1954 Chris-Craft Commander Express by mtdoramike - Dumas - RADIO - 36"

[mtdoramike]

On Sunday, March 26, 2017 at 5:09 PM, mtdoramike said:

 

[mtdoramike]

I'm back baby  

[mtdoramike]

I bought a new notebook and addded hotspot and tetherring to my cell phone or at least that is what my daughter tells me. So hopefully no more smoke signals.

 

 

mike

[CDW]

Looks like it's working like a charm.

[mtdoramike]

So far so good. Now to get back to some model work.

 

mike

[mtdoramike]

I have three sizes or weights of fiberglass cloth: 3/4 oz, 1 1/2 oz, and 4 oz. I wiill probably use the 4oz  which seeems to be more substantial at least for the exterior of the hull.

[mtdoramike]

4 minutes ago, mtdoramike said:

The top left is the 3/4 oz, top right is the 1 1/2 oz and the bottom right is the 4 oz material. 

 

[mtdoramike]

[mtdoramike]

I putttied and sanded three times and finally got an accceptable finish that I like. It's smooth as a babies bottom. But I made note of a few things I will mention:

 

1. I made sure to add the same amount of putty and in the same areas on both sides of the hull in order to keep the balance of the hull. The putty is heavier than the balsa wood.

2. When sanding the hull, DO NOT grab the hull and rough house it, caress it like a fine woman becaue if not, you will crack some planks.

 

  

[CDW]

She's a beauty, and the strength will come when you add that fiberglass and resin.

[mtdoramike]

Im thinking it might have been better to fiberglass and resin the inside first before ddealing with the outside of the hull. 

[CDW]

Can you still do the inside, or has construction concealed some of it? To work around those bulkheads, the lighter cloth might be more advantageous inside.

[mtdoramike]

No problem there, inside is wide open. I was thinking the same thing and will try the 1.5oz. cloth and see how that goes.

[mtdoramike]

Will not be any hobby work today, I'm baby sitting my grand baby and nothing comes between that 

[mtdoramike]

I tried the nickel plating, but it didn't work with a hoot. It actually started  pittting the metal parts. It seems that the metal parts aare a pot metal and doesn't take to well to being plated. I was skeptical anyway with type of black magic. Now , it would or at least it started coating a penny before I stopped the test. So after spening $50.00 on the caswell plating kit, I will not throw good money after bad trying any other of their black magic or supernatural things. Next will be aa can of spray paint.

[CDW]

Wow, that's bad news about the plating. Nickel plating is very finicky, as I have heard from Engineers who tied to use it in commercial electronics projects. Environment has to be totally clean, almost sterile, which is very hard to do. Just fingerprints will cause it to fail.

A tried and true method for a very nice chrome-like finish is to airbrush Alclad chrome paint onto a surface that is primered with a coat of black acrylic (like Tamiya) and is then totally dry, cured before the Alclad. It looks almost just like real chrome (or polished aluminum, or a number of other shiny choices). If you use Alclad, follow the primer instructions the bottle gives exactly. Anything else may fail because the paint is very "hot" and will cut right through other types of primer. 

[mtdoramike]

I put a layer of masking tape on the outside hull of the commmander, which will help with cleanup later and just in case some of the resin oozes out of any cracks that I missed.

[mtdoramike]

[CDW]

Are you taping the outside of the hull to prevent the resin from running through when you fiberglass the inside of the hull? Looks great so far.

 

Ooops - I just now saw your comment. Didn't see it when you first posted the picture.

[mtdoramike]

yeah it will mke for a easier clean up later. next time i will used smaller pieces of cloth rather than trying to go from the keel all the way up the sides. all in all not a bad job, but nothing to write home about either.

[CDW]

Yes, I always cut and work with small pieces rather than large ones. Particularly where you are working around bulkheads like that, small pieces are less prone to having bubbles underneath.

What I can see in your pictures looks like you did just fine.

[mtdoramike]

Thanks CD.

[mtdoramike]

[mtdoramike]

Once the interior was dry, I removed the masking tape to reveal a bunch of small holes, cracks that would have bbeen a bear to cleanup afterwards.

 

mike

[mtdoramike]

[mtdoramike]

This is the stuff that I used to thin the resin and it is some rough stuff. heavy fuming.  

[CDW]

Oh yeah....you need lots of ventilation for hot stuff like that. Can quickly cause some real health issues.

[mtdoramike]

[mtdoramike]

[mtdoramike]