Painting and varnishing for beginners

Aeronaut Classic 
Having read too many posts on painting and varnishing, I think I may have a plan:
Sand and seal everything once, rubdown.
Below the waterline: prime, paint and rubdown x lots
Above the waterline: varnish and rubdown x lots

I will rubdown between coats of paint and varnish as many times as needed to get a good finish.

My main concern is : Can I use acrylic paint/varnish or should it be polyurethane based paint/varnish?

Sanding sealer will make the paint stretch and crack “crazy” look after a short time as it don’t “seal” the wood the way people think, Sanding sealer only locks down the strands of the surface for a better surface sand prior to being oiled, sanding sealer as a surface sealer just doesn’t work at actually “sealing” as it’s penetration is pretty low especially with hardwoods, the crazy paint on a sanding sealed surface is due to the wood still being able to move.

This is a common fact so please don’t make the mistake!

For a wooden boat you should seal the wood with lacquer 2 coats at least( rub down between coats) then primer, etch filler or standard car primers work fine,  colour then lacquer again for finish coat, lacquer can also be used as a varnish for the deck.

On all my wooden boats I use an epoxy varnish to seal and use as a finish coat but it’s not cheap £50 + other parts per 1L) and not for the faint hearted, ( requires a working term of 22 degrees and smells so bad and is very messy to clean up if u mess up) but lacquer works equally well but will require up to 12 coats to get the deck polished up perfectly.

As for paint once the surface is sealed and primed as instructed, you can use acrylic colours, airbrushes or rattle can once fully dry then lacquer to finish.

Do not use acrylic lacquer over a oil based paint colour like enamels it’s simply will crazy or orange peel, stick to car paints and you should be fine.

On a side note check out my airbrush post in the paint section as that has some detailed instructions on acrylic paint and finishes, and also check out my sea urchin build in the vintage boat section that’s a full page worth of what and what not to do, problems and fixes I had to go through with that boat with photos of each stage, ignoring the epoxy finish

DEFO use some good old Halfords car lacquer to seal the wood....2 light coats leave to dry quick light rubdown with 180 grit DRY do NOT use water.......another 2 coats and rub down the same another 2 coats 400grit DRY...another 2 coats 800Grit DRY another 2 coats 1000grit WET another 2 coats 1500 WET another 2 coats and 2000WET,obviously more if needed and you should have a lovelley glossy woodwork.....and no need for varnish at all....obviously for anywhere that is getting painted gloss omit the 800/1000/1500

Dave

Thanks for your straightforward and clear advice. It is much appreciated. I only hope my finished boat lives up to your expectations.

Can you recommend a lacquer or varnish you can use over enamels they're the only thing I can get to stick on my Pegasus.

No “lacquers” will go over the top of enamel since it’s oil based, rattle can versions will react badly to the paint surface, you will get crazing, and basically mess up the entire paint job.


In your case use a oil based varnish, you can pick up cans of yacht varnish from most diy places.

A few coats will do well, wait a while before buffing it tho.

I’ve used this version many times in the Past with good results, but it requires revarnishing every 3 or so years to keep it perfect.

https://www.restexpress.co.uk/acatalog/Rustins_yacht_varnish.html?gclid=Cj0KCQiAkePyBRCEARIsAMy5SctbqfX_1GCKmB7E9R2-F-kF01P0XUjz72mhGfstc3ItIFRYY7o56LAaAudtEALw_wcB

This isn’t the “cheapest” there are lots of cheaper ones but at the time before I swapped to 2pac epoxy varnishes this was the best option I used for decking.

You can use a 2 pac epoxy varnish for a finish, i now use only rustins 2pac epoxy wood varnish... however it’s £50 a litre + thinners and a pain in the ass for the inexperienced, especially if you fudge up... not for the faint hearted nor easy on the pocket!


On a side note.... is your Pegasus a plastic hull? If it is I expect reason you had issues and was forced to use enamels was that you may ( and I expect didn’t ) use the correct primer....

Plastics require a plastic primer, there are Dedicated plastic primers out there which will stick to the hull, then you can put any type of paint over it...

Let us know... lots of primers and paints for every job, I know all of them.

Hope it helps!

I used the wrong expression the paints i used were acrylics I'm not bad with an airbrush but I think I had a bad batch it took a week for one coat to dry fully which had to be stripped. Another coat despite using flow improvers kept clogging up and caused sputtering blobs of paint so stripped again. Eventually an ancient can of Humbrol enamel gloss deep blue dried lovely with a good shine hence an old school paint job. I reprimed it with a Humbrol enamel primer I've had a while again that went on silky smooth and dried in no time.
I'm probably fretting too much i want it glossy and blinged up as she's a beautiful looking boat

If you have used Humbrol paints the sorry you have to stick to htat make but all is NOT lost i have found this on a google search i have NEVER used it so cant tell you what it is like...If i was you i would try a test piece in other words spray some blue on a scrap piece of wood and then overspray with the laquer

https://www.scalemodelshop.co.uk/product/125ml-clear-gloss-humbrol-ac7431?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI4vLUk9335wIVGLLtCh3YhwODEAQYASABEgJbFvD_BwE


Dave

That's Humbrols formulation of a floor polish made by Johnsons or Pledge in Britain its a byword in the scale modelling world to put a gloss coat over a paint job for decals to be applied. It's good for putting over transparencies to give them a real clear shine. I've got about 4 litres of the stuff as future changed the formulation and the new stuff wasn't supposed to be as good.
It's called Future floor polish the old name was Kleer. It goes fine over Humbrol gloss but it's not as hard wearing as a varnish. I'm just back from my shed and defrosting, I'm ready to varnish soon I've painted some test plastic cards exactly as I've done the Pegasus and will try some things on those first.
Cheers for the help so far im really grateful.