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Author Topic: Not a good day for HMS Amethyst – or me – but it will give someone a laugh!  (Read 5925 times)

Spook

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After working three 12-hour night shifts, and looking forward to a relaxing day off, I decided that today was the day to give my Deans Marine HMS Amethyst her coat of varnish, to finish her off, before taking some photos of my hard work, to show you all. So it was off to Hobbycraft in the 4x4 this morning to pick up a couple of cans of Humbrol satin varnish for the old girl. I found the “satin varnish for enamel” section (as I had painted Amethyst with Humbrol enamels) and picked up a couple of cans.

Back at home, parked up and alighted only to find the aforementioned 4x4 smelling rather badly and possessing a red-hot back wheel. Looks like a seized back brake. Oh dear! So, after phoning around about 10 local garages I found one that could take a look at the car this afternoon. “Come down after 2 o’clock”, they said.

As it was now only 12:30 I thought, “Great, I can get the first coat of varnish done before I go.”

Out into the garden, set up the ‘Workmate’, shook up can number one and sprayed the hull and deck. Lovely job, no runs or trapped dead flies – unlike my usual varnishing efforts. There was still time for me to spray the three superstructure sections, so I shook up can number two and proceeded to spray. As I have a rather nasty cold it wasn’t until I’d sprayed the third section that I noticed that the varnish smelled a bit different to the first can I’d used.  Oh, it must be me, I thought.

A few minutes later I noticed the superstructure sections beginning to sport a rather snazzy crackle-finish in many places – checked can number two and – yep, you saw it coming didn’t you? – Acrylic satin varnish. Turns out some moron in Hobbycraft must have mixed up the cans and some other moron, coming home tired off night shift, with a bad cold (did I mention that?) didn’t notice.

So, I have spent some of my day off carefully scraping off crackle finish paint from the most inaccessible parts of my model’s superstructure, in the hope that I may be able to restore some sort of decent finish eventually.
 
The observant reader will note that I said “some of my day off”. Yes, I took the aforementioned 4x4 to the garage, who said they’d put it up on the ramp and have a look, advising me to go for a walk for an hour as the mechanic hated having customers watch him when he was working. So I duly toddled off, leaving my mobile number in case they needed to contact me.

45 minutes later I got a phone call from the garage which started off with “I’ve got some bad news for you…”, which wasn’t entirely unexpected, I have to admit, as garages always say that just before they hit you with a whopping bill. Then he said, “No, it’s not your car, that just needs new brake pads and sleeves, we’re fitting those now for you. Trouble is, we’ve lost our electricity supply, the whole street has and it won’t be back on until 7 o’clock tonight.” I pondered the “bad news for me” significance of this message until he further explained, “… so your car is stuck up on the ramp, we can’t get it down until tomorrow morning”. Bad news indeed, as I had to get home in time for Little Spook coming home from school, then get her to her piano lesson in a town 6 miles away and organise an Indian takeaway (from the best Indian takeaway in town, 3 miles from home) for the family tonight, as Mrs Spook won’t be home till about 8 o’clock.

So my comfortable 5 minute car-ride home turned into a 45 minute walk, mostly uphill, Grandpa has stepped in to take the sprog to her piano lesson, thank goodness, and the mouth-watering Indian takeaway will probably end up being a ready-meal from Tesco, just around the corner.

Happy days!
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hollowhornbear

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Don't you just wish you could rewind somedays. :((
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tony52

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And I thought I was the only one who suffered 'that type of day'.

At least the garage bill wouldn't be too bad.

Tony
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Patrick Henry

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You should try working for a council...that's a good day for us.


Rich
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Martin (Admin)

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well at least enjoy your takeaway... and don't drop it down yourself!
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boatmadman

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You have my sympathy spook, I learnt a long time ago that attempting to do anything that requires the input of a single brain cell after a run of 12hr nights inevitably means undoing it next day and starting again.

Now, I just walk the dog when I get up off nights!

Ian
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Jimmy James

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It could have been worse, A friend of mine rang up last night asking if I knew where his wife and kids were..(I didn't) Turns out he just got home from a 4 month trip and found the house empty with a Sold sign on it...
Freebooter
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Spook

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Well, the Tesco "Indian takeaway" wasn't too bad considering. Little Spook did well at piano, so it wasn't a total disaster. I have since managed to get myself outside a decent bottle of South American Merlot and have found a bag of liquorice allsorts in the cupboard - and the world is a wonderful place again :-)

(Although several days of scraping and repainting is not a prospect I'm looking forward to)
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sheerline

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Indian takeaway, Liquorice Allsorts and a bottle of red..... it aint just the boat you'll be scraping and re-painting by the sound of it!!! :o
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justboatonic

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Commiserations. Must be everyone's worst nightmare to have something like this happen.

