After it dried, you stick the top into the engine mount then spray the entire rocket orange/red.
I'm not convinced that's the best way to go. Painting orange over the black won't give a good color match of the orange body.
But how do you mask the top of a nose cone?
Here's the best solution I could come up with.
I found an extra Quest centering ring that would almost slide down to the black/white separation line in the nose cone.
I wrapped 150 grit sandpaper around the barrel of a Sharpie pen and used that to widen the inside hole.
I didn't want a fuzzy edge along the sanded inside edge so I applied CA to give me a harder surface to sand smooth.
I switched over to 400 grit, sanding at an angle to match the nose cone contour better.
Notice there is a card ridge under the bottom of the ring. I concentrated on keeping the top inside edge smooth and flat.
The wider ridge at the bottom will help give a better seal.
I did this more like how you did your Mini Honest Nose cone mask. I changed it a bit as I would print a skinny shroud, place wax paper on that, then tape on that. I would cut out the tape shroud (through all three layers - you would often do this on glass) and apply that 1/8" to 1/4" thick shroud on the rocket - leveling with a tube or ring like you have above. Then I would build out with tape and plastic bag to cover the rest of what I did not want painted.
ReplyDeleteHi Scott,
DeleteThis post was done before I figured out a better way. Both Centuri and Estes printed a method like this, usually a body tube stuck on the nose cone tip. The results were okay, but never perfect.
Well, I guess you did the mini honest john a year after this - in 2012. Any more current (2016) suggestions on how to paint a nose cone mask like the this?
ReplyDeleteNothing new on the nose cone masks. For now, the thin curved tape strip seems to work the best for me.
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