appliance paint??? YES!!!

[wwattles]

For anyone who has a rocket that is going to be white, black, tan or gray, I highly recommend checking out the Rust-Oleum line of Appliance Epoxy spray paints. They're designed for those scratch-prone appliances in your kitchen, and they are smooth as silk.

I used some of the white on my Estes Phoenix, and it survived a couple high-speed chases across the SoCal desert being dragged by a parachute in the wind with hardly a scratch.

WW

 

[sandman]

OH! I agree!

A ROCK HARD finish...but!

Don't paint it over any other paint...I've had it attack primer!

And don't paint anything over it...including more epoxy paint! It does not play well with others!

But by itself...it cannot be beat!

For something like the Orbital Transport or the Trident that's all one color...PERFECT! fills spirals too all by itself!

Gonna try it next on my 1/100th Saturn 1B clone.

sandman

 

[Darian Rachal]

Do you think I could dispense with balsa sealer on the OT if I used this type of paint?

 

[sandman]

Well, I sealed my OT with white glue...like I always do. If you don't seal the wood with something the wood kinda soaks up the paint.

I use it right out of the bottle, Elmer's squirt it on the fins and brush it in nice and even. Do it AFTER the fins are attached and the fillets are done. Blend it into the fillets with the brush.

But that's all I did...no primer!

Give it a light sanding the next day with 320 grit and painted it with the white epoxy.

I didn't do anything to the tube spirals. They just don't show from more than 3 feet away!

Also did my Trident, Cherokee D and Astron Interceptor clones.

Nice hard finish.

sandman

 

[Darian Rachal]

Sandman, I bought a tube of Elmer's Wood Filler specifically for the OT, but I might give your white glue technique a shot. But that appliance paint sounds good.

 

[stevem]

I have been using Kilz spray primer for some time now - a couple coats of this stuff and some wet-sanding and the balsa fills nicely.
Rustoleum goes over top of the Kilz primer without any problems.
The Kilz also fills tube spirals. Best primer I've found (read about it on this forum somewhere) but it is pricy at about $3.50 a can.