Paint Trim

I'm in the process of painting trim on the new plane. Of course, this had to be an intricate trim job and it leaves raised ridges along the tape lines. Now, in the past, I've used a business card to scrap alone the edges to take off the "flashing" that is left by the tape. The paint won't stick to the tape and so, leaves a little ragged edge that will usually come off with a gentle scrap. But this time around, for whatever reason, these edges are being stubborn. The little edge just wants to flop over and stick to the trim paint. I've left it for a day or so, at it still does it. Could be I used a bit too much retarder?

Anyway, eventually these little edges will harden enough to scrap off. I plan to shoot a couple of coats of clear on over the trim before I apply ink lines or other decoration.

Anyone one else have trouble with paint trim edges?

Matt has been mostly back masking his stuff so the trim blends in to the same (approximate) height as the surrounding color. It, also, keeps weight down since there is only one color, not a bunch of colors on the plane. We don't use retarder--just don't. In some humid conditions it may be needed to prevent blush, but it slows the drying time down (to prevent blush) and can not only cause the problem you mention where the paint didn't get hard enough immediately, but the dope can actually melt down into the lower layers and mix with whatever is underneath.

The retarder will do what you said--especially if you used too much, but if you simply used too much color that could, also, cause a problem. Try putting it in a heated area to see if that will help it cure a little faster. Matt used to have to put his SIG painted stuff in the upstairs bathroom with the heater on and leave it there for a week just to get it baked out. Using Brodak dope has helped immensely, but, if you are having to add retarder, you are going back to square one.

Len,

>>We don't use retarder--just don't. In some humid conditions...<<

Yea, well, when you live in an area like I do, you need retarder (50 degrees and about 97% humidity). I love breathing my water.

I mostly solved the problem. We had an actual sunny day and I just put the plane out in the sun for about 3 hours. Did the trick. I wasn't so concerned about the edges as the flashing that didnt' want to get hard.

I'm just cutting the frisket paper to do the checkerboard. I'll tell you, next plane is going to have a MUCH simpler paint scheme. This using 5 colors stuff is too much. Does look cool though.

I'm going to try using some decal paper for the name and number and such. Thought I'd try the ink jet paper with the spray "fixer". I'm told that it makes the decal much more resistent to lacquer sprayed over the top. I had trouble before with crinkling of the decal even though I went very light on the clear.