Aircraft painting and finishing techniques.

Foam Addict

Squirrel member
My apologies to the moderators if this doesn't belong here.

I'm working on refinishing my harbor freight P-51, and after spackling some dents and dings I sprayed the airframe with gloss silver. The results were atrocious to say the least.

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As you can see, the areas with foam have a high gloss finish while the speckled areas are dull and rough.

How can I seal the spackle and get a nice closs finish similar to the surrounding EPO?
 
I heard somewhere that the chemicals in the aerosol paint cans eat through the foam....

I picked up a harbor freight deluxe airbrush gun, after coupon it was $15 bucks and came with one paint jar, I bought the air hose to go with it and paint from walmart ($0.57-$1.77), they have about every color and several in metallic too. I cut the paint with some windex about 2:1 to thin it out and set the compressor (I already own) to about 25-30psi. My artistic skills are worthless but the setup works pretty good and about the cheapest I could find. I looked at some youtube "how to airbrush" videos and I can do some flames (and the way I fly very appropriate for my planes) I painted a little cammo for practice too. I tried to write "old speedster" I thought it would have looked great on the fuselage but despite my fine penmanship I air brush in cursive like a second grader.

anyway i think the rattle can might have been the issue, either that or the two different mediums you painted over, did you prime it first? That might have helped, of course more paint, more weight...

I've been following your posts about that plane, i've considered buying one but I'm still pretty much a rookie. Once I quit crashing my dollar store planes maybe I'll step up to something a bit nicer.

-Jes
 

Foam Addict

Squirrel member
Trust me, get one. Build an FT spitfire, then get this. They fly almost identically. BTW, it's almost indestructible. This one has been pile driven a few times, and still looked great until I T-boned a barbed wire fence at high speed.

No I didn't use a primer, but I think the problem lies in the varying surface textures.
Thanks for the help anyway!
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
It's in the textures. You need a sealer over the spackle. I think a sanding sealer might work, but before you put it on the plane, test it on some scrap or an old styrofoam cooler with a bit of the spackle on it so you can be sure it works. Or just put a thin layer of the spackle over the whole section and sand most of it back off just leaving a skim coat.
 

xuzme720

Dedicated foam bender
Mentor
Standard or lightweight is not your problem, I don't think, other than weight. You'll see the difference as soon as you pick up a tub of the lightweight stuff. It feels empty! That stuff is REALLY light! But tou will always have a problem painting over two different porosities or textures. I think the skim coat of lightweight spackle is probably the best bet for keeping it light. Sometimes the sealers can add a lot of weight.