Bill I have my own way of doing it but there are others on here that are FAR more qualified than me to give you techniques and procedures...If nobody chimes in .. I will list mine....

Mike

If you apply butyrate over the fiberglass, make sure you sand the heck out of the glass before doping.

I really like Brodak White Primer.  You sand most of it off, so it isn't heavy, but it fills in the blemishes.

Brodak Polar Grey paint is a neutral undercoat for any color.

I haven't found a need to use plastic film under silkspan.  I use SGM (heavy) and it is nearly bulletproof!

Floyd

Sounds like a cool model, where's the pics Bill?

Hi Wayne,

Haven't taken any pics in a while.  Since you asked, I'll ry yo get some taken and posted here.

Thanks
Bill

I have a suspicion that this Mustang will be the trans-polar speed record replica (i.e., red?). I know you're supposed to put red, yellow, and (I assume) orange over a white basecoat. Is light grey close enough? I doubt it, but haven't tried it.

Did you put the fiberglass on with epoxy? I would be inclined to use an epoxy primer on that part, but mostly, I'd ask Mark! When I built speed models, I used "last years color" of epoxy with talc added as a primer. You could use the Z-Poxy Finishing Resin with a bit of talc added on just the nose, and clear dope/zinc stearate on the rest? You do have to rough up the FG good, but if you cut through the strands on the surface, you just have short bits of glass that don't do a lot except give a hard surface, which isn't all bad.  Steve

Bill,
Look at this web site for some cool P51 paint schemes:    http://www.mustangsmustangs.com/p-51/p51pastpaint/home.php

 As far as paint go, since you have fiberglass you may want to apply the covering with nitrate as it seems to adhere better. I would do two thinned (60/40) coats of thinner/nitrate on the silkspan. Let that dry a week ish, then switch to Butyrate clear SIG Super Coat (this is a taunting dope). Give it four - five coats of 50/50 clear super coat to fill the weave. Let it dry a day between coats and at least three days after the last coat of clear. Candle the surface looking for dry spots or rough spots and repair. On the solid surfaces you can apply the dope/zinc stearate filler. Once dry sand most of this off to get a smooth surface. Once all is smooth, if you are going to use a light color top coat,  spray on a coat of cream color butyrate. This is the first fill/base coat, let it dry at least a day, carefully sand off most of it to get the surface smooth. Spray on a second coat of cream, lightly sand and candle. Fix any dry spots, fuzz or low spots.

If all is smooth, tack rage down the surface and spray on a coat of clear Sig Lite Coat, let dry a day or so. Lightly sand and start appling the color finish. Once finished, let dry about a week and check that the edges of the trim tape lines are smooth (you can use old credit cards to shave the edges down smooth). Start the clear top coats, I use 40/60 Sig lite coat to thinner. I start around the frame and cap strips putting on three coats, then start doing the whole ship. Do one coat a day, I use five coats if using just clear dope.

If you are going to use "Death Paint" top coat you can do the frame with two coats and then two coats over the whole ship, let it dry a week, then spray on one lite coat of DP let it cure out then I do a second coat on the fuse and top surfaces. Let it cure out a week and its ready to polish or fly.

Good luck with the finish, let us know how it comes out.

Best,         DennisT

Bill,
The idea of the "cream" color dope as a block and filler was something that a good friend, Wayne Triven who passed away a several years ago, showed me on ships for ships with light colored top coats (yellow, white, light brown). For the dark colors you can go with the polar gray or silver (ala Windy method).

If you are going for the front row the silver is the best way to find flaws in the surface. The first time you use silver it can really make you question your building skills, how could I have miss so much. The down side to using the silver under light colors is it takes lots of coats to cover and for yellow you will get a greenish tint until about 10 coats, very heavy.

Best,            DennisT

As I think I have proved rather conclusively, I have no ideas.

Good luck.

As I think I have proved rather conclusively, I have no ideas.

Good luck.

Yeah, Yeah, and Joe Namath couldn't pass a football...........

Don't use polar gray under white, red or yellow. Bad things will happen.

I see a lot of planes from folks who I believe to be good finishers that are in a state where they're all nicely sanded, with mottled light- to dark-gray primer.

What then?

White then color?  Or do you do something to block the mottling, and then white?

You need to look into the "Ragu" primer that Derek uses for his planes.  It would seem to be good stuff.

well Mike, even a blind hog finds a grub occasionaly 

thanks for noticing,,

Yea, my ill-fated plane last year had that problem. I hadn't realized how transparent the base color was. I thought it would cover and really didn't. In the sun it looked fine, but from certain angles, you could see the mottled look of a filler coat sand job. Won't make that mistake again. I will always use a blocking coat regardless of how well I think the base color is covering.

Actually my question was the long-form of what do people use for a blocking coat in such circumstances, and if it's something like a layer of silver, what do they use over that for transparent colors?

Tim,

It depends on what you want the color to look like. For something like Red. if you want it vibrant and bright, use white underneath. If you use gold or gold flake, you will get a candy look. Silver will get you a rose tone (sort of pinkish). Other things give other effects. I shot Cadillac gold under yellow once and got a sort of redish mustard color (not really what I was looking for, unfortunately).

Bill:

Please pay a lot of attention to the comments from the guys about painting red over a white base coat. That is what I did with my current project, a scale Rearwin Speedster, and I am very disappointed. I keep adding more coats with varying degrees of cover. The firsts applications were a wild shade of pink. I guess I will just have to keep adding until I have enough pigment applied to cover the undercoat. I am under my anticipated weight, so I guess I will be OK. With your use of a paint as legitimate as Randolph, you will probably have more success. You indicate a red color with white trim. I envision the application of the white and then masking off the trim before you apply the red. I don't think I would recommend trying to trim white over the top of the red.

Jim Fruit

Bill
 Finish the I/Beam
Ed

I have used Brodak primer just after the build up clear coats.  Usually thinned to spray with one drop of black in the pot.  This is then sanded and candled until either it is translucent or where I can tell it needs another coat.  This process continues until the surface is perfect. At this point the entire model looks like it has a translucent white finish.  Next a medium weight white dope coat.  The yellow plane and the white plane were the same process to this point. 

A well designed scheme will have enough to look at that slight mottling will not be noticed. Plan your ink lines and such to hide seams, glue joints like tip to main wing on a foam wing. This joint always shrinks and becomes visible so plan to hide it with an ink line.  You don't need a million colours or super bizarre designs to hide the slight mottling.  Just resist the urge for one more coat.  Heavy hangar queens are just as useless as super light and crappy finish.