Paint Run.... Now what?

Painting a rocket today I made a mistake.... :cry: Spraying the second coat of gloss a little heavy in an area and it ran on the body tube.

What is the recommended procedure for bringing it back level before the next coat?

My preferred technique:

Don't put on a second coat. I end up wrinking the under coat way too easy.

Instead, I remove the run. I let it dry for a few days, and I wet sand it with very fine sandpaper, like 800 to 1500 grit. Wet sand, not dry sand, as dry sanding will just load up the paper and have no effect. That grit of paper is from auto stores. I find 400 and 600 grit to be too rough for this. I prefer a hard backer block of wood, and not a soft backer pad at all. My goal is to remove the run, and not the surrounding paint. But, some will likely be removed. So for that, I shoot some of the paint into a non-plastic cup (as plastic might dissolve), and using a very fine brush - like 0, 00, or 000 - touch up the part that showed through.

Let that dry, lightly sand with 800 to 1500 grit, just to blend it in.

Then, clear coat. Or, touch the spot with a bit of auto polish, like turtle wax or mcguires to add some polish back.

That, or I leave it as character, while gritting my teeth at making such a decision.

Oh, and to avoid that problem, I don't leave the rocket sitting while drying. I put it on a stick, and while drying for the first 10 to 15 minutes, I rotate the rocket round and round, up and down, so that the heavy paint flows back and forth and makes more of a thick spot instead of a drip. It's saved my ass many times, but not always.

Sand it down with 220 till smooth. Then do a wet sand with 600. I just did this on a nose cone and you can not see the repair. It will need to be repainted of course.

Real Deal said:

Painting a rocket today I made a mistake.... :cry: Spraying the second coat of gloss a little heavy in an area and it ran on the body tube.

What is the recommended procedure for bringing it back level before the next coat?

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When I get a run, while it's still wet, I hang/mount the rocket so the run goes the other way. Usually, after a few minutes, about the time I wait between coats, it has flattened out some. In many cases, if it wasn't too bad, it doesn't even show. Other times, as the paint dries, it tends to shrink, and may leave a little scar.

Many times, using this method, you can't even tell I had a run.

Doug

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+1 to what Doug describes as this is what I do as well.

Removing bugs is a bit different. I use long pine needles to remove the critter while the paint is still wet and shoot a bit more paint over the "scar". As the paint levels it fills the void.

Bugs in clearcoat get same treatment. If all else fails, a light touch with high grades of sandpaper (600-1000) followed by a spot of clear normally fix the problem.

If you build rockets to actually launch them, don't become obsessed with perfection. Most rockets that fly will get battle scars pretty quickly. Perfection is a losing battle.

Plano and O1d Dude pretty much said it all and are dead on from my point of view. Live and learn on this one. Clear is a funny animal. We all have heavy fingers painting---hint-- it's like fishing---when you think your going slow enough--slow down. I tend to use 1-3 dryish mist coats before I lay down a heavy coat and even then I try not to lay it on to heavy. I try and get 2 gloss coats to cover --with a little wait time between.

o1d_dude said:

If you build rockets to actually launch them, don't become obsessed with perfection. Most rockets that fly will get battle scars pretty quickly. Perfection is a losing battle.

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This makes perfect sense! I do not recall having one that did not have scars that caused the eye to overlook a run. Especially after 3 Flights. Dinged fins, zipper tube, chipped paint from nose cones etc.....

I will leave it be... Decal time!

BC/CC is an art, no matter what anyone tells you.
Base Coat/Clear Coat
Runs happen, even to the best of us.
Some good advice above, all good and spot on.
Thing about runs is, they skim over, and stay gummy on the inside.
Dry sanding will only result in rolling it up on the paper and gumming it up.
Wet sanding with too fine of grit results in much the same, and little results.
Thee very best you can do, if your finish of perfection is what you seek is...
Let it dry for a week. WET SAND with 320/360 to ride the worst of it.
Blend around the area after another 24 hours to let the worst of it get some air, with 400. Then sand the entire component with 600 and recoat, LIGHTLY for the first couple coats to make sure you have good adhesion, and no lifting, with proper flash off time between coats.
Then give it a good double coat to finish off.
Rotating is a very good suggestion and is almost a must on somthing like rocket body tubes and nose cones.
Be very carefull of the overlaps on the fin/BT joints and LL where runs are prone due to too many overlapping coats.
Hope it helps. But much has aready covered.