A nest of Yellow Jackets. Various sizes, various techniques (Launch Photos!)
- Thread starter Marc_G
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I'll second that...
Thanks for the compliments on these first two.
To finish them off, I'll be putting on Valspar Clear Lacquer, but I need to wait for a low humidity day, and the next few days are not promising for that. For folks new to working with lacquers, the evaporation of the solvent cools the paint surface. This can cause any moisture in the air to condense in very tiny droplets. Essentially this is a surface effect, but if applying several coats you can actually embed the tiny droplets of water in the paint. The term for what this condensation causes is either "blush" or "milking" ... on a clear paint, essentially it looks cloudy with a whitish cast. Sometimes you can clear it up by buffing the dried paint (because it is usually a surface effect) or by putting on another coat in low humidity (which melts the crazed paint surface and reglossifies things). Sometimes the blush is permanent though.
Anyway, I don't spray lacquers (clear or color) when the humidity tops 50%. 60% is the absolute limit generally, but better safe than sorry. My favorite time to spray them is in the cold of winter when it's 20-30 degrees outside. They have plenty of time to flow out and make a nice coating with no risk of blush, in the cold, before the solvent evaporates away.
So these two are on hold until I get a spell of dry weather, and time on those days to spray.
Marc
To finish them off, I'll be putting on Valspar Clear Lacquer, but I need to wait for a low humidity day, and the next few days are not promising for that. For folks new to working with lacquers, the evaporation of the solvent cools the paint surface. This can cause any moisture in the air to condense in very tiny droplets. Essentially this is a surface effect, but if applying several coats you can actually embed the tiny droplets of water in the paint. The term for what this condensation causes is either "blush" or "milking" ... on a clear paint, essentially it looks cloudy with a whitish cast. Sometimes you can clear it up by buffing the dried paint (because it is usually a surface effect) or by putting on another coat in low humidity (which melts the crazed paint surface and reglossifies things). Sometimes the blush is permanent though.
Anyway, I don't spray lacquers (clear or color) when the humidity tops 50%. 60% is the absolute limit generally, but better safe than sorry. My favorite time to spray them is in the cold of winter when it's 20-30 degrees outside. They have plenty of time to flow out and make a nice coating with no risk of blush, in the cold, before the solvent evaporates away.
So these two are on hold until I get a spell of dry weather, and time on those days to spray.
Marc
While waiting for weather to support me doing clearcoating of the first two, I painted the second two (BT20, BT56) with primer, white, and then plain Auto Air Yellow. Not the iridescent yellow I used before.
This bottle of paint was a nightmare, and I've been working to recover from the mess.
Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them, to see the problem.
Little specs appeared after I sprayed the rockets. Knowing there was no new influx of dust or anything in my basement spray area, I came to the conclusion that this bottle of paint has dried paint bits or other crud suspended in it. We'll talk about recovering this in my next few posts. But it's time for work now...
Marc
This bottle of paint was a nightmare, and I've been working to recover from the mess.
Be sure to click on the pictures to enlarge them, to see the problem.
Little specs appeared after I sprayed the rockets. Knowing there was no new influx of dust or anything in my basement spray area, I came to the conclusion that this bottle of paint has dried paint bits or other crud suspended in it. We'll talk about recovering this in my next few posts. But it's time for work now...
Marc
Hi folks,
Due to a business trip this thread will be dormant until next weekend. However, there's good news in that the rockets have been completed and successfully flown (mostly) and I have pictures. I'll document when I get back!
Marc
Due to a business trip this thread will be dormant until next weekend. However, there's good news in that the rockets have been completed and successfully flown (mostly) and I have pictures. I'll document when I get back!
Marc
Getting back to this...
So, my yellow rocket paint had specs in it. First order of business was to smooth off the surfaces. These airbrush acrylics aren't like lacquers or enamels that dry hard and can be sanded smooth easily. Typically, sanding the acrylics, which are very flexible, results in little balls of acrylic paint, or peeling of sections of it off the surface. However, a very light touch with relatively high grit can be used to ever so gently knock down the specks in the surface.
I used a high grit sponge, I think up around 320 grit, and gently went over the whole pair of rockets, taking care to hit the worst of the specs just a bit harder than the rest of the surface. I tried to be careful not to break the surface of the yellow paint, but there were a few places I sanded through it. Oops.
