AeroKits Sea Urchin

After the rub down.

As you can see the hull is now totally flat, and the boot topping line is pretty much part of the hull with no ridge, there are a few tiny spots along the line where it is a little raised but those will fill in over the next few coats,

I’ll now go and finish the boat in thin coats until I have the surface I require for a good polish.

It wasn’t that much work, took about an hour with some 1000 grit and water to clean up, I’m glad I attempted this now as doing it earlier would I expect resulted in rubbing through the paint, here I only had one tiny spot of rub through at the bow to which a paint brush and a drop of paint sorted and I sanded that back, feathered into the hull and you now can’t even see where this was.

It’s slow progress but it will pay off in the long run, this is the first time I’ve attempted to coat a finished painted surface on a boat with this varnish,( first attempts were on stands to which I had good results for trials) so going slow and steady and learning by what I can and can’t do is paying off for a good finish.

I’ve used this on deck work countless times but varnish on bare wood is much more forgiving for a sand though mistake where as on paint removing the paint is a disaster.

Overall besides the amount of work and time it’s taking I am confident for a decent final finish to the hull and pleased on how it’s turning out.
But you know what they say “slow and steady wins the race” and in this case slow is working well although I’m having to fight my usual impatience!

On a side note my Mrs gave me one of my birthday presents early, it finished my Star Trek collection off nicely, although I know she overpaid but totally worth it, now I just need to find a shelf big enough for 140 star ship models!!!

Things were going so well...

I guess my little paint repair didn’t feather in as well as I expected...

As you can see on one side of the hull perfect, the other in the 2nd photos  by the bow now shows a different shade of light green where I thought I had fixed the little rub through!

To say I’m disappointed is an understatement given how much work I put into keeping the hull tidy,
This leaves me with one option, to mask up, sand down the light green and respray to get an even colour on the top half of the hull, it’s a days work added to current this difference In shade to which will have to wait a couple of days now while I wait for more tape to arrive in the post.

Frustrated yes.... heavy handed yup....

It could be worse I could have to respray the whole bloody boat but it’s fortunate I only have a single colour to do and this time I hope no mistakes....

Not a costly error as I still have a couple of pots of the colour left for such an event but annoyed about this over a single little 2mm white dot to forcable respray half the hull to correct the shade difference absolutely, my only assumption is that the repaired area was sprayed onto the epoxy coat and not to the base primer has kept it from turning the slightly darker colour that it was on the primer, only good thing to come from this is that repairs later to paint work will avoid having an entire hull respray to correct a patch that’s not quite the right shade as now any paint on top will be the same shade all over as the epoxy will be below the paint work and then above...

What can I say shit happened... and it’s not the first time paint work gives me headaches, oh well a few days on the grinder and be good as new...

I was almost tempted to omit this from the blog but I do like to be honest even when I make a mistake...





After I’ve fixed this mess I made I’ll revarnish the hull to seal it all in, give it only a few coats and just buff it up and avoid a glass finish and just go for a decent gloss shine.

My options are limited when forced to a repair like this it will still be a nice looking boat and the finish will still be excellent although just not as good as the deck.

What can I say I only have myself to blame and I’m kicking myself right now about it.

Well this is the extent of the damage on the light green I’ve sanded back flat and almost to the paint in some places, as you can see from the photos how bad my issue was, I did avoid sanding below the boot topping as the dark green is pretty good but also had the thicker layers of epoxy due to the way the boat was varnished

The damage isn’t that bad but these 3 patches show the extend of my injury to which I can only repaint the light green till it’s a level and even colour surface once again.

It is annoying and most my own fault being a little careless with how mi h pressure I used during my sanding, the good news being from this it’s given me an opportunity to reduce the paint build up under the decks rub rail, fix an off patch of paint on the far top side corner which was there from day one but I ignored and finally repairs later now will be of the same shade as the paints hitting the epoxy and not the base coat so this I hope will allow repairs later without this being done again.

However I was surprised how quickly I got the boat back to flat and ready for paint showing at least should I be forced to do this again it only took me an hour to pull it back and a day to come to respray, and back to varnish.

