Hi all ... I'm fairly new to rocketry, but have done tons of model airplanes. Rarely use paint on planes (almost always used films and decals), so don't have an awful lot of painting experience.
I was really happy with how this build and paint job came together. Gave it all a nice wet sand with 800 grit, applied the decal and striping. It had cured 24 hours, and then I shot the clear. Wrinkle city. The nose cone is great! The lower part of the model ... not so much.
It still looks good from a few feet away, but this ain't gonna be a display model! I'll try sanding down the wrinkles ... might be able to mitigate it some. At least the decal didn't get destroyed.
Thinking of switching over to acrylics instead of enamel/lacquer. Anybody have any thoughts on using acrylics instead? They sure smell a heck of a lot better...
Thought I'd add my $.02 here as I've been accused of putting WAY too nice a finish on many of my rocket builds:
What I
think happened with your clearcoat was an incompatibility in paint types. Lacquer shot on top of cured enamel paint can "uncure" the enamel, making it soft or causing it to wrinkle. If you're using lacquer clearcoats, make sure you're using lacquer base coats. On the converse, enamel paint should not cause an "uncure" condition on lacquer basecoats however. Why? Think lacquer thinner; lacquer thinner is an additive in lacquer paint to cut the paint to a consistency that allows it to be sprayed from a can or a spray gun. It WILL uncure enamel paint - learned that from someone that painted show car finishes in my teen years.
Even some enamel colors will cause the enamel below it to wrinkle on occasion - I believe it has something to do with the chemical additives in some colors that are not found in others, possibly a small amount of lacquer thinner?? Red and black Krylon enamel have given me that result on occasion. On a few instances I've had black paint crinkle problems going over earlier black enamel coats because I didn't let the first coats cure long enough. Other times a red going over a black base coast (where a color change on the model might be) has caused the problem, even not letting something like Bondo spot putty not cure fully under a primer coast can cause this condition.
With that said, I've used Krylon exclusively for finishing rockets for a few reasons: it's not expensive, it's easy to "shoot", dries rapidly, easy to topcoat, wet-sands nicely, and can be componded and polished. The key to getting successive coats to adhere properly is letting the first coat dry completely. Read the instructions on the can here! Krylon, with their enamels anyway, suggest a first light coat, then successive light coats after 10 minutes, but before 2 or 4 hours. So that means, in theory, you can put as many coats on as you can in that window, but then put the work aside and let it dry.
Some notes on spray tips with Krylon rattle cans: Find the cans with the separate WHITE colored nozzle in the red push-button (used to be called a "360 tip") as opposed to the YELLOW nozzle insert, or even worse, the large, white button with no separate spray nozzle. The former (white nozzle) gives a rectangular spray pattern that is FAR easier to control application of the paint in back and forth motions than the yellow nozzle, which shoots a round pattern making consistent application thickness nearly impossible, while the integrated nozzle in the oversized button is beyond useless! I went round and round with Krylon when they first introduced that yellow tip about 8 years ago because of its crappy application. Their reply: people (stupid ones I guess) were returning the cans because they thought the tip was defective and couldn't spray paint with it, so they dumbed the nozzle down... Bad idea, but the white nozzles can still be found. If you can't find the white nozzles, go to ACE Hardware. Their "ACE" brand spray paints are made for them by Krylon. The selection is not as extensive as you'll find at a Walmart, but the nozzles are right and the paint is Krylon, confirmed by Krylon in a phone call to them.
Back to your finish on this rocket: Let the paint that's on the rocket now fully cure, then wet sand it again, dry the sanded paint with a towel and put it away for a day or so. Cutting the marred gloss topcoat with sandpaper will let the lower layers of the paint reach cure quicker, then go back and respray the model using two very light coats. Let them cure, then (without sanding) shoot two more light coats in a few days. If that works, let the model cure for a week, then do another low-grit wet sand, and try a few more light coats. You should be able to get the results you're after and correct your mistake.
One final thought: If all else fails, you can spray the model down with Aircraft Grade paint stripper that can be found in most auto parts stores. and start over. It's not ideal, but I've done that on at least a 1/2 dozen models over the years. Sometimes the mistake is just too far down in the paint application (like uncured spot putty mentioned above) and it just won't cure, screwing up every attempt at the topcoat...
Good luck!
![20200222_093135[1].jpg](https://cdn.imagearchive.com/rocketryforum/data/attachments/335/335892-3564a1559e52ae4e65d9f209a19be9e1.jpg "20200222_093135[1].jpg")
