I'm contemplating taking up the art of painting my aircraft. I enjoy the building but I have simply never been very good with vinyl covering materials like monokote and such. I've gotten better over the years but in my modeler's heart I know I could paint a better job.

Problem is - I don't know where to begin.

I think my first project will probably be a Sig King Kobra; I just recently finished a Kougar and am happy with it but the finish left a bit to be desired even though it looks okay. I believe I could do a nice job fiberglassing it and then painting a decent finish. I'm familiar with some of the brands of paint but my hang-up is how do I apply it?

Air Brush, HPLV spray gun?

So - that's my question.

What is your paint setup and how do you do things - show me some examples if you can.

Thanks!

Hi there. It depends on the size of planes and the type of paint you want to use. I use a HVLP gun with all water based paints. I have tried quite a few. On these photos the paint is Nelson's and its his fabric too. If its a smaller project I use a air brush and usually acrylic paints. If you use good masking tape and some clear to seal the tape on fabric you can get a nice clean line.

My BUSA Dr1 has Solartex covering with Acrylic Latex Craft Paint from Michael's Craft Store and clear Minwax Oil Based Polyurethane to seal the paint. All applied with foam brushes and Air Brushes. I am currently working on a 1/4 scale Cub with Koverall, latex wood sealer to seal the wood and fill the weave of the fabric, latex craft paint and will do the clear coat with Nelson's.

Rob C, can you elaborate on your HVLP system? I may be interested in buying one and I'd like to hear more from the modelers who use them. If you had a chance to buy an improved model, which one would you get?

Here is a good place to start http://www.tompierce.net/190/html/paint.htm

I am painting my first plane right now and I have a Hobbico DA500. It does a pretty good job and is good to learn with. Eventually, I would like to get a little bit bigger gun to paint large areas and a smaller detail gun as well. Here is a pic of mine that was done with that gun.

The fiberglassing with water based poly and painting with latex is really the way to go. Its fairly easy and cleans up with water. I learned a lot on this first project which was a build up to a more scale project for next year.

Hi jjcorsair. My gun is a Walcom spray gun. These guns are made in Italy I think. I bought this one off ebay and it seems to work fine. It comes with two sizes of paint containers although I just use the small one. I also have used a cheaper touch up gun from home depot although this one works better. The trick is getting the paint thinned right and the right pressure.