Proud Bird II
 

Here are some pics of my new Cal Speed Pros Proud Bird II.

No McDaddy paint job, but I'm pretty pumped with how it turned out...

Enjoy.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

What do you mean, it's a far cry from what I do.. I'm guessing that didn't come from a rattle can ;)

Looks good man..

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I saw Elert's new bird, the tail is huge, like a pattern plane. These things are evolving. Look how big the canopy is.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Although not up to the ususal MacDaddy standards (ahem!), this represents an experimental finish using all new paints from primer to clear (Valspar). Grunk even convinced me to try a pearl finish as well. Although it does not show up too well in the pictures, the pearl is magnificent - I will definately do some more of these. The goal with this plane was to try all the new products and techniques and also to try a scheme with a fraction of the effort of my usual colors. To this end, I think I succeeded - although not as good looking as a Team Seaholm bird, I'm pretty happy with the results.

Scott

RE: Proud Bird II
 

The new scheme looks great Scott, as does the finish. Pure MacDADDY in my book... :D

By the way, MacDADDY Racing is probably one of the cooler team names I've seen.

What is the benefit of the Valspar over your previous brand? Cost? Weight? Ease of use? Is it a base coat/clear or a single stage system?

I think my next paint job is going to be less complicated as well. They look cool, but man there's a lot of masking and taping with a 5+ color scheme...

RE: Proud Bird II
 

ONLY 3 colors needed in my book, White, Black, and another color... Hmm...

Looks great Scott, I also am curious about the Valspar paints. I toured their main facility in St Paul last year, neat place, but I wasn't aware they made auto type paints.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

What do you guys do to prep before you paint. I've had issues with the paint not sticking to molded parts.. Even after wyping them down with wax and grease remover and then wet sanding with hot sopy water.. Most of the issues show up when the time comes to put the numbers down.. I always end up with some color coming off.. I'm using PPG paint.. I've noticed I don't have as much of an issue if I use the single stage but I would prefer to use a base coat/ clear coat system.. Any thoughts??

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I switched to Valspar for a number of reasons - mostly related to my flaky work ethic. At times I work away like a demon and at other times, the plane may wait up to a month while I am off doing other things. As such I cannot guarantee a co-ordinated succession of steps or coats. The primer I was using was K36/K200 which works OK if you sand it within a short time window - usually 14 hours is ideal. After this the primer gets harder and harder where after 36 hours it is like sanding stainless steel. It is also gray, which is a terrible undercolor for orange - a favorite color for my decrepit eyes. The Valspar primer comes in any color you want, but the standard is white. It is ready to sand in minutes but gets no harder after about 4 hours and can be easily sanded months later. It is also very flexible so it will never get brittle - which is why some primers may pull off with tape after a while. While I don't believe that primer should be used as a filler, the Valspar primer can also be sprayed heavily enough to fill the odd pinhole that you miss with the spackle. The Valspar primer goes on like the K36 in that you can spray it heavy or thin it out a lot and it still goes on nicely and resists running even when heavily reduced for that final velvet coat. This works nicely for me as I my first primer coat generally gets almost fully sanded off and I put a second extremely thin coat as my paint base. I also refuse to pay for high priced reducers and thin all my paints with acetone.

Valspar makes both a single and a two stage paint line. I use single stage exclusively - again because I cannot be sure when the plane will get the next coat. Two stage paints are often pretty critical about how long you wait between coats. Single stage paints are much more durable as each coat is fuelproof. The downside to single stage is that you have to color sand between colors - or coats of the same color if you wait too long. I sand with 320 grit wet between colors. As far as the color goes the Valspar seemed no different than the Jet-Glo I had been using so I will continue to use my supply of Jet-Glo until I run out. It also sprays and covers well with an HVLP gun so less paint is used.

