How to paint an Estes Super Neon?

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Bill S

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I'm getting ready to start on an Estes Super Neon. I read reviews of the rocket on Rocketreviews, and it looks to me like the instructions for aligning the tube fins/fins are lousy. I figure I can get the tube-fins on the body okay, and just eyeball the fin placement.

But I am at a loss as to how to paint the rocket. I expect I'll brush paint the interior of the tubes, after trying to spray some primer in there. But how in the world does one paint the rear tube fin area, with all those recessed areas? I don't want to leave them unpainted as they will be visible to some extent.

I thought about masking two thin strips up the sides of the tube fins (one for gluing it to the main body, and a shorter strip where the fins will attach) and painting them prior to assembly. Then remove the tape where the fins will go, attach the fins, and spray paint them. Then attach each tube-fin to the body. But I had wondered if it would be a good idea to glue the tube-fins to each other to increase the strength or is that unnecessary?

Or is there a better way that I haven't thought of?
 
Started posting, then realized I wasn't actually answering your question. Sorry!
 
I built the XL version. I built the tube can sub assemblies (with fins), filled and primed separately as I did the body tube. Just apply some tape strips to areas to be glued to retain a paper to paper bond. I then sprayed the sub assemblies separately.... purple on the fin sub assemblies and lime green on the airframe and nosecone. Remove tape strips and assemble. I don't have a pic as I gave the rocket to a nephew.
 
You have the right idea.

Brush paint on the interior of the tube fins, at least the visible portion. Optional interior spiral filling.
Two ways to handle the glue lines.
First is the way you mentioned: thin masking tape or pinstripe tape on the glue lines, fill, primer and paint tube fins and main body tube, remove tape and glue together, brush touch up after dry.
Second method is fill, primer and paint all tubes first. Then scrape or sand off the paint and primer along the glue lines, then glue together. A sanding block is easiest for getting a thin glue line.

For ease of assembly, instead of gluing each individual tube to the body I would glue pairs of tube fins together first and let dry. Then glue the three pairs to the body and rubber band as per the instructions. They should nicely butt up to each other.
 
Thanks Kuririn, that makes sense. I think I will print out some sort of hexagon so I can align the tubes and fins (main body in middle, tubes on sides, align the fins with the 6 corners).
 
For the XL, I glued together the tube fins and painted them as an assembly, and did the same for the main BT. I masked off a 1/4" section of each fin tube where they contact the main BT, and 1/4" sections on the main BT, for a good gluing surface using white glue (weld-bond). For the insides of the tube fins, I sprayed primer, sanded, then sprayed gloss - spraying in very short bursts, lots of coats, since it's tough to get the spray inside. They're not as smooth as the outside, but good enough.

For a non-XL, the tube fin insides would be tough, but I'd still try to get some primer in there, without sealing the insides of those tubes, paint is going to look rough & dull. The other option is trim monokote, which I considered. Two pieces for each tube, overlapping slightly - peel the backing, wrap non-sticky side around a sufficiently large dowel, insert into tube, and apply.

I chose a different paint scheme than stock, and eliminated the little finlets, which IMHO look goofy.
 

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I like the idea of spraying some primer inside the tube-fins, then brush paint them.

Unfortunately I can't delete the finlets, as this is my wife's rocket and she wants them there (she has psoritic arthritis and I have to do the fiddly work on the rockets as her hands have a difficult time with fine motor dexterity). :(
 
Have you started the structural build yet?

If not, consider following.

Lightly sand off any glassine coating on all tubes.

Carpenter Wood Filler the OUTSIDE of all tubes if you want to cover spirals up front. Glue works right through CWF, so no adhesion problems. Don’t sweat the internal tube fin spirals.

Mask the outside of all the tube fins really well, and spray paint the insides flat black. Will make internal spirals really hard to see.

Glue the tube fins in pairs, resting them on a flat surface. They will automatically align when you put them on the main body tube.

Place the three pairs around the main tube and mark the forward and aft contact points with a PENCIL (pen ink will bleed.). Mark forward and aft contact points on both the main tube AND ON THE TUBE FINES THEMSELVES. Option to mark and mask the lateral contact points of the three the fin pairs.

Put 1/4” masking tape centered over the marks the length of the tube fins, both on the main body and contact points of the tube fins. See if you can put masks over the areas of the finlet attachments as well,

Put rolled up newspaper inside your tube fins to mask the flat black inside.

Prime and paint the main body and tube fins. You will get some bleeding into the insides of the tube fins, don’t sweat it.

When dry, use a a magnum black sharpie (seems like an oxymoron) to touch up the insides of the tube fins where you had color bleeds.

Pull your tape masks off, may use a file or Emory board to really rough up the contact surfaces.

Glue your tube fin pairs in place. This may be a good chance to use TiteBond trim and molding glue, as you can be a little bit generous with the glue here (you can’t really get back in to do fillets) and it won’t run.
 
No, I haven't started construction yet. I may have to postpone it a bit since the weather here is going to be cold for the next week or so and it'll be hard to prime/spray paint. I do have some Montana spray paints ordered up, and they can be used in cold weather, but they aren't here yet.

Good ideas on the construction, Babar. I'll keep them in mind when I work on it. Thanks.
 
I recently completed the XL. When building I first glued the tubes together in pairs then filled the gaps between the tubes. I then masked off a small area where the tubes would glue to the main body tube and to each other. Next I sprayed a couple of coats of filler primer on the outside of the tubes then sanded. The inside of the tubes were hand painted the desired color. I then sprayed the tube fins with the same color all the way around. At this point I had completely painted tube fins with the exception of the areas where the tubes were masked off.

Next I marked the main body tube where the tube fins would attach and used a 1/4 tape to mask off where the fin tubes would glue to the body. The lower portion of the main tube was then painted the same color as the fins tubes. Once dry I glued the fin tubes to the main body tube and filled in any gaps between the tubes with Quick and thick. There were a couple of small areas where the fin tubes connected the body tubes that I felt spray paint wouldn't get into so I touched those up by hand painting. Once dry I repainted the entire lower portion of the rocket. At this point I had a solid purple color on the tube fins that extended 1/2" up the body tube.

From that point it was just a matter of masking off the fin tubes and spraying the upper portion of the body in light blue.

I'm going to be building another one as well as a normal Super Neon and can document the process.
 
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