Paul, your going to use a lot more clear than color. Your also going to use a lot of thinner. If spraying your going to mix a 60% thinner to paint ratio. I also can tell just by stirring. The paint has to be quite thin whether your spraying or brushing. You just thin it slightly more if spraying. Depending on what kind of finish your trying to achieve its going to take you probably 3 brush coats and possibly 3 spray coats of clear even before you go to color and that's assuming your going for a fair finish. Just remember not to skimp on the clear but don't overdo it as well. I typically thin the initial brush coats fairly thin so it soaks in. I lay off the thinner a bit on my last brush coat before going to spraying. I sand on my 2nd coat just to knock down the grain a bit and smooth things up. I do this with 320. I sometimes use 240 as well on the first sanding eventually going to 400. To answer your initial question though is quite tough. We can't purchase the exact amount of paint we need to do these projects. Your going to end up with more and more than likely your surely going to use it again. If your spraying your going to need to clean your equipment as well. I've used acetone with Sig dope, but I've found with Brodak their thinner works the best for me. I also purchased Dupont 3608s which I use to clean equipment as well. Thinner evaporates and this happens when you have the bottle open during the brushing stage. If the dope starts pulling and dragging another splash of thinner is needed. So you can see thinner is going to get the most play. I would have at least a quart of thinner on hand. Remember its better to have too much than to have to run out for more. Not everyone stocks this stuff and waiting from suppliers such as Brodak's can result in a week and also hazmat fees. After your color coats you should really spray on additional coats of clear so once again this material is getting used at a fairly decent rate. Colors on the other hand especially trim colors don't get used all that much. The problem is the 4oz. bottles cost as much as the pints do. When I spray a plane in the size your mentioning, it takes me at least 4oz just to cover the plane wings, fuse, etc. This really is a light coat which is what you want anyhow. I've had to stop and mix more during this step and that can be a bit of a pain. My gun can hold more, but the way I need to hold it I don't need any spilling out so I don't completely fill my paint cup. Take into consideration that my gun is really quite large and puts out more in the air and I'm also spraying outdoors. This all adds up to paint just blowing around your model rather than on it. A confined proper makeshift booth would do much better with less material. Ken
Topic: How much dope? (Read 1687 times)