redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

Thanks Tony, will it mount to the standoffs for a DLE55 without much modification?

I have the final coat of primer on the cowl, I just need to wet sand it back and peel off the tape. I'm going to start prepping the bottom of the wing and maybe if the wind lays down a bit this evening, I can get some color on it.
I borrowed an oil separator and drier from my work so I can get the best air that I can from my compressor. When I was priming, I would get fish-eyes from oil/water droplets, no big deal as I was sanding them out at the time. Now that it's time to shoot color, I don't want that happening.

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

Yes, just take a piece of 3/4 ply and drill the stand off pattern in it with a single hole in the center for a 1/2 carage bolt. The one that is on there is for a DLE 30 but just rotate and drill new holes for the DLE 55, that's what I am planing on doing!

Mustangman40

My Feedback: (1)

I bet your excited Gary, cant wait to see it............

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

Alright, here we go! I'm wondering if I bought a professional HVLP gun if it would orange peel like this one does? The primer went down fairly smooth, but everything I tried with the paint still gave me the orange peel look. Anyone out there have any suggestions?

Zor

I do not spray model airplanes but painting an automobile I started on the inside of the trunk lid and noticed an orange peel effect. I cured it using more thinner and lower air pressure on the spray gone.

Zor

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

I may try more thinner on a test piece, Klass Kote says not to over thin and max is 1-1-1.
one part A, one part B, and one part thinner, that is what I did.

Mustangman40

My Feedback: (1)

In my opinion Gary it looks sweet, it really looks like military painted metal to me from the picture.. I never did care for the warbird that looked like a modern car paint job.. Back in the 40's when this plane was made as well as painted, we didn't have all the modern gadgets as well as time. They were banged out as fast as they could do it.... Just another point of view for ya buddy......

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

I totally agree, my chippy had the same orenge peal and it looked great. You don't need a glass finish IMHO. Looks great so far, keep going with that.

heritageman

My Feedback: (4)

Redbiscuits, your paint needs thinning, and it will flow out more even.

Zor

You also have to consider the paint gun conditons. Orange peel is due to some dropplets being too big. In different words the atomization of the paint mixture is not fine (small) enough. You may need a different head on your spray gun.

Zor

Edited 26 Jan 2013 to correct "dopplets" to "dropplets".

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Many thin coats. It usually takes me about 4 passes before I see a complete covering with the color. Then a last wet coat. Whats your air pressure? I'm usually about 30psi. I also use a smooth sanded scrap piece of finish ply (I get it from Lowes) to test my spray before going to the plane. If thats the harbor freight gun, keep an eye on the adjustments. Mine tended to move a little. Mine is the 5oz hvlp.
Edwin

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

I have 70 psi constant coming out of the tank and then I have the gun turned down somewhere near 40-50 I would guess. It's not a huge deal and really doesn't look too bad. It's just me being a perfectionist. I really want to get it spraying better before I continue though, I don't want to have to go back and sand the orange peel out, that would suck!

Edwin, you going out to the club today for the "Freeze Fly"?

WacoNut

Hi Gary,
I am watching with special interest as I plan on painting my 1/3 Waco with KK paint. I have sprayed alot of latex thru my HVLP gun but I have not used this paint yet. Same as you I do not want the orange peel finish.

With latex I normally spray around 30 psi. I would try dropping the pressure and turning the needle in to reduce the paint flow into the gun.
Later!!
Anthony

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

Good advise Anthony, I'm following along on your Waco rebuild as I want to do my 1/5 scale Pica with cloth too.
Glad I started on the bottom of the wing, that will get invasion stripes and stars and bars so by the time I get that on and cleared it won't be noticeable. I'm just going to get this figured out before I shoot the OD.

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

Are you guys using finishing guns? My painter uses a low pressure finishing gun to finish my cabinets with, very little to no overspray and a perfect finish with no orenge peal. I think he is at 30 or lower psi

TB

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

This one in particular is a regular gun, although I do have a small one too. Both from Harbor Freight.

Edwin

My Feedback: (2)

Yeah, your pressure is way too high. I adjust the pressure at the tank. I dont trust the regulator on this harbor freight gun.

I'm planning on being there, a couple of students want to get some stick time in. They're going into withdrawals. Its a little wet at my place this morning but should dry out enough by noon. Wind forecast is right down the runway peaking at 12mph around 3pm, perfect.
Edwin

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

Ok so my painter said first you need to thin down your paint and do 4-6 coats, he is using a pro painting airless setup and will do 8-10 coats for aouto paints. if your using epoxy paints you cant use lacker thiner but if you are using an oil-bsse the lacker thiner mixed with paint thiner will streach the pain and eliminate the orenge peal, but for you guy going the harbor fright way you just need to thin it down and do more costs. You can't get it in one or two coats.

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

Are you tipeing on yuor phone agin Tony?

TonyBuilder

My Feedback: (11)

yes, my dumb phone, I will never let it fly one of my planes!

yates55

It Looks great to me, hope mine turns out half that nice

So Gary it looks like you have servo's all hooked up and hinged did you paint over them are they protected with something?

oh yea got my joe also

yates

HoundDog

My Feedback: (49)

SunDevilPilot

Someting is wrong with your setup. Looks like it is throwing chunks of paint at the wing instead of atomizing it into a mist which hits the wing.

Check the manual for your paint gun, specifically the air pressure.

Also, most paint guns work best when run wide open. Set the air to the correct pressure per the manual and needle for the nozzle wide open.

Most guns are compatable with water, fill that thing with water... make your adjustments... and see if it sprays it like a mist.

When the paint is atomized at the nozzle the thinner evaporates on the way to the painted surface. Thinner, for the most part, doesnt even reach the wing when done right.

I can duplicate what I am seeing on your wing by choking down the air at the gun and running too much paint at one time. Spits it over. The over pressure should have corrected this but maybe it is really pulling the paint out of the gun too fast.

The mixture of 1:1:1 is fine with Klass Kote, that is what I use.

Here is my cowl painted with Klass Kote. Paint gun, a Sata Minijet 4, has a nozzle size of 1.2.

redbiscuits

My Feedback: (6)

Thank you all for your advise, it really helped me out and I have it figured out. First, my gun was out of wack! not enough flow and the air was to high. Second, I completely took the gun apart and gave everything a bath. It had some gunked up primer in it and was causing problems with the flow. Live and learn right, I never claimed to be a painter.
So what have I learned, you can NEVER be too clean or too cautious when it comes to painting.

So with that figured out, this morning I got the bottom of the fuse in grey. What a relief, it went on with no problems, no orange peel and no fish eyes. Yea!!!

I'm not doing a lot of coats, I'm just trying to cover it with color. Epoxy paint doesn't flash off the solvents (other than the reducer) from what I understand. So the weight could really add up if I get carried away.