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A short while ago I received a model of a Clyde yacht in need of some TLC, the remit for this restoration was to totally strip all the original paint off the hull and return it to a wood effect finish as well as restoring the deck area. The first task was to very carefully remove all the varnished finish off the deck area while saving the original makers label on the rear of the yachts deck, as you can imagine this was a very slow process taking great care as things progressed. Once the deck had all its old varnish removed I could very carefully finish the prep work on this area before proceeding to the next stage which was prepping the hull itself.
This part of the restoration certainly proved to be both challenging and rewarding at the same time, so after several days of rubbing down taking great care once the original wood came through the hull then needed to be filled in a couple of places and then smoothed off ready for priming. Once the hull had been carefully masked off I decided to use a filler primer to help remove as many marks as possible before final rubbing down prior to painting. The first task was to reproduce the wood effect finish below the Black area on the hull this was straight forward enough carefully applying several coats rubbing each one down until the desired finish had been achieved. The next stage was to apply the Black area around the yacht this again was achieved by applying 3 to 4 coats of paint rubbing each coat down including the top coat prior to sealing. With the paint job finished one of the final tasks would be to apply the White line around the hull using Beccs vinyl lining material, once the line had been applied the final task was to seal the hull with 2 to 3 coats of gloss yacht varnish the enhancing the final result. Now the paint job had been completed all that remained to be done was to varnish the lead keel weight with a matt varnish.
With the painting finished I could now move back to finishing the deck area with a Satin varnish to enhance the overall effect, this was followed by carefully removing the sails etc so the masts could be restored and gloss varnished whilst preserving the previous repairs done in the past. Once the masts etc had been completed the sails were then carefully repaired in one or two places whilst leaving the rest all original as requested by the customer. The sails could now be re-attached to the mast and boom etc and then fully re-rigged as per the original information that came with the model, this proved quite a challenge but in the end all functioned as it should. So with the yacht now completed the final task was to check everything over prior to retuning it to the customer.
Overall this restoration proved to be both challenging and rewarding and hopefully will be enjoyed for years to come.
