Quote:
Originally Posted by BSwayze
BEAUTIFUL job, Jake! I'm contemplating painting mine, too. I'd really like to have it done before it flies. Do you have any notes or build log online anywhere? More pics, especially of the painting process you went through? What kind of paint did you use? Base coat, clear coat?
Have fun flying, you've done such a beautiful job!
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Hi Bruce,
I agree, I wanted the airplane to be finished before it flew.
I started out posting pictures to photobucket so my brother could keep track of my progress and it turned into a quasi builder log. Click on the link under my signature below. The pictures are organized by date and the painting pictures run between 2012/05/05 and 2012/07/18. If you click on the thumbnail pics they'll enlarge and you'll be able to see captions under most of the pictures.
An auto painter friend recommended I use BASF's RM Diamont base coat, clear coat. He also offered the use of a spray booth at an auto body shop on the weekends. I contacted BASF's tech line and they confirmed it would be good for an aluminum airplane and recommended the best primmer to use (EP569 Chromate Free Epoxy Primer). They also emailed me spec sheets for using Diamont on aluminum aircraft.
My friend coached me through the first few parts and then I was on my own. There were no surprises with the paint but as I said before, I underestimated the time needed for masking.
It worked out best to apply the primer Saturday morning and spray the white Saturday afternoon. I'd leave the white parts in the booth to dry overnight and start masking the 3 color pattern around 8 am on Sunday morning. The masking would take all morning and I usually wasn't spraying the gray until early afternoon. When the gray was dry (30-45 min) I'd mask it off and spray the black. Then mask off the black and spray the blue. After another 30 minutes for the blue to dry all the masking came off and I'd shoot the clear. The base colors are flat so they dry pretty quick but I found it was best to let the clear dry overnight before handling or I'd end up with finger prints. Once again I'd leave the parts in the booth overnight and pick them up Monday morning on my way to work, before the body shop opened.
After six weekends of that I was wiped out.