Vallier Racing

i'm in the stages of finishing my scale cessna project and i want to paint the air plane and not use monocoat. but i'm worried about the wood grain what kind of paint are out there that you would recommend and what would you do to seal the wood grain.

Thanks
Adam
Happy Flying

SDCrashmaster

You need to fiberglass the plane before you paint it. Do a search on fiberglassing. Lotta work, whis may change your mind about shrinkwrapping your model.

Vallier Racing

i'm not going to fiberglass the plane i was thinking of sealing the wood grain with resin

Ed

Adam:

You can simply seal the grain with Lightweight Spackel from Home Depot. Thin it a little with water and brush it on. 3 coats at least, and sand between coats. When satisfied, hit it with a couple of coats of automotive primer, I use Varsity from Pep Boys. The primer will seal the Lightweight Spackel in place, and now it's ready for paint.

It won't be as durable as when covered with fiberglass, but you won't know that it's balsa either.

> Jim

maktec

My Feedback: (29)

I am doing the same thing, on a Cessna 182 1/4 scale. What about just using the resin only without using the fiberglass cloth, I haven't tried it yet. I have done that on other projects but not on balsa planes. Has anyone done that?
George

GarySS

My Feedback: (13)

Does this save a lot of weight? Just curious.......[:-]

Bax

My Feedback: (11)

You can most certainly use resin directly on the balsa to seal it. Brush it on and then use a plastic squeegee, playing card, or old credit card to scrape off as much as you can. You only want just enough to harden the wood. After the resin't cured, you can then go to primer. Sand the primer right back down to the resin. You only want to fill low spots. When everything's perfectly smooth, you can dust on a thin coat of primer over the whole model. Now you can add color.

You can get excellent finishing details from Harry Higley's book, "There are No Secrets". Excellent source on making an easy but very good-looking finish.

SDCrashmaster

I fail to see going to the extent of resin coating without imbedding a glass cloth layer. Weight gain is negligeable. Integrity is compounded many times over.
That's be like pouring a cement pad without rebar. Your pouring it...may as well do it right.

horace315

My Feedback: (15)

the resin will work good and add strength,after all is said and done it will still be heavy'ire than if you just used some sort of covering....