why would it effect CG, it should be spread out equally though out the plane.
The addition of wheel, and landing gear fairings notably counteracted some of the paint weight.
Tricycle geared RV's, as a rule, are heavier than tail draggers.But that is only true for taildraggers where the two main gears are forward of CG. Does Vans make the tail lighter or make the front heavier?
So, what I'm reading here is a painted plane will fly faster. First because it's slicker and second because it gets a little tail heavy.
No offense taken. I am very close to flying and I'm thinking of moving things around a bit during Phase 1 testing to correct for a CG that is further forward than I would like. My bird is currently unpainted, but will be eventually. That got me to thinking that paint should shift it back. Based on the two responses so far, it is between 0.25 - 0.5", although with the fairings at the second weigh-in. Based on my calculations, wheel & gear fairings should shift the CG much for the -A models, but may for taildraggers....I hope I didn't offend the original poster. Seems either he wants to know what to expect for possible changes to account for a slightly heavier tail or is trying to decide weither to paint at all.
Some will try to argue the point but, a good base/clear is lighter than the same color single stage. The base color in a base clear system is very light. An example, all of the red on my plane is less than a quart. A complete white base with toner was less than a gallon, about 3/4 of a gallon.
Pick up a gallon of red single stage. You'll find it very heavy. It needs to be to carry the pigment. Yellow is also very heavy.