Well I spent another day doing touch ups. It's amazing how much I missed first time around. Of course my new and brighter lights are contributing. And the opti-visor.

Hey I'm getting there!!

Hi Randy------After yesterdays' bout of touch ups I'm a bit more pleased with the model. It won't be perfect but I do believe I won't need to make excuses for it either. I have the weekend off so I'll probably be ready for clear coats by Monday.

I discovered on this one that a little lite rubbing with a Venus pencil eraser will tale away overspray, lettuce edging on tape lines and even the thumb print I left on the rudder when I was removing masking that the paint hadn't dried on yet.

So.................

Frank,

Yep, eventually you decide, that's good enough. Sounds as if you use the same gauge I do. "Will this plane embarrass me at the next contest?"

If the answer is yes, you go back to work. If it's no, then that just became "good enough".

Yup--you're right on the mark Randy. Good enuff is just around the corner.
If you look close you can see that I found a couple spots that need putty. They're close to a red stripe too. On this one everything is close to a red stripe.
I can't possibly figure or explain why making the plane pretty is so important. I know from your models that pretty is important to you too. But why? I mean when you look at contest pictures there are mostly ARFs and profiles or models with a stripe or two.

Frank, me boy,

"Makin' it purty" is a case of pride in Craftsmanship that was a long time mainstay of the American craftsman.  Some of us were raised with that type of teaching.  It is just a "part of us".

Bill <><

You know Bill, I've often had people say "you have a lot of patience". That may be so but, I think also it's like you said. Our generation was trained to be craftsmen. It's a part of us and there just isn't any getting away from it. And there is just another plane waiting to get built anyway so why rush through this one and not try to make it better than the last?

The first stunt plane I ever saw was a Gerry Phelps Patriot. I really liked it a lot. I could have bought it but owning the model wasn't good enuff, I had to be able to make one.

When the "patience" remark comes up, I always say that it's persistance and anticipation.
I'm willing to persist and do the work in anticipation of rendering an above average project. A lot of guys say I wish I could do that when they should be saying I wish I would do that.

O.K.--just a few more touch ups and some panel lines and I'll call it quits and shoot the clear.
Then I'll start a new plane.

well said Mark......

I did some work on a ladies house last week. Her mom does needlepoint. To perfection. She's got some work there that I would qualify as art. The woman is in her seventies, she has very beautiful hands. You can almost see the artist in them.

As for me.........I seem to have an endless capacity for cutting tape, masking areas, and spraying them. Yesterday I was touching up white spots, but today I thought I'd give myself a treat and touch up blue. I re-did the blue srtipe on the vertical fin. I like it a lot better now. Still have the other side to do. I also did touch ups in some small areas. I've observed that the harder the area is to work on the more likely I will have to do touch ups on that area.

I'm using a Campbell-Hausfeld cordless compressor and a Paasche airbrush with a #5 nozzle. The battery finally ran down so now I get a break while it recharges.

I suppose I'm genetically more easily pleased than you gents...is why my planes look the way they do.

--Ray

I'm sure every body already knows this but........................

One of the biggest problems with airbrushing is the nozzle getting clogged. The best way to get around this is to have one bottle filled with thinner and every time you're done spraying a color, immediately run thinner through the brush. The bottle in the picture with the airbrush on it is the thinner bottle.
You also need a board to test spray on before you try it on the plane. This gets the thinner out of the brush and gives you a chance to set the spray width to accomodate the area you want to cover.
Jelly jars make perfect containers that are easier to pour from than the cans the paint comes in.
It's all about having lots of bottles.
 

On the craftsmanship comments, I learned an interesting lesson from a close friend a few years back. He and I have both been boat builders for most of our life. We both do work to a very high quality level both for ourselves and for customers. Its that same never ending search for perfection. One of the difficult things to determine as so many on this thread have commented is determining when you are done. My perspective changed dramatically one day when I visited Ron's shop.

He had just finished a custom decked solo canoe for a customer. One of Ron's specialties is taking a clear gel coated  carbon fiber & kevlar hull (carbon outside, kevlar inside) and rolling the side of the boat into a deck made of 3 inch wide strips of 150 year old Spanish Cedar. He always places an exterior edge of the board along each seam. The exterior side of the boards have oxidized over the century and a half since they were cut. The wood is bright orange, with dark red widely spaced grain, and the oxidized layer extends about 3/8 inch into the board and looks like it has been airbrushed a darker reddish brown. When its all varnished and the edge the the hull capped with a 1 1/2 wide gold kevlar tape they are breathtaking works. Ron's Varnish skills are consumate with his boatbuilding skills and the boats look dipped. They are obviously highly sought one off works of art to high skill canoeists.

