Fot you guys out there who paint their airplanes; Do you paint the wings with the ailerons on? The same question for the fuselage/stab and elevators and the rudder fin and rudder?
or, do you paint everything separate then assemble?
Please advise.
Thanks in advance.

Crashlander,

That seems to be an easy question for a difficult answer.

First speak about paint schemes of Taurus / Orion.
Remarkable of these scheme is, there are not two or more different colors on rudder, elevator or aileron and clear visible borders of the basic colors, no need to use masking tape over the hinge lines.
This is a situation I paint (spray) the parts separate to make it easy and to get a better layer of paint on the LE of aileron, rudder and elevator and TE of wing, fin and stab for rain protection.
Only the ailerons of the Orion with the complicated hinges did get a prepainted LE and the wing TE for protection and and are spray-painted after that mounted on the wings.

When repainting a plane as I did the Taurus twice, I do not disassemble the parts (also not to renew silk and dope on the stab).
The LE and TE ‘s of all the surfaces already do have a layer of paint, so are rain protected.

Modern schemes with a scheme that continues also with different (mixed?) colors on the ailerons, rudder and/or elevator maybe prefer to paint mounted all the parts together to get a better continuing of scheme and colors. Maybe I would paint the LE and TE’s with a basic color first and then mounting the parts together and complete the scheme for a good rain protection.

Cees

Thanks for your reply Cees.
I generally spray individul components, then assemble. Unless as you state where the paint scheme is simple enough to assemble and paint all together.

crashlander, i'm doing both. the King Kobra that is my painting practice for my Blue Angel has the control surfaces already attached. i plan on painting the components of the BA individually.

Dhal, keep me informed as to your progress. I use Acrylic Enamel auto paint as the cost of paints are dramatically expensive. Good choice of colors and they can match whatever I want. I use NAPA auto parts store.

Crashlander

I indeed think it depends of the scheme.
For me it is more important the resistance for soap (after flying) and rain, and less the complicated paint scheme.
You can make a choiice in two directions.
Think about making a plane on floats, you want to paint any corner.
When you only fly with nice weather you can have more attention for the nice scheme.
In that case it is still important to have attention for the fuel in the hinge lines. I often clear the stab and space between the stab and elevator on the side of the engine exhaust.

Cees

crashlander, i will post painting progress of both planes on my Blue Angel build.

Cees, I am building a Phoenix V and using the Dave Brown color acheme Dave used back in the 70's. The colors are white and Copper Poly. The scheme is rather simple and can be painted assembled entirely.
However, I prefer to paint components then assemble. I was curious as to how others do their work.
And yes, protection against the elemnts is a function of the paint.

Good show, dhall22

thanks.

any updates of photos crashlander?

My own preference is to paint the base color with all surfaces off of the airframe. Like Cees says, you get better coverage of the hinge area. ThenI mountall the surfaces and mask & spray color, then clearcoat.

WEDJ

One important fact I also think about is weight, especially on silk and dope.
For that I look to the scheme.

First I spray paint a thin layer of white primer.

next , white surfaces with some "overlay?" in the surfaces black and red.
Next step is black for the wings and fuselage and than red. (or vv)
Last action is dashes and characters,
I do not use a clear coat.

Because the wing has a lot of red especially on the open structure I do not want to have two layers of paint on that.
When I would paint the red surface of the wing first, I will see the red through the white in the white surfaces later I think.

The less weight/paint on the silk and dope the less change for "crack" in the paint, important especially the stab exhaust side.
Also less total weigth and more easy to repair. For these reasons the paint is as thin as possible on the surfaces.

When an new Taurus I mount the aileraons and rudder elevator after painting.
On the picture you can see the whit paint on the D tub with some overlat on the open structure. The doors are mounted with some tape, only make this picture.


Cees

There are some more pictures visible in my thread about painting the wings.
See this post:
http://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/fb.asp?m=8577684

Cees

OK Guys here they are:
I decided to paint all surfaces first with a base coat of white. I will then lightly sand and look for any imperfections which hopefullly will be fixed. The plane has some white on it , so I will give it a final coat of white concenytrating on the areas where the whit will be.

Crashlander,


This, I do not understand (bold), are you going to paint first dark(er) colors and the last color on some areas will be white? I am afraid you will see the dark colors throught the last white if you did not mast the dark areas eccact? (am I clear?)
I think starting with white and finish with the darker colors ( when I understand your explanation?) will do better then I do not have to mask the white.
Any comment?

Cees

Cees:
No, no, never. Light colors first.
The Phoenix V I am building is going to be painted using Dave brown's original colors, that is white and copper poly (similar to a bronze). The wings/stab have a checkerboard scheme and the fuse is coopper poly and white.
What I was saying I am painting base coat of white which is what you see in the pictures, sand lightly, check for imperfections, then, a final coat of white over the areas that are going to be white without worrying to mask. Then once paintecd, mask off for the copper poly color and paint.

Before the next coat of paint, I am planning to install the control surfaces then continue with the painting.
But always paint light colors first followed by darker colors.

I am using Martin-Senuor (spelling??) Acrylic Enamel auto paint for the White and PPG Copper Poly for the other color (Dave Brown used the exact same paint). I think Crankpin can chime in here for that.

All clear Crashlander, I would expect that, see "first". But it's clear now, good result when looking the pictures.
Succes Cees

Sometimes my fingers get to the keyboard before my brain does. Many times my brain never gets there.

Make sure that brain is engaged when fingers are operated...

Brain vs fingers - always a race to the finish...............

Most times the fingers win.......[:@]

FB

Gents

WARNING THIS IS A JOKE!!!!

The speed of your fingers is not important.

Have fast thumbs and some brains already can make you an exellent pilot.

Prove?


Did you ever see a female typist win a pattern contest?

Cees