The Ship Model Forum

James
Gel coat is best sprayed on but I do know builders who brush it on .You need about 25 mils thickness sprayed on at 8 mils per pass with the next coat put on before it dries .When you touch it you should just leave a finger print but not have any stick to your finger .Then you have to get the first layer of matt on before the gel coat dries or it will shrink .I am not sure how to do it by brush but I will e- mail someone I know who uses a brush and get back to you .
Good Luck
Richard

Thanks for the help. As I said, I need a compressor that will push more air but my wife would notice another large compressor laying around......

So I will try to make due with what I have.

Johnny
I heared back from my friend who uses a brush .Put on three thin coats instead of one thick one .Good Luck .

Thanks for the advice. I am looking at August before I can get that far due to my military commitments.

I will keep watching to see how your mould turns out.

Houston we have a mold !
Took the mold appart and popped out the plug .Here she is .








Now I can sleep at night !

Richard now that's good , very impressive work now you can rest till tomorrow
Dave Wooley

very nice richard,can't wait to see the first hull popped out

very well made done

I like it. As Russ said, I can't wait to see the first hull to be laid up in the mould.

Hi
Now it's time to put three coats of mold release wax on the mold .

Looking good Richard,

boy ,oh,boy .richard that mould looks as smoth as a babys bum,the hulls hopefully will not reqiure much tiddling.

Hi Richard you make it look easy . I guess if you are geared up for GRP work then no project is to daunting . Question why does it take three coats of waxing ?
Dave Wooley

Hi Dave
A new mold needs three coats of release wax .After that it should not need any more for a while .You need to let each coat dry for a hour between coats but I let it dry for a day between coats .

Hi
Bolted the mold back together in preperation of building a hull .Sprayed on some PVA before applying the gel coat .This only needs to be done on the first pull .



Next I sprayed on three eight mil layers of gel coat waiting for each one to become tacky before applying the next .If you touch it you should leave a finger print but not get any on you finger .



Next we put down a layer of resin then the matt .This has to be done before the gel coat completl y dries or it will shrink .



I let it sit over night then trimmed of the excess .Now is the hard part , waiting five days before I can take it out .





Bob has a bunch of goodies coming from England .He will be tacking over this build shortly .He will be building a tanker so now we need someone to build a Sangamon Class CVE .

Richard,
How many layers of mat do you put down? It seems like only one.

I was under the impression that there needed to be about 3 layers to make a strong hull. ( or perhaps you just have not got that far and I am being impatient )

Hi James
It's not over until the fat lady sings .Sorry if I gave you the impression that it was done .It is now .What we have is three layers total on the bottom up past the turn of the bilge then two layers on the sides .Also packed the bow and skeg area with cut up matt .





All trimmed up and waiting for Fri .

i am waiting with baited breath to see the hull poped out of the mould,

Great job there Richard . The hull for the Russian Corvette is being done in Canada at 1:72nd scale .Like yourself by a past master in the art of GRP . I'll stick to my end of the pitch and just watch the pros doing their job and doing it well.
Dave Wooley

Thank you Dave .
Lee at scale Shipyard , Don at Loyalhanna ,Joseph at Group 8 Models and Joe at WCWS and a few others are the pro's .I am just a beginer but thank you for your comment .I wish I had your modeling skills .