The day I was in his shop the boat he had finished was, well, nice, but definately up to the level of finish in the varnish Ron normally did. I debated asking him about it but since we have been paddling partners for the better part of 15 years at the time and also worked together on a number of building projects I did ask him how come? His answer changed how I view my work. "You have to decide when to finish every project. To know when you are done you have to know your customer." My response was a befuttled "excuse me." He explained that the customer was a deep wilderness paddler whose normal trip was 30 to 45 days thru the Canadian bush. His idea of a portage trail was one he cut with the 24 inch machette he always carried with him. He wanted a decked boat to decrease the effect of wind on large lakes and keep gear dry during the rains he encountered without having to unrig a snap on cloth deck. The boat was going to be bushwacked through some of the roughest terrain in North America and no way would the boat or deck come out unscathed at all. He told me if he had done his normal museum level finish the customer would have been appreciative but would have bemoaned the damage he would do to it and would in all liklihood not take the boat on the trips he had commissioned it for. The way the customer had a very nice boat that would suit his purpose and he would use it as intended. I asked Ron how he felt about it. He was exstatic with how it turned out. He built it to the use and intent of his customer. I spoke with the man years later. The boat had indeed been beaten up pretty good. He was tremendously proud of it and had enjoyed it immensly.

Maybe in our building and finishing we need to decide who the customer is. Us, a judge, someone looking at our plane, the people we fly with? I have found it much easier to decide when I am done ever since this experience, whether its something for a customer, or myself.

Bob Branch

Bob,

In my case, the customer is me. While I certainly want to have a plane that is presentable at a contest, in the end, I'm the only one I have to make happy. I've built several planes that I was more or less pleased with. A couple that were really pretty good finishes and garnered points at contests (my personal high is 19 points). I've yet to build a plane that, when completed, I could say, well, that's as good as I can do. A couple have been close. I feel my Masterpiece (defined as the best work I can do) is yet to come. Hope so, anyway.

As an aside, I find it odd that I sort of know when a plane is going to be a good one when I'm drawing it. Every so often, I get a sort of vision of the plane when it will be completed. Usually comes with a complete finish already visualized. That happened with the plane I just started. I already know exactly how I will paint and how. Even have the paint process (as far as do this and then do this) figured out. This may be The One!      or not   

The new one is sort of a Dangerous on steroids.

Bob,

I know that feeling. I get it every time I go to the NW Regionals and look at the flight line. 

Bob, Randy, Frank.........

I have enjoyed reading this thread (of late!).  It has pointed out what makes us tick as far as how we build and finish.

As far as the "Masterpiece", Randy, that is never done in our lifetime.  Like the great artists in history, they are only recognised as such once we are gone!

We will always strive to make the next one better.....

Bill <><

(snip)
Bill---does "of late" mean that you haven't been entertained by the rest of it?

LOL!!!!!!  No Frank, it was just this "twist" about the "workmanship/craftsmanship" that recently peaked my interest in a different way.

The LA Heat has been fascinating to watch develop, it has just been SO LONG a time spread! 

I love to see your work, it is top drawer.

Bill <><

That's a relief.

It's something how each of us has a different notion/reason for doing it.

Actually, it's all the same, we love it!

Bill <><

Somehow it's comforting to know I'm not the only one that ever has masking/paint problems. Remember this little disappointment?

Better to catch it/fix it now, than to be bothered by it every time you look at the plane for the rest of its life.  Put out the effort now, and you'll be proud of it every time you look at it instead!  And that, by the way, my friend Frank, is a plane to be justly proud of.

--Ray

Frank

You just need to turn down the presurization differential to the cockpit. That way you will not blow it open.

Bob

Frank,

I assume you're shooting dope. The paint probably didn't stick because you were too diligent in sanding it. You may need to rough up the area of the canopy you are painting and perhaps put a small amount of primer on there.

Good luck. It's this nonsense at the very end that is always frustrating and prompts us to say, that's good enough. I'll just shoot clear on the silly thing and be done. Good on you for hanging in there.

Frank,

Might want to look at 320 for sanding so that you leave a little tooth for the paint to adhere to.

That's a good idea. I'd still have to get it down to a much finer grit after it's painted. At 400 it stays foggy even with clear on it.

600-800 on the clear areas has always seemed to do fine before shooting the clear since we "rub out" the clear afterwards.  I have gone to 2000 on the clear areas first, but I don't anymore.

Mark,

This is the reason ARFs were made (in my opinion). Get a Tutor ARF or whatever (Cardinal, Oriental, your choice) and fly the poop out of it. Save those gorgeous paint jobs for when you feel comfortable. Wish you were here (or I was there). We could fly together. Coaching really helps move things along.

Frank,
The heat is looking good, but it still will not fit in your truck!!!!

I mean.................just look at that!!! Can it get any worse?