This was my first attempt to paint a pattern fuse (Hydeout), and the results weren't pretty. It looks ok at a distance, but up close there are some pretty blatant flaws. I have an idea about some of the things that went wrong, but am hopping to get some ideas about how to avoid problems on the next one, and maybe how to fix some of the flaws on this one.

1. Bleeding under the masking. I used 1/4'' flex tape, and this was some pretty old stuff, and I think this may have been part of the problem. Also, I may have pulled it a little tight while working it around curves.

2. Uneven coat. I was using a new Kobalt gravity feed gun from Lowes, and had trouble controlling the mix. The instructions were no help. If anyone has experience with this gun, I would aprecoiate it.

3. Pinholes. I thought I had caught them all. [:@]

I am going to live with most of it, but there are a couple of realy bad bleed throughs (blue over yellow.) I was thinking of taking a small sanding block and CAREFULLY trying to sand down to the yellow and touching up either with an airbrush, or an artists brush.

Help would be appreciated, and good luck to all the guys at the World's.

Sorry, no pictures, I lost my camera's patch cord on vacation and am waiting for another to arrive.

Edit;

The paint is PPG concept I got from Radio South about three and a half years ago, the same time I got the planes (2 of them). I got sick and they went into storage until now. Would shelf life be an issue?

bleed through is mainly caused by four things.

1. too much paint

2 paint too thin (it can be thin but don't put too much on, ref rule 1!)

3 crappy tape

4 poor subsrate prep.


too much paint, is the big killer, so just take it easy on the first few sprays till it builds up. less paint more often.

crappy tape is one that is my personal bugbear. See if you can get some 3m fineline tape, and mask out your trim with that, and then use your crappy tape to attach skirts of paper (I've shied away from newpaper after it left grey spots on my last job I didn't find till I'd sprayed clear)

4. did you spray the base coat and then go straight to masking? you've gotta have a really good gloss off the gun if you're planning to do this. if the base coat is orange peeled, then you're a prime candidate for bleed through. I usually clear coat so I'll hit the base coat and any non metallics with some 800 between coats. I don't hit the metallics as they tend to go dull when cleared for moi.



as for the gun, do you have constant pressure, i.e. a reg?


Pinholes? you need more time spent looking at the primer my friend!

I think Rendegade pretty much covered the probable causes. I've used PPG Concept on at least a half dozen ships with very good results. A word of caution about this type of paint- unless you have an air fed respirator, do it outside. This stuff can cause permanent lung damage. Good Luck.

Hi,I'm new to this posting so I hope this comes up O.K.The bleed under the masking is easy to fix,spray whole plane/fus whatever in base colour allow plenty of time to dry.Use 3M fine line to mask,wipe down with wax and grease remover,then tack rag(this applies to every coat of paint) then,and this is the trick,spray a light coat of the colour you have just masked off,paying attention to hitting the fine line tape.When dry, spray the colour you want in that area.Try it you will see for yourself.

Back in my early pattern days when I used to paint fiberglass fuse's I too would have bleed under the tapes.
The only sure way I found to prevent this was to first lightly spray, like with an airbrush, a couple passes of clear followed immediately by the color.
This way if there was any bleed under it would be the clear and no harm.
Pinholes...
Are you spraying any kind of primer as part of your surface prep?
Can all be sanded off before the color but will show any imperfections like the pinholes.
I was spraying on the Gulf Coast of Texas.
VERY high humidity.
I had trouble with "fish eye", which can look like pinholes, caused by small amounts of water getting into the airlines.
Even with a water trap put between the compressor and the hoses I was having trouble.
At the time I was using K&B paint.
I talked to the guy there who told me I needed "fish eye preventer".
I thought "yeah right".
But there is such a thing.
Go to an auto paint supply place.
They have it in little bottles with an eye dropper to put just a couple drops in the paint.
It completely eliminated the fisheyeing.
I'd do some experimenting first though.
Hope this helps!
JLK

I own and use that Kobalt gun from Lowes only for primer and have had problems with too much air pressure.

There is a Kobalt mini air regulator that you can buy for about 15 bucks. It's a small gauge regualator that you can install between the gun at the end of the air hose. make sure your using the lowest pressure the gun is rated for. I think it's around 30 or 40 pounds. Then test, test, test.... try to adjust the paint flow down to the point where you can get an even coat with one pass of the gun.

You want to experiment with the lowest air pressure you can paint with.

