Pilot Boat Painting Disasters - Part 4, Done and dusted

Filling in yesterdays lines with silver paint went well. Even a thin line is easy to paint up to and the slight ridge of dry paint tends to stop the new stuff spreading where you don't want it to go.

After this, I got to the fun stage - sticking the extra bits on. Navigation lights are painted. The searchlight and airhorn are glued in place. A little bit of wire into the back of the later added a little bit of detail.

Needless to say there still was a problem. That radar dome is made of some funny rubbery stuff. After over a week, the paint hadn't dreid on the surface. The same paint that worked so well on the two liferaft pods. What I had was a sticky surface. Maybe there was some mould release or perhaps the material just didn't like paint. The pale blue line worked OK and dried as fast as you would expect.

The word "Pilot" is made up from a BECC vinyl letter sheet. The 20mm tall one that costs a fortune. Better planning would have seen me buy a bespoke sheet at a show but of course, I didn't remember to do this. It took me two goes to put the letter in place too. Attempt one saw the word at different positions along the side. I nearly left it but relented in the end knowing I'd regret not peeling the letters off and moving them later.

Once happy, the whole top recived a spray of Humbrol satin varnish to bring all the tones into line. This seals the letter to the sides, not an essential step, but one I like to make.

If I'm picky, some of the silver window edges aren't pefect but on the water I don't think anyone will notice. I've got to finish this model and so I'll have to accept it won't be perfect in every way.