How can I make painting easier when living in an apartment?

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tibbe

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I'm almost done constructing my L1 rocket. However, the hardest part remains: painting. How on earth do people who live in apartments (even with a larger balcony) paint their rockets? The whole process seems to assume that you have some large space (garage or back yard) that that you're not worried getting paint all over. Even if I could borrow some space I have to make multi trips there to allow the paint to dry between coats. It's quite frustrating when you're almost done.

Has anyone have a good setup for painting a rocket with little fuss that can be done on a balcony?
 
I live in an apartment and that is how I've painted nearly all of my rockets, on the balcony. I lay down a tarp to cover what I don't want to get accidentally painted, then lay down some cardboard to keep the tarp from getting overly painted. Then set up wood dowels to hold whatever rocket I'm painting and go to town. When done, fold up the cardboard(empty moving boxes?) and fold up the tarp. Works good as long as you don't have a ton of stuff out on the balcony.

I painted my L1 rocket that way. Horizontally though. Just be aware of the wind blowing the overspray on to something not covered and wear some sort of mask. Even trying to hold your breath between sprays, you'll still end up with colored nostrils.
 
Did you also make a "shelter" of cardboard around the rocket so paint didn't blow onto walls, railings, etc?
 
Im in a house but it’s a rental so no paint splattering or garage painting for me.

I bought a port-a-robe moving box and cut some of the front out of it:

https://www.kss.com.au/boxshop

I use it in the back yard with another box flattened out and laid down under / in front of it


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Cardboard paint booth with box fan and furnace filter to exhaust. Wardrobe box makes a great base. Here is a collapsible one that could be scaled up a bit. https://athobbies.blogspot.com/2014/04/tech-new-spray-booth.html

kj

+1 one to that...

or as a friend did (for winter painting, as it gets c-c-c-cold here!! much colder than 'recommended temp ranges' listed on the can!!) is make a 'paint booth' out of plastic sheet suspended form the ceiling. He then has some dryer hose & a fan venting out a window (a hole ain a piece of wood, wedged in a partially open window) Basically a "clean room" inside your living room or such.. You can get a roll of plastic sheet for a few bucks at the local hardware store ("Vapor barrier" material)..

Or, you could 'paint' the walls & tub of your bath / shower with vegetable oil, then paint your rocket, then clean up the bathroom.. :O
 
This was my problem as well. I don't have good painting space outdoors, and live in an apartment in Boston.

I did the cardboard box and furnace filter thing as well last year, and while it worked great, someone advised me that I might - gulp - blow myself up. Or at least burn the house down.

I don't know how risky it actually was, this year I decided to build a walk-in positive pressure booth.

Here is video:

[video=youtube;kaj-P2Rkms0]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kaj-P2Rkms0&t=[/video]

[video=youtube;g2ct6nx-iYI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2ct6nx-iYI&t=[/video]

[video=youtube;5GX96ALBt-U]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5GX96ALBt-U&t=[/video]

[video=youtube;flb05G6NSCs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flb05G6NSCs&t=[/video]

Took up tons of space, but I got some good looking rockets out of it.
 
Since I'm pretty sure the statute of limitations has run out, I can confess. I went to Boeing as a rent-a-engineer and was having major rocket withdrawals. Got in contact with Dave Davis and crew and wound up with a couple of kits, he made me a deal on. Well, it seems sunshine in Washington is measured in minutes per year so painting was problematical. Luckily I had a two bedroom apt with two bathrooms. About 5 rolls of blue painter's tape and 47eleven square furlongs of plastic drop cloth and the bathroom was transformed into a paint booth. About a week and three rockets later, the landlord would be none the wiser. Cleaned up real nice. When I was getting my deposit back, I happened to look up at the exhaust fan and noticed it was a nice cheery shade red-same as the last nose cone I'd painted in there. D'oh! Forgot about that!
 
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