Hi Mark, I used the tights to repair a small leak inside the hull (the result of someone crashing into the hull at speed). At the time I did not have any glass cloth. I secured the edges first then the middle. I then used filler on the outside. So far the repair has not given me any trouble.

John.

I'll try the J-Cloth first and see how well that wets out. Otherwise I have to mail order yet another item that the local model shop seems not to stock. According to their website anyway.

Martin

OooooH, tights are SUCH a bother ..! 😁😉 😎

HI John, the tights only really work when you just slide the hull into the leg whole, if you cut the material it springs back on you

Mark

I have never used tissue but I have used both glass cloth and tights. I found the glass cloth easier to use, both to cut and place. I would imagine you could have similar problems with tissue I had with tights.

John.

I always use lightweight glass fabric. I have tried model airplane tissue, horticultural fleece and just about anything else that could possibly be a cheap solution. Nothing works like glass fabric though.
I find Deluxe Materials is the handiest source for me.

Can't afford GRP, Doug and they don't do what I want anyway. Plus the sellers all seem to be retiring without first flogging the stuff to anyone new. I prefer wherry to Thames barge, classic mahogany speed to merchantmen and if I ever see another damned tug it'll be too soon, so I am forced to make what I want to see on the water. And I still get a bit of a kick from it AND I'm still pretty quick.
But for now, I'm orff to watch Midsommer Moiders.

Cheers,
Martin

Hi Martin; Sounds a bit like 'Try boots.' Answer: 'I did but it came out the lace-holes!' Oldy but goldy 😉

J-cloth noted! There's similar product here, or same with German name?
Although I must admit these days I'm more interested in the superstructure, functions and electronics. Hull building is too time consuming!

@ Jarvo, thanks for the tip, only, 'wife' is an institution I resigned from over 20 years ago! Must check what the GFs wearing😉😎

Cheers all

I knew a guy did that, but the water still got in the fish net

No, the cotton is like J-Cloth....cotton waste. it's like fibreglass tissue but much softer and more compliant, but massively strong, especially once the epoxy has set.

Martin

Hi Doug, the denier is what the wife was wearing, if its a thin one use 2 or 3 layers

What denier do you recommend??? 😎

Hi Guys, have you thought about stockings/tights??? get the wife out of them first !!!! stretch them over the hull and resin them into place, might need 2 layers but they are very strong and free

PS I had understood 'tissue' as glass fibre tissue, as opposed to mat, that's what I used for Hotspur! Never thought of using 'bum scratcher' 😎😆

I remember Izal 🤔 worse than hemorrhoids😲
Never heard of cotton and resin before but there you go. You live and learn😎 Now where are my old vests ............?

I bet you had a good time. My Dad always wanted to go back to italy as he had a good time there in the War. There are likely to be 65 year old gingers running all over Naples! Thank God I didn't get the ginger gene!

I went to town to get some tissue paper and came away with stuff that reminds me of Izal arse paper. Remember that stuff. Great if you had an itchy bum, but useless at wiping things. Then we went in anther big shop and they had cotton waste sheets as clean up rags. Perfect! Dozens of big cotton rags for a quid! So they will be epoxy soaked and slapped on the hull. They're amazingly strong too. Might then lay up the Izal arsewipe on top. it'll look like do as you like day at Kids R Us!
But paint is a wonderful thing.

Martin

That was quite something working on the mine-hunter, all the superstructure was made of 1.5 or 2 cm glass-fibre preformed sections. Look like a ginormous Airfix kit stacked up on the dockside. Working inside before it was painted was eery - all translucent green like you were underwater 😉
The shipyard was in Sarsana italy near Carrera so that was fun as well, used to drive down there from Munich, sometimes with the GF 😉

Took me a while to work out what a GirlFriend minehunter was!
I used to have zinc sacrificial anodes on my steel narrowboat. We noticed whe we had our wooden historic boat out that many steel boats were losing their zinc in as little as two years. Yet my old boat had them fitted new when I had it out for a blacking as it had NEVER had any and hadn't suffered at all!

Free running, cheap Mabuchis, Cycle battery, Oh those were the days indeed, aber veiieicht so!!
My wee Sea Urchin still has it's 58 year old Kako and original shaft and tin prop. I just can't find any flat bell batteries any more!

Martin

Yep, it can generate a lot of heat if you overdo it ;-/
Copper foil below the waterline will look great 👍
Your boat had more luck than a GF mine-hunter I once worked on.
That put a copper plate on the keel to act as a counter balance for the comms antennas, which we fitted. Before it came to sea trials we noticed the comms performance on the HF antennas had deteriorated. The yard sent divers down and found that the copper plate looked like Chantilly Lace after only a few months 🤔
Maybe I'll start a Blog about my destroyer - "HMS Hotspur - A Never Ending Story" - it started 50 years ago and the ship has undergone many Life Extension Programmes since. Here a couple of pics (Box Brownie 127!) of the maiden voyage , ca 1965-66, in Radnor Park, Folkestone, Kent. Free-running on 2 cheap Mabuchis and a 4.5V cycle lamp battery!
Those were the days, oder vielleicht nicht 😉

Thanks, Doug.
No, the woodwork really isn't good enough for varnishing and as it's a scale model it has to be painted. Good old British yacht black, with a coppered bottom. I still have a piece of her copper somewhere. it was perfect after 120 odd years! I'll go with the tissue then, thanks for the info. Apparently you can thin epoxy with meths, but I've never found it that thick and I used 25 litres on my full sized canal boat restoration! Supplied free by West as a kind of sponsorship. Hot weather helps, but, as you say it can go off a bit quick if you're not careful with the mix. A guy at the boatyard once mixed way too much to repair his GRP boat and it started to go off in the pot, which then caught fire. A large set of tongs was handy in dunking it in a barrel of water!

Cheers,
Martin

Hi again!
I used tissue on my destroyer (1.35m) with success, light and strong and minimal filling and sanding of lumps and bumps :-)
Don't make the resin mix too thick and sticky or it won't soak in properly.
Brush a thin mix into the wood to seal it first. Start at the keel and work up.
Not too much hardener or it can go brittle, apart from going off too fast ;-(
Shame to cover up all that lovely woodwork though 🤔 Can't you use a suitable coloured wood filler then varnish it? 'Wood' 😉 look wonderful.
Cheer Doug 😎