With my Sata Minijet, I can adjust the paint flow to the point where I can get a perfect coverage with one pass, I don't think you will ever be able to do that with the Kobalt and DCC paints - at least I haven't.

The biggest problem I've had with the gun is too much air pressure and not enough paint. Overall I've not been happy with the Kobalt gun and only use it for primer. There is a LOT of overspray with the high pressure. If your using DCC clear coat you will have a huge amount of overspray with this gun, it's going to be hard to have a shinny final clear coat because of the overspray. You will have to wetsand and buff.

Also I've been reducing my DCC color and clear to 50%.

You might be better off wet sanding and going back with an airbrush. I've had great results with the any of the mid-range badgers and Iwatas....

I had some good luck this weekend with a clearcoat I'd like to share.
This is my first use of a Harbor Freight HVLP [link=http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=46719]detail gun[/link] and Radio South PPG colors. I was having trouble getting the coverage on the clearcoart without runs or other problems. I picked up a quart of Nason clear, accelerator, and anti-fisheye for forty-odd dollars at the local auto paint store and the results are, well, dazzling.
The stuff still looks as wet as water! I used to like Imron, but this is far better and far cheaper.

Thanks for all the comments. This has really helped me plan a strategy

Definatly too much paint, in spots. This is patialy due to inability to get the gun adusted properly, and being too damn cheep to waste paint on testing. Another issue may have been with the mixture. I used dt870 reducer on the first two colors (Yellow-red).

When I went to mix the blue, it seemed that the temp. had gone up, so I used dt885.When I checked the temp in my car, I saw that it was cooler than I had thought is was. This is another important lesson. DON'T GUESS ON THE TEMPERATURE.

I use a good full face respirator in a garage with the door open. Unfortunatly, outdoors is not an option. I live in a condo-complex, and I am hoping that some association nazi doesn't say anything about using the garage for something other than parking. Forced air would be good, but it is expensive.

Used k77 primer. These were primed years ago before they went into storage. I asked the guy at the local auto-paint store if it needed to be stripped, and re-primed. He said it should be ok as long as I sanded and cleaned it, which I did. In any event, the base coat was ok, except for a couple of small spots of orange peel.
I took a second look, and the area that I thought was pinholes may in fact have been fish eye. The humidity around here lately has been about 30%. Unfortunatly, I think cheep may have gotten the better of me again since I am not running a moisture trap. I will have one before painting the next one.

I have a regulator on the compressor, buT the only hose I have is pretty long, and I may be getting quite a pressure drop between the regulator and the gun. Shorter hose or and inline regulator.
As far as over spray goes, I probably sprayed 10 oz at this thing. About 2-3 oz stuck. Sata minijet on e-bay ~ $120-$200. My badger is cracked around where the air connection goes, but they're cheep, and I will probably get another one soon. I used this for painting some cowls and wheel pants with K&B several years ago with good results. Probably the best way to go on pinstripes and other small areas.

I used PPG for almost 20 years with excellent results. I highly recommend a moisture trap. I used a Binks touch-up gun for large areas and a Pashe airbrush for trim. 3M fine line tape which was kept in a sealed plastic bag when not being used. As for bleeding under the tape: everything said above can contribute. I used to clear coat; so slight imperfections along tape lines could be sanded out. In an effort to save a bit more weight I stopped clear coating. To help prevent 'bleeding' I would trace along the paint edge of the tape (before painting trim colors) with the back end of an X-Acto knife handle to ensure good adhesion. The Pashe airbrush prevents spraying excess paint and requires several passes to get get acceptable coverage.
Good results with spray paint require good technique and knowledge of the paint being used. Good equipment helps a LOT. I've done some auto painting and I think it is safe to say that quality guns can really make a difference.
I'm going back to epoxy paint (Klasscote) which seemed to be a bit more forgiving though it has been 25 years since I used it. Hopefully, the changes in formula (to meet EPA regulations) have not changed the application ease.
A great paint job is really rewarding!! A crappy paint job is a lot of sanding...[]

Dreadnaut, did you use a prep wipe before you started, anything to get rid of the grease from you handling the model between coats, Prepsol is what I use.

oh and for those who use a tag rag, BEWARE, make sure that you don't smudge overspray or anything else on the tag rag onto your plane before you clear coat.

I have to look at a couple of smudges on my ship and I tell you, it makes me cry.


Also I've had problems in the past with fisheyes, because my gun was spitting air tool oil, or water from the compressor. a water separator will catch all that nasty stuff.

