Painting large rockets - how do you do it?

Hi everyone- I'm finishing the build of my L2 cert rocket, Madcow's Frenzy, and it's by far the largest rocket I've built to date. I'm pretty confident in my finishing abilities, honing my filling, sanding and priming techniques as I built 50 or 60 LPR rockets since becoming a BAR, but I'm stuck with how to physically set up this paint job! With small birds it's as easy as jamming a spent motor on a dowel, and rotating with one hand as you spray with the other, but with 4" tubes that are 30-40" long, this isn't practical. My L1 rocket (Norad Pro-Maxx, from LOC) was painted by putting a piece of PVC pipe in an old patio umbrella stand, with the other end in the 38mm MMT. The fins were about a foot off the ground, which left the nose comfortably above head-height for me (not a giant). This isn't going to work for the Frenzy! Even on the ground, it's too tall to shoot with a rattle-can perpendicular to the axis of the airframe without scaffolding.
Seems to me it would make sense to shoot it in two parts, particularly since I'm flying a removable av bay for DD flights (albeit not for my cert flight), but then...how do I hold and manipulate a 4" tube so I can maintain an even distance from the spray can?

How do you guys do it?

Here's what I do...

The "A frames" are made of PVC and the various pieces friction fit together so that I adjust them as needed.

The spindle is a length of PVC.

Size the various pieces according to your taste and needs. The rocket in the picture is 34" long.

My recommendation is that you paint the booster and payload sections separately.

Let me know when figure out how to paint the long Madcow nose cone. It doesn't particularly take and HOLD paint even if you first spray plastic primer. Tends to chip very easily.

Did I mention having an unbuilt Frenzy kit on my build pile?

I clamp a long dowel in the Jawstand that I use for my launch pad. I set it up so the dowel is held nearly horizontal and then slide the rocket onto the dowel so that it goes in through the MMT and extends as far into the airframe as it can go. This supports the airframe in a horizontal position at a nice height for working. Work the paint can back and forth horizontally. Then rotate the rocket a few degrees to paint the next section. I think I get better result this way than I used to get when I stood the rockets vertically to paint them.

I made a rig just like o1d_dude... Much simpler, though... I had an old rake handle that I stuck through my Batray (38mm mount, 4" tub, 40" long) and held it between two ladders I had in my garage.
I had a gloved left hand spinning the rocket by the motor retainer and that way I could keep the rattle can the right distance and angle. The finish was absolutely flawless except for the two gnats that landed on the damn thing 2 minutes after I was done spraying.
Horizontal is definitely the way to go.

I've got dowels that fit my 13, 18, 24, 29, and 38mm motor tubes. I've found that I can brace the dowels horizontally with a lawn chair (heavy iron, not cheap aluminum/webbing kind) and use that to hold the rockets steady for me while I paint. and like CZTeacherMan, all too often I get the annoying mozzie stuck in my paint. I prefer to paint inside the (open) garage when my landlord is out and about w/her car, as I've found less insects are attracted to that area.

I glue a piece of coupler to a chunk of wood and paint the tubes vertically by placing them on a lazy susan.

I use a wood dowel but make center rings to fitcthe inside diameter of thecrocket I'm painting. You can mske the rings outvof card stock for smaller rockets and on your latgetvuse lite ply. This eayvuou get a nice fit without slop. The largest rocket I painted like this was my gforce. I used a 1" dowel. I stood it up inside a plastic milk crate and painted vertically. O used duplicolor because you can adjust the paint value to spray vertically and horizontally. Worked great for Mr. I just rotated as needed.

My version of the painting rotisserie is less fancy: a couple cardboard boxes and sticks off the ground.

I use a piece of PVC zip tied across the top of a folding sawhorse. I find painting rockets in the horizontal orientation is easier for me.

o1d_dude said:

Here's what I do...


Let me know when figure out how to paint the long Madcow nose cone. It doesn't particularly take and HOLD paint even if you first spray plastic primer. Tends to chip very easily.

Click to expand...

Here is what I did on my last MadCow nose cone and it seems to be working:
1. Washed with dish detergent twice (Wash, fully dry. Wash and fully dry a second time)
2. Lightly (ever so lightly) sand with 320 grit all over. Just enough to put a little structure in the cone but not so much you get "fuzzies"
3. Rustoleum 2x white primer to coat.
4. Lightly sand with 320 grit + to smooth it out - but ensure there is primer on the cone.
5. Paint with whatever - i used Rusto 2x on top of the primer. Let it sit for a week or so and thus far it has been quite durable. It might be more luck than anything else.

jsargevt said:

Here is what I did on my last MadCow nose cone and it seems to be working:
1. Washed with dish detergent twice (Wash, fully dry. Wash and fully dry a second time)
2. Lightly (ever so lightly) sand with 320 grit all over. Just enough to put a little structure in the cone but not so much you get "fuzzies"
3. Rustoleum 2x white primer to coat.
4. Lightly sand with 320 grit + to smooth it out - but ensure there is primer on the cone.
5. Paint with whatever - i used Rusto 2x on top of the primer. Let it sit for a week or so and thus far it has been quite durable. It might be more luck than anything else.

Click to expand...

A big thanks to all the replies- sounds like horizontal is the way I'll go! As far as the nose cone, I am planning on trying to flame-treat it; pass a propane torch on low setting briefly over the plastic- this supposedly modifies the polymer and enables the paint to bond chemically with it. Google Corona Discharge- same idea, but done with a high voltage arc.

I painted my Vertical Assault, which is about seven feet tall, by building a stand on the ground and setting the entire rocket vertically. I did the top with a step ladder, walked down as I got lower, and on my knees for the bottom.

My stand was a one-inch dowel about two feet long, mounted to a piece of 2x12, with a screw up from the bottom into the dowel. I weighted the 2x12 so that it wouldn't tip over.

Here are pics:

Painting rockets in a vertical orientation has never worked well for me.

Something about the sweeping stroke works better in the horizontal plane. YMMV.

Sand it lightly and then spray it with this:

https://www.amazon.com/Klean-Strip-BULLDOG-ADHESION-PROMOTOR-15oz/dp/B002GUGH04

o1d_dude said:

Let me know when figure out how to paint the long Madcow nose cone. It doesn't particularly take and HOLD paint even if you first spray plastic primer. Tends to chip very easily.

Click to expand...

Black Malleable Iron Threaded Floor Flange home depot carries different sizes of these and I bolt them to my work bench and have different lengths of threaded pipe that screws into the flange, then I can paint, or fibre-glass the rocket or tubes. very versatile I also have them bolted to 2x4s that I put in holes in my patio if I need to work on the rocket outdoors