Before when Dreamer was red and rusty.
Before any large design I like to visualise it first. I quite often use photoshop as its an easy way to experiment with different colour schemes. To do this I measured Dreamer so that I could create a rough scale digital model.
The name 'Dreamer' reminded me of blue skies and acted as my inspiration for the colour scheme. I chose 4 colours, Graphite grey, Larkspur Blue, Wedgwood Blue and Cream. I then chose to do the coach lines and other small details in gold.
After the shot blasting and back to steel.
After a coat of anti-rust. I coated the boat in 2 coats of primer. The anti rust coat may have been unnecassary as I later discovered the primer itself acts as an anti rust treatment as it asborbs slightly into the steel.
I then added 3 coats of undercoat, this colour would act as the base colour that would help the richness and shine of the top coats. It is also a harden enable which helps protect the steel.
Apart from the anti rust treatment and the gold (which I will go into later) I got all of my paint from Craft Masters. This here is Graphite Grey on the gunnels, Larkspur Blue and Wedgwood Blue. I also used cream on the roof.
Coach lines was a two person job and again I got the low tack masking tape from Craft Masters. It was expensive but the best masking tape that I have ever used for clean edges and barely any drips/leaks.
I am also really satisfied with the overall gloss finish.
It was really tricky to source the gold paint. Sign writers gold tends to be a pale yellow or a mustard colour. Gold leaf was way out of the price range so I did some research and found out that the gold used for highlighting spikes on metal gates is made of lots of different micro fibres which result in quite a convincing gold finish. I used Acrylate Rich Gold Metallic finish. Whilst I am very pleased with the result I wouldn't recommend doing very large areas in this because it is very heavy and not as easy to apply.
