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The painting of the Mollyhawks This has been a long time coming, but I can pretty safely say this: These are the most beautiful boats I have ever worked on.
We'd been working on the oars for a while, then I got to thinking: It's July and the boats aren't even painted yet! We had a quick meeting to discuss colors. We kind of like calling the boats Salt and Pepper (stands for Starboard and Port - where they sit in the Boathouse) and eventually decided to paint them like nav lights: Pepper (the port boat) gets red and Salt (starboard boat) gets green. Cherry red and Hunter green, to be exact.
We'd primered the boats the week before. Now it was time to get to painting for real. There aren't a whole lot of pictures of the process, since every time I take a picture, I have to replace my gloves.
I was working alone on Friday night, so I taped up the boats and got Salt painted with her first coat of green. The seat tops and wales will be red - just like Pepper's seat tops and wales will be green. We are using Miller Paint's Premium Spar Enamel, applied with a 'smooth surface' roller (those little foam ones.)
Saturday, I was back at the boathouse. In addition to building, I use it as a central meeting place for my other boat related activities. I need some shop space at home, so I'd offered my Skin-on-Frame Whitehall to 'first come, first serve' and Virgil came up to claim it. It should be a fantastic rower for him.
Leland and Fulton were here for the morning work. It's guys like these that give me hope for the future.
Salt's keel looked well coated, so we peeled the tape off and did the fine detail work with an artist brush.
While I worked on Pepper, Fulton gave Salt her second coat.
These boats are turning out to be the prettiest things I have ever worked on. I am just in awe.
We ended this week with 2 coats on Salt and 1 coat on Pepper.
I was back at it July 13, but I didn't take any pictures. I just re-taped Salt and did the first coat of trim, and did the second coat of hull paint on Pepper. On the 14th, I peeled the tape off Pepper and started her first coat of trim.
So here they are: They both have there 2 coats of base and trim and are ready for final painting on July 20 (final painting is where we check for missed spots and get the areas under the sawhorses.)
Here's the view the fishes will see. Damn, those are purty boats. Next Friday: Final paint. Saturday: Naming and splash. For those wondering, we are using for paint. It is great stuff. |