Overall it’s a mistake of my own doing for something as simple as to much pressure and another lesson learnt, but like I had said before this was my first time epoxy varnishing a painted surface to this extent and shape. so I’ve learnt a lot about what not to do.

Although it feels like 10 steps backwards in reality it’s a days work to fix to which in the grand scheme of things ain’t that bad for a mistake correction.

Anyway I can’t do anything else for a few days while I wait for some more masking tape ( I ran out redoing the rudder) but it will give me time to cool off from the boat and plan ahead a little clearer.

When it comes to resprayinf I’ll put as many coats on until I have that level uniform colour, and I’ll feather the bottom edge into the boot topping every coat to reduce any build up as this issues was a used by trying to bridge the boot topping to start with!
In any case should I get a ridge line during the varnishing, I will simply light sand it as flat as I can and live with a ridge line, I’ll also not attempt to get a super mirror finish, instead just go for the much simpler high gloss, it requires less varnish, less work and this time I know less chance of mistakes because if this happens a 3rd time I’ll just cry

Respray of the top colour in progress..

3 or 4 coats should even all this up, I’ll know more after a couple of coats during rubbdowns if any odd colour patches appear.

All I can do is keep going until I’ve got the even coat, then back to varnishing.

4 coats later and all fixed, just needs a light rub down and I’ll put a coat of varnish on to seal, then attempt to carefully feather the mask line a little, should be ok now.
The paints still wet so forgive a couple of the photos as they look like the surface is all over the place but I can assure you it’s dead flat and smooth!

First coat of epoxy was laid on the new paint, I’m going to layer up the new paint with 4 coats over two days and give it a super light rub down then I’ll go back and finish the entire hull, I’m just rebuilding layers up right now, I’m also going to only light rubband flecs of dirt from the hull rather than doing full rub downs to avoid another incident like this, I’m also going to go up as far as 15-20 coats to be on the safe side to reduce rub throughs and that should polish up to a great shine, I’m just going to avoid a full mirror finish on the hull as the rub downs between coats to achieve that sort of finish is risky and although I avoided a mistake in the first 5 coats it’s was the 6th that clearly cost me a respray.

Again some trial and error using this as a hull finish, and in future I’ll just laquer a hull as this is a lot of work for very little extra payoff in comparison.

Lesson learned but unless we try these things we will never know the limitations of materials nor push our hobby forward.

I’ll keep you posted... any further issues and I expect I’ll rub down the entire hull, respray and laquer. I’m hoping to not need to go there but that’s my contingency plan for another mistake.

But fingers crossed this time.

My wee Sea Urchin, 58 years old. Restored to its original colours and format 2 years ago using correct off white and the "Heather Bell" Burgundy dark red made for us by Mark of Tramar Coatings who made all the paint for us when we restored the famous historic canal boat of that name, on which we lived for 5 years.  Mark could actually MAKE paint for you if he liked the cut of your jib and I guess he must have liked ours as he'd often bring us fish and chips as we had no road transport when we were stuck in the boatyard.

I really must take some better ones, but it's up in the loft currently in it's carry case.  That switch is original. The divided floor enable me to put in an Ever Ready flat bell battery  Of course these days it has to be a 3 cell box with 3 AAs in. What we used to call U16 batteries.  I can't recall what we called the flat bell batteries. They had thin brass contacts and there are fine slots in the floor cross member to take those, to keep the battery in place. Small croc clips connected the switch to the brass contacts and it all sat beneath the floor out of sight. I could get at least half an hour of fun from that set up. The motor is a tiny Kako. All that white on the photo is the addition of polystyrene for floatation.  I have to get some glass cut for the windows as it originally had real glass glued inside the holes.  It still has its original shaft and twisted tinplate prop. Free running, of course. Great exercise on a pond as big as Valentine's Park, Ilford.  I have old 8mm cine of me as a proud 7 year old carrying the model back up the climb from Borth-y-gest beach to the car park!  I'm now nearly 66!  If the house caught fire, this would be saved right after the Mrs. and the dog.

Cheers,
Martin

Back to the urchin now workshops built... I’ve opted to stop epoxying the boats hull, I have it two more coats bringing it up to 5 coats on the light to 12 now on the dark green, I took some time to buff and light polish the rudder which only had 4 coats and the outcome was a nice high sheen which is a good overall finish for a boat this scale.

