How do I paint my fuselage?

[TimHicks]

My fuse is covered now and I'm putting the finishing tapes and inspection panel holes in.

It's on a rotator, which makes working on it easier.

Painting it while on the rotator would make sense, but that precludes having the engine cowling installed when painting.

I plan to paint the "Deluxe" paint scheme, which has lines crossing where the cowl and the bootcowl meet.

I'm thinking about painting the upper and lower engine cowls separately and just measuring carefully to get the lines to line up. Has anybody done this with success? Or am I headed down a treacherous path?

[3Dreaming]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

I would paint each piece by itself. It will add some work in getting things ready to tape for trim, but the end results will be better.

[N96337]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Paint the yellow on all the parts with them separate. Then put your cowl together on the the aircraft (you'll have to pull the front off the rotater) then mask out all the stripes with the cowl on. Pull the cowl back off, put the fueselage back on the rotator and paint individually. At least that's the way I'd do it....and have done it for 30+ years. That way you'll have stripes all match up every time, but still will have them continue on the fuselage and cowl anywhere there's an overlap.
John

[crispy critter]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Tim,
I unrstanding what your saying, don't try to simply measure your masking lines for painting. Take the time to removed the front part of your rotator, install your cowling and boot cowling and mask everything together, once you get your strips laid out like you want, remove the cowl and boot cowl, reinstall your rotator and paint.

Make sure you have everything painted thru your base color coat before doing everything mentioned above to save yourself some work. It is a little extra work but you will be glad you did it later.

[crispy critter]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Lol, I believe Jon and I were typing basically the same thing at the same time.

[TimHicks]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Ah OK, that makes total sense.
I don't have to paint with everything assembled, I just have to mask with everything assembled (after having painted the base coat).
That hadn't occurred to me.

Perfect. That's why I ask you experts. Thank you.

[Hank Jarrett]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Don't leave the masking on too long (been there, done that). The tape will bond to the first coat and make a real mess, especially if the base coat isn't VERY WELL CURED!

The method they are talking about means you paint the base coat on EVERYTHING while separated, then mask the trim color on the fuselage on the rotating fixture and paint the trim color on the fuselage (not the cowl, it isn't masked yet). After the masking is off and the paint cured, THEN put the cowl back on and mask the cowl to match the fuselage, take it off and paint it. If you mask everything at once then wait to paint the cowl for a couple of days, the tape will drive you crazy.

Also, a light coat of clear or base color after the tape and before the trim color will make for no bleed under the tape. It makes for a "feel-able" paint line, but a cleaner line. If you want the paint lines to be perfectly flush you need to "Back Mask" so the colors butt up against each other, and don't go on top of each other, but that is a bit far for a fabric plane in my opinion.

Hank

[Pearson]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Most of the problems Hank points out regarding the tape can be avoided by using high quality masking tape. If you are concerned about a ridge line where the top color of paint ends, use "Fine Line" tape by 3M. It is very expensive, but does leave very little ridge between the two colors. You can use 1/4" or 3/8" and then attach your masking paper with regular good quality masking tape on top of the Fine Line. If you use good quality masking tape, like 3M, it will not leave globs of glue. But even the 3M tape needs to be removed within a day or two.

[barnstmr]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

If you are painting yellow... paint a light coat of WHITE on everything first. You will be disappointed otherwise. Look closely at the fabric tapes on the picture below and you will see what happens after 25 years if you don't have a white sub coat.

[barnstmr]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

For some reason, yellow pigmented paint is translucent and white is not.

[Robert Lees]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

I wait until the paint has just gone solid (but not cured)...possibly as little as 1 hour...and then pull the masks off.

This allows the ridge line to flow a wee bit.

[TimHicks]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

I plan to paint my ship Cream and Red.
Here are some pictures of the model that I painted using the actual Stewart Systems paint that I plan to use (Daytone White and Santa Fe Red).
Actually, now that I remember, I painted the model with a whiter white (Idaho Snow) in this picture. I've since repainted it in Daytona White (creamier) and I like it better. But that was the reason that I wanted to paint the model, to get an idea of the paint scheme and the colors.

[Ryan]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

I painted my fuselage as described above. My cowels and doors were actually painted a year apart from fuselage. I even waited until I installed the engine and baffles so they would fit how they would when finished. Nice paint scheme by the way! I stared at that same ad for years.

[TimHicks]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

Ryan,
How did you know exactly where to lay the masking tape on the curved lines? Did you have a few key spots that you knew you had to hit?
Or did you just eyeball it?
Any info that you can give me will be appreciated.
Tim

[crispy critter]

Re: How do I paint my fuselage?

I don't know about Ryan but I will play it the curves and contours on one side then use a big piece of trace paper to transfer my tape lines to the other side, especially when doing contoured curves like on Ryan's plane.

As for painting your trim.....don't paint it all assembled. Just assemble it to mask your trim lines and them take it all back apart and paint them disassembled. Used quality 3M making tape, a 1/8 or 1/4 inch fine line tape works best for outlining your curves. And it's best to remove your tapes(carefully!!!!) before the paint has time to completely dry. If you leave it on overnight your tape may leave a rough edge along your stripe lines and might even peel chunks out of it.

If you've never done any painting like this before it might pay to hire someone who has to help you with it. I'm sure there are a few airport bums around that have some experience, see if ya can find one. I'm not saying hire someone to do it for you, but it it would help to have someone to assist and guide you a bit. Not to mention when ya start spraying big areas like the wings, it's super nice to have a buddy you trust using the paint gun to swap out with you once in a while because those wings are huge when ya start trying to paint them. One taylorcraft wing is equal to painting one full size pickup truck. I'm experienced and have recovered several airplanes, and when it comes to spraying the wings, I always get my cousin or my dad to help me. The fuselage is no small area either.

If I wasn't so covered up right now I'd be happy to fly down and help ya but it will be April or May before I could even consider it.