Come Sail Away: What is My Time Worth, Part 4: Painting and Installing the Masts

This post comes to you with a mixture of emotions. I'm happy that the masts are finally painted and in place because that means rigging is next and the end is within sight. I'm unhappy, because it seems that I've gotten quite good at repairing the things I occasionally break while building these ships. More on that later.

I went round and round with what color to paint my masts. The recent repaint of HMS Victory seems to indicate that the masts are not necessarily the same color as the sides of the ship. Instead, they are more of a cream color. Of course, that brings up the question of, "what color is cream?" Technically, it's the pastel color of yellow, according to Wikipedia. Googling "cream color" will give you a whole range of shades, many of which can't possibly be right. In the end, I went with a suggestion from Mark Barker of the Inshore Squadron, and used a desert sand color over a black basecoat. My desert sand doesn't have the slight pink tone his did, but it does make a pale tan that contrasts nicely with the hull.

So, how long did it take to get all this done? Well, as I mentioned in the first paragraph, there was some breakage. Like the old doctor joke says, "First, the bad news." After having everything painted and waiting for the sealant coat, I knocked two of the masts off my painting desk as I was getting up. The top of the mainmast curled back onto itself into a circle, and the foremast snapped just below the furled course. I don't have any pictures of this, because I was too busy saying filthy words at a higher volume than I usually speak I'm pretty sure some doors were slammed too. After a day or so to decompress, I was able to straighten out and repaint the mainmast. I repaired the foremast the same way I repaired one of my Spanish 74s after I knocked it off the table. You drill a .5mm hole in both halves of the mast, then make that larger with a .7mm drill. Then, you pin both halves using a straight pin cut to length and glue it all together. I don't have any pictures of this process, as I was busy trying to make sure I didn't drill a hole in my fingers, or out the side of the mast.

I didn't keep track of how long the repairs took, because I want this project to document how long a model takes to build under regular conditions. With that in mind, how long did it take to gets the masts painted and installed? I took more detailed notes this time, and can break things down accordingly:

cleaning and assembling masts and bowsprit, 22 minutes
priming, 3 minutes
to paint the masts, 29 minutes
to paint the sails, 17 minutes
to paint the yardarms, 29 minutes
for touch-up and mast bands, 29 minutes
for buntlines and reef points, 25 minutes
for final touch-up, 14 minutes, and
for sealing and installing the masts, 12 minutes.

That's a total of 180 minutes, so 3 hours right on the nose. Combine that with the 247 minutes it took to finish the hull and we're up to 427 minutes, or 7.12 hours. However, we're now ready to start drilling holes and putting the rigging in place. The end isn't near, but as I said earlier, it's certainly in sight. Even better, she's now starting to look like a ship.