUT; it will reflect sunlight and flash which attracts attention and betrays the presence of the vessel. Furthermore gloss shows the wear and tear marks much sooner than . Whether matt paints were available or not in those days I don't know, but even if they were I don't think they would have been used after the initial durability tests on board. Having seen the paint part numbers, all BS381C xxx, specified on the Thornycroft 'blueprints' that Martin sent me, I would say that the paint colours you need Morkullen are RN Light Weatherworks grey BS381C 676 = Colour Coats M01 RN Dark Admiralty grey BS381C 632 = Colour Coats M16 RN Light Admiralty grey BS381C 697= Colour Coats M23 See page 3 of the colour chart, see attached colour charts from Sovereign Hobbies for their Colour Coats paints, which have been derived from original Admiralty paint chips.. Colour Coats are enamel. If you prefer acrylic try Life Colour set CS33 Royal Navy WW2 Set 1. See page 6 of attached Life Colour catalogue. Happy painting, don't forget to post pics / vids of the results👍 Cheers, Doug 😎 PS have a look at the recent HMS Campbeltown 1/96 thread for further detail of the recent discussion on WW2 RN paints. BTW; if I feel after painting that the finish is still too glossy I give it a blast of Lord Nelson , or in extreme cases, matt clear varnish. Otherwise I agree with Reilly's comments👍

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Paints

My point was that real vessels of that era didn't get matt paint as it wasn't strictly available. They had or, as they called it, "non gloss". For anything. I'm not remotely interested in warships of any sort, but I do know about paints and they could only use what was available. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Paints

I use enamels as they are more durable than Matt finishes, especially on the hulls, but still go over them with clear matt enamel for realism. The 'scale' appearance is the consideration. From a distance a real boat even if finished with a gloss marine enamel would not look glossy. A WW2 boat such as an MTB would definitely have a Matt finish, and always 2 coats. Working models get scuffed in use.

6 years ago by reilly4

Forum

Paints

I use enamels, always. They don't react with anything. Rustoleum do a range of colours in gloss and and are cheaper than any other rattle cans. I get mine from a branch of Boyes. The original was always a rather than a matt. Totally matt paint wasn't available then. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Sadolin

Hi Gardener, Don't know the Sadolin stuff, I use Billing Boats stains meself, BUT whatever you use, esp on balsa, apply a coupla coats of sealer first. Then at least one or two coats of clear varnish; e.g. from Lord Nelson range from Holland. THEN AND ONLY then, apply your stain til you get the depth of colour you want. After that seal with matt, or gloss varnish / lacquer according to taste😉 That's the way I did my Sea Scout 'Jessica' renovation, see blog on this site for results!!! Coupla sample pics attached. The whole process is described in the Blog. Otherwise the balsa will soak up all your stain and still not look right 🤔 A 'preserver' as such is not normally necessary if the wood is properly treated inside and out; sealer, stain, varnish etc! Or just EzeKote resin inside. Stain no needed inside of course. Good luck and above all have fun with your endeavours. 👍 Keep us 'up to date' ('on the running' as my German friends would say; 'auf den Laufenden'!) 😁 Cheers, Doug 😎 PS I like Danish Blue meself 😁😁 On the other hand; I wouldn't have used balsa for speedboat deck in the first place. I use a close grained marine ply 0,8 or 1.0mm. Takes the stain better and looks more realistic. Balsa is too coarse grained for stain and varnish on scale speedboats. Thick coat of paint ... OK. On the cabin roof and after deck (which I had to renew) I used 1.5mm mahogany veneer. If I had to do it again I would use a close grained 0.8mm marine ply (birch or pear) and cherry stain (also Billing) as I used on 'Jessica's deck.

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Range Safety Launch?

Hi Neville, I recognise the 'I want it all and I want it now syndrome' cropping up again😉 Wev'e been down this road before haven't we!? You don't have any "structural' problems. The original builder simply cheated and covered over the 'back bay' instead of fitting it out. And - Why do you want to mess with the cabin tops? To get the boat going for some fun just leave the superstructure like that for now and think about it and fiddle with it in the winter. The deck looks fine from the photos. Just flat off with some 1000/1500 grit wet & dry and give it a spray of medium sea grey and finish with or matt varnish. After you've fixed and repainted the hull. If you do all we've said to fix the hull, and apply the fix up to the joint of hull and deck there will be as good as no chance that the deck will leak. When all is said and done YOU saw the boat before you bought it and YOU had a specific purpose in mind apparently. Namely; some quick fun. Soooo - fix the hull, have some fun learning to drive it, and leave the fiddly bits and embellishments until the 'closed season'. Then you can deliberate and decide if you want to restore it as an RSL or convert it into something more exotic. Looking forward to your cogitations on the electrical layout😉 What Action bits are you thinking of using? BTW: if you had a fire at all with the heat gun either you have it too hot, turn it down to about 300 -350°C, or you're hanging about too long in one place. The gun should only be just hot enough to start the paint surface bubbling up. ATB Doug

