ORIGINAL: edgeflyer
So how do ya'll pros hold control surfaces for painting. I paint alot (motorcycles), but had trouble holding my control surfaces on my try at a plane. I stuck sticks in the hinge holes, but the rotate, and blow around from the air presure. What is your magic solution ? Also I will be painting my F18 military colors, so whats the hot setup for flat, or semi gloss. One thing I'm REALLY trying to avoid is the chalky look soooooo many military planes have. With weight being an issue, would you go base, clear or single stage. It will be more than one color.
couple of ways if you use pin hinges I just use the stick method but use 2 sticks taped to the edge of a box at each end so it holds the item steady,then you can shoot both sides, trying to paint with only one stick just leads to frustration, for CA type hinge slots a "T" pin through the cardboard at the hinge locations,it will hold the elevator or whatever your painting in position vertically so you can do both sides.
I usually build warbirds so there is usually a 2 tone scheme, a lighter under side and darker upper, so after doing the underside, I usually just tape the area to be masked and tack the surface down to a box with some small pieces of tape so it won't slide around,my latest project was to paint my ESM FW190 in a more scale scheme while still using the existing logos