Easter Egg Paint Job

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Lee Reep

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This trick may not be known to all. It is possible to paint your rocket to look like old fashioned Easter Eggs -- you know, the ones where you dunk the eggs in the colors, and they swirl all over the egg.

Paint job works best if rocket is painted white to start. And, it does not hjave to be a perfect looking base coat. Make sure nose cone is tight, and seal motor tube opening with plastic wrap and tape. You want the rocket to be waterproof (no water leaking inside).

Fill large trash can with water, such as a 30 gallon can. You want a tall body of water to work with. Get spray paints that are compatible, and I'd recommend acrylics. Spray multiple colors onto water surface, and quickly dunk the rocket into the water, allowing the paints to swirl and wrap onto the rocket. If the rocket is tall, then do multiple dips, turning the rocket over.

If paint dries, then drag newspaper over surface of water to soak up paint. Repeat as often as needed to get desired effect.

Attached is a picture of an Aerotech Initiator. The fins were sawed off at bottom since one snapped when it had a hard landing. I'll post one more pic in separate post (couldn't seem to post more than 1 pic).
 
Originally posted by Milo
Very cool.... very hippy! :D

OK, if you like that, then check this out ...

I call the rocket Acid Indigestion.

:D
 
Very colorful.

Easter Egg 2 appears to be the same picture as Easter Egg 1.:confused:
 
Well thats deffinitly an interesting and original paint job!
 
Originally posted by Milo
Very colorful.

Easter Egg 2 appears to be the same picture as Easter Egg 1.:confused:

Just a close-up. From the thumbnails, I'd thought there would be more difference showing detail.

Guess not ....

:eek:
 
Originally posted by rstaff3
Far out! Have a close up of the Acid Indigestion?

I'll shoot a couple and post later today. When I first took these pictures, someone over on "that other rocketry group" was asking about tube fin rockets. Some close ups might show off the paint better.

Acid Indigestion was an experiment in combining tube fins with boattails and other transitions. Then it ended up being an experiment in seeing if I could use up many of my nearly empty cans of paint! Now that I recall what all I used, I'm not sure it matters if you mix a bunch of different brands. The paint starts to dry pretty fast as it wraps onto the rocket, so there seems to be minimal chance for it to interact with the base paint.
 
Lee,

Thanks, I'd like to see some close-ups. The paint jobs on these rockets are so unique and interesting, I really didn't pay much attention to the rockets themselves. But the tube fin's design is nice too. :)
 
Originally posted by rstaff3
Lee,

Thanks, I'd like to see some close-ups. The paint jobs on these rockets are so unique and interesting, I really didn't pay much attention to the rockets themselves. But the tube fin's design is nice too. :)

Thanks to all for the comments. The "Easter Egg" color schemes on rockets are fun to do. I did this with my daughters when they were younger, and had some interest in the hobby. Now they are in high school and college, so we just do real Easter eggs. :)

I'll attach a close up of Acid Indigestion in this and a couple other posts.
 
Lee, thanks so much for the extra pics! That's as neat a paint job as I've seen. Hmm wonder where I can borrow a huge barrel? :D
 
When I first did this, it was very cold, so I set up a 30 gallon trash can in the basement shop, filled it with water, and started dunking.

Definitely not recommended! Was a real pain to empty down the basement floor drain. Outside, you could skim off the paint with newspaper, and then just tip the barrel over to empty it. The paint stays on the surface and won't contaminate the water enough to hurt grass or plants.

I have also used a smaller trash barrel, and just done the top half of rocket, and then the bottom.

I'll need to do some digging in the basement. Somewhere I have an "Easter Egg" rocket done with a base coat of dark blue. Kind of interesting, but I'd still highly recommend white.
 
That's the coolest thing I ever saw. Thanks for the info too.

You ought to get yourself a guest appearance on the "How'd Dey Do Dat Show".
 
when you dip your rocket do you dip it sideways or nose first? I think this is one of the coolest paint jobs i've seen on a rocket.

thanks

ray crane
 
Originally posted by kat3595
when you dip your rocket do you dip it sideways or nose first? I think this is one of the coolest paint jobs i've seen on a rocket.

thanks

ray crane

Hi Ray,

I pretty muched dipped it nose first, and then I recall tipping it and moving it around to get the paint to "pull" towards the rocket, and swirl onto the surface. I used a standard 30 gallon trash can, so I could dip most of the rocket, but I still had to turn it over and dip the aft end to finish it. The paint dries pretty quickly, so once I had dipped it nose first, I cleaned the surface of the water (slide newspaper over it to soak up the left over paint), then sprayed new colors on the water, and dunked the rocket again, aft end in.

My oldest daughter came home early for Easter (in the dorms at college here in town) just so we could dye eggs! I kept thinking I need to do another one of these rockets ...

:)
 
I just told my girlfriend that I'd let her do the finish on my next rocket, as she's the creative on in that department. Kinda as a lark, I said "I wonder if you could just tie-dye some fiberglass and lay it over a white tube then just finish with clear-coat?" She thought that was a pretty neat idea. Not 15 minutes later, I'm browsing through the forum and I come across this! Great idea!! By the way...anyone know if you can tie-dye glass??? I'm wondering if some of the acids used would react funny with either the glass or the epoxy.
 
Just a quick question on this....... how long must the base coat dry before doing the full dipping thing? I put off priming and sanding my Initiator until today, and the launch is this weekend, and I am thinking I will need to let the base coat dry for acouple weeks to let it fully cure before messing with the dipping..... Procrastination stinks!:mad:

-Brian Barney
 
Brian,

If you do the usual spray can finish, and the paint feels dry in a day or two, I'd dip it. It will be in the water for only a few seconds each dip. And, the dip paint dries so fast, it will not have time to react with the paint it is going over.

Good luck (and as everyone here demands -- post pics!)
 
okie dokie. Got the semi gloss white base coat over the primer now...... I guess I'll do the dipping on thursday evening, and fly on saturday! I'll take pics of it along with the fiberglassed Alpha I am painting now, and the V2 I am going to be painting tomorrow....... Can you guys guess that I procrastinate the finishing touches :D Its mainly because I hate priming and sanding.
 
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