MAC Performance ETHOS 2.0 Kit Review and Short Build

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OK... back from the snowmobile trip. Awesome! The 2K primer was wet sanded with 400 wet followed by 600. PPG Uretane sealer was sprayed then followed with five PPG base coats. It was a tough color to spray. took two hours to do the airframe and nosecone. I watched the Patriots beat the Jaguars and descended to the shop to apply the Siickershock vinyl. I will get the urethane clear coats on later this evening.

Here is the base coat

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Aligning the vinyl... After a couple of hours the base coat is good to tape
 

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Got the clear urethane coats applied last evening. The tailcone will be painted satin black. That may happen today, and then, it may not :smile:

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Very nice Joe, I am looking forward to seeing it fly. What motors do you have in mind?

Thanks, Michael. It will take a big G, but my plan is to fly it on H and I power. I ran a few sims with a variety of AT and CTI motors and am comfortable with motor eject and a JLCR up to I power.
 
Here is my current setup for painting. The air compressor is a Crafstman oiless that is 15 years old. I brought it in from the garage last year when the compressor unit on my much smaller Craftsman unit failed. This compressor is quiet and has more capacity than needed for our work, but it doesn't have to run much once the tank is full. The air line runs into a 3/4 inch copper coil. This allows any moisture in the line to condense since it is a short run to the Finish Line separator/filter (the orange thing).

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My paint booth is a large shipping carton I got from U-Haul. It sits on a plastic storage table and can be easily removed if I need the space. A section of the back is cutout to fit around an intake vent in the wall that exhausts through 6 inch duct piping to a 400 CFM blower that is mounted between the ceiling joists and exits the house through a 6 inch diameter dryer vent. Whatever you use for painting you need some positive way of venting fumes; and odor. I use a Park bicycle stand for holding a variety of PVC pipe fixtures for holding rocket airframes. Some merely slip into the motor tube. The fixtures can be rotated by hand to allow easy painting and keep the spray in the booth for evacuation

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I have used four guns for painting. The first one is a Devilbiss primer gun with 1.8 tip. The benefit of this gun is it can spray 2K primers without any reducer....in effect, a high build primer. I use it, but have to dial back the needle quite a bit. I typically reduce my primer a tad as the first primer application is a search and fix mission. After sanding and addressing flaws, the next coat sets up the base for topcoats.

The second gun is CATechnolgies Tjr. detail gun. It comes with three needles and cap sizes, but I only use the largest 1.2 size. It does all of my base coat and clear coat work. You have to remember that industry recommendations for needle and cap sizes is geared to shop work painting cars...as is mixing ratios regarding use of reducer. If I had to, I could use this gun for everything on rockets.

The next two guns are Harbor Freight HVLP. The full size has a 1.4 tip. I have used it with 2K primers and works fine with a bit of reducer. It has a very nice pattern for our needs. The smaller purple gun is a HF detail gun. There is no tip size label on it but I have also used it for base and clear coat. If I didn't have the Tjr. this gun would be fine.

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Production shop use one of two disposable paint cup systems. Devlbiss has the DeKups system and 3M has the PPS system. The advantage of their use is easy cleanup (you just have to clean the gun), easy measuring right in the container, spray at any angle (works like a baby bottle) and acts as a container for any leftover paint that may have a shelf life after mixing. The only disadvantage is cost. I use the PPS mini cups. A box of 50 cups and lids is $75 dollars on Amazon. The minis hold just short of 6 ounces. The only rocket that required more than 6 ounces was the Ethos 2.0 color coats. That was a tough color to spray. The PPS system was recommended to me by an auto painter who has used both. Im sure either would work fine if you go that route. Bottom line is you need two guns. The most important is your finish gun.

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Paint chemistry choice is another topic as is spray setup and technique. An expensive gun will not make up for poor technique or improper adjustment. A practiced painter can make an inexpensive gun work just fine for our application.
 
Sweet! Thank you.

Have similar projects. Wildman Darkstar Jr. is primed and ready for paint. Estes Big Daddy with 29mm conversion started. Wildman is nearby. Get all of my motors and hardware from Tim... and a few kits as well. The rocket community has some great vendors.
 
Nice setup. Great idea using the bike stand. I haven't seen a Park stand since the 80's when I worked in a bike/ski shop.

Many thanks for all the info.

Peace.
 
Really nice job on the Ethos, Joe! Wow!

Sweet paint setup! I recognized and lol'ed at the Park bike stand, looks like it works perfectly for rockets too.
 
Nice setup. Great idea using the bike stand. I haven't seen a Park stand since the 80's when I worked in a bike/ski shop.

Many thanks for all the info.

Peace.

Let us know what you decide on equipment. Any of your gun choices will work fine. TCP is a good company. On compressors, HVLP gun volume requirements are for production use. you can get by with less.
 
Have similar projects. Wildman Darkstar Jr. is primed and ready for paint. Estes Big Daddy with 29mm conversion started. Wildman is nearby. Get all of my motors and hardware from Tim... and a few kits as well. The rocket community has some great vendors.

Ooops, I missed this post. Hope you'll post some picks of those projects. Btw, Wildman is 2.5 hours from my home in Chi-town. Maybe I'll get a chance to see one of your birds fly this summer.

Let us know what you decide on equipment. Any of your gun choices will work fine. TCP is a good company. On compressors, HVLP gun volume requirements are for production use. you can get by with less.

I'm leaning towards TCP to get started. More research to do but yeah, I'll post whatever I go with.

Also, a coworker friend of mine works a lot of the big auctions south of Chicago on weekends. He told me today that some really nice spray gun sets and compressors have passed through those auctions at pennies on the dollar. He'll be keeping an eye out for me. All fingers and toes crossed...
 
Very nice looking indeed.

When will she fly? Curious if any nose weight will be needed. Sure I could bother Mike with the question but I have bugged him enough in the last few months. LOL
 
Very nice looking indeed.

When will she fly? Curious if any nose weight will be needed. Sure I could bother Mike with the question but I have bugged him enough in the last few months. LOL

Given our nasty Illinois Winter weather and upcoming travel plans it will maiden at Mini Midwest Power in early May. I did add 6 ounces of nose weight as my plan is to fly primarily with I motors. Since I added the nosecone bay kit I could have used less weight, or none in the nose and used the bay sled to increase or decrease weight depending on motor selection.
 
Ahh gotcha.
Our weather down here is being hard to get along with as well. When it warms up enough for painting, it is windy and/or raining. Wind lays down and temp drops and/or it rains. And then it rains again just for the heck of it.
 
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