Amati Riva Aquarama for use on water.

Hi Everyone,
Managed to find several hours in my busy timetable (Raising and doing basic training of a Guide Dog Puppy plus doing some fund raising!).

I've finished the 1st layer of the side planking and planked the foredeck. planks.
The deck may look level but as you can see from the plank on the grid there is a fair bend.

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Unlike the instructions I have followed Ken's build blog and decided to plank the stern before gluing the mahogany ends onto the hull. Otherwise trying to fit these planks as a close fit to the mahogany curved piece would be more difficult. Again I will apply the mahogany planks before fitting these curved ends.
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I've used a water based filler OSMO (another of Ken's ideas) thinned down over the hull and then sanded to a reasonably smooth finish before starting the job to finish the mahogany planking of the sides and foredeck. I've tried to keep as much dust out of the hull with paper towel! Before starting the sanding I applied automotive masking tape (thicker) along the raw edge of the existing mahogany planking to protect this during sanding.
Following a recommendation by another modeller I've painted the metal parts and part of the steering wheel with a chrome pen. The chrome pen is fantastic and far superior to any 'chrome' spray can. Also I tried a few spray cans of car colour for the seat cushions but found the Valero light turquoise was the best colour to use. Because it is water based I've then put a coat of matt varnish over the top to protect it when in the water.
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I now need to find a lot of time to do the final mahogany planking so my next instalment will probably be quite some weeks away! Thanks for following my blog. Cheers Duncan
 
Eventually managed to get all the mahogany planking applied on top of the lime planking finished. Spent the best part of 1.5 days sanding down the mahogany to a smooth finish. Just applied 3 coats of cellulose sanding sealer. The striped planking needs to be started on the foredeck next. I decided to apply the sanding sealer now before I do the final planking of the foredeck. No matter how careful I was a bit of glue got on the top of the mahogany topsides and it leaves a mark that is impossible to remove. In hind sight I think that it would have been better to have applied sanding sealer to these upper parts BEFORE fitting them! Wise after the event!
Yellow masking tape was applied to the foredeck so that the raw wood I need to glue the striped planking to isn't contaminated with sealer. I think the wood is looking lovely! Very pleased with the results as this is my first attempt at planking. I'll update again when the foredeck is complete.

After 3 coats of sanding sealer 1.jpg

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Top deck mahogany view.jpg
 
Hi Everyone. Managed to get 4 coats of varnish onto first of all the decks and then onto the hull sides. The bottom had 4 coats earlier in the build. I will need to polish out the dust specks eventually. I tried really hard to avoid any dust by sanding and wiping down outside but still got dust specks! I've started to build the dashboard which I found very fiddly and inevitably got some CA glue on my figures even though I was using reverse tweezers. Unfortunately, the simulated light switches seem to have the glass domes missing from the kit so I've raided my wife's bead box and managed to find some small coloured beads to make the domed fronts of the light switches! I still need to fit the key sockets and keys, plus the gear levers and steering wheel to the dashboard. After a lot of messing about with paints for the seats I have found the Tamiya TS10 French Blue spray paint to be the best match. Having sprayed them I have then sprayed them with a Matt lacquer finish over the top of these seats. I decided to separate the seat sides from the main part of the seat to make the painting job easier as after my first attempt I found some leakage under the masking tape. I've just ordered an Edding white 0.8mm permanent marker to create my waterline mark prior to painting the bottom of the hull white. I couldn't see the pencil maker clearly on the varnish and this marker writes on glass and metal and is waterproof - so it should be OK. Pity in a way I'm going to be covering up the lovely mahogany bottom with white paint but in the end I think it will look better. I bought a 13mm wood drill from the Blackpool Model boat show to create the two holes for the cabin skylights. I drilled these holes with great trepidation! Added a touch of varnish around the inside of the holes afterwards. Just a warning to anyone else building this model - I measured the distance from the dashboard to the centre of the skylight on the full size plan. Unfortunately, this turned out to be right over one of the bulkheads which then involved cutting away a small portion on each side for the skylights. Once the bottom has been painted white, I will be able to get on with the deck fittings. Any suggestions for best glue for chromed brass fittings to be attached to the varnished decks. I wondered about using my Deluxe Cockpit canopy glue - any thoughts?Decks with 4 coats of varnish.jpgIMG_20221015_183251.jpgIMG_20221019_161823.jpgIMG_20221019_161833.jpg4 coats of varnish.jpg
 
Very clean work Duncan,

That is a nice Blue, painting below the waterline White is the right thing in my opinion.
I am sure the varnish will cleanup beautifully.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
DISASTER! I left my yacht varnish to go hard for nearly 3 weeks. I put standard masking tape on in order to form a line of where to sand the bottom up to the waterline. It was difficult when applying this masking tape to cope with the curves leading up to the bow so I decided to order some 12mm Tamiya Masking tape for curves. I also ordered an Edding 0.8mm white marker pen because it was difficult trying to mark and see a pencil maker on the varnish.
I made up my own waterline marker with clamps and set square and a box with felt feet which made it easy to slide along the side of the hull. It worked OK.