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

46Firefloat Mk2 paint

Unless described as flat, paint was more often a brighter than matt and rarely actual gloss. White will always have been an off white as the components of paints were such that it was not possible to get a really bright white. I know that for a fact as my grandad always made his own and until PEP in the mid 60s (Plastic Emulsion Paint) there was no such thing as brilliant or appliance white. Unfortunately getting an decent off white is not easy these days since Plastikote went acrylic and their previously excellent paints started eating themselves on recoating. I now use enamels exclusively. They are densely pigmented, flexible and modern enamels dry pretty quickly. I am using a black enamel primer on my Crash Tender, which I will then spray with black "gloss" from the same range, which, once thinned with white spirit, will dry a little less than glossy. I still don't have a matt brick red for the undersides, but it can be made matt-ish with a careful rub down with 1000 grit wet and dry used wet and soapy, but be careful not to sand through, so very lightly does it, even 1000 grit can cut well when new. Decks were said to be Cerrux Light Deck Grey, anti-slip, which means a textured surface. That would be darker looking due to the surface texture's way with the light. The cabin sides were described as "smooth", i.e. same as the decks but not anti-slip. The roofs? Well, on Vosper's drawing "white" is crossed through and "Grey" written in. But, some pics do look white, the best pics look darker by a whisker than the sides and the roofs are clearly textured as they show evidence, as do the decks, of filth which will sit in the texture. You choose. NOBODY has yet given us chapter and verse. The fact is, an already very handsome boat looks so very pretty with white roofs. But they too should be off white if you can get it! Good luck. Fittings, btw can be had from SLEC in Watton in white metal. Basically the old Yeoman fittings, masters now owned by IP Engineering who bought them to cast when they owned Vintage Model Boat Company. Now they've sold that to SLEC, but I don't think SLEC have white metal casting facilities, so probably cast by Ivor still. I have just had a set for my birthday and they're excellent. They do need careful cleaning up as in mould lines need to be filed/scraped/sanded to a decent finish and then given good primered surface. No hook though, but it does include nav and riding lights. This site also has masts for sale in plastic, but I made my own in brass as I will the hook and davit. I have also just had a set of crew figures cast from my patterns and they will be available soon...a driver(Helm), a boss with binoculars and a lazy slob laying around in the after cockpit. Needs a roll-up to finish his look. No idea of price yet as don't know how much rubber to mould or resin to cast for a set. Yes, 1/16th scale. All this to finish a model I had 55 years ago! But I reckon it deserves it. Martin

6 years ago by Westquay

Forum

Crash Tender davit info...

Martin. The textured spray I used came from Halfords and was applied in very thin layers to build up the required texture, bear in mind that the finishing colour will 'fill' the texture to some degree. I also applied a lacquer to seal the final surface. Sprinkling pixie dust (or crushed chinchillas 😱) onto wet paint sounds a bit hit & miss to me 😁. Whatever you do is acceptable as 'modellers license', and why not be individual with a two-tone grey scheme👍👍. Doug. I think I saw these books and others on Amazon UK when I doing my initial research but concluded that they probably wouldn't have any specific info or 'photos on the flying boat crash rescue tenders which are the subject of the discussion here and I didn't want to shell out on the off-chance that they would, but certainly very useful for the other RAF boats. RAF Hendon museum is very close to me, I could walk there in 20 minutes if I was feeling energetic, and it could be worth asking to see what 'photos and documents they have there. Robbob.

6 years ago by robbob

Forum

Warped wood

Hi Martin, Yes I'm very happy with it. 😊 Not the cheapest but very good. I use the whole range from Base coat Pore Filler (Sanding sealer) through matt, and full gloss varnishes. in both brushing tins, for small part brushing, and spray cans for the bigger stuff like hulls and decks. The cans don't reveal what the base is but the thinners is white spirit or any of the usual 'universal' substitutes. It's made in Holland, supposedly specially formulated specifically for model builders! But it's available all over the shop, I get mine here from Krick. Just Google Lord Nelson varnish and you'll find loads of outlets, and Hotels 🤔! For Sea Scout I used all spray; 2 base coat, 2 coats of varnish, as undercoat! Then 2 coats of Gloss varnish. Needless to say thin coats! And left to harden under a 300W halogen lamp😉 Lots of 'flatting' back in between culminating with 3000 wet & dry, wet with a little liquid soap. Final polish using two stage paint cutting / polishing paste from the Petrol Head world. See pics. Full details (including the bloopers😡) in my Sea Scout Build Blog. Have fun with it, cheers, Doug 😎 PS Shame about the Lupins😡, that hybrid sounds fantabulous! 😉 BTW: if you use the brushing stuff thin with 10 to 20% white spirit, otherwise you'll find, as I just did with base coat sealer on the deck of my PTB, that it takes yonks to get the brush marks out 😆

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Fire Boat (crash tender) colours...