I’ll leave the hull for a week to harden up and buff that in the same way, leaving only the wood work to finishes varnishing which will be a higher gloss finish.

I also had a slight mishap with the roof when I went to polish the brass work and slipped with the buffing brush and leaving a polish burn in the paint.... roll eyes here....

Needless to say sanding and repainting the roof is the only fix it’s not a huge deal since fortunately it’s white, but it is an annoyance I could have done without. None the less this gives me opportunity to epoxy the roof over the laqure which burnt so easily where as the epoxy dosnt do that, since the rudder was machine buffed with no I’ll effects.

I’ll crack the roof out this week while the hull hardens off and then start the deck work and roof finishes.

Roof issues fixed, I’ll give it some epoxy as I start doing the deck work, possibly tomorrow.

A little annoying but the air brush makes the job much less of a ball ache.

Well let’s hope I can get this build finished with few interruptions as possible now fingers crossed.

Back to the Urchin for tha badly neededt push to finish.

The roof has had a coat of epoxy, and will have subsequent coats as I progress with the boats deck and cabin.

The boats deck and cabin have had a good run down to remove oversprays and any marks it’s picked up over the hull work ready for some epoxy, at present it’s drying out from its wet sand , but a little later today I’ll get it’s first official coat on.

I’ll make an effort to mask up some of the hull to stop drips of epoxy catching the finished hull although limited as the rub rails have had over 15 coats so skipping over the edges wouldn’t be an issue once I get a singular coat on all over.

And that’s the first of 20 coats for the deck work!

With this heat and hopefully no dirt build ups I should be able to do 3-4 coats a day it goes hard within an hour with the heat we’re having.

Should I get any dirt buildup ( partials) I’ll have to stop and rub down the next day, this will be more promenant in the roof rather than the hull, but fortunately the roof will only need 4-6 coats similar to the hull to get a decent sheen.

As you can see after the rub down and it’s first coat it’s already picking up a shine!

Up to coat 6 today so almost half way, I’m getting 3 coats a day with this heat so it’s fast progress.

It’s also getting very glossy that reflections are starting to show more clearly with each rub down and subsequent coat.

I took some time to test the hardness of the hulls epoxy so gave it a light rubbing compound, T cut and polish with some bras-so results are good and the hulls started to pull up very nicely, I expect another week and another polish with some wax will bring up the hull perfectly.

Back to varnishing now tho...

Coat 10... so glossy! May only need 4-5 more coats at this rate

Got to 12 coats on the epoxy yesterday and decided enough is enough, i’ld rather buff this boat to a semi gloss than full glass also due to its scale going full gloss may detract from the models “scale appearance”

Once polished up it will be similar to the hull a decent flat coat with a good shine on it. Couldn’t be happier with that and I’m not prepared to put an extra 3 weeks into the deck just to mirror it.

So today I started fixing the light fittings, I hated the way the firsts set came out, their size (15mm) is far to tricky to solder cleanly tiny 1mm pins also the pins struggle to be handled once they have been heated and break easily.

So I opted for a 2nd attempt which was my original thought but I decided against it as the support would have poked through the rear side wall, but with a tiny tweak to position this is what I’ve gone for...

Took two of the hand rails and sanded one edge flat, and soldered to the base of the light fitting, the. Drilled a new hold into the hole which lines up with the hulls support frame. Given a light buff for now and bingo decent mount for the Nav lights and also left the hole under free if I decide to fit led’s later without effecting the hulls finish.

I think by the photos you can agree with me the 2nd attempt looks much better

First attempt....

i

Finished 2nd set...

This evening I took the time to buff up the roof and reinstall the hand rails

Finally the roof saga is over!

FINISHED!!!!

Jammed through today and finished the boat, buffed polishes, windows fitted, fittings fitted, rudder installed, prop tightened and photos taken!

That was 2 years on and off not bad fastest boat I’ve finished yet

Enjoy guys!

she is a real beauty, Aron...….I have never seen one built in my later life using modern materials, varnishes, resins and fittings to such a beautiful standard...….

for a simple little boat, and my favourite aerokits model, she is a stunning job.

