Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

[profesorul]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Well, after a couple hours of scribing, I have to admit defeat. Yes, defeat. Years ago, I re-scribed a boat that I had found to be scribed incorrectly. That seemed to go very well. I scribed the living sh^t out of that boat, and it looks good. And that success gave me every optimism that I could do this hull as well. But that was a much thinner collection of cloth and resin. This boat is very, very thick. I tried every little trick I knew to make the scribing work, but to no avail. The scribes were more often than not straying widely from the guide lines, despite using a template of shapes to use as a guide.

The long and short of it is I will use the plans to locate the correct location of the limber holes, both top and bottom, but that's it. This boat will be smooth and detail-free, much to my frustration and dismay.

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I understand You Perfectly .
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MARIUS

[Guest]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

How about having it sprayed with a high build two pack primer, get some thick coats sprayed on to build up enough to scribe into. Then scribe into that.

it needs to be two pack paint, if you try it with single part solvent primer it will be too soft.

Brian Stark did that with one of Steve Neill's 212 kits, which enabled him to put a full set of scribed panels and hatches in, and of course that model is still available from Sub Driver.

[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Define two pack primer.... I have some high-build up primer, but have never heard of two pack.

e.

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[Guest]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Another alternative, which has been covered by Dave Merriman in the past, is to grind out a larger trough in the area you wish to scribe with a dremel or equivalent. Then fill that area in with a two part polyester filler, sand flush with the hull, then scribe your details into that.

[Ralph --- SSBN 598]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

There are so many lines on the Akula, I don't think it would be practical to grind all the lines, fill, then scribe.
Using layers of primer then scribing through the primer seems like a much easier way to get that many lines on.

I use the method of the first couple of passes are light.
This makes a shallow groove that the scribe tool can follow.
Some times the light scribing is all that is needed.

I use an Exacto knife to scribe with.
But I do not use the sharp side of the blade.
I use the back side.
It follows the tape or steel ruler guide much better.
Te sharp side wants to make it's own track to follow and will wonder off the guide very easily.

I also use the back side of the Exacto knife to cut sheet plastic.
1/16" plastic takes about 5 or 6 passes then the plastic will break along the line if not cut all the way through.

[Guest]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

I agree if you have a lot of scribe work to be done then primer is the way to go.

As I said it has to be 2K primer, because that is effectively a resin (often polyurethane based). gnerally this stuff has to be sprayed ina controlled environment with an air fed mask, because it's got a lot of nasties in it e.g. isocyanates.

Therefore it's best to take it to a spray shop. if you get a friendly painter, they'll probably blow a couple of coats over the boat for a the price of a drink, as they can probably fit it in with a bigger job.

I personally have never had much luck scribing directly into polyester gelcoat- it tends to be too hard and/or brittle to scribe well. Epoxy might scribe better, only had minimal experiecne with epoxy glass hulls however.

[JWLaRue]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Erich,

Try using a miniature triangular file to get the initial line laid down. I find that I get good control when trying to scribe 'hard' surfaces.

-Jeff

[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

I tried out the grind and fill method, and it does work, but it's correct that there are so many details on the boat that this method would take forever. I'm going to try with some high build auto primer and see how that goes.

[bwi]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

I really enjoyed your work....it would be a pity to give up on the scribing.
I have just made my first scribe line on my boat as a test and it worked out well. I made my hull out of polyester with gelcoat.

What I did is the what Andy has suggested to you. I have sprayed the hull with 4 layers of 2K automotive primer and wet sanded in between. I alternated the colors- gray and red. The paint gives a good base to get your scribe line started.

grtz,
Bart

[thor]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

It is a filled epoxy resin gel coat I experimented with. Works great, but too expensive to use for production. It is NOT polyester resin. I don't use that stuff. It is 100% epoxy.

[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

That's a shame, because it really is good stuff. I almost don't want to hurt it.

[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Just waiting for a warm day to take her outside and blast it with several coats of primer. Perhaps Tuesday.

e.

.

[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Ok, so I'm impatient. I popped some windows and am blasting inside. Yeah, yeah....

First, a coat of red filler primer and a quick anding to fill in all the little scratches, dings, and dents.

Next I'm blasting one coat every 15 minutes of grey high build filler primer by Duplicolor from my local auto parts store. Duplicolor makes a "black" which is really a very dark grey, as well as a "red", which is a dead ringer for anti-fouling red. Both provide a matte finish and have been my colors of choice for nuke boats. Yes, I rattle-can them. Looks good, the color never changes in case of needed repair jobs down the road, and it's relatively cheap. I can hear some of you cringing now. Cringe away. Rattle cans are just fine, dammit.

The purpose of all of this is to have a generous layer of primer onto which to dig in the scribe lines.

e.

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[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Oops, forgot the pictures. Must be the paint fumes.....





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[eckloss]

Re: Matt Thor 60" 1/72 Scale Akula II

Now we're cooking with gas!

I laid up about 8 layers of filler primer onto the upper hull over the course of a couple hours, pausing in between coats for about 15 minutes each time. As I write this, it is now 2am, so the paint has been curing for 6 hours.

I tried various tools to scribe on the ass end of the hull, near the prop area where I could sand it back down without interfering with any later scribing areas. I tried my original scribing tool, as well as a few others, and the best result I got was from a small square file. Thanks for the tip, Jeff (no pun intended).

When scribing, it can best be described as cutting through a block of cold butter. It's soft but firm at the same time, and takes a couple of passes before it digs through and down to the smooth, hard gel coat beneath. When the tool hits the gel coat, it glides effortlessly about, giving a nice, deep, crisp line. A little hard to determine from the picture, but it will give a great look once done. Thanks for all the tips gentlemen. Much appreciated.



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