Evenin' Martin, just a quick thought before I hit the hay! For the non slip deck paint why don't you cover the deck with a suitable wet and dry paper? 😉 With a bit of luck you might even find some wet n dry the right shade of grey!! Don't know the size / scale you are building but maybe around 120 / 240 would do! Cut to fit, glue it down with a spray glue, I found some in the 'Creative Corner' of a garden centre near me. Also a good source of fine gauge steel, brass, copper, gold and silver wire and nylon thread, and anchor chains😉😊 Then seal with a spray-on flat sealer or varnish, then spray a colour you want. Humbrol H129 might be a good substitute for 'Cerrux Deck Grey'. See Model Boat Mayhem for references to Cerrux Grey 😉 I agree the cabin sides are a much lighter shade of grey, almost white. Just ripped all the innards and deck fittings off my PTB. Just got the bare hull and shaft tubes left. Just havin' a wee dram then up the 'apples and pears to Bedfordshire' before I get tempted to sand and paint through the night. it happens sometimes 😲 G'night all, cheers Doug 😎 ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

Deck Colour

Evenin' George, any mid to dark green would do nicely. Suggest a / semi matt paint. Something like the Humbrol 131 or 195 in the attached chart. Of course it doesn't have to be the little Humbrol tins (unless you have an airbrush😉) but a similar colour in aerosol, maybe from Tamiya. Type depends on what was on it before!! To be on the safe side give it a couple of thin coats of grey primer first. Flat off with 600 wet & dry then apply the colour coats. E.g. acrylic. Where on earth, and when, can you sail up there in the frozen North!? 😲 Good luck, and have fun, cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Red Oxide Primer!

I went to the local autoparts store. Looking for ruby red primer! I was lucky to find Red Oxide Primer. Tomorrow if it's not windy. I'll paint the top half of the hull! This time I hope. I paint the right part of the hull! Oh, I had gotten a can of flat black. But it turned out to be kind of like a black. It had a bit of a shine to it! I didn't like it! Not what I wanted. But I found what I was looking for. A nice looking Black with NO shine to it at all!

6 years ago by figtree7nts

Forum

Bristol pilot cutter mascotte

Back to the main hull Have finally got the hull sprayed today with this heat it has been drying faster than I can spray it on 😄 Firstly the hull was sanded with a 200grit paper to sand of the shiny coating to give the paint something to key too. It has had three coats of undercoat sanded with 2500grít wet and dry paper between each coat.the undercoat used was Halfords rattle can plastic primer. Then the lower hull colour was sprayed on again three coats sanded with 2500grit paper between each coat.colour used was Halfords rattle can ford arctic blue. the top half of the hull was sprayed with two coats only with it being black plus I didn't have enough paint to give it a third coat😋 colour used was Halfords rattle can black. Finally the hull was sprayed with Halfords rattle can clear lacquer three coats sanded with 2500grit paper between each coat.

6 years ago by kmbcsecretary

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Hi MT, agreed the synthetics are better than they used to be, but still can't beat a good 'well run in' sable brush. 😉 Spray for the big bits, brushes for the fiddly bits! E.g. 600 scale, even for those I don't use the paint (e.g. Humbrol, Colourcoat or Revell etc) straight from the can, it's too thick and gluey for detail work 🤔 I thin it about 2 parts paint to 1 thinners. Some matt and maybe a bit less thinners, varies with type, colour and make. Practise, practise ... All good fun Eh!? 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Addendum! Attached a pic of the selection of artists brushes I have found useful. As well as 3 tubes of oil colour useful for weathering effects; detail highlighting, dirt, rust etc. 😉 Seal afterwards with a quick blast of clear or matt fixer / varnish. The 'fixer' is also useful for fixing inkjet printed colour photos and oil or water paintings 😁 Clean brushes with artists turpentine or white spirit. Ciao Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Hi Boatshed, Know what you mean about brushing and brushes! You CAN achieve the same effect with brushes, but it takes much longer, with much more flattening in between coats. So much more 'secret ingredient is needed! Brushes from DIY shops, and most model shops, you can forget 🤔 too synthetic, too coarse and too prone to shedding hairs. 😡 For tiny detailing work, esp on Plastic Magic projects, I went to an art supplies store! Prompted by the GF who is into oil and water colour painting! There you will find a great selection of very fine real hair brushes in sizes from 'Help I can't see it'! to about 1" flat, used for applying 'washes' 😉 Not cheap, but quality never is! For example; I'm using a 1/4" flat camel hair brush for renovating the wood decks of my Graf Spee and HMS Belfast with sealer and varnish from the Lord nelson range. Will also apply some Jotica Oak stain to dampen the bright colour a bit. For the pinstripe / Boot Topping on the Sea Scout I'm 'Going for Gold', to be applied with the finest airbrush nozzle I have and using Tamiya masking tape to get a good clean edge. hardest part will be getting the tape on right 😲 Hope I don't mess up what I have already achieved! Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Forum

HMS HOOD by Trumpeter

Hi Steve, Great! Worth all the searching, waiting and effort 👍 A word to the wise! Don't rely completely on the self-sticky back! I made the experience with my Graf Spee that it tends to lift at the edges, and always in the most awkward places to get to 😤 - Thanks 'Murphy'! Recommend gluing round the edges with a medium thick gluper-sue!! Or sealing with a thin type if already fixed on! For my Flower Class, PoW and Bismarck & Co I shall stain the wood decks with Jotica Oak and then seal with Lord Nelson Sanding Sealer, as I also used on my Sea Scout. Followed by Lord Nelson spray varnish. BEFORE I fit it to the ship!! I am also going to refurb the decks of my Belfast cruiser and Graf Spee the same way. Keep on blogging, cheers Doug 😎 BTW: loved the antipodean 'deck' care instruction!! 😲😉 Would have loved to have been a 'fly on the wall' when your Missus found it! Can almost imagine the giggles 😁

