I am going to have to use brush on to finish the fuselage on my Endgame II reaching the finishing stage.  I am not going for a front row finish.  Row 3 would be nice.  Wings and stab will be monokote but the fuselage has just too many curves and I need to be able to paint it.  What I am looking for is a color (Red, white and Blue - thought I would be original ) that I can brush on then wet sand and rub out the brush marks.  Build up will be CF veil applied with z-poxy over raw balsa.   Light sanding with 400 then 2 coats of ModPodge (can't use anything that smells) sanded down to the CF then 2 more coats to seal sanded with 600. From here I will go to color which has to be brushed.  Does anybody have a better idea?  The key is NO SMELL and Spray is out as well given where I have to do it.

Plan "B" is to use MonoKote after the CF with no coats over it but I am reluctant to do 100 MonoKote.  Getting it to stick well and be smooth on convex curves is not easy, but I have done 3 full size planes in 100% MonoKote so I am not afraid to do it again, I just don't want to.

This is the fuselage in question.  I want to have it ready for the Gieseke Memorial in June.

Ken

Can you sneak out into the back yard and paint with spray-bombs?

I have, in the past, had good luck with using Minwax Polycrylic as a prep coat, and then Rustoleum Gloss Protective Enamel as a top coat.  It's not no-smell, but it's definitely low-smell; you may be able to paint it outside and then sneak it in after an hour or so.

I've certainly had old-timers insist that you can get a fine finish in dope by brushing it on, you just need to be more patient during the sanding phase.  I'm willing to believe that, but since sanding is the worst phase for me even with spray-on coatings, I haven't exactly jumped on the chance to try it.

Back when I was a member of an RC club we had one builder who would occasionally show up at the field and brush dope on it while chatting with the rest of us.

Why not just z-poxy the fuselage? Joe Daly wrote an article in Model Aviation a couple years ago showing how to paint with klasskote. That Bear I built was 3 coats of z-poxy and sanded between each coat and the finish turned out good, and not very heavy until I sprayed that horrid yellow on

Edit: that doesn’t help your paint problem though

Z-Poxy doesn't foul the air as much as dope and rattle can and you can brush it on. I may go that route.  Either that or MonoKote.  Red MonoKote is easier to use than white and doesn't go all see through when you stretch it over curves.  My current thoughts, which may change tomorrow, are to MonoKote it and get it in the air.  If the Canard turns out to be a turd it will be an easy fix to take it off and refinish the fuselage.  And - YES - the yellow was horrid.