RE: Nelson Paints & his HVLP system
Bill,
I looked through my files and found some very sketchy notes that I made in the past when using Nelson paint and their HVLP system. For what it's worth, I thinned white paint (probably the thickest) "50/50 or just a little less." Red paint was thinned "almost 50/50." For white, I had the front ring on the gun 1 1/2 turns out, and the paint knob (on the back of the gun) 2 turns out. One note says "air about 80%," which I think means I had the air gadget on the hose not quite fully open. For red, I had the paint knob out about 1 1/2 turns and about 3/4 air, also with the front ring 1 1/2 turns out. My notes on blue paint are incomprehensible, even to me.
I hope this helps, at least as a starting point. Overspray hasn't been a serious problem, but when I paint in the basement I make a sort of "room" by hanging cheap plastic sheets from Home Depot from the ceiling to cut off the painting space from the rest of the basement. This is more to keep dust out than because of overspray. I keep a large bucket full of well water to immerse the gun in after each coat, but as I noted before I still have to clean it after each coat. This is not a problem as it takes about two minutes and you've got to wait longer than that between coats anyway.
As for brush painting, I've done that on a cowl with their primer first, then white over that. No notes, though. Came out fine.
For masking, I've used Tamiya tape (a plastic-modeling favorite) or frisket paper for the actual line, with drafting tape over that to attach Saran wrap or the like to cover the rest of the non-painted area. Get the tape off as fast as you can after painting; if the paint dries first, removing the tape will pull some of it off. They want you to take it off after a ridiculously short time, but you can't really do that if you are using multiple coats, and you have to use multiple coats. Just get it off as soon as you've done the last coat, and don't take a lunch break between coats.
The final results have been good. I add a touch of blue to white because I've heard it keeps it from yellowing. If you do that, be careful; I have a Kadet Senior that's supposed to be red and white, but the bottom of the wing is very light blue, though you can't tell in the air.