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

The Lone Ranger Rides Again or Hull Finishing ;-))

Hi Mark, thankyou 😊 The paint is, not surprisingly for me, from a German manufacturer: Peter Kwasny Gruppe. They also make the pro car paints I sometimes use. It's article number 320 078. Königsblau / Royal Blue. The can top is darker than the finish actually turns out! To me it's lighter than Royal Blue but I'm happy with it. I also used - the white primer from the same company; article number 320 411, before that light grey filler primer, # 233 032, and finally clear high gloss protective lacquer # 633 017. The blue and the white primer I found in a local building supplies store under the name 'Hit Color Decospray'! They are specified for indoor and outdoor use; emission class A+. 👍 You might find something similar in your local DIY shop. I think your Puffer would look superb in this colour. if you want a darker shade you might try a thin coat of matt or black after the primer? The primer filler and lacquer I bought online some time ago as part of a Pro Scratch Repair kit for my last car. Now what can I do with the rest of the Toyota Navajo Red ??? I sent them the paint code from my car registration and they mixed up an absolute perfect match and delivered in about 10 days 😊 I'll dig in the archive for the web link. Ciao, Doug 😎 PS I think you're right, I'll go for Gold (😉) and hope I don't mess up the hull! Tamiya tape should help.

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

The Saga of the Cabin Roof or - Arrrgh!

Evenin' MT, Thanks👍 Yep I know blooming from my car restoration days. Causes a dull effect with some whitish fogging 😡 That's not what happened here, suddenly a patch of yellowish spots appeared under the gloss!😭 Only thing I can think of is that with the last flattening with 3000 grit I used a drop of liquid soap to lubricate the sanding sponge, gives that almost glass finish. Maybe some soap residue was still there and the next lacquer coat reacted with it? The soap is a trick I learned during car repairs. Of course then I could wash it all off with a big sponge and chuck a bucket of water over it! Not such a good idea with a model wooden boat🤔 Re 'Your skins' 😲 I used mahogany 'because it was there' and I suddenly had a picture in my mind what it could look like (Riva style😉) if I could do the job right! I'm pretty happy with how it eventually worked out 😊 Not sure that a mahog roof fits the image of an RAF boat? and painting it would be a shame 🤔 But if you do decide to use it you may have more luck with 0.5mm, mine was 1mm+. What are the 'existing skins'? Re clothing: I didn't do that, didn't want to risk obscuring the wood grain on the outside and the inside I had sealed with two coats of EzeKote anyway. Cloth would have been superfluous. But if you're going to paint the roof anyway then - why not? Would give strength and rigidity. Thicker ply? More than 0.5 / 0.6mm and you may have the problem I had with the compound curve!!! Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Response

Port lights in place!

Hmm! I see where you're coming from Ed, but bear in mind that matt paints have a habit of developing shiny spots wherever they are touched! 🤔 Wear and tear,servicing and cleaning etc. I would use the (semi-matt) paint and finish off with matt clear varnish for protection, also UV protection! 👍 I use the Lord Nelson varnish for that. http://www.krickshop.de/Products/Paints-Accessories/Paints-for-Shipmodels/Lord-Nelson-Varnish/Lord-Nelson-Klarlack-matt-300ml-Spraydose.htm?shop=krick_e&SessionId=&a=article&ProdNr=80121&p=435 Cheers Doug 😎 PS Sorry to hear about the glue 🤔 Oh well! There's always Sellotape 😉 Or as Grandad used to say "If all else fails - use bl***y great nails" 😉

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Bulwark supports

The deck and bulwarks were given another coat of paint, after this had dried the wash ports and rope hawsers were masked off and the hull given two coats of red primer, the water line was marked using a pencil on a block of wood, bottom part of the hull masked off and the top part given two coats of black. Starting to look like a boat now. The rope crate was made out of plasticard to be a good tight fit on the coaming. The bulwark positions were marked with pencil on the top of the bulwark. After cutting them all out of plasticard, each one was sanded to fit it's position, then keeping them in order and sticking them to upside down masking tape they were sprayed with paint. All the supports were glued into position with super glue, a toothpick and my best glasses.

6 years ago by AlanP

Response

Deck Beams and Anchor Port's

Evenin' Fred, just got back from shopping & car-wash, -3C° and still snowing 😡 so no sailing for a while😭 Thinks; must chuck my hovercraft together 😉 Re: marking out - use a medium tip red felt marker and it'll show up on anything (except perhaps red pyjamas!!😲😁) If you've got a mini-drill (Dremel or similar) just whiz the paint off where you need to glue with a mini sanding disc. No great shakes, we've all had to do it, especially with renovations. Cheers Doug 😎

6 years ago by RNinMunich

Blog

Painted steelwork

Steel (Brass) all painted now in matt black will follow up with Cote so not to have too glossy finish !

