Paul,
Beautiful job. Could you detail the base and color paints you used? How did you apply them and the clear Klass Kote?
Best, DennisT
OK.
First I put Randolph dope on the wing with a brush. I get at least some clear of the ribs to protect against the water I use to apply the silk.
I sand the structure very smooth so the silk does not snag.
I cover in four separate parts: bottom, top, right and left. Trying to use one or two pieces is nothing but trouble and wrinkles.
I spray the silk lightly with water and work of the wrinkles. It's a matter if technique get the wrinkles out without pulling too hard and pulling in a warp.
At first I just dope the outline for two coats. When the dope & water have dried I begin piling on the clear dope. It takes me a minimum of six coats of clear. Maybe more if it looks like it needs more.
The body is done like the wing before assembly. It's a lot easier and better to mask and paint the body before final assembly. Like the wing, the body gets a minimum of six coats of Randolph/Brodak clear. Note: if you go to Randolph's web site they list Brodak as a dealer. I mask the body and trim with Randolph colors using an air brush. After very carefully mixing the quart of color I pour about four ounces into a GLASS thinning jar. The dope needs to be very thin to go through my air brush. I put about an ounce of thinned dope in the air brush jar and try to spray a sample. It's often still too thick so I thin it some more. It seems so watery-thin that it won't cover, but it does.
Then I clear the spray head in a shot glass with lacquer thinner and dump the tinted thinner back into the thinning jar. Zero waste!
When the wing and body are done I assemble them with 30-minute epoxy in several small applications, using gravity and a heat gun to get the epoxyinto every void.
I clear coat the body, tail and about two inches of the wing with Klass Kote used full strength. I don't dare spray two-part epoxy. Also, I'm afraid that thinner in the epoxy would attack the colors when I brush it on. I use throw away brushes for the clear coat. I doubt that I could clean the brush well enough to use it again and if I did the thinner would cost more than a new brush.
When I mix the Klass Kote I use two throw away plastic spoons for the parts A & B. Using three spoons of each part for a plane this size means that a quart of each will last me forever.
This is not intended to be a 20-point front row PAMPA winner. It's just for painting a plane to fly around and have it look good pretty good compared to other sport planes.