OK, I found some time to get back to paint removal on the Pilot Boat. Taking advice offered in response to my earlier post, the kitchen cupboard had been raided for Dettol and Mr Muscle oven cleaner.
Starting with Dettol, I painted it on, left it for 20 minutes and the result was - nothing.
I have a feeling that I've read you need to give the model a good bath in this stuff overnight. Even if I was willing to shell out for sufficient disinfectant to submerge such a large model, I'd have to remove all the innards so they weren't ruinned. So, no go there.
Next, Mr Muscle oven cleaner. It foams nicely, which makes me think something is happening. On the side of the can, the instructions say to leave it for half an hour - which I do.
Result - nothing. OK, I know this stuff is aimed at oven dirt, which will be slightly porus, but I'd hoped there would be some tiny bit of evidence that it would attack the paint, but none.
So, my options are to go back and work with the cellulose thinners, or,
take the thing down to the boat club, and give it away. Which is what I've done.
To produce a hull that I'd be happy painting, the removal of the old stuff will have to be meticulous. Hours of pushing thinners around followed by scraping the slurry off. I'm not into that at the moment. This was supposed to be a quick and fun project, not an endless, smelly slog.
Maybe someone else with be keener, or less fussy about the state of the hull. Either way, they are welcome to try. I know I'm 70 quid or so into the model with the purchase price and a couple of cans of thinner, but it's time to cut my losses.
I pondered removing the gubbins and fitting it to another model, but those jet drives are fibreglassed in place so they aren't coming out without damage. If I want a jet drive boat, I'll head over to Banggood and pick some up there. Maybe.
Perhaps if the model had raced around the pond when I tested it, I'd have been keener to carry on. As it is, that was another problem to solve with more money to be thrown at it. I'd also been looking at those nicely made handrails and wondering if I could live with them being too spindly. A coat of hi-build primer might have cured that. Perhaps.
Before you ask, selling it would just be a pain. Model boaters never want to spend any money, and I doubt I'd have raised a tenner if I'd stuck the boat in a future club auction. Better to get rid and not have this project hanging over me.
Anyway, I hope I see this on the water one day. It's potentially a nice boat. As it is, it's a lesson that I really don't need any more model boats. There are plenty of kits in the stash that I can just start bulding rather than undoing previous work. Several of those were supposed to be quick projects too...
3 comments:
Ah. Sorry about suggesting dettol. Hadn't thought about the fact that yes it would need submerging for a good few hours, which wouldn't work with all the stuff in the hull.
No apology necessary - I'll remember and use it again in the future.
I could imagine someone trying alcohol hand gel - or one of those "magic sponges" (perhaps loaded with alcohol gel, or even scouring cream) - a sanding sponge - or even ... who knows what?
The issue is that you haven't found anything that works easily, this time - and you don't want to spend all of next year doing experiments, in the hope ... .
Sometimes, enough is enough - even if it's just for your own sanity.
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