7 years ago by Ballast

Blog

Building a deck

I began laying the deck on April 5th. it had snowed as recently as the week before, but it finally warmed up enough to use glue. The strips were cut to 6-5/8" length, about 20' in 1:36 scale. I used a black marker on two opposite sides to represent the pitch in the seams. The deck was laid in a 5-plank pattern to mix up the butt-joints as much as I could. My research on her decking found she's had various styles and plank widths over her life. The earliest photo showing her deck that I could find, showed it straight planked with 7 or 8" wide boards based on the number of planks between her waterway and the main hatch coaming. Her waterway logs seem to be placed ON the decking, as there's no margin planks or joggling - even today. The planking was set with gel CA. Gorilla sells it in a nice bottle with a metal pin in the cap to keep the spout open. it would up taking 3 of these bottles to complete the deck. The planks are cut at a 45 on the ends along the fore and aft access hatches, to try and hide this seam as much as possible. Once the deck was down, I scraped it. The glue is more resistant than the basswood is, so sanding would have scalloped the wood between seams. Scraping makes everything level. Some lite sanding, more to polish than remove anything, was done last. I had planned to stain the deck a very light grayish tint, but an active naval vessel gets holy-stoned regularly and wouldn't be gray as the ships that sit at a dock today are. In all it took 455 pieces to complete the deck and there wasn't any scrap longer than 1 inch left over. in all I have 3/4" deck beams, 1/4" plywood, a layer of 4oz cloth and resin, and a 3/16" basswood deck - I don't recall why I designed it so heavy, but it certainly doesn't hurt the model at all, and I think the 3/16" square strip will prove to have been easier to set than the 1/16" x 1/4" planks Pride and Macedonian will get. The deck go a coat of water-based poly, and I stared working on hatch coamings, cap log, and waterways. The cabin skylight and two hatched forward of it, including the capstan, and all combined into one hatch where the battery is accessed, and which hides the aft ballast rod and main power switch. The cap logs Are 1/2" wide x 1/4" tall basswood that was tren'led, glued, and copper nailed, onto the deck, flush with the outside of the hull covering this seam completely. The the angled wood waterways were installed around the inside of the cap log, and the deck got a coat of oil-based poly. This actually leeched in and made the marker seams bleed a little. in hind sight, I think I'll go with paint over marker for seams in the future. The coamings got painted black. I'm not sure why the Navy painted deck fittings black. it was even common to paint to top surfaces of tops black. I wonder how many injuries and losses this cost the navy that white paint would have prevented. Anyway... Constellation didn't have "solid" bulwarks, but rather she had hammock irons bolted to her cap log. These were removed when Baltimore tried to pass her off as a frigate and tossed in the bilge. When the ship was restored as a sloop of war, they found all but one. These irons are designed to have wooden rails at their tops, inboard and out, and have holes so several lines can be run through them. The Navy in it's wisdom though, decided to wainscot them to appear as solid bulwarks, despite the additional splinter hazard that would be in battle. I wasn't making all those metal stanchions just to hide them under wood and tarps, so I made wood blocks sheathed in sheet bass, scribed to look like vertical wainscotting. It was the end of April by now, and the Baltimore Port Expo was in two weeks. I wanted to have hammocks in the bulwarks, as she appears in the portrait, but there was no time to figure this out, so I layered on some balsa and shaped it so it looked like tarps were laid over the hammocks. When I figure out how I'll represent the stowed hammocks, I can pull the balsa off easily enough. The bulwarks on, I made some fittings for the spencer masts; installed the eye bolts at the base of the masts; made some bollards (or whatever name they gave those posts), made and installed the catheads, which are laminated 1/16" basswood. I then started setting up a jury rig and her controls so she could sail at the Port Expo. I set her t'gallants and all three heads'ls this time around. By the night before the Expo, she was ready to go.

7 years ago by Jerry Todd

Response

U47.

Many thanks.Always trying to improve this skill.Real rust from nails left in water for ever I find the best then painted in varnish.Bill.

7 years ago by Scratchbuilder

Forum

Finishing

If you put a question out there, you'll get an answer. At least you will from me if I know about it and I know about paint. Why on earth do you say acrylic can be put over anything UNLIKE cellulose or enamel. Cellulose maybe, but enamel? You can put enamel over anything. I can even get cellulose over almost anything with my spray gun, but I know how to mist it on. I suggested enamel because it is so completely harmless. Cellulose, apart from mixed Halfords and Zero Paints is no longer available. Acrylic as you know can react even with itself. it doesn't have good pigments and doesn't cover well. Enamel does. I was well aware that the original post was from a new member, so I figured he deserved a straight answer. Not everyone wants a matt or even a finish on a model boat if it isn't a Warship or a service vessel. Would you put varnish on a Greavette or a Chris Craft, matt paint on a model of a luxury yacht of any age? Of course not. This nonsense about scale effect is just that....nonsense. A shine's a shine whether smaller or larger, otherwise where do you stop? Martin

7 years ago by Westquay

Blog

The boat hooks.

