bbs428 Build

[bbs428]

Painting a lot of white is hard! Like finding your way in a white-out snowstorm. Following your wet edge is hard to do. A high-performance head light helps out.
Shot a light coat of Poly-tone Insignia White over the Poly-Spray as a base for the Aero-thane topcoat. 1 light and 2 medium coats with 15-30 minutes between coats depending on the temperature. Aero-Thane likes to stick to itself. If you try to rush or lay too much in at once you will get runs, drips, sags every time. This time, everything worked out nice.

Safety measures were a pita but necessary. Had a Hobby Air system and 3m hazard suit. No exposed skin. Made it difficult to paint well.
Hose management, humidity, dust control, how much reducer, how hot/cold - all contributed to a steep learning curve.

I followed the complete Poly-Fiber system as for a certified a/c. With care it should last 20+ years easy. I'll be taking my dirt nap by the time this bird needs recovered.
Oretex is the easier route, but some of us "special cases" have to do it the hard way cause were just special! Lol.

Attachment 31267 IMG_0340.jpg IMG_0325.jpg IMG_03288.jpg

Discovered some problems with the elevator. On closer inspection I just did not do my job good enough before covering. "Sigh" Some of us just can't live with it being even slightly dicked up, so you know the drill, off comes the fabric and we get to do it all over again! Yay!
Luckly, I had plenty of materials to do it all again. I used a piece of wood and my shop-vac attachments to help out painting the elevator. Made it easy to flip it from one side to the other. Funny how it always comes out nicer the second/third time around, Lol.

IMG_0754.jpg IMG_0760.jpg IMG_0764.jpg IMG_0746.jpg IMG_0453.jpg

[bbs428]

Finally Started to paint the wings. Head light came in very handy. The cooler weather really worked to our advantage.
Had to improvise and install the wing tip to carry out the paint lines so everything lines up. Of course, there was still more work to do on the tips before they could be painted.
Laying out the lines is time consuming. Using a premium vinal 3m tape is the only way to go. Once you have one side done, you measure the tape on each rib to the leading or trailing edge and jot it down. Then duplicate the measurements on the other side and the opposite wing making sure your start and end points are the same.
Bottom of the wing is easy. Top - not so much. Curvature of the wing makes it challenging. Lot's of "eyeballin" to get it right.

IMG_0441.jpg IMG_0637.jpg IMG_0573.jpg IMG_0595.jpg

Fabric weave still showing through the paint is a good sign. Being two big flat surfaces and on the rotisserie, made the wing much easier than the other aircraft parts by far. Yes, my wing rotisserie is a hodge-podge of scrap lumber, pvc pipe and screwed to two moving dollies. Thrifty and it works well!
The blue and red were a lot easier to paint. Although the red was slightly translucent. Having a white base helped to make the red look good and bright. I was really happy with the paint color and how it turned out.
The gloss of the Aero-Thane is deep and full of luster. Who doesn't love "shiny" Lol.

IMG_0652.jpg IMG_0597.jpg IMG_0604.jpg IMG_0601.jpg

After a few hours we removed the tapes and seen to any bleed throughs. A q-tip or small stick dipped in reducer or thinner and a steady hand takes care of this. The better your taping, the less bleeding you have to deal with.
The Paint booth does a good job of keeping most of the junk out of the paint, but you have to be obsessed with cleanliness. Still no matter how clean you are something will tend to muck it up. You Have to wait 5+ days to cure. Then 800-1500 grit paper and a good buffing compound took care of 90% of those issues. The rest you have to live with!

[airlina]

A tip I learned from an expert painter was this: after mask tape is applied , I took a hobby type small sprayer and shoot the edge of the tape (in your case this would be the white) and this fills all the tiny tape voids so that when you shoot your trim colors they can't "sneak" under the tape and ruin your crisp lines. Worked great with no need to address any bleed throughs when done. Its a bit of an added step but the rewards are worth it. Your wings look great by the way, cool scheme. Bruce N199CL

[Geek]

Brett the wings look awesome. I see all that work for the painting and am envious........but given my history of painting.....glad I am going with a Plain Jane Oratex variant Kitfox. I do have a question however. How do you wear this Special Forces Recon Darkness Eradicator with the Darth Vader Wannabe mask?

head.jpgBrett.jpg

[PapuaPilot]

That's a beautiful paint job on your wings. I really like your scheme.

[alexM]

Very creative paint scheme and it looks like it's coming out great. Oratex is quite utilitarian by comparison.

A tip I learned from an expert painter was this: after mask tape is applied , I took a hobby type small sprayer and shoot the edge of the tape (in your case this would be the white) and this fills all the tiny tape voids so that when you shoot your trim colors they can't "sneak" under the tape and ruin your crisp lines. Worked great with no need to address any bleed throughs when done. Its a bit of an added step but the rewards are worth it. Your wings look great by the way, cool scheme. Bruce N199CL

^That is genius. I'll have to remember that one.

[jiott]

Yes, Airlina's tip is worth its weight in gold. Have used it a lot; someone tipped me on it way back when I was doing RC models. Lines come out perfectly crisp.

[bbs428]

"Brett the wings look awesome. I see all that work for the painting and am envious........but given my history of painting.....glad I am going with a Plain Jane Oratex variant Kitfox. I do have a question however. How do you wear this Special Forces Recon Darkness Eradicator with the Darth Vader Wannabe mask?"


Lol, yes I do, but I'm still working on my James Earl Jones sinister voiceover!

Believe me there were times I wanted to scrap this crazy paint job idea, paint it all white or cough up the extra $$ for the Oratex!

[bbs428]

A tip I learned from an expert painter was this: after mask tape is applied , I took a hobby type small sprayer and shoot the edge of the tape (in your case this would be the white) and this fills all the tiny tape voids so that when you shoot your trim colors they can't "sneak" under the tape and ruin your crisp lines. Worked great with no need to address any bleed throughs when done. Its a bit of an added step but the rewards are worth it. Your wings look great by the way, cool scheme. Bruce N199CL

Well now, that's a great tip Bruce. I should have posted something on that way earlier! I could have done a better job.
At first, I had a few bleed throughs but toward the end it was rare. I caused most of my own problems by using a cheaper tape. Once I switched to the 3m vinal tapes the problem went away.

3m vinyl tape 471.jpg

[airlina]

Brett, your work looks great from here sitting in front of my computer, and I think from the responses you're getting, your paint scheme is a big hit . Can't wait to see the finished product. Keep up the good work . Bruce N199CL