How good do you want it to look?  That may be part of your confusion.

If you want it to be a prize-winning stunt finish, then you're not done until you spray clear on it and get zero pinholes and zero sign of the underlying grain of the silkspan.  If you just want a good looking plane that flies nice, then you can probably stop now and paint.

The best advice that I've ever seen on choosing a finish, is to rate it by feet -- a ten foot finish is one that looks good until the viewer gets up to within ten feet.  A ten inch finish is one that looks good right up to ten inches, etc.  This helps you to decide how well you're doing as you're painting.  Every time you cut the distance in half, your work load goes up by a factor of two or four.  To get all your appearance points in stunt you probably need a once inch finish, which is going to take more than 120 times as much work as a ten foot finish.

So -- what sort of finish do you want?  You've probably got a good base for a three foot finish right now, maybe two, maybe five.

Tim's post points out the answer to how good a finish is good enough.   It is all up to you!  For a Combat Kitten, it will fly best if kept as light as you can.  But if you want a really good finish, then here''s a couple things to do as you go.  First is to "candle" the surface.  If you are not familiar with that term it basically means to hold up the model and let the light reflect off of it at an angle where you are just seeing the "surface".  That will show any major imperfections at an early stage.  You want to keep doing this at each stage.  You will need to put on a coat of clear to seal the filler.  Using  primer is necessary if you are looking to get a very good finish, but then the dope/talc filler you have used is, in itself, a "primer".  A "blocking coat" is a step used before the final colors are going on.  It evens out the substrate, "color wise", so that less colored dope is necessary to get full coverage.  What people use varies from silver to a very light gray most of the time.  This will also show imperfections quickly.  Candle that layer (and all layers! )  Wet sand the blocking coat flat (use sanding blocks), and candle it.  If there a re imperfections apparent that you feel the need to correct, then more of your "filler" is spot applied.  wet sand and spot on the blocking coat.  You keep this up until the finish is where YOU want it to be.  Just remember, more paint (of any kind) is more weight.  When the blocking coat is where you want it, put on the colors.  You can do the wet sand/candle/more paint sequence there, too.  Finally, clear coat.  How much is up to you again!   As i mentioned, a Combat Kitten, being small and powered by a 1/2A engine, will perform better if kept light, so a minimal finish is what I would shoot for.

Now if you are building a stunter for competition, and looking for higher appearance points, then the above sequences can go on, and on......  ending up with wet sanding and rubbing out the clear dope final coats.

But as always more paint equals more weight.  I have seen more than one stunt plane over the years go from being what could have been a great performer to not so good of one simply by putting on too much dope.  It's a trade off, and getting a light finish that looks really great is not easy.  It takes a lot of effort and a long time.

Big Bear

Thank you Bill.  Exactly what I needed to know.  As always on this forum I can always count on the experienced guys to give straight and helpful answers to the new guys.  I really appreciate it.  The kit is coming together nicely and I am looking forward to finishing and flying.  cheers   

Now if you are building a stunter for competition, and looking for higher appearance points, then the above sequences can go on, and on......  ending up with wet sanding and rubbing out the clear dope final coats.


I try to buff/polish the boundary layer also..

Only if it doesn't contain any metallics or pearls..........

Been wondering abut the "boundary layer"........ how it affects flight of our models..........

"hiho, hiho, it's off to four .10FSRs I go.........."

Big Bear

im going to finish my magician with monokote on the wings and and tissue and brodak dope on the fuse ive never used dope paint before so 2 questions,  is less more and can i  or do i have to use thinner in the paint? 

thanks

Pardon my overwhelming ignorance but, I am missing the point on finishing a combat airplane... Is it going to be hung on a wall?
 Mine can last from 4 secs to whenever t=0 (ground raises altitude to meet aircraft) Or AIRCRAFTS decide to be in the same set of air molecules (AKA Fusion)...

 

hopefully...pics coming soon.  Begin painting today...

Hi Randy,

I agree with the durability problems.  But, (and there's always a "but" it seems! LOL!!) we recently used some new silkspan on Aaron's T-Bird I and it started splitting when we flew it.  Chordwise splits in the middle of the open bays.  Plenty of Sig Lite Cote dope as a substrate, with even a touch more plasticizers added.  Never had that happen before, and that silkspan will just be used to cover solid structures from now on.  Haven't had it happen with new Sig silkspan.  Pretty sure it was a batch of the "new" K&S that split.

Bill