Paint Questions

This blog post may contain information I've posted before. But there are always new
blog readers who may not have found things from posts that go back a few years.
Please remember this is my experience, your technique and brands of paint will probably vary from mine. Jeff asked some questions in an email, here's my response:

Hi Jeff,

I do use the Rusto 2X paints - but - 

They have a chance of spraying out a rough "cottage cheese" when right off the shelf or after long periods of storage. Always spray about 10 passes on scrap cardboard to clear the pigment in the spray tube.  Be ready, the rough stuff can happen twice (start and stop, start and stop) when a can is new. This seems to happen most often with 2X Gloss White.

I don't use flat finishes at all on rockets, unless I was entering a scale competition. Flat finishes are a magnet for dirt and finger oil. I spray gloss and leave it be.

There is a picture on the cover of an older Sport Rocketry magazine where Chas. Russell is holding his scale model. He is wearing white gloves to keep the flat finish clean.

I also don't spray my models with a clear coat. In humid weather all clear coats become soft and you will leave fingerprints in the finish.

At one time I sprayed clear coats on and was initially happy with the shiny look - but one day at a hot Summer launch left fingerprints in the softened acrylic clear coat. I sometimes use some Future Floor finish (also a acrylic clear coat) on a decal, but I only roll over the decal with the Future on a Q-tip "brush".  

Regarding re-coats -

You can recoat (lay down another sprayed coat) between 5 minutes to 30 minutes after the initial spraying. If you wait longer than an hour the paint has "skinned over" but there is still some wet paint underneath that. If you spray over the not totally dried paint you'll get wrinkles. If you spray once and wait too long for a re-coat, don't spray, give it a few days to dry.

Chris Michielssen

www.oddlrockets.blogspot.com www.modelrocketbuilding.blogspot.com