Originally Posted by Whiskers

So nice...

That's not nice......it's a work of art in progress.

Are you saying that it's a nasty work of art in progress?

Originally Posted by Whiskers

Are you saying that it's a nasty work of art in progress

You're just trying to get me in trouble.
I just wish I had the skills and patience to do something like this.

As we say in Australia, "Give it a go mate".
You never know what you can do until you give it a good hard go.

Originally Posted by Timbo383

I just wish I had the skills and patience to do something like this.

Skill is just what is left over after you fail to keep failing. You should see some of earlier builds
Talent, well that's another thing, some lucky ducks are just born with that and rest of us can only just wish.
Patience: little of that here. 40 years of working in construction and maintenance in the chemical industry has made me a rip sheet or bust guy.
I'm usually stuffing all the electronics in before the paint is even dry.
That's why I started this blog. To slow me down and let appreciate what I am doing in the hope that I can do it better.

They say it take about 4 years to fully retire. If that's the case then I'm only a 2nd year apprentice with still a long way to go before I'm fully qualified.

Ok, now getting close to the part of a build that I dislike the most...Painting!

Because I'm so bad at painting and decorating I want to go with a scheme that is simple. I like the scheme on the El Gingito but in yellow and white instead. Maybe a simpler version of that. There is also the problem of what to paint it with. Not a lot of paint options over here. Not cheap ones anyway.
Water based or mineral not sure. I'm concerned about ending up with a whole bunch of dissolved foam under that paper skin.

Weight is another issue. She's at 1265grams now and paint could easily add another 100g to that. All up I'm guessing she will weigh in at around 1400grams.
With a wing area of 26dm2 that gives me a wing loading of 53.8g/dm2 (17.7oz/sqft)or a WCL of 10.6. That ok by me as I have heavier loaded planes at around this size and they fly great.

Cg is currently 15mm ahead of the desired point. It is slowly creeping back so it my be a photo finish on that one.

Bunnings sell water based acrylic paint rattle cans with basic colour options.
May be worth a look...

Good work re the Cg.

Cheers mate, I'll add that to the list of options.

I've been using an acrylic primer ('Kilz' brand in the US), thinned 50/50 with either car window de-icing fluid (the blue stuff) or Windex brand window cleaner. After that dries and has been sanded, I've been able to get away with ordinary rattlecan paints (for this project, I used flat camo paints).

When I've wanted a glossy surface, I've used a rattlecan gloss (or semi-gloss/satin) spray. The point is, once you have a good paper/glue 'shell', you can PROBABLY use a non-water-based spray over that (I have an old wing panel I keep as a testing bit -- it's pretty beaten up, but has saved me a lot of pain).

BTW, the roundels you can barely see on the SE and the numbers on the trainer type (the Cruiser) were cut from Profilm/Ultracote and ironed on at about 220F. They then got top coats of spray lacquer (the SE's top coat being flat & the Cruiser's being gloss).


CD

Will you be offering foamy plans for this effort ?

It's obvious that I could do tracings of the plans from previous posts
but if you already have them traced in CAD then ,,,
well I just thought I'd ask ;^}

Originally Posted by birdofplay

Will you be offering foamy plans for this effort ?

No, sorry, I'm strictly a pencil and paper guy. I usually work from 3 views or old balsa plans and scale to suit the desired model size. This was the first time that I drew a full size drawing of the fuselage so that I could lay out all the components ensuring that they fit. Usually I just wing it so to speak.

Nice work there CD. Thanks for the tips.
I intend to cover some scraps and experiment with rattle can paint.
There's an airbrush in my cupboard but have never had much luck with it.
May I should spent the time to figure out how to use it.

My favorite airbrush is the Badger 250. It's a very simple airbrush -- almost more of a rattlecan without the can, being that it's an external mix, simple siphon airbrush. It works great for spraying acrylics or latex.

CD

BTW, we maidened the SE this afternoon (Veterans/Armistice day -- fitting for a WWI fighter). Aside from being REALLY out of trim, it flew great.

Some painting experiments.
Paint is cheap and nasty rattle can enamel. $10 for 4 cans. It even ruins EPO so it is very nasty.

Pic 1: Bare foam very heavy coating. Yep, it loves to dine on XPS.

Pic 2: Encompasses all of the covering methods used on this plane.
A: 50/50 Exterior grade PVA/water, brown paper, 50% sealer.
B: 50/50 Exterior PVA/water, 100% sealer
C: 50/50 Interior grade PVA/water, brown paper, 50% sealer.
D: 100% Sealer only.

2 heavy coats and all showed no signs of chemical attack.

Pic 3: Just to be sure, one half covered with a single thin coat of 50/50 Interior grade PVA/water and left to dry for 1 hour. The other half bare foam.
Medium coat. Only a few small pinholes on the coated side.

A-D were pretty much as I expected, however I was amazed at how well just a thin coat of PVA/water protected the foam.

It's usually the aerosol propellent that attacks the foam. If you hold the can further away while spraying the aerosol evaporates before hitting the foam.....but then again so does the paint, so alot gets wasted.