Thread: Another OZ MK2 PDRacer build in Sydney "Wood Duck"

You beast! What have you done with Mr. Snappy????

Heh ;). I didn't transform Mr Snappy into a Heavy Duty Snout Protector :). Mr Snappy in fact got homesick for his swimming pool and was returned to his "owners" a while back. As he left, he was was also heard to mutter darkly about the surface he had been sitting on never to be seeing water...

Speaking of which, I am hoping to get onto the topsides varnishing RSN, the elbow being much improved. I have my last physio appointment for it on Tuesday next, although that won't stop me from painting sooner iff I can get everything else (dustwise) sorted before then.

Note: if you look carefully at the port chine near the bow, you will see a couple of disturbing white patches. These are some of a rather large numbe and is MISSING PAINT! The cause was the boat being bounced and banged about on the sharp edges of the building frame during the varnishing of the topsides :(. In earlier days I would have sanded the whole hull back and repainted it; some people might be surprised and shocked to read that I am merely going to patch it with some Brightside and move on ;).

OK, well, in my cleaning up and battening down of the building jig (the front member has been floating about since Day 1, just about), I discovered that the screws holding down the aft cross-member (the one that supports the boat, anyway) had a number of screw heads poking up above the level of the timber.

Even though they were on the ends of the cross-member, they would have been in a position to snag the paintwork when turning the boat over (and over and over and over...). That has been dealt with with a countersink bit - and the from cross-member got the same treatment too, of course.

The painting tent back in commission - almost. Three sides have been swabbed down with a damp microfibre cloth - the tent side next to the workbenches just needs doing and that will be the tent ready for use


Link to my Flickr account...



The reappearance of the tent doesn't necessarily signify immediate work on the varnishing - but then again, it doesn't not ;). I've got to tape the corners together when the last side has been rolled down again (and cleaned), and then the last couple of swabs with a white-spirits-soaked microfibre cloth need to be made. So we'll see...

I'm going to split up the painting this time, to aid my not-quite-recovered elbow (it's a lot better but still a little snarky). I'll do the cockpit first, then the decks after the cockpit has dried. I can (mostly) hide the join on the underneath edge of the decks and the front radius of the cockpit coaming.

Right...where was I? What day of the week is it? Who am I? Ah yes - I'm still cleaning up ;).

Just after the penultimate white-spirit/microfibre cloth rub-down prior to the final two varnish coats. Pity you can't see the effort that went into that - it looks the same as all the other recent photos ;). One final swipe to ensure the removal of all skin oils, etc. - then it it will be out with the brush! (Still got the tent and more vacuuming, etc., etc., etc., to finish off too, though...)


Photo lives in my Flickr account, as usual


Note that I've taken the photo from a different angle, to try and pretend that something has actually happened. If it's raining tomorrow (i.e., no "flying" lessons) I might even start painting. Stranger things have happened.

Wossis? Paint tins, paint brushes, microfibre cloths? Nah, they're not really there at all...'sanoptical ilusion ;)


Photo on Flickr



The weather wasn't wet so I went flying weather was rather windier (and a lot colder) than expected so the flying was a bit hairy. Note that the final wall of the tent is down in the photo above, and there are utensils ready to zip it all up with. That will probably be this evening - and with any luck, I may even do some painting tomorrow. Unless I keel over from the shock first...

OK, here we go...

1. Penultimate varnish coat, photo 1! Looking OK. I missed a very small area on the port side deck (again), despite my best efforts to make sure that it was a complete coat. At least the foredeck is clean :)





2. Penultimate varnish coat, photo 2: the varnish shows up the epoxy patches summink shocking. Dark patches on the orange plastic are duct tape, sealing the many holes in the latter - and thus hopefully adding to dust minimisation. Every little bit helps...





3. Penultimate varnish coat, photo 3: more of the epoxy patches - mostly BoteCote is the culprit here as WEST 105/207 is clear regardless of thickness





4. Penultimate varnish coat, photo 4: close-up of the centrecase/F1





5. IKEA lint roller. Although it picked up a lot of fluff - note the darker tear-off paper in background compared with white one still on the roller - dust/fluff still rained down on the varnish. Maybe it would have been worse without this, maybe not...


