It's not staying pink!

Here are some pictures of Thomas' Microskiff in primer. I tinted the primer pink as the boat is going to end up red. At this point I've done a few cycles of primer/sand/repeat moving from the pre-primer 80 grit to 120, prime - 120 a couple times (where the primer was almost completely sanded off). Once I did the primer, all the faults and problems invisible (or ignored) during fairing became very ugly and obvious. Little things like chine edges and surface smoothness etc.

Right now the boat has received it's last (I hope) coat of primer and has been sanded to 220 grit before this coat of paint was hand rolled on. It's pretty good right now and I'll have a go at 400 grit later today. Once the 400 is done I'll start with the final red color. Thomas chose the official Ottawa Senator's hockey uniform red color for his boat. Thomas is a die hard Sens fan and most of his personal decorating choices are based on this.

Like every fairing/sanding job, the more you do, the more you see and it's easy to get stuck in a endless repeat cycle. My time in the garage is getting shorter, so I've got to get this thing painted and done soon. There is more work to do on the cockpit, rails and the mast partners, so the exterior hull paint has to move along.

It's good enough to move on to the next step. Thomas and I have put probably more effort into the fairing and sanding than most homebuilders will bother - I'm hoping this boat is finished well enough to look good in pictures so that we can use it as an example for people interested in building a Microskiff with their kids.

The painting process (and spraying latex) has been an interesting learning process. I cornered one of the local paint store proprietors and asked about spraying latex - he's got a couple commercial contractors working with his paints that do it. He said that there is a latex additive like Penetrol (used as a flow enhancer with oil based paints) called Floetrol. I bought some and will be using it with the final costs in the sprayer. He also said the faux finish painters use a couple capfuls of Fleecy fabric softener in their latex paint for both flow enhancement and slowing the drying process a bit. Part of the problem with latex is that it almost dries as it leaves the sprayer and it doesn't self-level as nicely without help.