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I then applied the Tamiya Masking tape for curves tape. It did the job I wanted but then I noticed a slight kink in it on the transom. I therefore lifted the tape off to reposition it and to my horror this tape pulled the varnish off! The other standard masking tape was fine. I therefore decided to take the tape off the rest of the hull and again in one place it has pulled the yacht varnish off! It would not have been so bad if it had just been the transom that I would have to sand and repaint but now it will be the whole hull again!! One step forward and 4 backwards. Depressing.

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Any suggestions for the next lot of masking with 'no bleed'?
 
DPTrainer said:
DISASTER! I left my yacht varnish to go hard for nearly 3 weeks. I put standard masking tape on in order to form a line of where to sand the bottom up to the waterline. It was difficult when applying this masking tape to cope with the curves leading up to the bow so I decided to order some 12mm Tamiya Masking tape for curves. I also ordered an Edding 0.8mm white marker pen because it was difficult trying to mark and see a pencil maker on the varnish.
I made up my own waterline marker with clamps and set square and a box with felt feet which made it easy to slide along the side of the hull. It worked OK.

View attachment 336750View attachment 336751

I then applied the Tamiya Masking tape for curves tape. It did the job I wanted but then I noticed a slight kink in it on the transom. I therefore lifted the tape off to reposition it and to my horror this tape pulled the varnish off! The other standard masking tape was fine. I therefore decided to take the tape off the rest of the hull and again in one place it has pulled the yacht varnish off! It would not have been so bad if it had just been the transom that I would have to sand and repaint but now it will be the whole hull again!! One step forward and 4 backwards. Depressing.

View attachment 336752 View attachment 336749

Any suggestions for the next lot of masking with 'no bleed'?
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Sorry what kind of tape did you use?
 
DPTrainer said:
It is a Tamiya modellers masking tape which allows you to follow curves. Rather than the usual paper type masking tape it is a PVC type. see the photo I attached in the original post.
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Yes I've seen, I've always used the tape for body shops (cars)
 
DPTrainer said:
DISASTER! I left my yacht varnish to go hard for nearly 3 weeks. I put standard masking tape on in order to form a line of where to sand the bottom up to the waterline. It was difficult when applying this masking tape to cope with the curves leading up to the bow so I decided to order some 12mm Tamiya Masking tape for curves. I also ordered an Edding 0.8mm white marker pen because it was difficult trying to mark and see a pencil maker on the varnish.
I made up my own waterline marker with clamps and set square and a box with felt feet which made it easy to slide along the side of the hull. It worked OK.

View attachment 336750View attachment 336751

I then applied the Tamiya Masking tape for curves tape. It did the job I wanted but then I noticed a slight kink in it on the transom. I therefore lifted the tape off to reposition it and to my horror this tape pulled the varnish off! The other standard masking tape was fine. I therefore decided to take the tape off the rest of the hull and again in one place it has pulled the yacht varnish off! It would not have been so bad if it had just been the transom that I would have to sand and repaint but now it will be the whole hull again!! One step forward and 4 backwards. Depressing.

View attachment 336752 View attachment 336749

Any suggestions for the next lot of masking with 'no bleed'?
Click to expand...
This is terrible news Duncan,
I have not used the flexible Tamiya tape before, but my go to tape is the regular Tamiya tape which is low tack and shouldn't be a problem.
The only other thing is for some reason the adhesion wasn't good.
I don't have any real ideas that would make you happy except to try varnishing some leftover planking material and see how good the adhesion is.
The unfortune realty is the only way to fix it is to strip the varnish and do it again.
Did you thin the first coat by around 10% to get it to penetrate the wood?

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Stevedownunder said:
This is terrible news Duncan,
I have not used the flexible Tamiya tape before, but my go to tape is the regular Tamiya tape which is low tack and shouldn't be a problem.
The only other thing is for some reason the adhesion wasn't good.
I don't have any real ideas that would make you happy except to try varnishing some leftover planking material and see how good the adhesion is.
The unfortune realty is the only way to fix it is to strip the varnish and do it again.
Did you thin the first coat by around 10% to get it to penetrate the wood?

Cheers,
Stephen.
Click to expand...
Hiya,
No I didn't thin the varnish as I had previously put 3 coats of cellulose sanding sealer on. I believed that this would seal the wood. It appears that it only pulled back the last layer of varnish. I have now sanded back and applied 3 more coats of varnish. I'm waiting now for it to fully cure before putting masking tape on again. Not sure how long to wait before masking again!
 