If building this via the plan it’s a simple boat that would take littally only a few weeks, the shear amount of modifications, adjustments and additions took a lot of thought and planning.

This makes what is a simple £60 kit into something more, but I guess that is the beauty of semi kit or hull kits that customisations are only limited to your imagination.

I’ld like to see other attempt this kit with their own styles.

Overall the kit itself is a bit of a pain at times, and I cannot emphasis this enough... no matter what you do for a deck add a sub deck first! Believe me the original deck is a joke without a decent sub deck to get it stuck down to, leaks will occur without it. This I do firmly believe should be an addition to the kit or even modification to make the deck a single piece at least.

Now clearly I made a new deck for my variation, but it was the original deck that forced my hand on that matter as I did want to keep as faithful as possible up until that point.

Overall not a hard kit but defiantly not one for a beginner.

The original kit is clearly great value for money, and I have no doubt you could finish it for an extra £60 with electrics in top of the kit price... this variation I know I’ve easily tripled the kit price, not that it matters to some degree, but in most cases sometimes spending that extra an get your model up another notch in standard.

I’m glad you like it Neil, I have one more similar to this to build at some point, along with 3 other bulkhead kits, a tug and I still have to finish my larger aeronaut chriscraft style boat.

But for a change, I’m doing something next I usually avoid... war ship in fine scale! Keep eyes peeled for that I’m working quietly on it for now!

I have from a young boy, loved this wee boat...………...but having seen your build of her, there is no way I could ever come up with a model as beautiful as this one……...i'll just content myself in knowing that I have always loved a champion..she really is a cracker.

You could always give it a go neil, take a break from your norm, and at £60 for the kit it’s defiantly worth an attempt!.

Or mail me the kit and I’ll mail you back a finished version

Urchin in the sun

 A lovely model Aron. 

very very nice boat   


david

Very nice RR. Puts me off attempting something like that as I don't have the patience to achieve that sort of finish.

Barrie

I do agree pacience is not my strong suit, but sadly the only way to achieve finished like this is perseverance, a lot of work and I mean a lot and than some... patience more than I have but I’m thankful the Mrs keeps me on track!

As you can see from the blog although I’ve built this model on and off over two years, from April until now excluding a 3 week break to do the workshop and the decorating inside I have been none stop on this daily for more than several hours at most points.

Once you get to final sanding then onto paintwork and epoxy finish’s it’s nothing but labour intensive, and if you miss a coat in 24 hours you have to give it a minimum of 3-4 days break before more coats can go on as the epoxy eats into the previous layer it’s all timing timing and timing..

What a pain!

But the end results speak for them selfs and I’m happy with how this one turned out, even without the mirror deck I actully think this looks more realistic for a boat this period, imperfections add to character, after all it isn’t a chriscraft, or aquarama style boat.

I’ve seen many ittetstions of this boat through it’s build journey and and many have been painted with enamels and kept to the basic kit and still look a treat, but like most boats it comes down to your personal style and how far you wish to take the project.

For me I like show quality as I rarly run boats anymore, but my dad dose take them in the Cornwall and Devon tours during boat season and it always a reward to hear the comments or Dad drop the certificates off with the boat end of the year!

Anyway drolled On enough with my bull... glad you all enjoyed the finished boat and the build, and thank you for the kind comments!

Although you wrote this build-blog about your Sea Urchin some time ago I have only recently read it and I found it really interesting - especially the small mod's and the amount for time you spent on the finishing (and re-finishing!).

As a young lad I always liked the look of the smallest model in the Aerokits range - but I never bought one - until now!  I sent away for one from SLEC and I am looking forward to building it as soon as I get some clear bench space (although it won't take too much space!).

Being away from model boating for over 40 years I have a lot to learn about new adhesives (I always used Cascomite or Aerolite 306 !) and new finishing materials that are not either Japlac or Humbrol enamels!.

I do have an airbrush and for my sins I like to make and spray finish my 1/35 scale armour models (using acrylics), but I am interested in your reference to epoxy varnish - especially as it looks like you can apply it by airbrush as this would be something I would like to do.

Can you let me know what make and type of epoxy varnish you have found to work well through an airbrush and what thinners you use when spraying it please?

