Some paint goes on at last

Who is that old bugger painting coach lines on Herbie?  Oh, it's me.  Yes after a number of false promises and false starts we've actually got a bit of new paint on.  The coach lines really needed it.  You can see all the miles of masking tape needed.

It's always satisfying when the masking tape comes off and you get nice sharp edges. We decided to do the coach lines first so as to avoid putting masking tape onto the fresh dark grey paint, which is our next job.

I hate masking up, you have to be so careful, and it takes ages and with coach lines you have to do both sides of the line.

Looking at this picture below, you wouldn't think we needed to paint the dark grey panels, but believe me we do.  The paint looks ok for about a day or two after washing or polishing but goes dull and chalky after that.  Well it's been 14 years since we painted it. We need a fresh hard gloss top coat and that hopefully is tomorrow's job. 

 

I only hope we've got all the old wax polish off.  We've washed it with white spirit and with sugar soap, and in the morning we'll lightly sand it and wash it again before the scary business of putting on the paint. I think we have a window of about two hours before the temperature gets too high for the paint to flow properly. We're approaching this job with some trepidation, because if it doesn't go well Herbie will look worse instead of better.

Meanwhile, back at home, another Herbie paint job awaits.  It's the central panel at the front of the cratch.  Rather than the uncomfortable job of trying to paint a complicated pattern in situ.  I decided in 2017 to paint a board at home and then screw the board onto the boat later.  That worked well, but thin plywood doesn't last too long outdoors, so it's time for me to repeat the exercise.  Here's the old one.

Looking pretty much done for as you can see. I'm going to use the same pattern 'cos I like it.  This time I'm putting on more coats of primer and undercoat and I think I'll top off the final paint job with a couple of coats of Craftmaster varnish.  That seems to have protected my decorated Buckby cans really well.