Hrm yeah, it definitely should have been fully cured after a week. No idea why you had troubles, but I've never tried painting it before, have no issue with its delightful grayness. Sorry it didnt work out for your application.
Why did you paint it in the first place? Concrete sealer looks fine, usually folks want to show off the quality of their construction rather than conceal it beneath paint. I know you've said that paint doesn't cure on top of the sealer, but I wonder if a layer of epoxy resin would cure. If you haven't torn the concrete sealer out yet, you may want to give that a shot. Probably best to run a test on a small sample first, though.
My west system did cure on the sealer when I had it.. it would break, crack, and flake off but it did dry.
Well, a quick update.... I have decided to temporarily move the quads back to traditional set up for the time being. At least till I can test the new LifePo4s out. The cannons rob too much air from each other to fire reliably. Larger accumulators will solve this issue, but room is a issue right now because I am not sure if I need a additional set of batteries to run two sorties. I am going to test out one set of batteries this coming battle and if I have room left after the testing then I may go back to the quads and add a few larger accumulators. Here is the Mutt... all systems have passed and she is sea worthy. I just need to complete a few cosmetic issues and add the waterline tape. I think I will paint it on this year. Tape is a hassle. I have a little more rigging I want to finish, the rigging line is done with elastic thread so it will give when hit by bb's. I will need to trim out my gun mounts and fit the turrets. She will get her first taste of battle next week at the Region 3 Regionals in Georgia. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below. Click here for a full image of the photo below.
My first glance at this made me think it was Stokomoto's. Very, very nice work there. Can't wait to see some British BB's in your beautiful pagoda. (not mention your balsa)
Beaver, sounds like you will fit in with the allies real well. Keep shooting the pagoda. Great looking paint job and rigging Mr. Spuds, makes me want to revisit the superstructure on my Nagato and finally finish it. Ron Hunt
HIJMS Mutsu as she is being prepared for her first sea trials. Unfortunately, the area planned for her trials was heavily contested..... the shakedown cruise got underway that afternoon. With just a few holes in the side, she began to list horribly as her bilge pump was failing. The captain was forced to beech her soon after to avoid unnecessary flooding of the upper compartments. It was discovered that bilge pumps with "auto" switches installed, do better when they are secured to the hull... the pump was loose and kept turning off because the motor jumped when turned on.. so she never pumped out.. That afternoon the second trial run was prepared for. Soon afterwards the trial was canceled as their was a issue with CO2 or the lack of it getting to the guns. This was a regulator issue that was soon fixed. I then decided to just concentrate on the two boys and postpone any further sea trials till later. She will be going through a refit this month in preparation for NATS at Greenbriar. The ship needs more weight added so a new air system is being installed to provide a stronger supply. Also an additional set of LiFePO4s are being added to help with the weight. She will be loosing her two Espana escorts. The boys will not be making this NATS as they need to be a little more self reliant. I ran myself silly trying to keep them going as well as myself... So after NATS they will be making the monthly battles in prep for next years NATS.. It is just too much for me to handle this year. Once they can do things by themselves for the most part... then they will attend NATS.
Mutsu Refit is underway and near completion. I decided after last battle to make a few adjustments to fine tune her. I moved the Motors aft about 4 inches to give me more room in the middle, plus it also cleared up the area under my barbetts in the stern because I can move the bilge pump forward some. I re-built the cannon locations back to quad sterns and a bow gun. But I also left every thing in place to enable me to switch gun locations each day. I also wired in a second bilge pump in case I want to run 4 guns and two pumps. All these set ups can be switched in a matter of a few minutes. Shilling rudders are being added. Designed a new stern post for rigging and mast that allows me to remove the pole completely during battle so I don't blow off the flag. Moved battery bus bar to the stern area. Cleared up a lot of room. Added 4 accumulators for stern guns, so they now have a larger tank inline as well as a smaller tank on the kips. I changed from 1 9oz bottle to two 3 oz bottles for air supply. This way I have two guns feeding off of 1 tank, not 4 guns on same line... No more air issues. All that is left to do is finish my shilling rudders and then repaint the waterline.. just some cosmetic stuff... The Mangy Mutt is ready for NATS! Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo Click here for larger photo
I like the rigging too. I like wrapping a broken piece of the bow to stern rigging around allies' propellers and bringing them to a halt. Or wrapping the rigging around my own propellers and calling moss, then 5 out of control, just to get the full combat experience. Seriously I hope it gets removed for combat, any type of loose string hanging in the water can ruin someone's battle. Drag props are missing in photos as well, hope you use them. On the whole its very pretty. Maybe you can help me finish my superstructure. Ron Hunt
The rigging was specially built to keep to prevent that from happening. If it didnt get removed, it would get shot off in two seconds. I have been on the water for over 15 years and know that string or "tape used for waterlines" is a bad thing. Anything that can get into the water will end up on your props.. It is designed so that the pole you see on the bow and stern that the rigging is attached to can be lifted off and attached to the main superstructure so that it does not get tore off and become a issue.. The pole will sit down into a larger tube inset into the hull bow and stern. You just lift up and re-attach the pole to the top rigging on the main super.
Cool. Glad you had the foresight to make it removable. Ever seen the fore/aft rigging in a picture? I imagine it tended to get removed whenever the main battery trained and fired and was problematic for the crew to maintain. Not sure what purpose it served other than a pennant hangar, it wasn't really necessary by then for radio. Ron Hunt
