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Building Tips and technical articles. => Paint and finishing => Topic started by: Paul Taylor on March 18, 2013, 04:57:26 PM
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Well two of them to be correct.
I was painting my Force yellow and two little wing critters flew right on the wing. One on the top and one on the bottom.
I just let them dry and did not try and get them off in fear of messing up the wet paint.
Now that things have dried for a few days what is the best way to get them off.
Thanks
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It'll help a lot if you tell us what paint you're using.
If it's dope (and probably a lot of other things) the answer is to pick the bits off that'll come off, then feather the area out with a fairly fine grit wet paper (I'd use 320 or 400). Once you have the bug removed, spray the affected area with the matching color (or brush, if that's what you're using), let dry, then color sand as necessary.
I might have removed the bugs with tweezers when everything was still wet -- but I may have found out in the process that it was the stupidest thing in the world to try.
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Thanks Tim for the quick reply.
It is Brodak dope sprayed on.
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Get a couple more bugs and mount them as Vortex Generators. >:D
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Since I spray outside, it happens to me on every model. Usually it's no big deal. A little wetted fine sandpaper and they come right off (if you didn't spray over too many coats over them). Sometimes a little airbrush touch up is needed.
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Once you remove them you will be one of those rare people that has all the bugs out of your plane. y1 LL~
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Paul,
The little buggers are attracted to the sweet smell of the dope and can't resist landing on the fresh coat.They get a terrific buzz and then the chemicals fry their little brains.I had a fly land in a laquer finish I was spraying.He flew around right above the fresh coat and crash landed ending up on his back.He kicked about for a few minutes and then expired.I just sanded him off the next day.The wings are still fossilized in a nice lacquer finish!!!
Trax
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Well two of them to be correct.
I was painting my Force yellow and two little wing critters flew right on the wing. One on the top and one on the bottom.
I just let them dry and did not try and get them off in fear of messing up the wet paint.
Now that things have dried for a few days what is the best way to get them off.
Thanks
The previous posts have pretty well covered the subject. However, it brought to mind a similar situation I had a few years ago when I was applying the final polyurethane paint to the full-scale Steen Skybolt I was building for myself. I had just applied the final coat of International Orange poly and it was looking really good - great gloss & flowout. As I stood there with the spraygun in hand getting ready to go into the shop to clean the gun a Japanese beetle about an inch long landed on the very wet wingwalk right in the middle. Boy, that was too much so I figured that since I was going to have to rework that area anyway I gave that beetle a heavy coat of red-orange polyurethane while he was crawling around on the wing leaving big tracks. Then, to my amazement, the beetle took off and flew out of sight! I don't know how long he survived but he sure was visible for quite a ways off.
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The previous posts have pretty well covered the subject. However, it brought to mind a similar situation I had a few years ago when I was applying the final polyurethane paint to the full-scale Steen Skybolt I was building for myself. I had just applied the final coat of International Orange poly and it was looking really good - great gloss & flowout. As I stood there with the spraygun in hand getting ready to go into the shop to clean the gun a Japanese beetle about an inch long landed on the very wet wingwalk right in the middle. Boy, that was too much so I figured that since I was going to have to rework that area anyway I gave that beetle a heavy coat of red-orange polyurethane while he was crawling around on the wing leaving big tracks. Then, to my amazement, the beetle took off and flew out of sight! I don't know how long he survived but he sure was visible for quite a ways off.
Guess he was just stopping by for a quick paint job.
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The previous posts have pretty well covered the subject. However, it brought to mind a similar situation I had a few years ago when I was applying the final polyurethane paint to the full-scale Steen Skybolt I was building for myself. I had just applied the final coat of International Orange poly and it was looking really good - great gloss & flowout. As I stood there with the spraygun in hand getting ready to go into the shop to clean the gun a Japanese beetle about an inch long landed on the very wet wingwalk right in the middle. Boy, that was too much so I figured that since I was going to have to rework that area anyway I gave that beetle a heavy coat of red-orange polyurethane while he was crawling around on the wing leaving big tracks. Then, to my amazement, the beetle took off and flew out of sight! I don't know how long he survived but he sure was visible for quite a ways off.
"I can paint any beetle for $29.95!!!" Earl Schibe
Dan McEntee
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"I can paint any beetle for $29.95!!!" Earl Schibe
Dan McEntee
Yeah but I couldn't collect from that beetle - he was a "dine & dash" type of customer! Anyway, the polyurethane on that lower wing where the beetle took his walk just flowed out & next day I couldn't even find where he had been. The paint was Stits (now Poly-fiber) Aerothane polyurethane; it has a learning curve to it but once past that it is really a high-gloss flexible poly.