I stumbled on the boat hooks whilst scouring eBay for some other bits and bobs, they came as a set of three but the poles were too short to be scale accurate but I bought a set anyway and replaced the supplied poles with some 3mm mahogany dowel of the right scale length. The hooks themselves are made of white metal and are quite delicate so some care was needed in cleaning them up for painting. I etch primed them first and then brush painted them with some silver metallic acrylic before epoxy fixing them to the poles which I had sprayed with a finish lacquer. The retaining brackets were made from some 22 gauge brass cut into a 3mm strip and formed into a lipped retainer. These brackets were pierced to take a 1mm brass dome head pin which was soft soldered in place and then etch primed and brush painted with ‘gun metal’ grey acrylic. A 1mm hole was drilled into the cabin sides in the correct positions according to the drawings and the brackets glued in place. The brackets retain the poles quite firmly and I think they give the boat some interesting detail 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

The foam tanks.

I need to make the foam tanks as two separately removable items to allow the deck to be removed for access to the rudder servo etc. The most intricate part of the foam tanks is undoubtedly the gratings that go over the top of them, fortunately there is a ready-made grating available that makes their construction unnecessary 👍👍. I bought this from modellingtimbers.co.uk, the grating ’WG7’ that they supply is dimensionally perfect for the job and can be easily assembled into the shape required. The casing for the foam tanks was made from a combination of materials, the base is 4mm ply, the back is 2mm ply, the front and sides are 2mm plasticard and the top is 1.5mm plasticard. The grating panel was assembled to the correct length and width for the scale and bordered with some 3mm x 4mm mahogany strip, the grating does not run the full length of the foam tanks and there is a plain section to the rear which will be a plasticard infill. The wood and plastic panels were all cut by knife and only needed the edges trued up with a small plane. All the joints were fixed with superglue with a reinforcing piece on the inside of the joint for strength. At all stages the assembly was checked for square and size and dry fitted in the deck well to check for fit. The grating panel was sanded to a smooth finish and a light mahogany stain applied to just the outer mahogany frame as I quite liked the contrast between the light and the dark woods, they were then sprayed with several coats of lacquer and set aside to dry. Before glueing the tank tops in place some short bracing pieces were fitted for rigidity. The tanks were given a rub down with fine abrasive paper as a key and sprayed with two light coats of grey primer and then a final paint finish of BS631 RAF Light Grey, the same as the rest of the superstructure. The two infill panels were painted the same and then epoxied into the grating panels. Before fixing the gratings to the top of the tanks some mahogany trim was applied to the tank sides. I need to devise a method of holding the tanks in place on the deck, probably with some of those small but tenacious little magnets that can be let into the bases of the tanks and concealed on the underside of the deck panel. I’ll need to make the suction hoses soon and that will involve a bit a brass turning by ’you know who’ so I’d better get busy with some engineering drawing for the man with the lathe 😉

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

The cockpit steps.

A little bit more cockpit detailing....there's quite a lot to do in there and I want it to look as good as some of the inspiring examples that I have seen on other boats...sorry if I have stolen your ideas 😜 The cockpit steps were made from some 12mm x 3mm mahogany strip that I made up from some 10mm strip glued together and then cut down to the required width. The supplied drawing was to the correct scale so I was able to use this as a template, but one of the legs of each ladder needs to be slightly longer on one side because of the curvature of the tow-hook deck onto which the ladders are fixed. The treads were cut to the correct width and length and the forward edge rounded slightly. After marking the correct height of the treads on the sides I drilled some small holes through the sides into the treads for some 1mm brass rod to reinforce the glued joint. The steps were assembled using superglue and the brass rod helped to keep the piece square and true as the glue set. The protruding brass rod was then cut and filled flush with the sides. After a light sanding a mahogany stain was applied to enhance the colour and then few coats of lacquer sprayed to give the final finish. The steps will be fixed through the deck with some hex head wood screws from the underside so that they meet the bulkhead at the upper end without any fixing. I think they have come out quite well 😁. I'm making the foam tanks just at the moment....and I thought the steps were fiddly !! 😲

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Cockpit deck brass features.

The aft cockpit deck has two drain holes on the real boat that discharge through a pair of outlets on the transom if the boat takes on any water in the cockpit well. On my model the drains are not connected to the outlets, that’s taking the scale accuracy a bit too far 😜, nevertheless I don’t want a couple of holes in my deck letting in water so I need to fill them in with some drain gratings. I made these from some 10mm thick wall brass tubing and some 2mm brass rod. First I filed three narrow slots into the end of the brass tube about half the thickness of the brass rod and soft soldered them into the slots. The rod was then filed flush to the top of the tube to flatten the profile and form the grating slots, and the overhang filed flush with the tube sides. I used a pipe cutter to separate the finished piece from the brass tube and then repeated the process for the second fitting. The grating needs to be blocked so that it doesn’t let water through and I did this by forming a disc out of black plasticard the same diameter as the tube bore as a stopper and filling the base with epoxy to form the seal, the finished drains were then glued into the deck panel flush with the planking. I used some 1.5mm brass rod bent and fashioned to form the handles for the hatches and these were fixed with epoxy through holes in the panel. Another brass feature on the deck are the rivets around the battery hatch, these are actually some domed rivets with a 2mm head and 1mm shaft that I bought online from RB Models (Poland) along with some other excellent items from their range of ships fittings. www.rbmodel.com Finally the deck panel and main hatch cover were sprayed with several coats of lacquer. The panel will need some further work to incorporate the towing hook stays and I’ll cover that in another posting.