Hope you get it sorted.
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Nordsee

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Oh we have all had days like that! Doesn't help though. I had a similar experience with paints, finished a wood hull with brushing from a tin, then after a bulb keel mod. decided to touch it up with a spraycan, same make paint, same colour and satin finish. Result,? Well you know don't you? I did manage to cover up by rubbing down and the lots of very light dusting coats with the spraycan. It is under water, so no one sees it!
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Spook

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Well, the scraping is almost complete, despite several interruptions to my, normally chaotic, life, including the arrival of a new kitten , courtesy of the Cat Protection League, yet another garden shed that had to be built, man flu, bubonic plague and nuclear holocaust (I may have lied about one or two things). I have bought a couple of cans of the PROPER varnish and am just about ready to start painting again - *sigh*
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tony52

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Reading through your latest post "I have bought a couple of cans of the proper ---" sorry your spelling of Guinness is wrong!!  lol.

Tony
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Spook

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Tony, canned Guinness is not the way it should be drunk - must be draught I'm afraid. LOL!

So I started the repainting, after a very rough scraping (and knocking-off and sticking-back-on of several small parts) and it doesn't look as good as it originally did. Not all of the superstructure needed repainting, just some of the deck areas and places where the varnish gathered.  However, some of the smaller scraped and repainted areas look now as if they are hastily welded repairs of battle-damage (or am I just trying to see the positive side of a job badly done?).

Anyway, it's not looking too bad so far, but there will be a lot of touching-up to do and many more muttered accusations about what a prat I've been.

Oh well, we live and learn  {:-{
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bobdoc

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On a day like that, I buy a bottle of malt to sooth my jangled nerves ... then drop it on the doorstep while struggling with the door keys!

Yes, it's happened more then once, sadly!

Bob
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Peter Fitness

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On a day like that, I buy a bottle of malt to sooth my jangled nerves ... then drop it on the doorstep while struggling with the door keys!

And all before you've had a drink - impressive  O0

Peter.
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Spook

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Mmmmmmmm... maaaalt...!

Now I'll have to buy one for my days off next week - more painting. Best paint before malt, I think.  :-)

Now the difficult bit - which one? I fancy a nice peaty one, so probably a Talisker.

Yum!
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richtea

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All this talk of malt has got my taste buds tingling,
now where did I hide the Bruichladdich ?? >>:-( >>:-(
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Spook

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Haven't drunk that one for a few years. Happy memories though!
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Spook

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Having returned to the forums at last, I realised that I hadn't posted any pics of the finished model. so here are some. I know the colour scheme is probably not right, as I couldn't get a definitive scheme from anywhere, but I think it looks OK-ish, despite missing the parts that were not supplied that I couldn't recreate.

This 'un has only been on the water for sea-trials, which were less than impressive, so I stripped out the r/c in disgust and kept it as a static display model, but I've just started reinstalling it for a second attempt.





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Shipmate60

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Well she looks pretty good to me.
What is the problem with her performance on the water?

Bob
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grasshopper

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It could have been worse, A friend of mine rang up last night asking if I knew where his wife and kids were..(I didn't) Turns out he just got home from a 4 month trip and found the house empty with a Sold sign on it...
Freebooter


Is that really a bad thing ?................as long as my wife left me the contents of my garage/workshop, she could gladly have everything else....we've only stayed together this long because neither of us wanted custody of the kids!
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Spook

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Well she looks pretty good to me.
What is the problem with her performance on the water?

Bob
Steering wasn't very good. Admittedly this was at very low speed, as I hadn't ballasted her properly and was afraid to go too fast, but she hardly turned at all.

So attempt number 2 will have a truckload of ballast and a little more patience from me. I think I was so frustrated after such an awful build, not to mention the varnish/repaint debacle, that I rushed things a bit.
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Shipmate60

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With a twin screw single rudder it is far more effective to having the props turning inwards looking from the stern at the top of the props.
ie Port prop turning clockwise, Stbd prop turning anti-clockwise.
Also I have also found that these models handle better with brass props which are a courser pitch so move the water more at lower revs.

Bob
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tobyker

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Well spotted Bob! I suppose that twirls the propwash nearer the rudder. I must say the rudder does seem to be a long way from the props - but I suppose in 1:1 scale they could steer with the screws. Must have been fun getting up and down the Yangtse, though!
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