I didn't take any pictures of the model sprayed with gray primer.It always amazes me how many flaws show up when sprayed gray. Suffice to say, I had a bit of sanding to remove some glue spots and rough edges.
After the gray primer was sanded the overall white followed.
TRIVIA: I found it interesting, in the original Centuri instructions, they have you paint the entire rocket black first, mask and then paint it white!
They explained (at the time) that the white paint adhered better over the black as opposed to the black over white.
They explained (at the time) that the white paint adhered better over the black as opposed to the black over white.
I can't see doing it this way. Can you imagine how much extra white paint (and added weight) it would take to cover over a black undercoat?
The above picture shows the lower half painted white. The roll of paper was taped to the inside of the body tube to keep paint out of the tube.
The upper end got the same paper roll block. I did ball up a small towel and pushed that into the top to keep the shock cords in the tube.The corrugations on the upper 2nd stage wrapper are deeper than all the rest. You can see gray primer showing through after I thought I'd got a good coverage. I had to go back and shoot white again from the sides to cover all the deep gray.
Time spent on build: 1:30
Total time on build so far: 43:45
I wonder if the Centuri instructions had to do with the quality of both paint and even tape back in the day. 3M didn't have "Blue" masking tape back then, and Frogtape hadn't even been invented. (FWIW, when I built the Centuri Saturn 1B in 1969, I painted the black areas second. As a 11-year-old at the time, I didn't think my skills were up to re-masking the model for applying the white areas second, and I definitely didn't have the patience!)
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown,
DeleteI agree, masking tape is better now than it was in the late 1960s. I never understood the Centuri reasoning behind painting the black first. It may be the black areas (covered areas) were smaller than the rest of the rocket being white.