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Planking…part 2

After a successful first attempt at planking the tow-hook deck I then did the same to the mid deck. I placed a 5mm border of maple with mitred corners, but I stepped it out around the forward cabin access door so that the completed deck panel can be dropped and slid into place beneath the door threshold. The planking was placed working out from the centre line to keep the spacing even, and when the CA had fully set the black plasticard ‘caulking’ was trimmed flush with a sharp chisel and the whole surface sanded smooth. There is a small detail on this deck which is identified on the Vosper drawing as a ‘fuel tank sounding’, a sort of dipstick access point I suppose. This part is not supplied in the metal fittings kit so and I fabricated this from a piece of 10mm brass tube with a plasticard insert to replicate the detail. This was then painted metallic silver and let into the deck after cutting a 10mm diameter hole through the planking. To cut this hole I used a short piece of 10mm thin wall brass tube with a sharp edge filed on its internal bore so that it acted as a sort of ‘cookie cutter’ and it produced a neat and accurately sized hole in the deck planking. The ‘step’ formed by the door and frame was painted to match the door and then the complete deck panel sprayed with several coats of lacquer for the final finish. I'm getting the hang of this planking lark so confidence is high as I move on to tackle the far more challenging cockpit deck 🤔

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Planking...part 1.

As a novice boat builder I have never done any planking before but after seeing some fine examples on other crash tender decks and read other blog descriptions of the process I thought I’d give it a try as it would be more pleasing to the eye than a plain painted surface. I’m not sure how true to the prototype the planking is on a RAF Crash Tender as it’s not described in the Vosper documentation but I think some ‘modelling licence’ is justified for the visual effect. The choice of materials, planking sizing and the method of ‘caulking’ were all studied in detail in the blogs and discussions and I finally decided on 7mm x 1.5mm maple for the planking and some .7mm black plasticard cut into fine strips for the caulking. All the required materials were ordered from Cornwall Model Boats and all arrived remarkably quickly packed in a long cardboard tube two days later… very good service and quality materials! I made a practice piece to test the process and materials before committing it to the boat, I used a teak stain on the wood as a test as well but decided I preferred the natural colour of the maple after it was lacquered with a few coats of finish. When I felt I was sufficiently proficient to start for real I elected to do the relatively small area of the tow hook deck first. This was marked out to get the correct centering of the planks and I commenced with the application of a 5mm border with mitred corners and the plasticard caulking strips on the inside edges. The maple planking is very easy to cut and trim and is also reasonably consistent in width and thickness. I’m using a medium cyano glue for all of this as it grabs very quickly so that I can work at a reasonable pace but my finger-tips unavoidably end up getting stuck occasionally too 😡 Working from the centre line outwards the maple strips and caulking were fixed down, the final outer pieces on each side needed to be slightly wider to fill the space but the difference is barely noticeable. The ‘caulking ‘ was carefully trimmed flush with the deck with a very sharp half inch chisel and the whole surface sanded smooth. Several coats of acrylic lacquer were then applied by brush as I decided it would be easier than masking up the surrounding areas. Buoyed by the success of this I think I'll do the mid-deck and the cockpit too 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Lacquering the hull.

Now that the self-adhesive vinyl lettering and hull markings are now applied and correctly positioned…😉 I can now spray the lacquer finish on the hull. The gloss black areas will have a number of coats of Halfords clear gloss lacquer and the red ‘anti-fouling’ areas finished in Halfords clear lacquer. I started with the gloss lacquer first, so the all the deck area and the red ‘anti-fouling’ areas were masked. As I wanted the white waterline to be sealed with the gloss finish I masked below the line. After a thorough wipe over with some panel wipe the first coat of gloss was sprayed followed by a further two coats at 30 minute intervals. Fortunately it all went on without any runs or blemishes so I left it for a week to thoroughly harden after removing the masking. The black area was then masked from the bottom of the waterline, the area cleaned with panel wipe and sprayed with three coats of Halfords clear lacquer. With all the masking removed the boat was them put aside and left for a week for everything to dry thoroughly and then I polished the black area with some ‘T-cut’ polish to remove any surface blemishes and bring it to a full shine. All the hull marking and lettering are now firmly fixed and sealed and I’m very pleased with the final results. The next job will be to spray the deck and superstructure with the BS631 RAF Light Grey and then the majority of the paint process will be complete 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Response

Priming the hull.

I used grey card for the caulking, I was lucky with some light coloured strip I was given, unfortunately no idea what it was, then I think I stained with clear or matt ronseal varnish, the final effect was nice. The battery access, and the large central access in the rear well was just painted with aluminium paint, rivet detail on the towhook reinforcement and battery access panel was with dressmaker pins 😊

7 years ago by pmdevlin

Response

Priming the hull.

