Gosport Model Yacht & Boat Club

Affiliated to the Model Yachting Association (MYA)

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HINTS and TIPS
(Questions & Answers)

If you have a Hint or a Tip that you think other members might find beneficial, let us have details via ..


Equally if you have any questions, please e-mail those as well and they can be placed on the pages for members to respond to in the form of a forum


Varnishing made Easy
Painting and varnishing tip from Ken Shell.
I was having problems with getting a fine gloss finish with varnish on wooden decks and Ken advised putting enough varnish for one coat in a small jar or tin and standing it in warm water.
Chef’s call this a Bain-Marie. This reduces the viscosity and allows the varnish to be applied thinly and it flows to a beautiful finish.
I have christened this method of applying varnish “SHELL LACK”. This procedure has also been successfully used with enamel paint.
Well done KEN thanks for the tip.

Take Care Of Those Crystals

And I don’t mean just look after the pins because if you damage them the crystal becomes virtually useless.  I have noticed that some of the more recent crystals I have bought, although clearly marked as to their frequency with paper tags, after some time of use, the paper separates and may become detached from the actual crystal.  The older ones are marked on the case of the crystals themselves both as to frequency and if they are transmitter or receiver crystals.  More recent ones don’t seem to be marked so if you lose the tag, you don’t know what frequency they are and whether for tranny or receiver.
My solution is to remove the paper tags before they wear and replace them with an equivalent size piece of deck patch.  Write the details with a permanent pen on the new tag and you shouldn’t have problems of separation as the two self adhesive faces stick together like you know what.

Cut piece to sufficient length and width, say, 60mm x 8mm.

     Fold in half BEFORE removing the backing paper.  

 Cut off the corners of the folded end so that they make V inserts. 

Remove the backing paper and stick to crystals inserting the pins either side of the V inserts.  Ensure the spare ends stick to each other nice and square.  Mark up the tags with frequency and R or T.