Atlantis Over-Haul

Recently I was contacted by Steve Beasley from the UK, who is a expert model builder and kit reviewer. He was trying to gather what information there was from other builders of the Atlantis kit on the net. In his explorations for info he uncovered several sites which I was unaware of or were not around when I assembled my kit many years ago. After seeing what some of these other builders had done with their boats, I got the itch to modify my own boat.

I had originally drawn the panel lines on the sails very faintly in pencil, where they were not even visible in a picture. I have since seen that bolder lines looked much better to me, as well as adding the battens that I had originally left off.

The line from the mast head to the gaff boom was not in the original plans, but I saw it elsewhere and thought it good to have.

I was always a little disappointed when it came to the deck, not with the quality of the kit, but that the effort that went into it not showing very well. Then my friend Steve forwarded these pictures and I had an idea!

So now I'm looking to pencil in "caulk lines" to make the individual planks stand out better. In the following pictures, I'm testing different finishes to go over the pencil lines. To the far left of my test sheet, I have applied the Robbe Wood Wax (supplied with the kit), as it is already on the deck of my model, then penciled the caulking, then applied more Wood Wax. The next test over (middle), Robbe Wood Wax, pencil lines, then outdoor Spar Polyurethane (glossy finish). The 3rd test strip is unused yet.

The directions say to apply a coat every 15 minutes for 6 hours, I didn't go quit that long. Then let dry for 3 days before applying Deks #2. That one will require 3 to 6 coats with at least a day between each coat!

Ok, the one on the far right is the Deks gloss finish. After all the application and drying times, it's taken about 2 weeks to finish the sample. It's not bad, but if I spent 2 weeks applying ANY finish, I'd expect it to turn out OK.

Well, I took the plunge and started applying the finish to the deck. The befores and afters don't show much difference at this stage since the Deks #1 is a matte finish. I need to wait at least 3 days before applying the Deks #2, gloss finish, and then can only apply one coat per day.

Well, Happy New Year! I'm sure it looks like I forgot about finishing this project but it just got behind because of the holidays. That, and the long drying times using the Deks. I applied 5 coats of the Deks #2, with a day or two between each coat. Then noticed that I had a air-bubble problem, known as "Fish-eye", not enough to make the finish cloudy, but enough to make it bumpy. I read that other varnishes suggest thinning the mix for initial coats but the Deks Olje says nothing about this. The instructions on the Deks can does talk about wet-sanding between coats 5 and 6 to give a smoother finish, so that's where I'm at now. Waiting for the Deks #1 that I wet-sanded with to knock down some of the bumps, to dry completely before applying the final glossy coat.

Ok, I'm done. Been applying this finish for almost a month now, and all told, I'd give it about a 6.5 or 7 out of 10. The Deks Olje has some great qualities, but I think it takes someone with more experience applying varnish then myself to get the most out of it. Still had bubbles that I couldn't get out and some spots where there was excess glue from attaching something to the deck, the Deks would peel off with the masking tape.

A little something I got for myself on my birthday, maybe now I'll have a better idea of how my boats are performing in different wind conditions!