Also, "two pac" paint or varnish?  This is something else that was not around in my day, so can you give me a bit of info about it please and how to use it as it sounds like it could be a tough finish.

Thanks (in advance) for any help or advice you have time to offer.

Bob.

Hi bob sorry for the slow reply... I use generally for paintwork any car primer of the shelf, which ever is cheapest, a water based air brush paint, and varnish for paint work is any acrylic varnish rattle can, as for bare wood work i always use a 2 pac epoxy varnish, it’s the rustins 2 pac floor varnish, generally £40 a litre + a can of rustins thinners. 

The 2pac varnish is applied two coats daily over a matter of weeks until I get the consistent finish I want them it’s a sand t-cut and polish then waxing process.
 See my aeronaut classic ( the original build not the “reboot” version for more detailed instructions.

Hope it helps

Roadrunner wrote:

Hi bob sorry for the slow reply... I use generally for paintwork any car primer of the shelf, which ever is cheapest, a water based air brush paint, and varnish for paint work is any acrylic varnish rattle can, as for bare wood work i always use a 2 pac epoxy varnish, it’s the rustins 2 pac floor varnish, generally £40 a litre + a can of rustins thinners. 

The 2pac varnish is applied two coats daily over a matter of weeks until I get the consistent finish I want them it’s a sand t-cut and polish then waxing process.
 See my aeronaut classic ( the original build not the “reboot” version for more detailed instructions.

Hope it helps

Thank you - that does help.

I don't think I would have ever thought of using  Rustins 2pac epoxy floor varnish - or know that it could be airbrushed when diluted with Rustins thinners so that really is helpful.

The finish that you built-up on your Sea Urchin really looks impressive and I thought that you achieved that with the 2pac varnish.

I am going to take a look at your Aeronaut Classic build now - I have a lot to learn!

Stay safe.

Bob.

The wood finish is the 2pac but the paint finish is standard car paints and a bit of airbrushing ( generally the colours you may want arnt available in rattle can form, not unless you pay excessive prices)

Be aware the 2pac varnish cannot be put through an air brush. It will clog your brush and just isn’t practical as the way it’s applied is keeping a wet edge as it gels up almost instantly when you have the work area heated to the correct conditions to apply.

It’s not an easy process and has taken me a decade to perfect the technique. But if you go that way the finish is far superior, as long as you do the prep work, the rubbing down between The daily 2 coats.
The urchin when I did the finish on the paint was a tester if the 2pac would eat the paint work, fortunately it didn’t, as that model is a display piece I didn’t need a replaceable surface I wanted a wipe down the dust and done.

Any issues please feel free to ask.

I have checked your Aeronaut Classic build and can see that you brush the 2pac varnish on and don't use the airbrush to spray it on.

This makes sense as it needed to be "cut back" in any case and it saves some serious cleaning of the airbrush!

Stay safe!

Bob.

Hi, I appreciate date this is a very old topic, but I've just come across it while searching for Sea Urchin.
I built this kit as a young boy with my dad, and was so proud of the result at the time. I'm now 73 and looking for something to occupy my time, and wondering about building the model again. The unfortunate thing is that I've no idea where to obtain the plans.
Can you suggest a source, or would anyone be willing to loan me a copy that I would return.
Maybe a long shot, but worth asking !!

https://www.slecuk.com/boat-kits/sea-urchin


The above link will take you to SLEC where I bought my Sea Urchin kit.

At £39.95 for the kit, it represents really good value for money.  I have no idea where to buy a set of plans on their own, but at this price I was happy to buy the kit.

Surprisingly, the quality of the wood is much better than what was supplied in the old original Aerokits kit and it now include laser-lined decking too!

As a matter of interest I am 74 years old (75 this year) and also remember admiring this model in the those old Keil Kraft catalogues but never bought one......until recently!

Hi Thanks for the reply. I'll definately take a look at your link.
I was hoping for a set of plans, in that I'm now a bit bigger than I was as a young lad, and noticed that in the model boat mag April last year there was an article on upscaling Sea Urchin to a bigger model that sparked my interest, hence not directly heading for just a kit at the original size.
However, as I said, worth a look.
Malcolm.