MBerg

@SaltyScot Good idea! and actually if you click on the three dots in the top right of the post you want to save and hit 'share' you can get a link to the exact post and not just the thread. I hope that helps return the favor.

Oh yes. The cutout for the dagger board case is way too long. You're not the only one that's commented on that. Everyone I've seen mention it has filled in the extra space with scrap wood or filler. I used some scrap and sanded it down.

As someone who'll be finishing up the pram soon (provided life permits) and got my first sailboat at the end of last season,I very much appreciate the detail you put into accurately ending the rigging. Now if only there was a way to save posts for future reference...

Just stumbled upon this and read your first post. Great story! I'll follow you along on this, and try to catch up on the previous 10 pages.

I think the problem with using CA glue on painted parts isn't so much that thee CA won't hold them together, but more so that the weakest part of the joint is not the paint adhering to the wood. I suppose it depends on the application. Some attachments would be a lot safer than others. Quick update on painting and progress: There was some slight paint bleed onto the white areas, but I was able to clean it up using an X-Acto knife — worked well for sharpening the edges. I also used a stick sander to remove paint from the contact points for the floorboards and thwarts, which I’ll be working on next. I’m thinking of using a combination of CA and PVA glue: PVA for the frame supports, and CA on the sides. Part of the reason is to avoid the tedious (and risky) job of scraping paint off the sides and potentially messing up the finish. But it’s also a learning project, and I want to test how well a painted-to-painted CA joint holds up. I find most beginners around here aren't new to modeling and are typically coming from plastics. Me being completely new to modeling, the painting is a whole new thing as well so I'm learning just as much about it than anywhere else. This was before some cleaning: The edges aren't perfect, but it turned out decent enough

I bet that would work great on something like the flying dutchman which is supposed to be old, weather, and 'ghosty', but maybe not the most realistic for a ship unless doing some derelict diorama. Just finished the final coat of paint. I might need to do some touch-ups later, but the bulk of the painting is done. Looking ahead to gluing — do most people actually sand all the contact points back to bare wood after painting? I did this on my dory and it felt pretty inefficient: paint everything, sand it back down, glue parts together, then do touch-ups. I understand bare wood is important for a strong bond, but is there a better way? I’ve thought about taping off glue spots before painting, but with all the tiny areas involved, it seems like that would just complicate things even more. Next up: the tiller. That should keep me busy while the hull paint fully cures. I may need another coat on the rudder and centerboard as well.

Looking good so far! I'm just slightly ahead of you, (though I started mid last year! ). As for the mast step, I broke my top piece in half as well. Seems like a common thing. Though I didn't put the bottom layer between the frames with the top layer across. If that's how the instructions call it, I absolutely did not catch that.

Just so I'm clear on your description. Are you saying the thinner I used to thin the paint is also used to clean the brush? (I've been thinning with water, but finally just got some proper thinner today)

Trying to keep the momentum going I made some more progress painting tonight. I probably painted for a good hour, slow and methodical. By the time I finished the initial coat, I still had plenty of paint left and other areas had dried so I just kept going back and overlapping. Not sure if that's good practice or not, but it seemed to work okay. Trying to spend a bit more time and energy on the areas that will be visible as well.

I searched around a bit. I'm finding anything from 'chemicals used in acrylic paint are bad for natural fibres' to 'natural fibres don't take to loads of water very well' as below. "The reason that synthetic brushes are often used for painting with acrylics is that the hairs are not damaged after soaking in water. The synthetic fibers also are durable if acrylic paint partially dries in the brush. Let’s face it, acrylic paint dries really fast and can subject the brush to extremely damaging conditions. The animal hair used in making natural hair brushes, on the other hand, can absorb water. Soaking these brushes in water for a long period of time can ruin the natural hairs." It sounds kind of like synthetic fibres reject the paint and natural fibres draw it up the hairs and into the ferrel. I guess this doesn't happen with oil paints because they're not water based, and don't dry so fast. Seems like drawing the water out of the acrylic would also cause the paint to dry even faster on or off the brush.

Finished the exterior with about 8 coats - looking really good. Decided to tackle the inside tonight with the first coat... All I can say is - it's a good thing a lot of this is going to be covered by floor boards and thwarts. 😳

Well.... That's interesting advice. I don't recall the type being listed I bought them. Is there a way to know by look and feel? I have no issue getting some new brushes if needed, I just want to make sure I get the right ones that'll last. I also have no idea what constitutes a 'good brush'. I generally just try to find something in the 5 to 10 dollar range. 🤷‍♀️ I mean, if there's a specific brand recommended, I have no problem just buying that to avoid getting the wrong thing. Thanks again

Appreciate the additional comments. I don't have a wire brush at the moment anyways. It's been soaking overnight, I'll clean it up and take a look shortly. Good to know it's generally not a big concern. I just ordered some proper thinner, retarder and some better paint (been using ME kit paint). I expect these to make things a bit easier, but thinking ahead, I keep wondering if investing in an airbrush would be worthwhile. I'm only working on small boats so far and in already predicting some issues with larger projects.

Quick update: I’ve been making progress on painting and finally feel like I’m getting past the mental block I had with this one. Doing some research and reading responses here helped me find some clarity. This time around, I’m taking a different approach than I did with the dory. That one got about three diluted coats—this pram is now at six and still building. The white paint is part of the challenge, but it’s improving with each layer. I hadn’t realized a dozen coats could be normal when brushing acrylics. It’s not perfect—some uneven spots where it pooled—but good enough for a work boat at this scale. I plan to experiment with retarder, proper thinner, and sanding sealer next time, as Jim recommended. I’ll probably hold off until after the smack, but I’m also considering better-quality paint, since the ME paints seem a bit grainy and don’t thin well—possibly part of the issue. Either way, it’s a learning model, and I’m glad to be moving forward again. Thanks for following along. Matt EDIT: One my my biggest realizations is that acrylics dry so damn fast you can apply 3 coats in an hour. I also washed out an old container that I can use to batch thin paint for a day. Before today I was pouring onto a pallet, thinning, painting and tossing the rest. Batching it in a sealed container and not waiting 12-24 hours to apply the next coat is making a huge difference!

