I just saw this Thread.
These guys have absolutely no idea you're painting model airplanes that have to be as light as possible. Seems that's the goal for competitive modeling enthusiasts?
HVLP vs LVLP
I'd dig in a bit and look closely at these differences, HVLP vs LVLP, before buying any equipment for spraying model airplanes. Much to learn and a few decisions to make based on the type of model you build and for what purpose you elect to use it for.
Aviojet,
I appreciate your reply. One thing I've learned so far explains why Monokote, etc, became so popular. It wasn't just the time saving over slikspan/dope, but also the expense. A dope finish, I've come to appreciate is orders of magnitude more expensive than Monokote. A roll of monokote, etc is less expensive than a quart of Brodak dope thinner.
Yes, there is much to learn and I'm still on the beginning of the road.
There's a lot of guidance on how many coats of clear, primer/base color, color and clear to apply. But there is far less info on which spray gun to use. I know the videos I posted above are for repainting cars and such, but what guns do people use between the HVLP guns intended for cars and the little airbrushes intended to spray paint a 1/72 scale plastic model airplane kit? I bought the $25.00 detail spray gun with a .8mm nozzle from Harbor Freight that Sparky recommended in a Stunthanger video. The one Sprarky bought worked well for him, but the one I bought was the most crude piece of scrap metal that ever came out of a factory.
I'm just getting back into building CL and just have an inner aversion to monokote, so as my first practice project I recovered the wing on a Sig Banshee
It had ancient/multi-patched monokote on the wing. I recovered with polyspan and medium silkspan on the wingtips and Brodak dope. Even using the Harbor Freight purple HVLP gun and the Harbor Freight detail gun, I only added 1.5 oz with my recover/refinish (through clear coat over the colors). I've read somewhere that Monokote is lighter than a dope finish. So, I'm thinking 1.5 oz increase isn't too bad. Fortunately, the Banshee with a Fox .35 (no muffler) was only 37.5 ounces to begin with.
Anyway, Aviojet, if you have a suggestion for a spray gun, I'ld love to hear it.
Thanks,
Joe Ed Pederson