Fairey Huntress 23 Long Cabin Version

[harry smith 1Participant @harrysmith1]

If you stop looking at the girls you will not hit the buoys !!!!

Harry

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Very droll Harry! Guess what, I hit one when taking photos, fortunately not hard.

There are 6 buoys, which we race around, and the percentage of water that they take up is very small but they are like flippin' magnets!

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Lovely day at the lake but not enough wind for my yacht, so a few slow circuits and then put back in the car.

Then out with the Huntress. Pre-sailing checks picked up that the steering was the wrong way, soon sorted in the Tx. Then onto the water. As said before it pulled away nice and slowly but when working up to full throttle it wasn't going very fast! It didn't sound as though it was revving very high. When setting up the Tx I set the end-point for forward throttle at 100 (sounds logical) but the limit was 150 so I increased it to 140, the highest it would go. That was more like it, nicely on the plane and looked about scale speed, this is on 3S. Maybe a touch more speed would be nice but not essential – I have fitted a smaller prop than the one supplied as it was very tight on the threads.

I don't build light and with the stern-drive, battery and RC gear this little 23" boat has gotten quite heavy. But I think that is a good thing as it sits nicely on the water, corners in a controlled manner and produces a good wake. The steering throw is about right and it manoeuvres well at slow speed and corners well at high. It even reverses quite well. So no drama when coming into the jetty.

As you can see no windows yet, but the deck stayed bone dry with the chine rails doing their job. And no water via the stern-drive either.

Chris

[DJWParticipant @djw]

Looking very nice on the water Chris..! Perfectly poised… You must be very pleased. Maybe run a tap up that larger prop to ease the thread a bit.

David.

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Thanks David, yes I will do that and try the larger prop. No change to the angle of the stern-drive required. Forgot to say that after extended running at various speeds, the battery, ESC and motor all remained cool without water-cooling.

Very pleased with how it performed. Will finish the RC installation in the River Cruiser and try that next.

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Working in tandem with the River Cruiser. Window frames have been painted ready for gluing to the glazing.

Was going to start primer/undercoating the sides, front and back of the superstructure but then decided the roof needed another coat, so did that instead.

Chris

 

 

Edited By Chris Fellows on 01/08/2023 16:50:27

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

As said on the River Cruiser thread the roof looks pretty good, so at last I've put the first coat of blue primer/undercoat on. Will put another one on tomorrow and can then start the gloss.

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Didn't need another coat so I started the gloss.

Well at least I got this blue right! Full size Faireys are often painted in Oxford Blue but not always, dependent on what the owners want or think is right.

I thought it was a bit too dark for my liking so went for Sapphire Blue, which is a bit lighter and more vibrant and is just what I wanted.

Three coats on now and it's looking good – going to need a few more though. It's nowhere as dark as in the photo.

Also gave the deck a coat of varnish using the foam applicator and that's how I want it now. Used a brush before and put far too much on and it looked horrible. I know decks shouldn't be gloss but there won't be any little people on deck!

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Glued window frames to 0.5mm acetate.

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

This morning I cut out the windows from the acetate sheet. Tried a knife but found it easier using good quality nail scissors. I then removed the protective layer and painted the edges of the glazing and gave the frames another coat. Didn't know when ordering but the acetate has a very pale blue tint to it, so goes well with the Fairey colour-scheme.

This afternoon I entered the hothouse of the spare bedroom/work room just long enough to sand down the cabin/cockpit sides and apply another coat of gloss. Did the same with the River Cruiser but using primer/undercoat.

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Gave the sides another coat of blue yesterday and coverage is pretty uniform now. Inspected it this morning and looks OK but a lot of tiny particles in it, I think from the brush, which has been used a few times.

So after a light sanding with micro-mesh, broke out yet another new brush and applied what I hope is the final coat. Fingers crossed! Need to get yet more new brushes.

Edited By Chris Fellows on 15/08/2023 15:00:13

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

Chris, if I am after a perfect coat I will use a brand new tin of paint and a brand new brush. The brush I will wash in warm soapy water, then rinse, the day before using it to make sure there is no dust in the bristles. When I've painted it I leave the room for 24 hours to let it dry without me walking around kicking up a dust and I close all windows and doors.

No guarantees just trying to minimise the risk.

Edited By Richard Simpson on 16/08/2023 16:31:23

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Good idea on washing the brush beforehand Richard. They are new tins of paint. I do leave the room but can't shut the door!

I'm happy enough with the finish now. Ok, if you study it closely and turn it in the sunlight you can see odd specks and defects but from a short distance it looks fine and I want to move on! I think the overall look is going to be good, especially on the water.

I've learnt a lot from what I've painted so far but will try and up my game more ( but it won't be easy) when I paint my larger hulls as the blue is harder to achieve a good finish with than the white. I think it's a bit warm at the moment as well. Good for the paint running but dries quickly.

Chris

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

Hi all

Seems like a bit of a ghost town in here at the moment!

I haven’t done anything with the boats for quite sometime due partly to getting Covid (from hospital grrrr! – where are the Emojis?) the after effects lasting for some weeks with the result I wasn’t interested in doing much at all.

But now that we are entering that time of year, which was my reason for getting into model boats, I thought I’d better get going again.

Anyway I’ve been a right idiot! Remember me saying that the glazing was a pale blue? Well it isn’t. The colour was due to another protective film on the other side and I’d glued the frames to it! What a plonker! I only picked up on it because I decided to give the frames another coat of paint and so masked around the inside of the frames and noticed a few days later that where I’d masked up the surface was rippled. I’d used good quality 3M tape and couldn’t understand what had happened. Then the penny dropped! The frames was pretty well secured but I couldn’t leave them obviously.

So I separated the frames using a finger nail and reglued them to the acetate after removing the blue film! In my defence, they have used white film on white side and blue on the other and they are quite difficult to get off. Yeah, flimsy excuse I know!

Making the windows was another one of those jobs I didn’t fancy doing and gluing them in place was another. Didn’t go too bad in the end, though I have managed to get some Canopy Glue on the glazing. I’m hesitant to try and remove it as the acetate is easily scratched. I’ll try a test piece as I do have some special polish I use on my motorbike screen.

There’s five windows on this model and I’m now moving back to the River Cruiser which has eight!

It’s certainly quicker and easier getting photos into the posts but it was nice having the albums.

[Richard SimpsonParticipant @richardsimpson88330]

You can still make albums Chris, it’s just now you don’t ‘have’ to to be able to put a picture in a post.  I put an album up and was surprised that it was so easy.

[Colin BishopModerator @colinbishop34627]

They are called galleries here but bear in mind that you cannot copy a Gallery photo into a post. You have to insert it separately as the galleries and Forums are separate data structures.

Colin

[Chris FellowsParticipant @chrisfellows72943]

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