OK, Duplicolor seems to be a favorite around here. I have found some place to buy it but lets take it back a few steps.
If You are going to use Duplicolor Colors what primer brand should you use?
If You are going to use Duplicolor Colors what brand base coat should you use?
Should you sand between primer coats? Base coats?
I can build rockets, but painting has never been one of my strengths.
Andrew From Texas
Well, if it were me, I'd probably stick to All Duplicolor stuff. DO MAKE SURE that everything you're getting is either ALL LACQUER or ALL ENAMEL, as I HAVE seen BOTH lacquers and enamel stuff in the Duplicolor brand! Nothing will screw up a paint job faster than trying to put a lacquer coat over an enamel coat!
Now, Duplicolor is higher. Since most of the stuff I've been building in the last year has been semiscalers using standard black/white color schemes and wraps, I haven't had any use for the Duplicolor stuff. What I've been using is mostly Walmart Colorplace 98 cent a can stuff. Works well and the price is right! I don't think I'd try using the Walmart primer under Duplicolor though until I did a paint test and was SURE that it was compatible. If I was really trying to get a killer gloss finish in 'wild colors' not readily available in the cheap paints, I'd go Duplicolor though.
Generally speaking, sticking to a single brand for all your primers/basecoats/topcoats/clearcoats should have the best compatibility and least problems. Just make sure the paint formulations are the same.
OF course you want to sand the primer down. The secret to a killer paint job is the following three simple rules: 1)surface prep 2) surface prep, 3) surface prep! The smoother you get the rocket, the primer, and the paint, the better the finished product will look. Remember too, you can't get a smooth glassy paint job on a rough, gritty, crappy looking surface! The overlying paint will look no better than your bare surface before you start painting! So, if you want the tube spirals filled, fillets glass smooth, fin/nosecone grain filled, etc. get that as good as you can get it beforehand. For filling tube spirals I've had the best luck with the Bondo red spot putty from the auto supply-- it's by the cans of bondo-glass body filler, and comes in a tube for filling minor imperfections in body filler before painting on car bodywork repairs. It's basically EXTREMELY thick primer; primer solids in a little solvent like toothpaste. You smear a little on with your finger, let dry, and sand. On fins and balsa nosecones, I use regular Elmer's wood filler thinned with a bit of water to the consistency of mustard, or maybe a tiny bit thinner, brushed on with a 1 inch paintbrush, allowed to dry, and sanded almost completely off. Usually one coat will do, sometimes with a few additional retouches if necessary. I've got a whole box of sandpaper, but I find that 98% of the time, I only need 220 grit regular and 600 grit wet/dry paper. The 220 grit may take slightly longer to sand fin leading edges and trailing edges and stuff like that, or to take filler down, but it doesn't leave deep sanding scratches that you have to sand down again to get rid of. So I use 220 grit almost exclusively for the first sanding. Once I've got the whole rocket smooth, I shoot it with a few coats of primer. I usually put 2-3 light coats on it, let it dry, and then sand it down with 220. If I can see ANY pits or imperfections, I can then either use the body spot putty on them if they're too deep for primer to fill, or do another coat of primer or primer touch-ups to the 'bad spots'. Then a little 220 finish sanding to get her nice and smooth. If there are still any spots where I had to keep sanding until the primer was all sanded off, but by now the rocket should be REALLY smooth, I'll usually go put another light primer coat on it, but usually this step is NOT necessary. I can usually get it done with just the main primer coat and maybe some touchups, all sanded down with 220 grit. If I DO recoat the whole thing, then again I just make a light sanding of the whole thing with 220 grit again to 'open the primer up' and take off some of the excess weight of the primer, and then switch to 600 grit wet/dry paper and use a bowl of water to wet the paper and clean the gunk off it. I 'damp sand' the rocket by wetting the paper, daubing most of the moisture off the paper on a towel (but leave a LITTLE moisture on the paper to form 'sanding mud' as you sand the primer down) and sand the rocket with the 600 grit, every so often washing the paper in the bowl and daubing it off, and using a damp paper towel to wipe the 'sanding mud' off the rocket, and drying it with a dry paper towel. This is easy to do while sitting and watching tv, and it usually doesn't take over about 30 minutes to do an average size rocket. Use your fingertips gliding over the surface of the rocket feeling for imperfections... (closing your eyes forces your brain to switch to 'feel mode' and makes this much more effective-- thats what we do on autobody work to feel imperfections) and then resand any imperfections lightly with the 600 grit until you get it nice and smooth. Once I think I've got it, and can't feel any imperfections anymore, I start holding the rocket up and turning it with a light in the background-- a window, overhead light, lamp, whatever. Try to observe the 'gleam' of the light off the tube, fins, etc., as you turn the rocket very slowly in your hand. Any waves or 'breakups' of the gleam (reflected light) off the tube or fins is a spot that needs a TOUCH more 600 grit sanding. At this point, it doesn't take much to go from good to darn near PERFECT, so it's time well spent. Usually I find that by the time I've damp sanded the whole rocket and given it the 'touch treatment' and sanded any spots again, the 'light treatment' reveals at most one or two spots that need ANY attention whatsoever. So basically, this whole process takes MAYBE an hour to do on the typical rocket, not like a week or anything, even though it SOUNDS terribly long and involved!
Once the primer is slick and glass smooth (it should be by this point-- the rocket will almost look like it's made of gray or red plastic depending on your primer color!) let it dry thoroughly (usually overnight, depending on conditions) and then you're ready for color coats. Usually I just shoot the thing with white and I'm done, but if I'm putting a 'wild color' paint job on the rocket, I usually start with a white base coat and then after that dries appropriately (depending on the paint instructions on the can for the particular paint I'm using-- if in doubt, always follow the instructions!) then I can mask (if necessary) using blue painter's tape and do the top color coats. Sometimes I use clearcoat, and sometimes I use Future floor polish. Usually I use clearcoat on wraps, and future polish on paint, after it's dried a good long while, so the paint has had time to 'cure' and let ALL the solvents out... (which can take a week or two).
Good luck to you and post pics! (you can upload them straight from your hard drive to your posts-- go to 'manage attachments' below the post text window and then 'browse' find your pic on your hard drive (usually 'my pictures' or whatever) and then double-click them to put the filename in the box and click 'upload file'. TRF's upload tool will automatically resize the pics so they'll fit on the website at a good resolution.)
Later and good luck! OL JR
