CA Models Osmose Delux ARC

[maustin]

Jim,

Looks great !!! What spray gun are you shooting with. My old Badger 400 is shot and it's time to upgrade.

BTW - nice thread !!! Great to see more pattern stuff on FG.

maustin

[Jim Woodward]

Hi Maustin,

I have a touch up gun from Harbor Freight. This was a "kit" that contained the normal touch up gun, and a mini-gun (just bigger than an airbrush).
Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

Its wet-out! The Nason brand of base/clear for the canopy was super easy to shoot. I'm a fan. I'll start the process to replace colors and such with this Base/Clear system.
Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

Last night I sprayed single-stage Acry Glow for a small spot of red, Nason base/clear for the silver canopy, Nason primer for the T-Canalizer. Hopefully I'll finish prep and paint this T tonight.
Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

In this picture here, you can see the "shine" on a bunch of the surface. However, only the silver canopy has clear on it. The rest is raw, untouched Acry Glow single stage. I'll sand and polish out later
Thanks,
Jim

[Radioactive]

Jimmmmmmmmmmmmm.... nice job!!!! Just Curious how... many LBS did you use ????

Rumor on the Street is.. You are doing a "How to Paint" DVD. I heard you already have customers ...... Some Good ole boyz wanting to get it right!!! It's always good to share the "Love".

[Jim Woodward]

I need to find where I placed my before weights. I think I remember the fuselage, canopy, and chin cowl weighing 2 lbs 7 oz before prime/fill/paint efforts. I'll try and get the total weight gain tonight.
Jim

- these were from my crappy cell phone camera too.

[Radioactive]

Cool beans, it would be great to know just how much paint weight wise goes on these planes... look at the Astral xx and the "In the Molds" man they are light!!!!

[bocaben]

Great work Jim!
Painting has never been a pleasant experience for me, always took too long to do and always mixed results at the end. The learning curve is too long, but once you get there, it gives you a warm feeling inside, like a kid who's able to ride his bike alone.

Ben

[Radioactive]

Seriously Jimbo, DVD brother!!!, we all want to know the secrets... like ben said.. been there before, and it's frustrating .....

[Jim Woodward]

Thanks Ben,

I would really like to see a "what not to do" thread on paiting. So far this is what I've found.

1. Surface prep is everything
2. Reduce the paint volume untl you get a feel for that particular mixture
3. Painting only gets more expensive - it never gets cheaper as you go through it
4. There will be no DVD from me. Its all I can do to snap cell phone pciture at various stages.

Thanks,
Jim

[Jim Woodward]

I got kind of lazy last night and only did a few things. Installed throttle & rudder servos, hinged the rudder to be removable, installed landing gear and pants, and sanded/filled the T-canalizer. I will hopefully have this RTF by Monday or Tuesday.
Thanks,
Jim

[Mike Hester]

It looks like you did a fantastic job Jim, congrats!

[Jim Woodward]

Thank you Mike. I'm happy to be on the home stretch and look to fly soon. Two things helped my night time painting. The Citrenella candles, and turning the spray booth light on only when I needed to spray, then quickly turning it off.

The single biggest thing is to limit mistakes that cost too much time to repair. The biggest mistake to avoid seems to be putting too much paint on that will cause a run. How do you know though? Cardboard soaks paint so this is not a good test surface, BUT, I found that if you put clear packing tape on a piece of cardboard and spray a test on the packing tape, you get a better feel for the paint pressure, flow, viscosity. You can see the air-pressure spread the paint as it hits the tape, and as you make the pass moveing the gun by, the paint will coagulate as dull, or wet-out, or start a run. Then you change the setting if needed. So reducing paint volume, and moving the hand quickly (at first), is a huge advantage to start the pass.

Taping the plane is not easy. I completely taped 1/2 the plane, then ripped it off and started over, then was able to do the other side. Lots of waisted time & material & aggrevation.

On primer: I used a Nason urethane primer. If you use 220 grit, it cuts and sands off like butter, then finish with 400 grit before paint. The white aviation paint I used is so hard once cured, I had to use 220 to sand that in areas, then 400, then 2000 prior to another color. I'm saying this for the folks that haven't done this in a while, or are thinking to get going in a paint effort.

Base Coat/Clear - shooting the canopy was a pure joy. I got to believe there is much less paint used in this method than single stage. I know single stage had its advantages too though. By the time I cleaned the gun and mixed clear, I was able to do a quick 2000 grit sand, clean, tack, and shoot clear. When you see your reflection in the clear - STOP shooting it. The next day it looked better than right after shooting it.

Also, that 5 Star wax/degreese agent is great for wiping down engine parts when working on other stuff -

Thanks,
Jim

[DragonFire]

Hey Jim,

Great job man. Looks really nice. I know you've learned a lot here about equipment and technique. It shows. Awesome and Shinny !!!!!

I might be able to help you with a few things....

When your shooting, try to position your lights at a 45 - 30 degree angle to the surface so you can see a reflection of the light in the paint as you shoot. When you apply a coat you just want to build it up till it gets a shinny smooth surface. Any more and it's too much and it will run. I use "Tree Lights" they are 1000w total. The rest is just experience but it does get harder to control your paint flow when you start shooting the more transparent colors like purple. You never think you have enough paint.

Your best bet is to gauge the paint on the plane, But I sometimes use the side of a gallon can of thinner to test my gun set up. as a "test panel"

What I do is take an old gallon can of lacquer thinner. clean it with your prep cleaner. When you primer your plane - prime that can. When you shoot the white on the plane- shoot the can. Then when you hit your colors on the plane - shoot the can - I even run masking tape on the can so I can see how colors work against each other. Also if you ever spray two colors over each other you can see how blue looks over yellow, etc.... You could also get scrape metal panels from the recycling center and do the same thing - these "practice panels" come in very handy. And you are actually testing your colors on the actual base you are painting - instead of just some white tape or what have you.. Believe me it really helps.

Your plane looks really nice and next plane will been even better. Keep going bro.

And if you need some graphics cut, let me know. I'd be more than happy to cut anything you might need.

Any chance you might be coming up to Hunstville? It would be great to see you there and you could crash at my house in Atlanta on the way up or back. just ket me know, you got my number.

Dean