Let me start this post with a warm welcome to readers who have found my blog via Modelboat Mayhem. I also need to apologise to you as the link you’ll have followed will have brought up only the posts relating to model boats – and there haven’t been any new ones for a week ‘cos I’ve been writing about model railways. If you want the full, unexpurgated version of this blog try this link. You might want to dig back in the archives as well because there is a lot of boat content in there that predates Blogger’s facility to categorise posts.
Anyway, there has been a bit of boat progress. My cardboard boat (hereafter known as Idris) now has it’s swimming platform attached. This is a great example of the laser cut woodworkers art. I doubt that it would be possible to cut all those squares out of a sheet of wood any other way. All I see is grief as the wood splits or the holes become irregular in size. Perhaps it’s my lack of skill but I know I couldn’t do this any other way. If there grid isn’t perfect though, it will stand out a mile.
The wood was sprayed with Plasticote varnish and then lightly sanded. Using waterproof (I hope) PVA I stuck it to the back of the model complete with it’s little supporting pieces. The whole lot was then brush painted with satin varnish. Great care had to be taken to avoid filling any of the holes – there is enough surface tension in the varnish to do this if you aren’t careful.
I know this part is in the kit, but I’m not sure about it. The instructions say to put it pretty much at the waterline. While this is fine for the small scale swimmer it will prevent the boat getting up on the plane as the moment we have sufficient speed, the lifting of the front of the hull will cause the platform to dig into the water and act as a brake.
If this is a problem I can see me making some alterations. No chance of that until I can sail on some fish free (there is a problem with carp in our lake, they are big enough to sink a boat like this. Negotiations with the landlord are ongoing but if I can lay my hands on a big net or some dynamite…) and get a bit of speed up.
No comments:
Post a Comment