Day 129.

After what seems like an eternity, the hull is finally painted.  It ended up taking 43 days.  To be fair, most of that was downtime.  I typically only painted on the weekends, and the amount of work I could do was limited by drying and curing time.

It took a good half hour to get all the masking tape off.  Some of that tape has been on there the full 43 days.  In some places there were 3-4 layers of tape due to the different painting rounds.

Lots of masking tape came off once painting was complete.

There were some spots on the grey waterway where the masking wasn’t quite good enough, and some white bulwark paint got in.  This should be an easy fix – just half an hour of hand brushing in a few spots.

I will also need to re-sand the deck before I stain and seal it.  In a couple spots the tape got a little too stuck to the wood, and pulled up some splinters.

The yellow stripe at the waist turned out decent, but it will need some cleanup in a few spots where I didn’t have the tape aligned just right.  These spots will probably be hand brushed, but I’ll use some masking to make sure I get the line straight.

The yellow stripe at the wait came out pretty decently.  There are a few spots to touch up.

My biggest concern, seeing the whole hull unmasked, is the white waterline stripe.  There are few places where it is too thick, and the top edge is a little wavy.  I’m also not sure about the angle of the stripe at the bow.  From some angles, it seems to curve down.  Before I make a decision on that, I’ll need to level up the ship again.  The Bluenose sits in the water at a pretty good angle, so unless the hull is leveled out on the desk, it will look like the stripe curves down at the bow.  Some further examination is required.

The white waterline stripe needs some work.  It is too thick in spots, and the top edge is a little wavy.  The curve of the line at the bow might need to be brought up, but first I’ll need to level the ship.

Even if I don’t need to address the bow, I will likely re-do the top edge of the waterline sometime in the next week.  Now that I can see the whole thing, I can more accurate mask off the line, and I’ll re-spray the black along the top edge of the waterline to straighten it out.

So, 43 days of painting down, now I’ve got a week of touch-ups.  Then I can probably stain and seal the deck.  I also need to pick a clear coat for the hull and get that on after touchups are complete (before I accidentally damage the paint).