Laser Dinghy

[Natter]

Hi All,

I bought this in a Hobbycraft sale last summer and knocked it together over the last couple of weekends. Though it is a 2007 kit it reminded me of everything I hated about Revell when I was a lad; thick sprue gates, loads of flash...but at least the parts weren't twisted on this one. It has a vacform sail but the rest is injection. The rigging is provided as plain thread in the kit, I coloured it by dragging the thread through heavily thinned acrylic paint to 'dye' it. The pulleys have to be drilled out but that is about it. The rigging is fixed to the cleats with a tiny spot of superglue.

The paint is Tamiya acrylic white with two coats of Klear prior to decals and two coats of Tamiya Clear afterwards. I mixed Tamiya flat base with the Klear to spray the sail but it went 'dusty white' so I have to overspray with Klear again and then a couple of coats of Xtracrylics Satin. The blue sail corners were provided as decals, but they are not handed so one side fitted and the other didn't, so I overpainted them with Tamiya Blue. The vision panel in the sail is provided as a small piece of acetate in the kit and it is fixed in with Pacer 560 canopy glue.

Two lessons for me on this one. Don't prime grey if the finish is white thinking 'it'll help me see where I have sprayed the top coat'. It has taken almost a whole pot of Tamiya white to cover the hull. Second...stay away from Revell, their moulding is still not very good. I may stand to be corrected on lesson two. Oh yes, I need a better camera too, but that will wait.

Enough words, the pictures:

[Dad 10]

Nicely done, our evening walk takes us past 30 odd of these things parked up at Ballyholme YC.

It this your normal subject or a diversion?

Sincerely

Richard McC

[richellis]

Very nice. This is a kit I should have as Ive owned a couple of Lasers. Makes me want to buy ne and get out on the water!

Ive got a 1/18 model of my car, I should build this kit, scrach build a roof rack to stick it on!

[Natter]

It this your normal subject or a diversion?

Hi Richard,

This has been a complete diversion from my usual genres of military aircraft with the occasional vehicle, civilian and military.

My dad used to race Fireball 2 crew dinghys, and seeing this I decided to buy and build it for him. He has no idea about it so next time I see him it should be a pleasant surprise.

[Troffa]

Cracking build of an unusual subject Dave, Very tidy finish, especially nice job on the hull, spraying white is always my biggest problem so I think you've done a great job!

The sail is very convincing as well!

All in all a very nice build.