Gorgeous

I was up early this morning so I could give the Weedhopper’s propeller a second coat of varnish with the possibility of doing another in 12 hours time, later this evening. However, I’m not sure that it’ll need another coat although I’ll see what I think when the time comes.

What I do know, though, is that its finish is gorgeous, as the following two shots show.

I can’t recall ever having used varnish as good as this before, perhaps because I’ve previously not come across such a fine marine quality product. The finish is not quite as perfect as the above shots show across the whole of the prop’s surface, but it’s still pretty good and indeed, much better than what I achieved on 56NE’s prop just a couple of weeks or so ago.

Whether I give this prop a further coat of varnish or not, it does at least mean that I’ll be able to do the yellow prop tips either early or late tomorrow. I’d like to leave a full 24 hours after applying the final coat of varnish, though, as I’d hate to apply masking tape and have it leave marks on the varnished surface.

So it looks as though the prop will be OK to fit this week-end, in which case if the door aluminium arrives today and I’m able to make up and fit the new doors, the Weedhopper will be more or less finished. I’m really looking forward to seeing how it turns out – if it looks as gorgeous as its propeller I’ll be very pleased 🙂

Hooray! The aluminium tubing for the doors arrived before 11.00 am so after lunch, I was able to cut and bend the two new door front tubes and give them a coat of bare-metal primer in advance of spraying them white. If I can do that this evening, I’ll be well-placed to get both doors made up and fitted tomorrow. Getting closer all the time!