DPTrainer said:
Hiya,
No I didn't thin the varnish as I had previously put 3 coats of cellulose sanding sealer on. I believed that this would seal the wood. It appears that it only pulled back the last layer of varnish. I have now sanded back and applied 3 more coats of varnish. I'm waiting now for it to fully cure before putting masking tape on again. Not sure how long to wait before masking again!
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Hi Duncan,

Have you tried doing some experiments on some scrap planking?
What does the tin instructions say for drying times?
Depending on room temperature you shouldn't need to wait more than a couple of days to a week.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Temperature is dropping so it is only 10 degrees C today in my workshop. I had a heater on for a few hours on the first couple of days and got the temperature up to around 20 degrees and it seems to have cured quite well. I'm worried about putting the electric rad on now because of the extremely high cost of electric over here. I'm hoping I can bring the boat into the house soon but that will have to wait until my wife has moved all her craft out that she has made for a craft fair at the end of this month!
 
Getting towards the final fitting out. Just fitted the R/C. The receiver is in the blue box and the ESC is in the removeable white platform I've constructed from scraps. I've secured this and the battery using elastic bands. Fitted the switch to a piece of scrap ply. On the recommendation of another modeller I got some self adhesive 2mm x 2mm 'D' shaped chrome moulding off Amazon for covering the joint between the deck and the hull. I would personally recommend this rather than having to paint the white strip provided in the kit and then gluing this on without spoiling the beautiful varnish finish! It would have been better without the very thin black foam backing but the backing is hardy noticeable. I attached this strip after polishing with G10 polishing compound. Only done one side so far. So flooring, side upholstery , steering wheel, windscreen, air vents, exhausts and various other chrome fittings need to be attached. Some of these require drilling into the side of the hull. I hope this won't affect the water tightness!! I've also drilled out the back of the rear seat mount in order for some air to get through to the motors. I then covered this with a strip of non slip rubber matting. You can see my model standing on this matting in earlier photos. I sprayed it with some white primer in order for it to match. Not long now hopefully before I can send some finished photos! So far I've spent over 2 years working on it on and off. During the winter not much got done because it was too cold out in the garage workshop!

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Hi Everyone,
Finally after 2 years and 2 months I have finally finished my Riva. Even though I say it myself I think she looks beautiful! I must admit I haven't put all the cleats on because the base of the cleats are flat and so small that I think they could easily get caught and broken off when I get round to sailing her. This could end up damaging the mahogany veneer.
To fit the forward chromed metal fittings I put a layer of masking tape on the bow then drew round the bases and cut out the shape with a modelling knife before roughing up the varnish and then gluing the fittings with 5 minute Araldite. The 4 engine air vents on the sides were a bit daunting to fit with the very fine 'Aquarama' lettering and also having to drill through the hull for each vent. I used cockpit glue as it is relatively ease to wipe away any excess. I had to nail the back strip on first so I drilled tiny holes so that I didn't have to use the hammer too much! I then chromed over the strip and the nail with the chrome pen I mentioned earlier in the blog. Unfortunately on one side strip there was a nail hole missing and 'try as I must' I could get my hand drill to create this tiny hole 0.3mm. Once in place The holes in the metal strip for the air vents show where to drill. I was surprised that I had to go through completely to hold the peg on the back of the air vents. I tried to epoxy the inside of the holes in order to seal the wood around the holes. I've fitted the seats to the floor with magnetic door catches so that I can easily remove the seats for cleaning. Eventually I will replace the floor with a planked floor but this wasn't part of the kit. I found using digital callipers useful to measure the size of the pegs on the fittings and then chose the appropriate drill bit. Because this has been my first build since my early twenties I have had to buying quite a lot of stuff and tools to complete the build. I would like to do another build but I don't think my hands are not up to that any more unfortunately.
I think the next stage is a bath tub test and then sit and admire it before I pluck up courage for the maiden voyage! I hope you have all found my blog interesting and helpful especially if you attempt this kit. I've learnt a lot along the way and had some sleepless nights wondering how to tackle certain things! Hopefully my blog will help you to avoid some of these deep searching thoughts!

Cheers DuncanIMG_20230525_163140_edit_334666642332266.jpgIMG_20230525_163158.jpgIMG_20230525_163216_edit_334813364215577.jpgIMG_20230525_163308.jpgIMG_20230525_163437_edit_334855827136924.jpgIMG_20230525_163446.jpgIMG_20230525_163512_edit_334879778047337.jpg

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Hi Duncan,
Your boat looks fantastic, well worth the effort.
Sorry to hear your hands are not up to do much more model making anymore, hopefully you can find a way to rectify this.

Looking forward to some on the water shots at some point.

Cheers,
Stephen.
 
Quarndon.Creatives said:
Hi Duncan,
It looks absolutely beautiful…

I am 4 weeks into my build of this boat and enjoying the compilation plus the forward planning etc.
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Hi, Really pleased to hear that you are finding my build blog useful. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact me. Enjoy!
Best wishes
Duncan
 
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