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Visual History
The Building of Aslan
for the Topsides
Updated 09/04/00
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A
Visual History
The Building of Aslan |
for the Topsides Updated 09/04/00 |
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To make the non-skid areas of the deck, I used crushed walnut shells ("Agrashell") as the plans specified. Sand, crumbled rubber, and a number of other materials could also be used. After masking off the areas where I don't want walnut shells (2" from each side or edge, for instance) I rolled on a thin coat of epoxy. Then, I started adding the crushed shells by sprinkling them into the wet epoxy. Leah's boyfriend, Dennis came out to help me (escaping the women in the house, no doubt -- Maybe they turned on "Wedding Story" on Lifetime again. That would certainly make ME nervous!) Pretty soon Leah came out and helped. You can see Dennis' pant leg in this shot. Tall, huh? |
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Here's a shot showing the non-skid pattern on the starboard side. The shells have been sprinkled on, and the masking tape then removed (otherwise the epoxy makes it permanent too!) Loose crushed walnut shells have fallen into non-epoxied areas, which is OK, since they won't stick. After letting it cure, we'll vacuum up the loose stuff, and paint it. |
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Another view, this time of the bow. You can see some of the "loose stuff" on the cabin top, radiating out towards the edge just below the termination of the hand hold. |
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After letting the walnut shells in epoxy cure overnight, Kris vacuumed
them off and we painted the first coat on. You can see the lighter
colored non-skid areas on top of the cabin and along the port deck in the
photo.
NOTE: To save image size, I save these at 200 dpi, and then compress the photo to 20 or 40% of the original, making them 4k to 8k, rather than 2 MB like they start out. The compression usually doesn't matter much, although in this shot, you can really see the degradation of the image. |
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Another compressed shot (you can tell by the "squares of color" instead of gradual shading on the blue hull sides.) This does give you a feel for the way the boat looks with the rub rails done. I'll be varnishing them over the next week or so. Once it is finished, I'll post some color pics that aren't compressed so much. |
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