As for the clear, I was looking for a new clear as the Jet-Glo clear, while very user friendly and easy to spray at different viscosities, had an unacceptable level of gloss. The PPG clear which I used on my Loki had a very high gloss but was very critical as to how much reducer was used, and required a PPG reducer to be usable at all. It would only spray well within a very small viscosity range. It was also very unforgiving to spray technique and would run at the slightest mistake. The Valspar clear is slightly more difficult to spray than the Jet-Glo, but enormously more user friendly than the PPG. The gloss is much better than the Jet-Glo, but not as high as the PPG. The Valspar clear is also happy with acetone as a reducer (about 25%). The Valspar clear also sands really nicely. I clear all masking and put two dustcoats over all paint edges then sand with 320 wet to eliminate any perceptable paint lines. I have never been able to get an acceptable clear coat with an HVLP gun, but find that the perfect gun for clear is the Harbor Freight detail gun. They go on sale from time to time for $9.99 and I always buy one as after repeated cleanings the chrome plating on the needles begins to come off. I get at least 5 airplanes per gun so at 10 bucks a pop, I toss them and break out a new one every 5 airplanes. With this gun, I can get an almost flawless finish coat right from the gun requireing no further work. Although I got a really cool mini buffer from Tom Scott, the finish on this plane won't need it.

The Valspar paint is about 20% less expensive than PPG and about 50% less than Jet-Glo, but money was not the issue here as I was looking for an easier way to get a better finish than I had in the past. The fact that it cost less is an added bonus. In summary, I was very pleased with the Valspar system. It produces a very nice finish and is very user friendly and forgiving. I have yet to see if it as durable as the Jet-Glo which sets the standard for durability.

As for paint prep, I use the Lyle Larson system which I slightly modified. First, I wash the parts with a soap/degreaser/wax remover and water cocktail. Then I sand non gel coated parts beginning with 150 grit, and gel coated parts with 220 grit. working down to 320. Then I wipe them down with acetone and using compressed air blow off the surface facing the blow gun directly at the surface at 90 degrees. This should blow open all the pinholes in the surface and make them visible. Then I use the cheapest spackle/joint compound I can find and stick my hand in the bucket, grab a handful and slather the parts with spackle - pushing it hard into the surface as best I can. I leave a nice even layer of spackle on the airplane and let it harden. Then I use 150 grit and sand ALL of the spackle off. At this point the spackle left is that which is in the pinholes. You must resist the temptation at this point to blow on the surface of the parts and LIGHTLY but copmpletely wipe the surface with a non-linting paper wipe lightly soaked in acetone. At this point, you cannot wait more than 15 minutes gefore spraying on the primer - so don't sand the spackle unless you have the time to get through the first sprayed coat of lightly thinned primer. If you notice any pinholes, respray them and smush (technical term) the primer into the pinhole with your finger. Zap it again with the spray gun. When you now have adequate time, sand off the entire first coat of primer, take an x-acto knife and clean out all hinge lines, wipe down the parts with a non-linting paper wipe soaked with acetone and IMMEDIATELY spray a thin coat of primer. This coat should be just heavy enough to cover and no more. Since this was an extremely thin coat of primer, you now should sand with 320 grit wet, only to smooth the surface - you could even use 400 wet as you do not want to cut through the primer. Once again, wipe down the parts with a non-linting paper wipe soaked with acetone and immediately spray the first coat of color. Since I use only single stage paints, I have learned to finish one color, let it dry, then color sand and immediately apply the next color. While not an expert with two stage paints, I understand that you should not allow too much time to pass before applying the next coat or color.

I have also learned to be a fanatic about tape. I use only the green 3M #233 tape for genreral masking and either 3M 1/8" fineline plastic tape or a special plastic tape from Germany for fine line masking. The 3M green tape is specially formulated to not react with partially cured polyurethane paints (what we use) and to also leave absolutely no adhesive residue when removed. I absolutely refuse to allow the blue tape anywhere near my planes. I am careful to run my fingernail over the entire masked edge to ensure that there is no paint seepage under the tape. I keep all my paint masking tapes in a sealed box. Pick that old roll of tape off your workbench and look at the side. See all that gunk stuck to the side of the tape? How can you get a clean line with that sludge on the edge of the tape? Also, even though there is supposed to be no adhesive residue from tape, I carefully wipe down taped areas with Goof Off then acetone to ensure no tape residue.

