Model Boat Mayhem
Technical, Techniques, Hints, and Tips => Painting, Finishing and Care. => Topic started by: irishcarguy on April 25, 2013, 06:15:29 AM
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I may be dumb, but I see mention of anti-fouling paint a lot. Is this a special paint or it is it a regular type of paint, I honestly don't know, thanks guys. Mick B.
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Hi Mick......the name says it all usually :o ....antifouling paints have a chemical brew which leaches out of the paint surface & poisons the marine growth ...so save the fuel bill........by reducing underwater drag.................BIG business & BIG cost per litre of paint ...................... Derek
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If you recall in days of (very) old, ships accumulated barnacles/marine growth on their bare hulls so fast they had to be scraped regularly or they lost most of their speed. Then someone discovered that copper repels the little boarders and hulls started to be sheathed in copper. Then copper-bearing paint was invented and worked very well until the copper leached out of the paint (usually in a year or 2 for hulls always in salt water) and it had to be repainted. Great solution. Yeah, it was expensive stuff.
Then along came the tree (and barnacle) huggers, and the US EPA (and probably a similar agency in Britain), and banned copper paints, 'cause they hurt the environment. So now we have antifouling paints with some secret sauce (unknown to me) that (supposedly) works like copper but without harming the environment. And yeah, it probably costs even more.
Is any of it needed on model boats? No, because they are usually sailed in fresh water and only for short times.
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Thank you both, it is a bad day when you don't learn anything. I never knew that until now, but it makes sense. No need for us then to put it on our boats. Mick B.
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I used a nice copper spray paint on my latest boat, to simulate copper antifouling. I don't recall the brand right now, but it looks a lot like the real thing.
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After copper "Red Lead" was the most common colour below the waterline, presumably a lead oxide. Easy to find suitable undercoats of this dull , flat red to replicate the real stuff.