So here’s the fish I shaped for a friend…I’m actually pretty happy with the color, despite how bummed I was after the lam…The top is more of a blueish/green/marine color, but it looks pretty nice with the bottom this color. I’m starting to get the hang of this tint stuff…I know, I know, I need to work on my fin foils! They look good when I do them, and then agter glassing and sanding, they look wrong. I’ll get it…This board just got hotcoated. Still needs to be sanded and glossed/polished. Thanks for everyone’s help here.
It looks like the base is too short for the height. Bet they work just fine, though. You live in fish country. Why not find some gepharts or one of the other builders and start from there? Did you use roving around the edge of your fins? I like that color,too. Mike
You know what? I think I distorted the pic of the fins when I resized it…I see what you mean. They really have a 8 1/2" base and are 5" tall. And yes, I finally found some roving and bought 50ft…Check this out, I’m not sure if it’s usually this cheap or not, but they charged me $2.00 for 50’!! STOKED. Do you usually twist the roving around the fin or lay it flat? How many times do you usually wrap it around A fin?? Thanks. Still learning, but having a friggin’ blast. As long as I have friends like this, that will pay for all the materials, I’ll shape boards 'til the cows come home for no profit…
Most guys, on regular fins, just unwind the six strands into two stacks of 3, tape the ends, and lay them on each side, then lam some glass on top for smoothness.
On a fish type fin, maybe more rope is needed, so possibly unwind the whole band, tape the ends, and use 6 rovings per side, then lam some glass, usually a deck patch the height of the fins all around the fin, and fully up the sides.
Thanks LeeD…I did it wrong I guess. I layed down the patches, then actually wrapped the rope around the entire fin three times and saturated everything. Oh well, now I know.
Your fins look great. Better than mine. I have not used roving or rope on any of them. I’ll try to get some photos up. The photos of my fishes was the first time I successfully posted pics on the site. mike
