Two coats of International Microsurface on the radius chine of our Didi 40 Cr
The weather in Sydney has turned for the better with sunny days letting me get on with the sanding and painting. I bought 20 litres of International Microsurfacer to do the final fairing over several primer coats of International Interprotect . The Microsurfacer fills the last 1mm of variations in the hull finish. It is a high build coating which is easy to sand while it is fresh but it does cure to a strong coating. So the last few days have been spent sanding all the gloss off the primer, applying Microsurfacer and then next morning torture boarding the surface ready for the next application. In under four hours I could sand the whole radius chine section of the hull from end to end. Two full coats on the radius chine and a light coat on the topsides has used most of the Microsurfacer so it won’t be long before I will be applying the final three coats of Interprotect. Because I am building in a suburban back yard I did not want to spray the Microsurfacer and roller application followed immediately by brushing off with a foam brush worked very well. The roller alone or brushing was not satisfactory but the laying off of the roller surface with the foam brush produced a much flatter surface than rolling alone. The one light coat of Microsurfacer on the top sides will make the final torture boarding a little easier and most of the coating will end up as dust on the ground. I have sanded half of the port side topsides and am delighted with the finish. In the photo the Microsurfacer on the radius chine has still to be sanded but the topside on the front half has been sanded ready for more layers of Interprotect.
The aluminium angle sitting on the hull is what I am using as a guide for the sanding. The torture board is not long enough to get a fair shape over a long section but a combination of the checking with the aluminium angle and sanding with the torture board is working well.