Thank you all! Yes, acrylic so luckily the 'easiest' option. I'll try some of the solvents mentioned and soaking. I have that brush soap and it's great, it just didn't save the deep stuff on this one (I think I got it after a few paintings). I'll check out some brass brushes to help down the road.

This is how my brush looks most of the time. It was just cleaned. I noticed there's a bit of paint at the base of the bristles which may have caused this. I'm not sure how - I don't let paint dry on it, keep it wet, wash it immediately after. I only put paint on the very tip, but it quickly travelled up the bristles and always saturates the whole brush. I feel way out of my element when painting like it's an entirely separate hobby with text books worth of information. I had a mental block when I got to painting this model, but am trying to push through it now.

Thank you sirs! Sounds like it's a non issue. Agreed. I've been thinking similarly and less concerned with potential issues, while also trying to use this as as much of a learning experience as I can. Let's see how the top coats turn out. I'll look into airbrushing when getting to the bigger projects.

Log #11 - Painting Coming out of one of the most brutal winters I can remember, I'm looking to finish priming and painting the pram. I had already finished priming the interior, the exterior needed one more coat, and I also made the common mistake of not filling the last cut line on the transom before painting. Spoiler: the paint did not fill the line in, so I sanded back, filled and reprimed. However, I'm coming across an issue. When prepping to put the second coat of primer on the exterior, I noted it was thickening up quite a bit. Rather than using some 'bad' primer, I grabbed some of the OcCre stuff I had lying around. It seemed quite blotchy when applying it so I was immediately wondering if I made a bad mistake by switching primers halfway through. I let it dry overnight and today I noticed it's quick shiny. Now I'm wondering if I should've stopped after the first coat, and went to normal paint. Will this gloss cause an issue - did I screw it up by using 1 coat each of different primers, or is this just a normal characteristic of some primers? @Jim M P.S. Thanks again for the advise on painting. I'm still using a brush and the stuff with the kit, but I picked up some spray primer I'll use on the smack and hopefully develop some better painting skills for future projects. Pics of the sanded and filled transom + odd glossy primer for reference:

Your pram looks great! Nice work! Good luck on the smack.

Awesome job on the stand! Really adds to it. I may need to steal your ideas when I get to making mine. I appreciate your log in this one.

Once again, I appreciate the response. One last question - I was given a 'wood conditioner' with the kit. This is strictly a pre-stain and has nothing to do with the painting process - is that correct?

@Jim M that's interesting, I'll look a bit into it. So is the idea to seal the wood with shellac then paint over it as mentioned above? I haven't come across something like this yet,is it what's typically done on plastic models which is why it's sealed first? I see Mr surfacer is meant for plastic (thought I might be looking at the wrong thing,I only did a quick Google)

Time, for an update, but first I have a few questions. Unlike the dory, I'll be priming this one. I have both Occre and ME primers show below: 1. Instructions suggest spray on primer (eg. Rust-Oleum primer) - Should I buy some of that instead of brush on? 2. If I don't use spray primer, does the brush on primer need to be thinned similar to the paint? 2a. Is one better than the other between ME & Occre or is this more of a personal preference/doesn't matter type of thing? Log #9 - Row locks, rub rails, dagger board, rudder, thwarts Progress has been slow, but it has been. I enjoyed making the row lock pads, I find a lot of kit modelling is sanding off char and then sanding some more so it was nice to do a little carving, even though it was incredibly basic. They're straightforward, as is the rudder gudgeon pad. I clamped a block of wood and used an 'upside down' chisel blade to carve them, then clamped to drill them out and cleaned up. The rub rails are self explanatory, nothing special here, and the pads glued in place. It was nice to have some of the work on the thwarts done from earlier steps. All that was left was to sand down the width of the middle thwart. I already fit the forward and aft thwarts, they just need some cleaning up to take the char & edges off. Sanding the rubber went smoothly. However, it felt like I sanded the daggerboard for an eternity, and it still isn't as loose as I'd like. I'm trying to avoid it getting jammed in place once painted and installed. I feel like I've taken off enough thickness from the daggerboard, I'm going to try filing down the inside of the daggerboard case some more to make for a looser fit before painting. In a full shot up above you can see I still hadn't finished the tiller slot on the rear transom yet. I wasn't sure what to do with this yet since the instructions incorrectly stated a 3/8" file (I believe it's probably 3/16" as mentioned by at least one other). Rather than buying a file for this purpose, I wrapped a piece of sandpaper around my brush handle and sanded it out that way. This worked fine and is complete now (no picture). If I remember right, I believe I need to complete the dagger board 'stop', add the midship thwart 'retainers' and refine the remaining thwarts before I'm ready to paint. I'm keeping my eye on the price of the PROXXON Disk Sander TG 125/E as I feel like it'll be a nice first power tool to add. I believe it'll help with cleaning up char and more importantly getting precise angles that I sometimes struggle with. If anyone has an experience with it, or other recommendations I appreciate any input! Thanks for following, Matt

I think he's referring to the notch for the tiller. I found 3/8" to be massive also and thought they meant 3/16". The etch mark is closer to that size. I skipped that part until I assemble the tiller then I'll fit it and decide which way to proceed. Looks like Scott used 3/8" above which doesn't look bad at all.

Holy cow. Incredible job. I only just jumped in the last few weeks here, but I appreciate the intricate details none-the-less.