Another thing I learned is to use only non-powdered nitrile gloves. Although the powdered gloves are much cheaper, the powder has a very negative reaction with the clear, and will cause it to crinkle as it cures requiring you to sand it all off and start over.

Hope this all helps.

Scott

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Can you elaborate on this mini buffer?. Ive been looking for such a tool. I was going to modify one of those smallish, throttleable right angle pneumatic tools by machining a smaller dia polishing arbour stub etc & thought there must be some tool already developed - maybe in the auto detailing industry or tool & die trade. Id also be interested to hear what sort of polishing compounds & methods you like.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

There is a small electric buffer that I have been looking at Harbor Freight for about $40. Looks like a real nice cordless unit. Its on my Bday list, I'll be curious if I get it :)

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I would read Phil Grandersons article in Model aviation ( controline precision aerobatics). Looks like it would work well.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Great looking proud bird Scott. Some of my favorite colors. Can you give me the color numbers? By the way how do you compare the proud bird to the vendetta? I just received a Vendetta from Lyle and like a lot how it flies.

Good luck in the upcoming race.

Best regards


Julio Quevedo

RE: Proud Bird II
 

The buffer is a Dynabrade #10390 3" Palm Style Pnumatic Buffer. What makes it so nice is that it turns at a max of only 2400 rpm. Electric buffers turn at least 3600 with most of them turning at over 5000 rpm. It is also a palm held unit which gives a lot more control than an angle buffer. There are few more annoying things than to have a buffer pad catch on the sharp trailing edge - instant aileron removal! Don't ask how I know this either. It is a really cool tool!!

I don't know the numbers for the colors on the plane. I just had my paint guy match the old K&B orange and purple. The pearl powders I used in the clear come from www.paintwithpearl.com.

Scott

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Julio,
I have had 5 Vendettas and this is now my 3rd Proud Bird. I agree that the Vendetta is a fast, great flying airplane. The Proud Bird is also a great airplane. In fact, we are lucky in that just about all the Q40's out there now are great flying airplanes. The new Proud Bird has greater side area which was designed to help it at knife edge. Where you would notice this was just before you turn pylon 1, the plane would start to descend a little. Personally, I never noticed this, but I can't fly anyway. Matias has about 65 flights on his new Proud Bird and it sure flies great. Although, to steal a Randy Bridge quote, Matias could fly a lawn chair with a Nelson bolted to it and make it look good. I hope to fly this new airplane sometime this week, and I will give a full report.
Scott

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Scott , where do you get the valspar paint. I did a search and found some a lowes. is this the same stuff???

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I found it . its the car paint right??

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I look at Lowes and can not find it. All I get is latex paint.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Kevin,

In Minnesota, Valspar was sold at Knox predominately.

Do you have any of those in Michigan?

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I have seen it on line but haven't found a local store yet.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Check in the phone book for auto body supply shops. Either they will sell it or they will know of a local paint store that does. This paint is extremely toxic and requires appropriate safety gear to use, so you will not find it in anything but specialty stores - typically auto refinishing related businesses. If you live in coastal areas, you might try a good boatyard also. They are beginning to switch from using solely Imron to these newer polyurethanes since they are so much more user friendly requiring a lower skill level for success.
Scott

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Scott do you use a breathing mask while spraying this stuff?? What other safety eq do you use??

RE: Proud Bird II
 

I know this is a Q40 forum, but wanted to share my new paint job on an all wood seeker. I found the pearl additive locally and I am very happy with the result. Scott thanks a lot for the info and tips.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

GREAT flame job Julio.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Very nice Seeker! Great job with the paint.

RE: Proud Bird II
 

Hey Julio, is that wood seeker all fiberglassed.

If so how much it weighted.

I ask you because I would like to paint my Q500´s and I use to built them all in wood (and Foam balsa sheeted wings)

Regards.
VÃ*ctor Arreola.