The paint is on! I began the finishing process (applying filler, paint, and varnish) by brushing on some two-part epoxy filler below the waterline. I'm using Interlux Primekote 404/414 . Great stuff, but extremely smelly! Pretty expensive too. But it sands down wonderfully. It fills all the deep scratches and pits and such. The filler goes on pretty thick, but you end up sanding most of it off. Keep in mind that I'm only putting it where paint will go. The topsides will stay natural. The pictures below are after sanding the filler off.  It may look rough, but it's actually just filled the scratches and other low spots. It feels very smooth now. Then I masked the boat. I'm making an accent stripe at the waterline. There will be one thin line of clear wood, and then another thin line of white above the waterline. Next I mixed up some two-part Klass Kote epoxy paint. The first coat was clear. It's really only to act as a "bleed" coat...

Before the Wampum VM hull is cut free from the building board, it's a good time to mark the DWL (Design Waterline). I made a jig that can be adjusted. It's very basic, but worked well! Nest step... cut the hull free!! Aloha!

Wasn't able to post last night, but sprayed on my first coat of clear epoxy. I'm using a new, gravity feed spray gun that I picked up at Harbor Freight for $14. It works pretty well, although you really need to run reducer through it or it will seize up within minutes of stopping spraying. Pretty easy. Just sprayed on the entire hull, but especially on the topsides. Only did two thin coats... just enough to start to cover the hull. Didn't even need to mask anything.   Today, I re-marked the waterline as it dissolved when I wiped the hull with reducer yesterday. After that, I masked the topsides at the waterline. Had to use a hobby knife at the sharp turns near the stern. Then I sprayed on one thin coat of clear. The idea here is that you spray on the same color that is underneath the tape so that the bleed is the same color and you don't see it. Finally, I sprayed on several coats of white from the waterline just about an inch or two toward the...

Got a few things done over the past few days. Most of my time has been spent cleaning up the hull/deck joint with epoxy. Since I'm leaving the topsides clear, I can't use epoxy filler or thickened epoxy. Bummer. So I've made a few coats of clear epoxy just along the joint and have sanded it all smooth. There may still be a few gaps, but for the most part it looks good and ready for finishing. Today I water tested the boat with the servo tray in it, and with about 12 oz. of lead taped to the deck where the rig will go. Was able to gauge the waterline pretty well both fore and aft. Then I turned the hull upside down on a flat surface and leveled the fore and aft water line marks with wood propped underneath. With an Ultra Fine Sharpie taped to a sized piece of wood, I could then run the waterline. It got a bit tricky at the aft section where it has a high angle, but I got something marked anyway. Next, it's ... GULP... finishing time. Yikes. Still not entirely ...