And finally, I can only suggest again that 3m fine line tape is the BOMB for trim colours. It's a vinyl style tape with a VERY clean edge. you pay a lot for it, but how much is a good finish worth to you?

$2 AUD for 6 rolls of crappy yongle tape, or $13 AUD for 20m of 1/4" fineliner. you do the math.

I have pretty much narrowed it down to a combination of moisture in the air, too much paint, and incorrect reducer for themperature conditions. I did clean it thoroghly before the base coat, and tac ragged it between coats. Like I said, the base coat (yellow), and first trim coat (red) went on ok. It was the second trim coat (blue) that came out badly. I am going to wet sand the worse areas, mask and airbrush.

I was using 1/4'' (about 6mm) 3M trim tape, but the stuff was old, and stored in the open, and this may have also contributed. I got some new stuff, and it is different. Thinner, and less ''stretchy''.

Is far as handling it, I built a painting jig. One end had a dowel that slipped into the nose ring, and held in place by a retainer plate screwed in from the inside. I drilled a 5/16'' hole in the tail post and held it up at that end with a 1/4'' steel rod. This allowed me to rotate the fuse without touching anything but the LG. I used vinyl gloves through the whole process. I will patch the hole in the tail with Monokote.

Check out www.customairframes.com and go to the support forum there. Mike Hester is doing a great forum on his site for glassing and painting. The glassing part wont apply to everyone, but the painting will. Here is a picture of the VF3 he painted for me this summer. The paint quality is AMAZING! The guy knows his stuff.

Dreadnaught --

Lot's of good advice in the previous postings. Some thoughts:

Use the primer to reveal imperfections like pinholes and filled areas like fuselage seams

Sand the primer smooth like you want the finish coat to be. Good for looks and good for your masking tape to give a good seal for that sharply defined paint line. No tape will give a good line if the surface is not smooth -- paint will leak under the gap between the tape and the low spots in the surface.

Use a combination (depending on useage) of 3M 218 Green Fine Line Tape (for straight runs and gentle curves) and 3M 471 Blue Fine Line Tape (for smaller radius curves -- the outside of the radius can be stretched to a greater degree to remove the "excess" created on the inside of the curve - the tape lays flat then). With some practice yo will figure out how to work the curve a little at a time and spread the excess evenly and keep your nice curved line.

The Harbor Freight gun referenced above does a nice job with smaller areas (so do I...). I seem to have figured out that one pretty well. I need more practice with its bigger brother for shooting primer or clear coating -- I get some orange peel or too dry -- haven't figured it out yet --- perhaps some of the earlier posters will have some ideas for me.

Save an old piece of cardboard of decent size for practice. It can be used many times -- just shoot over the old paint. It's good for checking settings, size of spray pattern, etc. or just practice (expensive practice but I guess there isn't any substitute).

Hope this helps you -- now if I can just learn how to shoot the big gun I'll be in good shape.

Tom

I meant to ask any and all --

What is the best way to handle junctions/intersections of tape? (to keep it from leaking at the joint).

TG

Just went to Mike Hesters web site, and came across this.

''if there is one area that screws people up on the quality of thier finish, it has to be the reducer. You know those recommendations for the paint mixture? Follow them to the letter for the paint and activator. DOUBLE the amount of reducer they call for. Remember these formulations are meant for CARS, not small weight critical planes. Thier primary concern is a deep, wet looking finish...not weight.''

DANG!!!

Wish I had read that first.

I would also like to say that I have found other painting tips on the web, but Mikes is by far the most clearly written I have found.

That's why I am working on it.

What you're looking for with the base and colors is a very light, opaque coat. You don't want to build up thickness, but you want it to lay down. So if you double the reducer, this allows you to get the paint thin enough to lay down and flow in a very light coat.

The first couple of coats should be just misted, they should not be full coats. You're just getting paint onto the surface enough to stick and flash. Usually you need to wait about 6-10 minutes between coats. it should take no more than 3-4 LIGHT mists to get it to lay down. As soon as it flows together and looks like a coat of smooth paint, RUN away from it and don't even breathe on it...you're done.

Then watch it carefully for runs or sags. if you did it right, there won't be any. if there are, rotate the part upside down from where it was and usually the sag or run will head in the other direction. Sometimes you get lucky if you catch it soon enough. But the worst thing you can do is add more paint while it's still wet.

-Mike

By the way when I get to it, I'll add a lot of pics and maybe some video of the actual painting process.

-M

Excellent, Mike! A video would be very useful for me.

TG