Jan. 16, 06 - Here is the finished model with its teak toe rail.
Nautor's Swan 40 Construction Pictures
Dec. 24, 05 - The drawings arrived from Sparkman and Stephens on the 22nd. That night and yesterday I rescaled them from 1.2"=1' to 0.6"=1'. When I completed that task I made up my templates and cut out the backplane and station frames. Last night I laminated the backplane with fiberglass. Today I glued the frames and deck onto the backplane and planked the hull down to the waterline. I also fiberglassed the deck.
Dec 25, 05 - This afternoon I finished planking and rough fairing the hull. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will fiberglass the hull.
Dec 28, 05 - Over the past few days I have been fiberglassing this model. That is now finished. It was cold in the shop last night, so the epoxy still needs a few hours to cure completely. So, I won't begin the filling/fairing/priming process until tomorrow.
Jan 2, 06 - The picture above shows the model after three coats of fairing compound. After I took this picture I masked off below the waterline and painted the topsides and deck with the first coat of white primer. As usual, the first coat of primer acts to show up flaws in the surface. Tomorrow, I will prime the bottom and then start filling the imperfections in the topsides.
Jan 4, 06 - I have now primed both the topsides and bottom. Today I will begin spot fairing the model by filling pin holes and other imperfections and then repriming. I will repeat that process until the surface is as close to perfect as I can get it, then I will start painting. The mounting board has 6 coats of varnish and will be sanded down today for the final coat of satin varnish.
Jan. 7, 06 - I put the first coat of Interlux Brightsides Matterhorn White on the topsides today. Thursday night I put the final coat of satin varnish on the teak mounting board. It looks like I will need one more coat of paint on the topsides. I will let this coat cure until Monday before putting the second coat on. If that coat of paint come out well, I will paint the boot stripe on Wednesday and the bottom on Friday.
Jan. 13, 06 - Since my last update I have put several more coats of topsides paint on the model On Wednesday, I finally achieved an acceptable coating. Today I painted the boot stripe. Tomorrow I will buff out the paint and install the teak toe rail. I plan to paint the bottom on Sunday or Monday. The last step will be to put the gold cove stripe on. I expect to get the engraved nameplate in the mail early next week, so this model will be ready to ship out by the middle of next week.
Jan. 15, 06 - The model is now finished except for the gold cove stripe, which I will put on tomorrow after I wax the topsides.