Estes Leviathan Build

If I put white primer on, then a coat of white gloss paint, would I be able to paint the top segment blue? Or could I mask that area off from the white paint?

Yes, you can go blue over the white. Speaking for myself, I put a white gloss base coat right over the filler/primer and get fine results. Then I would mask and put the blue on that.

Maybe the extra primer layer in there helps with something, but I've been satisfied with my results without it.

danielsadjadi said:

If I put white primer on, then a coat of white gloss paint, would I be able to paint the top segment blue? Or could I mask that area off from the white paint?

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You can do it either way. I would probably do it like Neil said and just paint over the white, unless I was looking for a specific effect (not sure what, maybe silver under flourescent or something).

Another reason for colored primers is that you can see where you've covered and where you've missed with the next coat. You may not really have a choice, but if you can the you might want to use a lightly tinted primer rather than white; it'll help with ensuring total coverage by the white later. If it's an option, which it may not be.

(It's a trick I learned from my father, and he may have learned from his father, for house painting. Then you can have the paint store add a tiny bit of tint. One could do the same if using an air brush, but with spray cans you don't get that much choice.)

I just tried alternating color primer on my Ventris. White under gray. Working great so far. Helps expose the high/low spots. This technique is used more or less with auto body work to help smooth out the bondo.

Now that priming is all done, I am thinking about the paint scheme. The first coat of primer was done with Dupli Color, then final coat with Krylon, (I know, I know, don't mix paints.) I already bought the Rustoleum 2X paint so I want to know if it's okay to use that ontop of the Krylon primer. Has anyone done this before?

Updated model:

So I put my first coat of white paint on today, it bonded well. Before I painted I put the can in warm water for 5 minutes. One thing that was odd, was that the paint would seem fuzzy when it went on, and the layer of primer before it was perfectly smooth. I guess it can be polished out with 2000 grit? Anyways, a little over excess of paint on one of the fins, I wiped it off and started over, and you can kinda see where it got wiped out. Can I just sand it down once cured and try again?

You can pretty much *always* sand it down and try again.

Refer to post #107

So the Rusto (super glossy!) went on a week ago and the second coat today. I am thinking about getting a coat of white engine enamel or acrylic enamel then clear coat enamel so I can wetsand and polish the orangepeel (which there is a lot of) out.

After 2 weeks of waiting for the enamel to fully cure, I finally masked the fins for painting.



(I can't figure out how to rotate pictures, even after doing so in pictures and saving)

Anyways, all I used was a ruler, extra wide masking tape, and a #11 X-Acto knife for precise cuts.

danielsadjadi said:

After 2 weeks of waiting for the enamel to fully cure, I finally masked the fins for painting.

View attachment 287668

(I can't figure out how to rotate pictures, even after doing so in pictures and saving)

Anyways, all I used was a ruler, extra wide masking tape, and a #11 X-Acto knife for precise cuts.

View attachment 287669

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I have the same problem uploading pictures from my phone. Build is looking good!

And she's ready for paint! 2 plastic bags and a layer of paper for protection. Going with gloss blue as the second color.

Drumguy89 said:

I have the same problem uploading pictures from my phone. Build is looking good!

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Yep, it's a real pain. There should be a rotation tool in photo editor here.

Also, I picked up a can of this clear acrylic enamel at the auto store today, I'm hoping what it will do is add a hard shell and a protective finish to the rocket when it's done. Has anyone used this stuff before? Let me know how it went.

Not sure what you boys are doing. I saved Daniel's picture on my Win7 machine and did the hokey pokey rotation to the left and to the right. Left it in a vertical orientation and uploaded what you see. My understanding is that different cell phone software leaves positional information in the metadata of the picture but I have always been able to reset it the way I want.

samb said:

View attachment 287685

Not sure what you boys are doing. I saved Daniel's picture on my Win7 machine and did the hokey pokey rotation to the left and to the right. Left it in a vertical orientation and uploaded what you see. My understanding is that different cell phone software leaves positional information in the metadata of the picture but I have always been able to reset it the way I want.

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I'm using a PC. The problem is when I rotate a image in Microsoft Pictures, then upload it here, it turns around horizontally. I originally did my pictures with Flickr, but the hassle and time it took to upload a photo was too much so I ended up leaving it as it is.

danielsadjadi said:

I'm using a PC. The problem is when I rotate a image in Microsoft Pictures, then upload it here, it turns around horizontally. I originally did my pictures with Flickr, but the hassle and time it took to upload a photo was too much so I ended up leaving it as it is.

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I edit the picture with the basic windows photo editor (rotate it around and do a simple enhance) then save it and when you upload it will be in the position you want.

samb said:

View attachment 287685

Not sure what you boys are doing. I saved Daniel's picture on my Win7 machine and did the hokey pokey rotation to the left and to the right. Left it in a vertical orientation and uploaded what you see. My understanding is that different cell phone software leaves positional information in the metadata of the picture but I have always been able to reset it the way I want.

View attachment 287686

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My pc has to be repaired, Im doing all my uploading from my smart phone. On a pc it would be no problem. I have rotated the photos in my phone and tried to reupload and still sideways.

Drumguy89 said:

My pc has to be repaired, Im doing all my uploading from my smart phone. On a pc it would be no problem. I have rotated the photos in my phone and tried to reupload and still sideways.

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Ok. Not sure what to do on the phone. I hate it when the "smart" phone outsmarts me.

Drumguy89 said:

My pc has to be repaired, Im doing all my uploading from my smart phone. On a pc it would be no problem. I have rotated the photos in my phone and tried to reupload and still sideways.

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If the photo editor on your phone won't do what you want, you need a better photo editor. If the there's no photo editor on available for the platform that will let you do what you want, rather than what it wants you to want, then dollars to doughnuts you've got an iPhone, and you have my condolences.

jqavins said:

If the photo editor on your phone won't do what you want, you need a better photo editor. If the there's no photo editor on available for the platform that will let you do what you want, rather than what it wants you to want, then dollars to doughnuts you've got an iPhone, and you have my condolences.

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I have posted, I dunno, hundreds of pictures around here with my iPhone and never had a problem setting the rotation.

Now just waiting a week for the paint to dry, (or cure, if you want to be picky :eyeroll after that I will finish the rocket with a clear coat and polishing to get all the orange peel out.

Nice job on the fins (and the rest)!

neil_w said:

Nice job on the fins (and the rest)!

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Thanks for the kind words Neil. I was really tempted to use decals, but I'm glad I stuck to paint.

neil_w said:

I have posted, I dunno, hundreds of pictures around here with my iPhone and never had a problem setting the rotation.

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Glad to hear it. So there must be a better choice of editor available to Daniel, 'cause if even Apple will let you have your own way with stuff then anybody will.

danielsadjadi said:

(Sorry about the blurriness, it's not me trying to hide something, it's the smartphone cameras that won't let anyone but themselves to focus)

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There are two things you can do when trying to focus and it won't cooperate. Touch the screen where you're trying to focus, and if there's a straight line at that location I've found it to work better. But if you're too close to focus then back off and zoom in, and you can get really close up and still be in focus (although your image resolution will be much less because it's a digital zoom - but for what we're doing here that doesn't matter).