Friday, August 28, 2015

Paint "Rotisserie?" TIP

Horizontal spray painting of rockets (versus vertical spraying) was brought up on a forum.
Coincidentally I put together this post about a week ago. 

Once in a while on the forums I see a picture of a rocket being painted.
There might be a painting stick in the back end, but the stick is in the ground with the rocket in vertical position for painting and drying.
Think about it, a model being painted vertically is just asking for drips and pools of paint at the end of the body tube.

I spray my models horizontally.


Using the picture as a reference -
1. I shoot the leading and trailing edges of the fins and nose cone tip first to be sure they get coverage.
I'll use the launch lug as a reference, a starting and finish point so nothing is missed.
2. I shoot the fin tip at the top of the picture, working back and forth down the fin surface to the root edge.
3. Shoot the entire body tube length, back and forth working down to the lower fin root edge.
4. Shoot the lower fin, back and forth root edge down to tip.
5. Rotate the model counterclockwise to the next set of facing fins (like the picture above)
    Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.
6. Rotate one more time to the last open facing fins. Repeat steps 2, 3 and 4.

The rocket should be more evenly covered with very little, if any over spray.
Sorry, it's hard to explain with just the one picture.

Before leaving the model to dry, slowly rotate ("rotisserie") the model by turning the painting wand. You don't want the paint to pool up or start a run.
Turn slowly for a minute or so until the paint "skins" up and starts to dry. Once the paint has started drying there is very little chance of a drip.

As I've said before, I use the old Centuri paint adage:
"Do not paint your model with one heavy coat!
. . . light coats first and THEN a finish coat."
"The finish coat should be applied a little heavier (slower strokes) and have a wet look when you're finished painting."

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