Grumman 17 SCOUT 04 Oct 18 Paint and Sea Trials

04 Oct 18:

We made a copy of the roundel and cut out the white sections with an xacto knife, then used that to trace the circles and triangles over the base circle with pencil.

We wanted medium blue for the roundel, decided to try a 1:1 mix of paints we had in the Carriage House. Looked around and we had Kirby White enamel and Interlux Brightside Sapphire Blue Polyurethane. Would they mix? No idea, but we went for it anyway. The color came out great and the paint flowed on nice and smooth, good coverage. Time will tell how the mix holds up, maybe we discovered something new. We used a nice mixing cup from Jamestown DIstributors, it has markings for different mix ratios, we used 1:1.

For 1:1 our the first color up to the 1 on the left, then the second color up to the one on the right. The other markings to the right are for different ratios like 2:1, 3:1 etc...Pour slow and stop short of the line, let the paint fill in as it is easy to pour past the line. I poured too much White for the 1 mark so I slowed down, regrouped and poured a little more up to the 2 line. Then poured the Blue up to the 2 line. We had plenty of Medium Blue!

I turned the canoe on its side to paint the blue, that helps avoid runs. The key before painting is to mark which parts will be blue, it is easy to get it backwards. I marked one of the blue sections with a B as I was tracing. For a brush I used a cheapo soft brush from a multi pack of art brushes, about 1/2 inch wide with a straight tip. The soft tip let me load up lots of paint, for smooth flow.

The Chinese National roundel dates from 1895, a blue sky with a white sun. The 12 stars represent the 12 months of the year and 12 traditional Chinese hours, symbolizing the spirit of progress.

Number 48 is Triple Ace Tex Hill's ship number from the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers.

SCOUT ready to head to the beach!

Ready for Sea Trials.

Check out the groove down the beach, the standard flat water keel on the Grumman 17 is designed to make paddling easier and help the canoe track straight, reducing unwanted drift.

SCOUT had a great time, chased some pelicans, successful Float Test and she was pretty proud of herself!

SCOUT is happy to back with her kayak buddies, holding up the trees. New adventures await!

Log of SCOUT.

Grumman 17 SCOUT 03 Oct 2018 Flying Tigers Paint

03 Oct 18:

Worked on the Flying TIgers' paint scheme, traced a circle and painted the base coat for the Chinese National roundel with Kirby White. Also applied first layer of Tex Hill's ship number 48.

Tongue added to the port side with Rustoleum Professional High Performance Protective Enamel Safety Red.

Here are the patterns for Triple Ace Tex Hill's number and the Chines National roundel. We will make a copy of the roundel and cut out the white sections with an xacto knife, then use that to trace the circles and triangles.

Log of SCOUT.

Grumman 17 SCOUT 03 Sep 18 Repaint

03 Sep 18:

As a result of playing Boat Tetris in prep for Tropical Storm Gordon, the Canoe Works are now open. Our Grumman 17 double ender SCOUT is going to get a field expedient combat paint job.

SCOUT will get a tribute paint scheme to the American Volunteer Group Flying Tigers, they defended China against the Japanese before the US entered WWII.

I thought I could spot spray a few areas, but there were too many scratches with flaked paint edges and start of corrosion. Sanded scratched paint areas with 120 grit on a randome orbital sander to get rid of sub surface corrosion and give the aluminum some tooth for paint to grab onto.

Taped a waterline for the light gray fuselage bottom.

Transferred waterline to opposite side with our cool cloth tape measure. To make it easy I slid the tape back until an inch or half inch line was centered on the keel, in this case 9 inches, then doubled the number to 18 and marked the opposite line with a small strip of tape. We marked about every foot or so.

Starboard side waterline. Started a long strip of tape, about 4-5 feet and laid a fair curve close to the small tape markers. Found a few math errors and adjusted.

Painted the bottom with Kirby Light Gray cut with 50% White to make Light Light Gray, brushed with a Corona Trim brush. George told me it would have been optimum to brush a coat of primer first but I was too excited. If it comes off I'll redo it or call it battle damage. With the 95F heat index we had I found it best to lay down two brush widths vertical then tip it horizontal, had to work it fast before it got tacky.

Bottom of "fuselage" painted.

Test area to see if I could blend in the Patina Bronze base paint for the side. Liked the clean taped line better. The test area will be painted over with the shark's teeth. As I finished the side the first gust front from TS Gordon blew through, 35 mph gust. Had to move SCOUT into the Carriage House and she bunked with ZIP. Also had to pick a few pine needles off of the tacky paint!

Port bow, worked on the pattern for the shark's teeth.

Log of SCOUT.