The chemicals don't work...

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...

Less paint, but still too much

Here we are, the pilot boat after another couple of hour attention from the cellulose thinner. Most of the paint has gone, but there is still some lodged around the base of the handrails - an a thin, eneven coat pretty much everywhere on the surface. 

This looks better than it really is. Spraying over this lot will produce a rubbish result. 

So, I've been digging around under the kitchen sink and have some Dettol and two types of over cleaner. In the garage, I'm sure there is some IPA alcohol too - I'm going to give them a go and will report back.

Desperate, random use of chemicals

 

How do you get paint off a hull moulded in ABS? 

Well, you can't use Nitromors for a start. That's a good way to make holoes. And while I do own some paint stripper that is safe for use on plastic, not nearly enough to attack a boat this size. 

With the hull on the garage workbench, I tried a Scotchbright pad in the sander. Nothing. Hardly scratched it. Could I replace this with something more abrasive? Probably not, stopping at that point between removing the paint and going through the plastic wasn't likely to happen. 

In desperation, I cast around for other chemicals I could try. By this point I'd decided that if I couldn't have a smooth hull for painting, at least I could extract the working parts for another boat. 

Meths seemed to do a little, but not much. Cellulose thinners though, now that shifted the paint, especially when followed with a metal, kitchen scouring pad. 

Trouble is, the cellulose turned the paint into a slurry that had to be scraped off. Washing with meths seemed to help move it a bit, but the slurry hardened too quickly for easy removal. 

Still, there is progress, but I need to go and buy a lot more thinners!

Oh, and it stinks. Future paint stripping will be carried out outdoors.

Debranding disaster

 

Removing the "UK Border Force" lettering was easy enough. The vinyl letters peel off reasonably easily. Start the peel by sliding a knife under the edge of each letter and it comes away reaonably cleanly. Half an hour, saw the characters removed. 

One thought - I wondered if the letters were hand-cut as they are an "intersting" typeface. My guess is not, but someone really needs to take a look at themselves if they think a British boat is going to be emplazened with such a childish typeface. It's one step away from the evil Comic Sans. 

All was going well until I started on the front "SAR" letters. Suddenly, the paint came away from the hull. Picking at it (probabloy not a great idea), the orange seemed to adheared very poorly. In fact it lifted in sheets, just like those letters. 

Oh dear. 

SAR boat on the water

 

Batteries charged, it's time to take the pilot boat to the lake and see how it handles. First though, I tie the superstructure to the hull with a length of wire. It's held in place with magnets, which seems pretty good, but I prefer this belt and braces approach on all my models. If the top comes off, you can always tow it home. 

Fired up, the boat actually works. 

But not very fast, or for very long. It moves OK, but not as rapidly as I'd have hoped. Worse, the duration was about 5 minute sfrom one pack and 3ish from the other. OK, neither pack might not have taken a brilliant charge, but I need to look at this. 

The battery pack used is a six-cell (7.2v) 2000mAh Ni-MH set and I think the solution will be more volts and more amps.Looking at the maximum capacity of the speed control, we could be good for twice as many cells, so a bit more omph should up the top speed. 

However, I'm wondering if it's time to take the dive into a LiPo battery for this boat. More power for less weight is very appealing, but I've always fought shy of them. Techincal and possible to explode, neither appeals much.

The one-minute model boat stand

 

When working on a model boat, having the thing rocking around on the workbench is a bit of a nuisance. The correct thing to do, is build a proper stand for it to sit in. 

It might be the "correct" thing to do, but I want to get this boat on the water to make sure I haven't bought a lemon, and wooden stands take time. 

Then I spotted a piece of polystyrene left over from another project. It looked about the right size, so I cut a quick channel down it with a craft knife, and there we have it. A servicable model boat stand!

Of course, clearing up the little white balls will take longer than a minute...

Fire up the jets

 

Looking inside the SAR boat, the installation of the working bits is very nice. Everything is firmly fixed down. Neat wiring too. 

I've no idea what should be in there, but the speed control is a Quicrun 860-Dual driving a pair of 560 brushed motors. Servos operate the directional nozzles, and reversing buckets. 

The intention appear to be that there is a pair of battery packs, with Deans connectors. I can only find a single suitable pack in my collection, and can't locate the connections for the charger, so I've made up a Tamya connection. Not sure what the advantage of the Deans connection offers, for me, I suspect that a common connector will make my life easier. 

Then the reciever was changed for a HobbyLink one. Again, that's a Parker standard. 

After half an hour's fiddling around moving connections on the reciever, the model worked. It's a bit odd as the reversing buckets need to be on a toggle switch, they don't work automatically when you stick the model into reverse. In fact, there's not point in sticking a jet boat in reverse - it's just sucking in air and squirting in out the bottom!

Is one battery pack enough? Will 7.2v move the boat forward fast enough? We'll have to get it on the water to find out.

HMS Gammon?

 

£60 from the KMBC "Bring and Buy" stand at the annual Navy Day. I wasn't looking for another model boat. In fact I was very much not looking to add to my fleet, but this one spoke to me. 

For a start, it's bright orange, and I love orange boats. And orange cars. And orange chocolate. 

It's also a jet-powered boat, and I didn't have a jet powered boat. 

Best of all, it's pretty much complete. All the drives, speed control, servos and even a reciever (Spektrum I think). Pretty much just add a battery and it's good to go. 

A post on ModelBoatMayhem reveals that it's a Graupner multi jet - kit price £225 plus the jet drives. They look like CEM Mini Jet 20's - £77 each. The more I look, the better the bargain this model looks. 

The construction looks pretty good too. Those handrails might be a bit skinny, but they are well made. I can see a bit of body smoothing to be carried out around the top of the superstructure, but nothing major. 

At just over 60cm long, it's as big as I want. Not a problem to move around and it will just about fit on my work area. 

One issue is that this is all I have. Any fittings and details will have to be bought in, or scratchbuilt. Fortunatly, there is a build on Mayhem. Hopefully, there isn't that much to do - it should be (famous last words) a quick project. 

What don't I like? 

The "UK Border Force" stuff on the side. For a start, it doesn't look like border force boat. Here's one: 

Photographed in Ramsgate last year. It's a lot bigger than this vessel! 

Also, this is losely based on a Swedish Pilot Boat. There's a nice photo from Graupner. 

Love those colours. Plenty of orange there! 

I have a nasty feeling that the border branding tells me a bit about the builder. Regular readers of this blog may have worked out I'm a bit of a lefty. The Daily Mail would probably call me "woke" because I hate racism and misogyny. And when there is a story about asylum seekers drowning in the channel, I hate it when I see the "good" people on social media gloating over dead children. Yes, it does happen, far too often. 

"UK Border Force" has, I suspect, been added to the side in the same way some modellers love adding guns to things because they spend too much time watching old war films. It's a macho thing, and I'm not a fan. 

So, removing that vinyl lettering will be an early job on this model! I've also orderd a set of transfers from Germany.

First though, let's see if it works.