Long time no see, everyone!!
Crikey I've not been doing much to the SloMo in a long time. I have taken it in to work on nightshifts to sit and sand down when it's quiet, but I have to admit the size of the job facing me and sheer amount of bumpy rotten epoxy I have to clear up is putting me off. Sometimes it's easier to just pick up a book and read, you know? :-\
Still, I've been having a good go at it today (and it's really brilliant to see a couple more people building the same model - if you get in front of me I can ask you for help!!), and things are looking..... Well, not 'good' exactly, but 'ok'. I've been getting the wood nice and shiny and smooth with a golden mahogany shining through, but it's covered in little dings and hollows that I can't sand out. Here. take a look:
This shows the sort of finish I've got - it looks like a smooth bit of aluminium that someone's taken a pointy little toffee hammer to and hammered little hollows all over. I'm so disappointed I can't tell you. It's seeing it like this after so much effort that saps my enthusiasm for it. And it makes it even harder to make yourself work on it when you're sanding down with something that feels about as abrasive as a cotton duster and after half an hour it looks like nothing's happened! Mate, you just lose the will to live, I'm telling you.
And look at the bottom of the hull - this is how it looks after a good sanding:
Talk about a mess. I'm resigned to the fact that it won't ever be smooth and all I can hope to do is sort of iron out the worst of the bumps. If I sand too hard it goes through to the wood, as I've already done once or twice on the top, and I've even gone through a layer of ply in places as you can see here.
So, I keep sanding!
To ColinH and Marksaab, I can't tell you a lot about the cockpit, I haven't done it yet and was just intending to do as Mark mentioned, just boxing off the sides with planking wood and putting the seat in. Like you Colin this is only my 3rd model and I struggled with the poor instructions.
That idea with the pins and rubber bands looks useful - nice one! I think if I did this again, I'd put a few planks on the top first to keep the keel straight and then get all the bottom on while there was still access from the top like that Masterripp fella a few posts back - that would be 100 times easier than the way we have done it.
Keep at it fellas, and Mark I'll be looking out for your thread. I'll try to stick at my model, I just have so much sanding to do and it's so BORING!!!!
Hopefully one day I'll have a finished model to show you (I'm already a year into this model, and have no idea how much longer I'll need!).