Hi Paul. Yes I will be spraying a textured finish on the deck, another Halfords product, and then the custom colour BS 381C ' Light Grey 631 over that. The deck and cabin sides etc. will then get a final coat of lacquer. I have done a test sample of this on some scrap and the effect is quite pleasing. 😊 I'll keep all the roofs as gloss white. Right now I'm looking for some wood strip to plank the tow hook deck and rear cockpit. I think 6mm should be the right size but I want quite a light colour to contrast with dark caulking, any recommendations on that? Rob.

7 years ago by robbob

Blog

Fitting the wheelhouse roof panels

The three panels make up the wheelhouse roof and the outer two needed the heat gun treatment to curve them in two directions so a bit of patience is required here to get this right. When they are correctly shaped the mating edges of all three need a little chamfering, they also need to overlap the cabin walls by 1/8th of an inch. I cut out a hole in the centre panel to give me access to the bracket that hold the searchlight rotation servo in place. Before fitting the roof panels I added a couple of small blocks either side of the cabin formers directly beneath where the mast feet will be to reinforce the areas so that I can bolt down the mast legs on threaded studs and also to enable it's removal for storage if required. Once again I used a file and sanding block over the formers and cabin sides to profile them so that the panels sit flush on the framework. The outer panel on which the searchlight sits was also pierced to take the 2mm threaded stud will connects the servo to the searchlight base. I'll need to make and fit a circular wedge fillet on the roof to meet the searchlight base because of the curvature of the roof at that point. The undersides of the panels got a couple of coats of sanding sealer and a brushed coat of a black water based paint, being careful not to coat the areas where the glue lines will be. The rest of the interior of the cabin also got another coat of black paint. The centre panel was fitted first making sure that the hole was correctly aligned with the servo shaft position, when the glue had dried the two outer panels were glued and clamped. I fitted the sliding hatch rails on a couple of bearers and made a frame around the access hole for the hatch to fit onto. The other small hole at the front of the centre panel is for the navigation light wiring. Thankfully that's the end of the superstructure construction which was unnecessarily difficult due to the less than helpful instructions and drawings and poorly fitting parts. Some room for improvement here by the kit maker I think ❓ ..... Next episode coming to screen near you soon.... 😁

7 years ago by robbob

Response

Fitting the windscreen panels.

Hi allenrod. Thanks for you kind praise 😄 The black paint is just a water based finish I happened to have in the workshop, it was applied by brush over the sanding sealer as the finish is not critical. Robbob

7 years ago by robbob

Response

Pilot Boat

Hi Colin Yes, I did brush paint the deck with an inexpensive acrylic. The sand mix was trial and error. I started off with a thin mix and gradually added more sand, testing it on scraps of plastic, until I was happy. A brushed coat of varnish waterproofed and added to the realism. Best of luck. Steve

8 years ago by cormorant

Forum

Paint for RAF Crash Tender.

Hi Onetenor. Thanks for the follow up suggestions but I have already found a supplier in Manchester who were able to mix the required colour and deliver 2 x 400ml rattle cans by next day courier for £18 all in, which is a real bargain compared to the prices I found elsewhere. The only snag I that they can only mix gloss and not matt or , but I will overspray with a lacquer anyway. I have tested it for compatibility with the acrylics that I am using (Halfords) and it's perfectly OK. Robbob.

8 years ago by robbob

Forum

Paint for RAF Crash Tender.

Can anyone recommend a good mail order supplier for a colour mixed aerosol spray paint for the deck and cabin sides of a Vosper RAF crash tender. I believe the correct colour should be BS 381C Light Grey 631 preferably in a or semi gloss finish. Thanks. Robbob.

8 years ago by robbob

Forum

Aeronaut Pilot Boat

Hi Steve A pot of green acrylic paint ( £1.20 from my local art shop) mixed with silver sand I use for the block paving on the drive. Two or three tests to get the mix about right - nothing scientific. When brushing it on the deck I made sure I got a fairly even distribution and there were no 'bald patches' and once dry I brushed on a coat of varnish to complete the effect. I admit to surprising myself with the simplicity and being pleased with the overall effect. Hope this helps. Steve

8 years ago by cormorant

Forum

Nickel Silver Rod

Thanks Ed. Still many fiddly things to do but I'm very pleased so far. As you can see, I have mixed green paint with silver sand to get the non slip deck then painted it over with varnish. Fitting the windscreen wipers tried my patience as they are in two parts and are tiny. Steve

8 years ago by cormorant

Response

HMS DIAMOND D35 Destroyer

Hi Lee, I used a teak ronseal and a coat of varnish for the inside. it was something I had leafy over in a tin but I do use lots of ronseal because the dry time is short. Kind regards Roy

8 years ago by McCluskey

Response

RAF CRASH TENDER

HI Alan and Jarvo Thanks for that info. The deck will have to be sanded down and before a respray, a good base preparation will be required plus clear lacquer for a final finish. I guess that Halfords spray paints are the most readily available ones . The hull is painted in black and red below the waterline and neither the hull or the cabin tops are suffering from the problem. Many thanks Boaty

8 years ago by boaty