Photos lurk somewhere in my Flickr account, as usual... One of these days I'll sort the thousands of 'Duck (or whatever you choose to call it) photos in that account into more readily accessible sets - but probably not until I've got the boat done.



Well, I'm back in the game :). Finally!

Despite my best attempts, including an IKEA lint-roller applied repeatedly on my clothing (and even hair ;), however, I still managed to get a couple of hairs from the Dreadful Dog in the varnish. Just goes to show how dreadful he is. Dreadful Dog!

On the other hand, the varnish coat seems to be relatively dust free - but that has been the case before, and the dust has magically appeared after the paint has dried and contracted... Anyway, fingers X-ed, and I'm NOT going to sand this coat. Doctor's/physio's orders :)))))))))).

I also did what I said I wouldn't do this time, and did the whole boat in one fell swoop. The brush was wet, and I still had quite a bit of strained varnish left in the pot, plus I was still feeling reasonably sharp (but see comment in photo 1 above), and I kept going after carefully putting the boat back on her bottom. I'll put the LAST varnish coat on tomorrow! Yay! Yeehaa! HOORAY!!!

Second half of this year's Doctor Who season starts on ABC1 this evening, so hooray to that too (only a week later than the UK/US start) :)))). Penultimate episode of this year's Torchwood too, brought to us by a rather large part of the Buffy/Angel/Firefly/Dollhouse contingent (minus Mr Whedon). Hooray!

Quick update: the dust problem is still there :(. It isn't quite as bad as the last time, but it is still highly noticeable. I am, however, going to press on regardless, and put up with the fact that I can't paint for peanuts. At least there aren't many obvious brush marks, and there is no fish-eye or other surface separation, other than the spot mentioned in the previous post.

Think of it as a fine grain anti-slip.

. Yes, I'm afraid that that is now my fall-back official position .

Dust: 5; the alex: 0.

<sigh>

alex, magic job you have done, but i would stop worrying about the dust you are driving your self mad trying to acheve perfection in a back yard shed.

IMO wack a couple of coats on finsh the rigging and go for a sail, spring is here the season is starting.

Hi Gaza,

Thanks for your kind words :). When I went to have a final look it doesn't look too bad from a couple of metres away. And the further away the better it looks. One more coat and that will be that :). Then, as you say, onto the rigging...

Cheers,
Alex.

Final topside varnish coat on!

There is one thing with le Tonk - it doesn't like going over the top of itself when the varnish is at a relative cool temperature: the still-stickyish underlying coat tends to be rather grabby and seems to prevent the new coat from flowing, compared with its own very easy and slick application yesterday. I should have waited another day or so, I suspect. The coat has split along brush-marks/air-bubble lines as its own surface tension pulls it back in on itself on the sticky surface. As a result I have a rather streaky surface, but I'll leave it as it is. If I get enthused later I'll give the decks another coat - after the boat has had a few outings. Probably ;). In the meantime, I'll pretend that it's woodgrain...

Snaps:

1. Jacking up the boat on some 4x2s...





2. ...to stop the soft varnish on the gunwale getting damaged during the final coat





3. Ready to for the final coat!





4. Finished! Well, the "final" varnish coat is, anyway ;)





5. This is in fact the ninth varnish coat to go on





6. Look closely to see the streaks in the varnish around the foredeck/forward side deck area. More visible streaks can be seen amidships, and further aft, on the starboard side deck. No doubt more streaks will become apparent as the varnish sets up...


Follow this link to my Flickr account...


m2c1Iw has been having some similar fun with le Tonk in his Coquina build, and the diagnosis there was that the varnish needed to be warmer (see comments at the top of this post). Now I need to get ready to (finish) varnish(ing) the mast, boom, yard, foils, and rudder-box/tiller assembly. And get the sewing machine out again...

I'm searching for a word....is it aquaphobia?

Whatever it is, I'm wondering who's got it, Alex or Alex's boat?

The former ;). Actually, I'm surprised that that's the first time that someone's made that observation here - explicitly, anyway...