After getting the worst done with 320 grit sponge, I then used a piece of 1000 grit paper and did circular motions over the whole surface of both rockets. This smoothed over the areas where the specs were, mostly.
I then resprayed with yellow after installing a filter in the cap. The filter consisted of a double layer of nylon pantyhose material donated by my wife. I got the technique off of youtube (forgot the link, but google can probably find it). Basically, I laid the pantyhose leg over the mouth of the paint bottle, and screwed the cap back down. Then cut the nylon material off around the base of the cap.
The resprayed rockets were much improved:
So, my yellow rocket paint had specs in it. First order of business was to smooth off the surfaces. These airbrush acrylics aren't like lacquers or enamels that dry hard and can be sanded smooth easily. Typically, sanding the acrylics, which are very flexible, results in little balls of acrylic paint, or peeling of sections of it off the surface. However, a very light touch with relatively high grit can be used to ever so gently knock down the specks in the surface.
I used a high grit sponge, I think up around 320 grit, and gently went over the whole pair of rockets, taking care to hit the worst of the specs just a bit harder than the rest of the surface. I tried to be careful not to break the surface of the yellow paint, but there were a few places I sanded through it. Oops.
After getting the worst done with 320 grit sponge, I then used a piece of 1000 grit paper and did circular motions over the whole surface of both rockets. This smoothed over the areas where the specs were, mostly.
I then resprayed with yellow after installing a filter in the cap. The filter consisted of a double layer of nylon pantyhose material donated by my wife. I got the technique off of youtube (forgot the link, but google can probably find it). Basically, I laid the pantyhose leg over the mouth of the paint bottle, and screwed the cap back down. Then cut the nylon material off around the base of the cap.
The resprayed rockets were much improved:
This time I properly masked the yellow/black transition with Tamiya tape and used some transparent base to seal the edges:
This gave great transitions:
I applied the decals to these two much like the others. The BT20 version was coated in Future rather than clear lacquer.
I had a tragic accident with the BT56 wrap, ripping it in two places due to mishandling, but I smoothed it into place and it worked out OK.
The BT20 rocket got coated with Future all over; the other three got several successively heavier coats of Valspar clear gloss lacquer. (Mist coat, medium coat, heavy coat to flow out).
Here they are:
This gave great transitions:
I applied the decals to these two much like the others. The BT20 version was coated in Future rather than clear lacquer.
I had a tragic accident with the BT56 wrap, ripping it in two places due to mishandling, but I smoothed it into place and it worked out OK.
The BT20 rocket got coated with Future all over; the other three got several successively heavier coats of Valspar clear gloss lacquer. (Mist coat, medium coat, heavy coat to flow out).
Here they are:
I launched them at the AMOREA launch last Sunday:
First the BT50 original Scale on Estes B6-4:
Then I got one frame worth of the BT20 on A3-4T. It went off at a bit of an angle into a gust of wind but then had a nice ride up and safely down on streamer.
First the BT50 original Scale on Estes B6-4:
Then I got one frame worth of the BT20 on A3-4T. It went off at a bit of an angle into a gust of wind but then had a nice ride up and safely down on streamer.
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Then it was time for the BT60 bird on a D12-3.
My camera takes 10 frames a second and I was fortunate to keep the rocket in frame for 5 frames on the way up:
It ejected close to apogee, but ejection wasn't successful. I must not have properly packed the chute. It was really jammed in there! Down the rocket came, and core sampled:
On the bright side, no real damage. I had CA treated the forward body tube on the inside, and it landed in very soft (rained hard 2 days ago) grass. There was a slight wrinkle in the body tube spiral near the fin can but nothing major.
My camera takes 10 frames a second and I was fortunate to keep the rocket in frame for 5 frames on the way up:
It ejected close to apogee, but ejection wasn't successful. I must not have properly packed the chute. It was really jammed in there! Down the rocket came, and core sampled:
On the bright side, no real damage. I had CA treated the forward body tube on the inside, and it landed in very soft (rained hard 2 days ago) grass. There was a slight wrinkle in the body tube spiral near the fin can but nothing major.
The final one was the BT56 version on a C6-5:
Delay was slightly long. Might try a C6-3 next time. Might have just been a bonus delay. :wink:
Delay was slightly long. Might try a C6-3 next time. Might have just been a bonus delay. :wink:
