Estes Strikefighter, Kit #2015, Build, Part 15, Some Early White Paint

I shot the fairings early to better see the fillets. 

Look close - the glued edge areas are shiny, the center of the strip isn't. 

The edge fillets are sealed by the glue. The paint soaked into the cardstock where there wasn't any glue. Paint will seal things up, some light sanding is needed to even out the surface.

 

The core tube and vanes would be impossible to paint once they are slid into the nacelle tubes. These will also get a shot of gloss white.

I did mask the glue areas. Notice the thin tape strips covering the outside edges of the vanes.

After the paint dried, I found some small fillet bubbles.

Rather than using the glue bottle on the bubbles, I applied small drips onto a toothpick tip and pressed the glue into the recess holes.

Estes Mini Scale Combo Pak, #0874, Tomahawk & Exocet, Build, Part 12, Sanding White Undercoats

Here's the same fin, before and after fine sanding after a white undercoat.

The die-cut pressure crimped the backside of the fin edges.

It's finally smoothing out after initial sanding, filler/primer and sanding and now sanding the white undercoats.

The paper shock cord anchor looks okay after light sanding. There is still a shock cord hump.

 

The tube joint should look better after the color coats.

Estes Aries SST, #1927, Build, Part 12, White Paint

Assembly is complete except for the parachute and shock cord ties.

Time for paint! Note the dowel/engine casing painting wand locked in the engine mount. I tend to leave this handle in through much of the build, paint and decal placement. It's easier to hold and not as risky for fingerprints.

This shows some of the spots where the sanding has removed glue blobs. The intake fillet also had some high spots. 

I've been using Ace Premium Enamel (Ace Hardware brand) spray paint for a while now. Shoot when humidity is low, around 2:30 in the afternoon. 

The Ace paint dries to the touch in about an hour, recoat within an hour or after 48 hours.

After one hour I was able to handle the model and do the initial undercoat sanding shown above.

Estes Sandpiper, Kit #1389, Part 10, Sanding The White Undercoats

After the first white undercoat,

fine sanding with 400 grit showed there was still some uneven fillets.

The inside fillets are a little hard to reach.

This one showed a bubble after sanding. More glue - 

This had to be the best fitting shroud I've ever done!

It was surprising, I didn't have a shroud tool, the one at payloadbay.com wasn't available. Those tools are now at jonrocket.com.

Smooth, with very little filling.

The 3D printed nose cone turned out very smooth!

Initially, there were very subtle ridges, but those sanded out. One shot of filler/primer and sanding got it ready for color.

New Way Lunar Jumper Build, Part 9, Launch Lug & White Undercoats

After all these years, I'm not doing glue fillets on either side of the launch lug. Too many bubbles and too much time sanding the fillet smooth. 

I know, a smooth glue fillet is less drag. But, I'm a sport flier, not that concerned with a few extra feet of altitude.

I apply a fine line of glue and even it straight with my fingers. Pinch your thumb and index finger into a "V" and run it down the glue line making a narrow, straight line.

A balsa spacer is supplied to set the the lug height.

The upper ring tube is sprayed off the model. 

It's difficult to get paint inside the assembly if the ring is glued on now.

Here the ring is set on a painting wand to a wrap of tape, sticky side out.

Hold the tube areas under a bright, reflective light to se the glue fillet lines that might need sanding.

After fine sanding with 400 grit, 

The glue fillet high spots have been taken down. Most all of the rocket body has been lightly sanded, just dulling the gloss white.

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 32, Things To Fill

After spraying the shite undercoat, pinholes showed up in some of the glue fillets.

The intercooler fillets needed some sanding.

A crack showed up at the top of the secondary hull.

This was closed up with CA glue.

How did I not see this?

The seam on the retainer ring was pretty obvious.

CWF filled the seam and sanding followed. 

Then, another white undercoat.

Estes USS Enterprise #1275, Part 31, Fillets and Paint Prep

Back to the Enterprise! 

I took a break from the frustrating Enterprise build. That, and the Arcas paint is drying.

I actually got a good fit of the pylon braces in the tube slots. There is still a seam gap though.

Wood glue fillets will fill any gaps.

More glue fillets followed where the supports met the vacu-formed secondary hull halves.

A dowel with an engine casing was glued into a dowel for a painting wand.

The front coupler was taped off to keep out paint. 

Onto the white undercoats - fingers crossed!

Estes Mini Arcas, #2441, Part 12, First White Coat

The first white undercoats always show the glue blobs you didn't smooth out before spraying.

On the left - One side, very rough fillet areas.

On the right - I wish they all looked this good! There would be less work before final paint sprays.

Something I don't think I mentioned earlier - Look close at the balsa grain. It doesn't run down the leading edge line. The grain is parallel to the trailing edge.

Here's one quarter view after sanding with a well used piece of 400 grit. All the glue boogers have been lightly sanded to surface.

I'm going to try a "shading" decal to give the impression of diamond shaped fins. More coming up . . .

New Way Blade Runner, Part 9, White Undercoats & Parachute Assembly

The main body was sprayed with gloss white.

A little more sanding will follow and then a final coat of white.

The 12" New Way parachutes are  interesting.

The reinforcing rings are jewelry ring price tags made from no-tear Tyvek.

The adhesive is only on the round ends allowing an easy tie of the shroud lines in the middle fold.

The shroud line holder is meant to be easily unfurled.

See the hole on the left side of the black spool?

Hold the "spool" with just your thumb and index fingertips over that hole. This allows the spool to rock back and forth as you pull the string free. No tangles!

Here's how the shroud lines tie into the reinforcements.

As always, I recommend tying the lines on using long tweezers.

Estes Mini Bomarc Clone, Kit #TK-5, Part 13, White Undercoats

I thought it would be difficult to get paint around the ramjet assemblies. The main body and nacelles will be painted separately.

I masked off two gluing lines for the root edges of the nacelle support "P" pieces. I shaded the mask strips with pencil to show up better in the photo.

On the right is the inside end of the body tube masked off.

The root edge of the "P" supports were masked off with a thin piece of tape. These were taped down to a scrap piece of cardboard.

The top and sides were spray painted gloss white. 

After that paint dried, 

The nacelle assembly was slid over a dowel and the underside sprayed.

This is the underside of the wing and body.

You can see how difficult it is to get paint coverage on the inside areas.

Estes AMRAAM AIM-120 Downscale, Build, Part 10, Fillets & White Undercoats

I know, I'm bouncing between builds! I'm sure you have two or three rockets in progress at one time.

Even though I had a fairly tight fit, there were still bubbles in the conduit glue fillets!

There isn't much space between the fins and conduit for a glue fillet.

I applied a line of wood glue to a Q-tip and spread the fillet drop by drop. 

White undercoats have been sprayed.

After the paint dried, those fillets between the fins and conduits weren't that smooth. The rough areas required some sanding with 400 grit before additional white coats.

Estes Advanced Target Drone, Kit #1913, Build, Part 10, Paint!

White undercoats - 

Spray, let dry and sand any rough spots.

With paint on you can see the fillet ridges. Sand them down a bit then check them after the next undercoat.

Only one color before decals!

This is Ace Gloss Banner Red.

Spray the inside areas of the intakes first, then concentrate on the outside surfaces.

You won't be able to get full coverage all the way inside.

Semroc Wac Corporal Build, Waiting For Paint To Dry

I'll get back to the final white undercoat today on the Semroc Wac Corporal.

Here's the fin areas after the second white undercoat and some light sanding. It'll still take one more light undercoat before sanding and color.

Too many Odd'l Rockets kit orders pushed this build to the back burner.

Also - expecting a major kit build for Aerotech/Quest in the mail. 13 MPR builds in all!

Semroc Wac Corporal Build, Part 13, White Undercoat & Sanding

It never fails -

I think I've done a good job making smooth fillets. I think I've picked up all the excess glue before it has dried.

The first white undercoat usually brings attention to all the flaws.

On the left is an uneven glue fillet.

On the right is after careful sanding with some older 4000 grit. 

You can sand yellow wood glue.

A before and after of the flue fillets on the upper launch lug.

Sand under a bright light. Sanding dulls the gloss white. Low areas that need more sanding will still be glossy.

Here's a noticeable glue booger near the leading edge of a fin.

On the right is after sanding to surface. 

In 48 hours, another white undercoat and probably some more sanding.

Estes Mini Bertha Clone, #TK-3, Part 9, White Paint & Masking

Here's the model after the first white coat.

This is an easy mask, the body is white, the nose cone and one fin are black.

There are always glue fillet ridges.

Here's the same fillet area after sanding.

The single fin is painted black.

This shows the Scotch tape masks.

These are followed with brown masking tape covering the larger areas. A plastic bag covered the upper tube.

Before spraying the black, the edges are soft burnished with a Q-tip.

Estes Skytracer Clone #1361 Build, Part 13, Mask & White Paint

I masked off the glue line for the thruster assemblies. Look close and you can see the thin masking tape line.

The model is ready for the first white coats. In the front end a rolled up paper towel keeps paint out of the tube.

Easy paint - most of the model is an overall gloss white. The small nose cones in the thruster units aren't glued in yet, they will be painted black separately off the model.

Enlarge the picture and you can see some ridges down the fillets.

The glue fillet ridges can be lightly sanded with some 400 grit.  Don't sand into or dip into the balsa! Just knock off the high glue spots.

 

In the picture you can see the paint and fillet have been dulled with the sandpaper.