First of all let me say this posting this update has proved very frustrating!
I tried two word processing packages (I no longer have the one I used to use in Windows XP) and in both cases the tabbing went awry when copying into the forum. To add insult to injury, the last experimental download posted itself spontaneously - much to my embarrassment!
So here it is with no tabs, only spaces. It appears impossible to edit in a tab (or spaces) at the beginning of a line. I'm getting too old!
A progress report on the weathering.
I had anticipated that this was going to be a challenge and, to date, things are going as badly as could be expected.
Two factors have had a surprising influence on the situation.
1. Getting the 25 year old airbrush to work and finding that, even in my novice hands, it produces a much better result than hand brushing.
2. The weather. I had assumed that I had missed the summer window of opportunity for spraying outdoors but Autumn held off for several weeks!
The sequence of events is as follows:
1. I wanted to produce a bleached (but dirty) effect on the ply sheets supplied for the decks. After several disappointing attempts, I settled for diluted white Humbrol enamel, followed by powdered graphite with the excess removed with a wad dampened with white spirit.
2. Before gluing these in place, the deck-house needed painting. I decided against Caldercraft's suggestion of 'Teak Brown' in favour of Humbrol Cream (103). After masking, diluting the paint 50:50 with white spirit and applying three coats (on successive sunny days), I was satisfied with the result.
3. After a lot of fiddly masking, I sprayed the stern railings white (this time with a Halfords rattle can).
4. There followed a brief interlude while the bilge pump outlet was made. (The outlet is directed downwards to avoid the fire-hose effect if it should need to operate.)
5. All was now ready for the application of a rust coloured wash. I had experimented previously on a test surface, using a brush and found that a 1 in 6 dilution looked OK. Because air-brushing goes on very thinly, I made a 1 in 5 dilution of Humbrol 'Rust' (113). It took all morning to mask off everything but the hull and stern railings. After spraying, it was left overnight to dry. When the masking was removed the following day, a passing Mrs Corposant was heard to remark, That doesn't look like rust! Not being too discouraged at this stage, I wiped off the excess with a rag soaked in white spirit just leaving the crevices etc. Mrs Corposant then made a further comment: It still doesn't look like rust, it's pink! It was one of those rare moments of total matrimonial harmony I completely agreed with her! A scan of the Humbrol colour chart in search of something browner revealed 'German Red Brown' (160) which, in turn, led to a trip to the local toy shop. All the masking had been removed and the temperature was dropping, so I decided to apply the new colour (also diluted 1 in 5) using a brush and this time, I included the deck-house. After leaving overnight, the result looked much darker than before not surprising because the brush had deposited more paint.
Now for the creation of a very unhappy Corposant! You may have noticed that the purpose of most of my posts is that anyone reading them can learn from my mistakes and this one is no exception!
I armed myself with a piece of rag soaked in white spirit and started to wipe off the excess brown from the railings only it didn't happen! After trying several different solvents, white spirit in combination with a mild abrasive pad eventually removed the brown. The snag was that, by the time I had removed enough brown, the white had come off too! Just to rub salt in the wound, the colour was actually what I was looking for.
Now for the hull. If I had been sensible, I would have used vertical brush-strokes and mopped off the excess immediately. In my defence, the ease with which the air-brushed coat wiped away, led me into a false sense of security. Now, however, I was faced with hours of wiping with white spirit and abrasive getting rid of the excess (and in particular, the horizontal brush-strokes).
After two very long sessions, the hull doesn't look too bad,
although there are one or two spots where the underlying red shows through the black.
The deck-house, however, looked a most peculiar colour
and has had to be re-painted, together with the stern rail. Not only that, the weather broke and it had to be done by brush.
6. Another problem occurred during this sorry saga. In manipulating the model to get at the deck-house sides for painting (and in particular poking a brush through the railings to get at hinges and fittings etc.), I managed to dislodge the front ends of the top rail from their anchorage in the bulwark capping.
With the benefit of hindsight, I realised I had made a fundamental error when gluing in the stanchions I had left bending down the ends until afterwards.
This meant that the anchor points were too shallow and the inevitable sequel was that the first stanchion on the port side broke, then the second and finally, the first on the starboard side became loose. I thought Oh bother. or something very similar. The chap in the drawing office suggested drilling holes up into the broken ones and fitting new spigots followed by cutting off the rail ends that had come adrift, drilling half way through the top balls of the stanchions and gluing in longer lengths of wire whose distal ends could be firmly embedded into the bulwark capping. His underling thought these were a silly ideas and favoured scrapping the lot and starting again with brass stanchions this time bending the top rail ends down before gluing. He did, however, at this stage call to mind the couple of spares in the kit. Then, while driving along the A303 for a few day's break in Exmouth, the chap in the drawing office had an idea for anchoring the existing ends more securely bash them flat and bolt them in place.
Secured with a 16BA bolt:
7. I haven't got here yet!
Mike