Friday, October 8, 2021

Quest/Aerotech Mean Green Build #Q5103, Part 2, Masking The Black

I couldn't find a good lime green color after visiting two hardware stores.
I ended up ordering a Candy Lime Green online.

This was a small Tamiya can. I hoped there would be enough paint to cover the model!

White undercoats went down first.
I still had some paint left after spraying. This Lime Green paint is also a very fine metallic.

I had already rounded the leading edges of the upswept fins.
There was a problem - the black sticker streaks don't roll over the rounded leading edge, leaving a green strip at the top. I'll paint some gloss black over the edge and set the sticker line over that.

Setting the sticker over the fin gave me a good idea how wide the mask line would be.
The sticker print isn't as long as the leading edge, short by about 1/16" at the outside. I'll set the wide side into the root edge and paint black around the outside edge to match the width of the black sticker.




Here's the masks - 
The nose cone and 2 1/2" down from the top of the body tube will be gloss black.

On the fins, about 3/32" of the leading edge will be shot in gloss black. Plastic shopping bags covered most of the model.

4 comments:

  1. I almost fell out of my chair when I saw you spent the money on Tamiya spray paint. 😂😂 This must be a show model. It's great paint.

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    1. Hi Metal,
      I like to keep you guessing -
      The builds I do for the vendors should match the face card and box art illustrations. This metallic lime green was the only match I could find.
      Results were good - I thought I would run out of paint but still have quite a bit left.

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  2. I assume this is a trade show model build for hire which is a shame in a way - the Mean Green is a great flyer. I added a bit of nose weight to mine so it’s stable on bigger 24mm motors but it still flies nicely on Estes BP E motors. Your Tamiya lime green looks a bit better than the close but not quite Rusto color I used. I did my fin edges with a Sharpie so it passes my 5 foot rule. I was skeptical about the “drippy” look black peel and stick decals but they do look good and mine have stayed on so far.

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    Replies
    1. Hi Openroad,
      I looked through the Rusto paints - not much to choose from with shortages at the Home Depot.
      The shiny stickers look good on gloss paint - but getting them to blend on the Lil' Grunt flat finish olive drab took a few more steps. More on that in a future blog build.

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