ORIGINAL: mongol-
Thanks all for your help to understand those levels to prepare the balsa to cover with paint ..
As i understand there is no need to sand the fiberglass after all the process if its made good , i think that my second question will be how to paint at the right way so its won't weight too much or to be more specific :
In your opinion, what is the right ratio between paint - thinner. ( I can use with Do-Pont's paint ) to make it lighter as much?
Thanks again.
It really depends on the paint, but the general rule of thumb for polyurethanes is mix the paint by the manufacturer's specs....and double the reducer.
Your paint equipment matters here BIG TIME. Generally speaking, the better the gun atomizes the paint, the thinner and smoother you can lay it down. Yep you can use a harbor frieght gun, but realize you're shooting paint with a LARGE nozzle, closer to a water hose than a paint gun. It definitely works, but generally speaking you will lay down a lot more paint, and waste more too.
A large quality airbrush is best for trim colors. Look into the Iwata revolution or Eclipse line. You want a needle/nozzle combination between .35 and .5 in size, and a good QUALITY airbrush. The Iwata revolutions are perfect for this, and don't cost much more than a Badger (and it blows Badger away). Check out the bottom feeds or maybe a good side feed with a large cup. The absolute coolest airbrushes for general painting of trim are the Iwata TR2 and the Kustom CS. Note that these are a little more expensive, but oh MAN they make paint lay down like silk. And you can do a sweet, smooth LARGE trim section with less than 1/2 oz of mixed paint. Of which, only about 1/2 of that stays with the plane.
Chris this is the part I am working on to finish up the article(s). The one on my site is only the beginning, and it was posted over a year ago. I want to go into painting, masking, clearing, buffing etc. Then we'll hit about a 3 part article. Gimme about 2 months....
-Mike