Third Row Nats Rattle Can Finishes

Gang --

All the threads regarding finishes and open bay covering materials are fascinating. I think we have kind of, sort of a consensus on those finishes that are a cut below first row Nats finishes. Is this a reasonable summary for the average Joe that wants a pretty plane, and might get something above zero at a contest?

First, pick a substrate (silk, polyspan, silkspan, whatever) and do kind of a half fast Leonard prep that results in a smooth polar gray Brodak finish. That is, brush on early coats, with some mix of sanding sealer and clear, ending with clear. Spray the polar gray over that, and repeat the polar gray application / sanding / steel wool until happy. Individual standards may vary. Raw balsa is covered with silkspan, regardless of the open bay covering material. The result is polar gray, light, and a good foundation for final finishing.

Second, shut off the compressor and do a rattle can solid of Krylon or Rust-Oleum (any brand preferences here?). Add decals and trim from sheets, monokote, or whatever. Then top it off with a rattle can clear.

Is this what you all are saying? The fuel proofing is OK, the finish shines, but it is a little heavier than all out efforts. It is fairly easy, looks good enough to wow some of the crowd, and will last longer than I will live.

This is my plan for the next project. Comments?

Sounds good except forget the Krylon it isn't fuel proof...

Larry,

This is how I am going to do my next plane. I have to give credit to Bradley Walker for coming up with it.

1st. Basic arframe uncovered, coat with 2 coats of the Minwax water base polyurethane clear - this makes the wood very hard and fills the grain, sand thoroughly between (dry sanding) since it's water base, not a good idea to wet sand. Get all the wood completely filled using this method.

2nd. Cover open bays only with 2 layers of jap tissue. Fill the grain on the jap tissue with nitrate dope. Sand lightly to keep the substrate nice and smooth.

3rd. A primer coat of acrylic lacquer.

4th. Base coat and trim is automobile touch up paint rattle can acrylic lacquer. (Lots of neat colors)

5th. Final clear coat then could be acrylic lacquer, rattle can Rustoleum or one of the fuel proof polyurethans. Your choice.

Of course you can still add ink lines before the clear coating.

You may get a little closer to the front row than you think using this method.

>Larry,
>
>This is how I am going
>to do my next plane.
> I have to give
>credit to Bradley Walker for
>coming up with it.
>
>1st. Basic arframe uncovered, coat with
>2 coats of the Minwax
>water base polyurethane clear -
>this makes the wood very
>hard and fills the grain,
>sand thoroughly between (dry sanding)

Bill Wilson of Ft. Worth TX found the Polycrylic, not me. I borrowed that.

Couple suggestions.

Jap.
If you plan to do the open bays with Jap, I would use ALMOST NO PRIMER. It is just not needed. Use nitrate clear and only dust a little spray can primer to make everything gray (this is a good idea for fast color coverage-similar to the polar gray method-more below). Just dust to color, the weight will be fine.

Spray can primer is very thin and actually a very poor primer for any real filling.

Primer.
For everything else (not jap tissue-over two or three coats of Minwax Polycrylic):
Go to the auto paint store and pick up a quart of primer surfacer in gray. Thin with lacquer thinner or Sig thinner to 60-70 percent and brush on two thick coats with a dope brush (not the open bays). In an hour sand flat (read that most gone-speckled airplane, you will not sand through the Minwax so be aggressive) with 180-auto paper (dry). Sand that flat with 320 (dry-always dry). Touch this up with dust coats of spray can lacquer primer. Dust coat whole plane until gray. Final inspect all flaws and fix with 400 sand paper and more spray can primer.

Color.
Dust coat with spray cans-ALWAYS!

Plastikote spray cans have 80% thinner and will not give good result when sprayed on wet. They give EXCELLENT results when sprayed on dry.

Dust coats look flat. Wet coats shine. We do not want shine.

If using Plastikote color for all colors (which I suggest). GO SLOW. Use DUST coats. A dust coat will dry in a couple minutes. 5-10 DUST coats will cover and will take less time than wet coats.

Less with any metallic (Maybe 2-3 coats), the metallic colors cover like mad.

Avoid straight white.

Use blue 3M tape for trimming or vinyl cutout templates.

Clear.
I STRONGLY SUGGEST polyurethane auto clear (like Chromaclear).

There are no good spay can clears except for maybe 21ST Century clear, and it costs a fortune ($8.00 a can). The 21st Century requires wet sanding and buffing with rubbing compound. Finish buff 21st Century with Brasso or Gorhams.

This paint job with auto clear will sit front row! It is indistinguishable from the paint sprayer dope job.

>5th. Final clear coat then
>could be acrylic lacquer,
>rattle can Rustoleum or one
>of the fuel proof polyurethans.

Do not use Rustoleum clear. DO NOT!

21st Century or polyurethane are the only current Godzilla approved clears for this method. You take your chances with anything else. The Duplicolor is good too.

Fair warning. One of the spray can clear yellowed over white (21st century or Duplicolor-I do not know which). All are fine over any other color.

Here is the original post of my method to go with the new info:
My advise is to not use enamel but spray lacquer. There are readily available sources and there is a much better selection of colors than for Rustoleum.

First source is DupliColor spray cans found at K-Mart and AutoZone. This is the exact same product as the Plastikote spray cans found at Pep Boys. The DupliColor and Plastikote colors are really identical and interchangeable and are found in HUNDREDS of colors (I especially love the metallic’s)! They are available in the small cans for something like $2 for each color. Spray colors on in DUST coats, go very light. There is a lot of thinner in spray can paint, give it time to flash off while you are applying it, do not try to build gloss in the color. If you can, make it look flat. Use the CLEAR for gloss, and buffing for GOOD GLOSS.

The DupliColor clear I have used is AT LEAST as fuel proof as Brodak or Sig (maybe more). If you don’t believe me use the 21st Century clear which is available at the Hobby Shop for $7-$8 a can. It claims to be good up to 15% nitro. I used the 21st Century clear some and I thought it did not flow out near as well as the DupliColor and costs a lot more. The 21st Century line of paints is lacquer also, by the way, at a premium price! Their white is quite good, maybe better than DupliColor or Plastikote.

Now Plastikote and DupliColor probably BOTH make enamels also, and the cans may not make a distinction (most likely they will). Just read the label. If they give this line about waiting 24 hours to re-coat it is enamel. If it says something like re-coat in 5 minutes dry in 2 hours, its lacquer.

The beauty of using lacquer from a can is that when you are done with the clear coat, you wait a few days, sand with 600 and 1000 paper and buff with Brasso, and it looks like a front row paint job. No one will ever know it came from a can. Also, it does not shrink, like dope, to pull up your fillets.

By the way, lacquer sticks to dope because dope is lacquer.

The DupliColor clear lays out very flat and only requires wet 600 sanding-to 1000 grit-to buff. 21st century will require 400 paper first. No worse than dope though.

My Stiletto is lacquer base, DupliColor trim and Brodak clear. I say use lacquer clear though, as it does not shrink. All of my fillets pulled up on that airplane. I will admit, however. That I shot the dope all wrong, and that was not aware of the potential for disaster. If I had used Chromaclear, it would be a much nicer looking plane today.

I was not aware Brodak dope needed plasticizer.