Finally took the plunge last night and did my first ever fibreglassing job - something that I was looking at with quite some trepidation.
Worked in two phases (the stern area had already been done so I was only left with the hull itself) and used a slightly different technique for each:
- did the port side first: applied a layer of resin + hardener over the entire length of the hull, working from the keel down to the 'gunwhales', before laying on the cloth, and then worked more resin into the cloth once draped over the hull and then straightened things out.
- for the starboard side, I immediately laid the cloth onto the bare hull and only then worked the resin into the cloth, thus 'fixing' it in place, before continuing as before and 'pencilling' the folds out.
I used a broad paint brush that I can discard, 1/2' wide, which I felt was a good tool for the job.
I can see no difference in the end result, and not entirely sure which is ultimately the better method really - the first one gave me some stress in that clearly you have to be careful laying out a quite substantial surface of cloth without things folding up or causing wrinkles. Once in place however the second coat of resin is easier to apply without the cloth moving.
The latter method is easier to smooth out the cloth and avoid wrinkles, but at the same time there is more drag when applying the resin and you need to hold the cloth in place in the area you are working on.
Overall I am quite pleased, there are no air bubbles or folds so all in all things are quite smooth already. The only area where I was struggling was the section of the keel in between the prop shafts, where the cloth would not stay in place and follow the concave curve of the hull - I needed to make a slit with a cutter and re-cover a small section of this area.
Remarkably enough I was expecting this problem, but just not in this spot - the bow area with all of its curves and roundings went swimmingly well by contrast, which came as a bit of a surprise...
Will need to rework this keel section as I had to make a small incision with the cutter to ensure the cloth ended up laying against the hull but also created an uncovered section by doing so.
The other lesson learnt is to ensure there is sufficient 'overhang' when laying the cloth over the model, say at least 1' - my cloth was barely covering the hull in one spot, with very little excess to spare, and this caused the cloth to unravel when brushing the resin into place.
The entire process must have taken a good hour or two, preparations included - will be adding a second layer of resin+ hardenener tonight once everything has dried out and remove the excess cloth.
A few snapshots to show the process
E