Exterior Painting (Page 2)

Those little stands (such as the one holding the nose gear) came in very handy. I just attached a piece of 1" x 2" to a piece of particle board with a screw.

As mentioned on the previous page, I had a lot of trouble with the Imron not covering the dimpled rivets. In addition to the modified paint procedure mentioned earlier, I tried this tip from DuPont: Prime the rivet lines with Corlar, let dry 2 days. Sand (yuk, Corlar sands terribly...) lightly, prime with Uro high build primer (several coats). Sand almost all the Uro off, then prime the whole plane and paint. Tons of work, but it worked great. If I had it to do over again, I'd prime with Variprime. Corlar is supposed to be tougher, but it was a pain to work with in terms of the 1 hour induction period after mixing, and the difficulty in sanding it. Seems to be tough, though!

Fuselage in pure Imron white

Fuselage with trim tape outlining where the blue lightning bolt will be painted

Painting the lightning bolt

Beware Aircraft Spruce and Specialty Stencils!

I bought a two sets of 3" N number stencils from Aircraft Spruce (Part number 9-3280x). ACS sent 9 stencils that are essentially poor quality masking tape with the letter/number precut. ACS sent one stencil (the letter "T") that was a high quality vinly stencil.

Despite the fact that I followed AC$'s directions to the letter, the poor quality stencils were a disaster. The paint seeped under the edges of the stencil, leaving a nasty, blotched edge. The single good quality "T" stencil worked great... crisp, sharp edges.

Recommendation: If you order your stencils from ACS you should DEMAND the high quality vinyl (white) stencils rather than the poor quality (light brown) stencils. If they send you the brown crap send it back and demand a refund.