Own design and build sports turbine jet

Its certainly normal practise to let the gel coat harden a bit before applying the cloth and resin other wise there is a danger that during the lay up process the cloth could be forced through the gel coat and thus mark the mould surface.
It will all depend on how firm your stippling action was.

Houston we have a problem !! well several actually

Ha Ha no Eric, that will be the next thing though i suppose
Took the fence off this morning, it came off ok no problems, buttttt the gel had seeped past the fence and run down the other half of the plug



But it came off very easily would you believe



Because the gel had not hardened for some reason be known to its self. as i have no idea
Sooooo i thought FLIPPING HECK or words to that effect, i thought what to do now, then i found some hardened gel that i think that the resin i applied to early may have cured it, so im hoping its gone hard all over the plug
Also despite my best efforts i had holes between the fence and fuselage joint, so its been a day of damage limitation and salvage, as i want to lay he other half on without removing the first half
Time will tell i suppose

When you lay the other half you have got to make absolutely sure the two halves of the flange cannot stick together. It will not have the benefit of the lovely smooth super polished surface of the plug.

Yes i know that Simon so i will be taking extra care

It is now ready for the other half of the mould to be done, maybe tomorrow,

Great work Tony.

you are a master at model building.

Tony B

I think you said that to soon Tony after todays cock ups
Did the other half of the mould today and again the coloured gel would not go off at all even after several hours, don't know why, and after I had painted it on it all went like this

I kept brushing it out but every time it went back to the same, never had this happen before either
Then I realised I had not sprayed the plug with mould release
Well it was to late rto do anything but carry on, so as with the first half I laid it up

I don't think for one minute it is going to be any good, and I think the plug will br destroyed as well
Im hoping for the best but expecting the worst
I am pissed off, im off to bed, maybe tomorrow will be better

My guess is the gel coat is 'responding' to the polish on the plug.
On the canoe moulds we hired we were told not to add any polish but to simply make sure they were absolutely clean and wipe the surface with a clean duster. They claimed the polish was 'embedded' into the mould and needed no further treatment. They were right.
In your case I would expect a release agent would help as it would keep the polish from mixing with the gel coat.
Hopefully the polish will have done its job and ensure the moulds come away without damaging the plug.

Would cling film have been any use as a shield or would it be too hard to avoid wrinkles.Or the heat be a problem ?

I trimmed the excess cloth off, now I will leave it until the weekend, before attempting to open it
Here it is encased, all those hours of work on the plug,

A time of excitement and trepidation fingers X for you

Hmmm time for excitement, or should that read excrement
Could not resist having a peek at it today, so got a wood chisel and prised it apart near the fin
And it came apart relatively easy, only a little bit mind, and the plug looked ok,

I think it will have a job to wait until the weekend before its opended