Dave. Considering the amount of time spent actually in the water, simply applying several coats of (thinned a bit if you want) ordinary (grey in this case!) household undercoat and then a couple of topcoats of Humbrol or whatever will be quite adequate.

Thinned sanding sealer will obviously penetrate a bit more, and as Larry states, the method is as used by Glynn.

I have been using Eze cote water based resin and fine glass tissue for the last few models and it is the business. Easy clean brushes, no stink..can be applied in the front room. The glass cloth is like silk, and conforms very well to curves, will give a much tougher finish than dope/paper.

Up to you, everyone has their own method. They all work, you could pick any of them and be quite satisfied.

Ashley

I also agree with Ashley and Colin that Eze Cote is an excellent finishing product. I have used it on a couple of models now. I'm in the final stages of building a Higgins PT boat from a Model Boats plan, with ply formers and a sheet and plank balsa hull, and I'm very pleased with the results using this product in conjunction with fine glass cloth – simply follow the instructions on the bottle!

HI Mick

The site you need to look at is http://www.easycomposites.co.uk they are specialists in epoxy, glass cloth etc, the epoxy can be thinned with meths to make it runny, also try using your wifes tights to cover your hull, to seal the inside pour thin epoxy into each compartment and role the hull to speed it round, what doesn't soak in brush it into the next compartment.

Regards

Mark

Eze-Cote isn't intended to add strength like, for example, chopped-strand matting or heavyweight woven cloth used in conjunction with epoxy or polyester resin. Its use is to give the outer surface a smooth durable base for a paint finish. I use 0.6gm cloth from DeLuxe Materials. Use one coat of Eze-Cote to apply the cloth, allow to dry for at least 20 minutes then sand off the excess from round the edges. Apply another coat of Eze-Cote, allow to dry then attack it with 180, 240 and 320 silicon-carbide finishing paper. Give it a thorough dusting off before priming etc.

If you want to waterproof the inside of the hull then you would best use polyester or epoxy resin. Depending on the strength of the existing hull you might not need any matting or cloth at all – just slop in a good thick coat of resin and let it set for at least 48 hours. It will slowly run into all the cracks and gaps and set up hard.

Bluebird swears by glassfibre tissue but I've only ever used it as part of the hull laminating process i.e. between the gelcoat and the matting/ lay-up resin.

DM

Mick
Is there any sort of finish on there at the moment? If so then Eze-Cote, being water-based, probably won't stick to it. If not then it would be a sound BASE for a waterproof finish e.g. add primer and topcoats from aerosol spray cans. Epoxy and polyester are both used as laminating resins but polyester is much cheaper and much, much smellier. Epoxy sands much better. I use polyester for waterproofing inside the hull and epoxy finishing resin (Z-Poxy) in conjunction with glassfibre cloth to form a base for the outside finish. Eze-Cote is an alternative to the epoxy finishing resin. It's easier to apply and clean up but not as good a finish as epoxy IMHO.

Dave M

Dave M…..thanks for the post. The hull is unpainted, rubbed down very smooth and I would guess that it is plywood. When I think of "epoxy resin", a thick syrupy liquid comes to mind. Is this the stuff that I would be using, albeit watered down with meths? Is epoxy resin essentially the same as glassfibre resin?

Mick

hello Mr M see you have dragged me into this topic – as if I need dragging into anything about using fibre glass resin and tissue, saying I swear by it – I don't know about swear by the method but I have sworn at it a few times – especially when the resin hasn't gone off. & left with a gooey mess to try and clean up

Mick, there is a vast difference between polyester resin and epoxy resin; just to give you a broad outline; polyester resin is very temperamental in many ways and to being with :

1. you have to get the mixture between hardener and resin spot on, if you don't add enough hardener the mix sometimes doesn't go off and can stay tacky for weeks on end. If you mix too much hardener in – it can go off rapidly generating great amounts of heat which can sometimes ignite. Or if it doesn't ignite it starts smoking and turns the mixture into a form of cinder toffee which unfortunately you cant eat.
2. you have to have a reasonable temperature, no lower than 15 degrees and it has to be a dry area where you are working, this again can upset polyester resin. If the temperature is too low or too damp the resin wont go off.

That's just a couple of the downsides of polyester resin. The good side is its a lot cheaper than epoxy.

Now, for epoxy resins, one of the downsides is you have to be very careful while handling this because some people are very allergic to it, if it gets on the skin – it can cause some nasty rashes. It doesn't smell as strong as polyester resin, but it does have an odour. The good side of it is the mixing – one portion of hardener to an equal amount of resin. That is 1:1 ratio, on the majority of epoxy resins.

The next good thing about epoxy is that its not so temperamental to temperature – it will set at a lower temperature than polyester.

Now, we have been speaking about tissue matts – one has to remember this:

fibre glass tissue matt or heavier gauge matting cannot be used with epoxy resins. This is because the fibre glass matting has a bonding agent, which bonds the strands of glass together in the makeup and this bonding agent dissolves when polyester resin is mixed with it, but, it will not dissolve with epoxy and you just end up with a mess. Make sure you sue the correct materials for the epoxy.

Hope this is of some help.

aye

I am finished editing now by the way

John

Edited By bluebird on 15/09/2014 17:29:05

Edited By bluebird on 15/09/2014 17:29:44

Edited By bluebird on 15/09/2014 17:30:51

Edited By bluebird on 15/09/2014 17:31:31

Hi Fellas

Can i bring you back to the company i mentioned. http://www.easycomposites.co.uk they supply all the glass cloth, chopped mat, epoxy resin.

All mail order unless you are in Stoke on Trent.

Someone mentioned Deluxe Materials, fantastic products at a price. Eazycote brilliant £13 a bottle, Epoxy £8, Glass cloth .6oz is half the price.

I have no interest in the company other than great stock at superb prices, reasonable mail-order cost.

Mark

Thank you all for the wealth of information that you have provided.

Mick