Whenever possible, I won't glue parts together until after painting. It just saves time and gives cleaner color separations.Here I left off the (red) upper body tube and painted the nose cone and lower body tube as one unit. The shoulders of the adapter and nose cone were taped together and sprayed.
Presently I've been using Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X Coverage spray paints when finishing rockets.
This silver color is actually WalMart Colorplace Aluminum. It's the best cheap silver color I've found for about $1.00 a can.
I let the lower body tube dry for two days before sliding on the fin can.
Metallic paints easily show scratches, mars and fingerprints. I was concerned that the upper ring of the fin can assembly could scratch the aluminum paint when sliding it up from the rear of the body tube to it's final glued position.
There was molded ridges on the inside surface of the rings. I shaved those down with a sharp knife and smoothed the inside of the rings with 400 grit sandpaper.
Thick CA was applied to the inside of the lower ring only. Before starting the slide up, I made sure the engine hook notch was in the right position. This should be a straight slide on with no turning. The fin can was carefully slid up the body until the lower ring was set against the engine mount centering ring.
In the end I did have a few scratches on the aluminum paint, but hardly noticeable.
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