I've heard the same things about the scale prop and scale performance - and I also want the higher power during initial flights and training. Better to find out you have more than you need that not enough.

The latex paint turned out pretty well. I had some help from someone in the Washington DC area - lost his address and all files on the subject when my hard disk died. Didn't have my email traffic backed up, either. So hopefully, he'll be on RCU and pick up on the thread. Would like to thank him.

I used Bear exterior latex from Home depot, a bit of Floetrol and windshield wiper fluid - both to improve flow/performance out of the gun. I don't have enough experience to say the windshield wiper fluid made a difference - I just followed recommendations from others that had a barn full of aircraft painted this way.

I would caution you on two things:

- If you use the windshield wiper fluid (I used an amount in accordance with the Floetrol recommendations), be careful where you buy it from - some auto parts stores will sell this material in concentrated form, even when its labeled 'not for retail sale.' I found this out the hard way, as the jub wasn't clearly labeled.

- It takes several weeks for latex to cure to the point where it won't stick to itself. It will cure tack free and handleable rather quickly, 'stick-to-itself free' is another matter. If you want to assemble your plane before everything is fully cured, cut up some wax paper to put between any joints where the latex meets (e.g. between inboard and outboard wing panels). If you don't do this and assemble the plane leaving it overnight, you may find paint being pulled off in these joint areas when you diassemble the panels.

- Also, I still don't know exactly how long one must wait until latex is unaffected by raw fuel. Several weeks after painting, I installed my engine and started it up. I didn't wipe the 'spit' from the carbuerator off right away and found that I needed to retouch a few areas where the paint started to soften. I don't wait any longer, I clean up immediately, and everything is fine. Its been a year, and the latex may be cured to the point where I don't have to worry, but I'd rather test on something else. Also, the overly long cure times may have been related to that concentrated windshield washer solvent.

No one at the club can tell this is a latex job - it looks fine. By using latex, I also had the benefit of not sending my wife into fits with headaches. And even though the smell is something one can live with while painting, always use a respirator.

Would I use latex again? Probably, if I were to paint the aircraft myself. The benefits working with latex are worth the learning curve I went through. But I have friend at our church that owns an auto paint shop - I think I'll call him next time and try an automotive finish. He's a much better painter than me and already has the spray boxes and ventilation needed for using such materials.

Regarding the matching of military spec colors, I found the local hobby shop to be a great source - they've got all those little bottles and spray cans of paint for military scale plastic models. Many of those bottles and cans are labeled with the same military paint spec numbers. Buy a bit, spread some on a white card and take it to a latex supplier with one of those paint matching computer systems.

Good luck.