Spaz stix and helicopters

[bat]

over the past few years I have painted several Helicopter canopies using spaz stix paints with an airbrush.
http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=321837&highlight=spaz+stix

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=463180&highlight=spaz+stix

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=476203&highlight=spaz+stix

This is my most recent canopy

Hard ano Royal Blue and orange backed with mirror chrome and then black

[bat]

Well I finally got some free time so I'll go through my painting process for the LOGO 10.
The problem with the LOGO 10 and many other plastic canopies is getting the paint to bond with the canopy. In order to prep the surface it is best to "Flash" the plastic surface of the canopy with an open flame. In this case I used a creme brulet torch I picked up for $15 at bed bath and beyond. setting the flame as low as posible I brushed the surface of the canopy. If you do this while holding the canopy in good lighting you can see the surface change it is like seeing the glare evaporate. Once this is done scrub the surface with a dawn dish soap to degrease and then refrain from touching the prepared surface with bare fingers. I wear latex gloves and rub denatured alchohol on the surface for extra care. After preping the surface for painting I masked off the bottom half with Bob Dively liquid mask, cut my line and sprayed the Royal Blue first.

In order to get good candy colors using spazstix on the outside of a canopy you need to first put down a couple layers of black followed by a couple layers of chrome and then the candy color you chose.
I used the folowing candies
hard ano royal blue
hard ano orange.
I did all the layers up through blue on the top half, and sealed it with two light coats of clear. Then I removed the mask and liquid masked over the blue to protect it from the orange. I recut the line sprayed all layers up to orange with two light coats of clear. I then removed the mask on the blue and added three more layers of clear on the whole canopy. pulled off the canopy mask and your done.

[rjarois]

very good tips bat.....should work with any plastic canopys....one question, what does the flame do?? good job, randy.

[bat]

Thanks Randy,

In order to prep the surface it is best to "Flash" the plastic surface of the canopy with an open flame.


Chemically I am not exactly sure what it does I read one place that it causes the surface to get a whole bunch of hair like filiments that stand up vertically. This is what the paint bonds to.

[bat]

Unfortunately somthing went wrong with the clear coat.
The blue is fine but as you can see in the pictures the orange had some type of reaction. The blue dried overnight before getting the clear coat. The Orange only dried an hour. I am going to look around to see if I can find out how to avoid this in the future.

[bat]

The other day I figured out how they do the ghosted candy flames on motorcycles. Here is my first try using spaz stix.

[bat]

These look a little better

[rjarois]

like the blue flames bat, good work. randy.

[Chriscru2]

You can really lay down some nice work with an airbrush. What kind of airbrush set up are you using? Where do you get your fire or are you using templates or stencil?? Real nice WORK :D

[bat]

Thanks Guys!
Chriscru2 believe it or not I actually have an old paasche single action air brush my dad bought back in 1989 about 5 years back he gave it t me since he no longer makes scale models. I have a cheap coleman 2 gallon compressor I use I picked up at k-mart :) as for the flames I spent several weeks looking at motorcycles and various flame jobs and then I spent another week drawing flames. I suck at drawing :) once I got a set I liked I scanned it in. when I go to paint I print out the pattern tape it to the outside of the clear canopy/ plexiglass and then trace the pattern inside with a razor cutting away the liquid mask.
at The end of the day I am proof that cheap equipment, marginal skill and endless determination can produce a satisfying result.

someday I'll try true fire, that may be rough with a single action brush

[AMainMaker]

Here is my first attempt at real fire. I used House Of Kolour paints for mine and a 2 part urethane clearcote.
Jason

[bat]

sweet!

[bat]

Well I finally laid down some candyflames on a heli canopy (rotorworks G4)
I was low on Chrome so I could not spair the paint to get my brush painting a fine light line. usually I have to use the smallest needle and play with the air pressure and tweek the flow to get thin lines that wastes some paint which is not a problem if you have more than 1/8 of an Oz. to work with.
I still think they look good and with Murphy's law I'll have reason to buy more chrome and paint a new canopy next year :D I also tried to epoxy the halves together unfortunately they slid a bit before curing so it is not the most seemless canopy in the world.

[bat]

Here is an outdoor shot that shows why I love candy flames

[nuevo]

bat,

I'd like to follow-up on your posts above. Did you ever resolve the problem with the clearcoat messing up the orange?

I'm interested in using the orange over chrome as you showed here (http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=476203) a few years ago. But my paint will be on the outside of a molded/painted fiberglass wing. So I will need some sort of clearcoat to protect the finish.

[bat]

nuevo,
here is a thread with some pro advice I got
http://www.cfxpaintworks.com/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=1512

basically I would let the color dry a full two days then clear coat in light coats maybe 5 light coats with plenty of dry time between coats.

[nuevo]

thanks for the link. after 2 days, still waiting for some sort of approval... just to read that thread. Some threads are readable without a login, but many are not.