chimpanzee

I am building the dominator and have cardboard wings and want it a different color since white would be kinda hard to see in the sky. What kind of paint is good for cardboard and would there be any surface prep before painting?

Madd_Maxx

lee1:

I also built a dominator out of white coro and yes it is hard to see in the sky if left all white. Well wasn't hard to see in the sky it was hard to tell if it was right side up or upside down by both sides (top and bottom) being the same color. I like to have the color or design on the top side of the wing and the bottoms just a solid color.

Here's a pick of my paintjob on the dominator:


The paint is krylon fusion paint for plastics (hold up real well against 15% nitro) and as far as prep goes all I did was wipe the coro down with acetone to make sure it is clean. After wiped down apply whatever you want for a paint mask (sticky back shelf paper works great for masks) and spray away. I like to let the paint cure overnight before the first flight....but the fusion paint dries to the touch in 15-20 minutes.

Visit my homepage for more pictures of all my spads
[link=http://madd_maxx.250free.com/]Madd_Maxx's Homepage[/link]


Madd_Maxx

Chunky C

Cardboard?? If you really are using cardboard you should be concerned with fuel proofing the wing. The color wont matter a whole lot.

cc

chimpanzee

Do the reflectors help?

Woodsy

Fuel proof it with a 50/50 mix of PVA and water then paint with just about anything, verathane (water base PU paint) automotine pressure pack, quick dry enamel pressure pack, etc, etc.

coro

Krylon Fusion for Plastic. It says bonds to plastic on the can (get it at the hardware store, like all your other SPAD supplies). Bright Yellow shows up the best. I have tried many colors, even red, but none beat yellow( I don't know much about the neon colors).
Try painting the top of the wing with a lighter color and the bottom of the wing with a darker color. Inherently the bottom of the wing will always appear darker than the top of the wing because it is getting less light (and thats wht you lose aircraft with one color wing). So if you have a single color wing then paint 4 large black 2"stripes from Leading edge tp TE on the BOTTOM. trust me about the bottom being darker. Do it that way always and once you get used to it you will never have those gut wrenching seconds of trying to figure out which way is up!

Case in point: my buddy painted the top of his wing dark blue and the bottom light grey, and boy did he have trouble seeing which way was up most days, even in bright sunlight.
I have flown my "coro yellow" spad in all kinds of wx, and with the black stripes on the bottom, there's no mistaking the top from bottom.

Good luck.

Madd_Maxx

lee1:

The reflectors help a little when it's sunny out but other than that they don't show up very well. The only reason I used them is because I was to lazy to pull the elevator and rudder back off to paint it to match the wing. I hate painting these once they are put together....my painting skills aren't that good and it usually ends up looking like crap when you have to work around other parts.

Madd_Maxx

Spadguy

My Feedback: (1)

quote:
"The only reason I used them is because I was to lazy to pull the elevator and rudder back off to paint it to match the wing. I hate painting these once they are put together....my painting skills aren't that good and it usually ends up looking like crap when you have to work around other parts. Madd_Maxx"


Lol, I love that answer.

Quicker

Good, I'm not the only one I HATE painting!!!

Chris weighed sign vinyl for me (my scale is not that sensitive) and found it was 1/4 of 1 oz per sq foot. That's in the ball park of monokote (which weighs differently for each color/style) so I thought that was light enough for me to start covering most of my planes with it. I cover about 90% of the surface area with the stuff.

Here's a sample:

Ace Bogie

Lol
I LOVE PAINTING
its probily one of my favorite parts of building spads