Due to the problems I've been having with Rustoleum rattlecans I decided I should try spraying acrylic so today I started some experiments in spraying hobby acrylic paints. The first photo shows the old spray gun I was using, something given to me many years ago. It has a nozzle that measures about 1.2mm. I bought a cheap bottle of paint at Hobby Lobby and thinned it 1:1 with plain water. I did some experimenting with spraying on pieces of cardboard but it doesn't show very well what is happening. I tried spraying some soft drink cans and some glass jars.
The slick surfaces of the bottles and cans didn't seem to take the paint very well, it appeared that surface tension made the paint gather up into discrete droplets. You can see some of this on the can in the third photo. Maybe a proper thinner would help, and/or using some kind of wetting material such as is used in dishwashing detergent.
The first coat on any material was discouraging but I decided to keep trying. I let the first coat dry and sprayed a second coat, third coat, etc. I noticed on the glass jar that the paint evened out better on the paper label so I thought I should spray something more representative than a painted can or glass jar. I found an old Gatorade bottle and put a quick coat of gray primer on it. After that dried I put 4 coats of the acrylic on it. This gave a pretty even finish. The color is pretty dull though, not a very bright red. In person it looks maybe less bright than in the iphone photographs, the glossy clear helps a little bit. I then sprayed some rattlecan clear on half of the bottle, visible in the second photo, to see what the color would look like if glossy. Another thing- the acrylic doesn't seem to bond very well to primer. Maybe other acrylics are better than this, and maybe a harder clear coat might help that too.
Overall it appears that this is a reasonable method for painting rockets, certainly larger rockets. I'll have to research the thinner issue a little more, and try to find a source for larger, cheaper paints in more variety of colors, and it might be time to invest in a good detail spray gun from Amazon.
The slick surfaces of the bottles and cans didn't seem to take the paint very well, it appeared that surface tension made the paint gather up into discrete droplets. You can see some of this on the can in the third photo. Maybe a proper thinner would help, and/or using some kind of wetting material such as is used in dishwashing detergent.
The first coat on any material was discouraging but I decided to keep trying. I let the first coat dry and sprayed a second coat, third coat, etc. I noticed on the glass jar that the paint evened out better on the paper label so I thought I should spray something more representative than a painted can or glass jar. I found an old Gatorade bottle and put a quick coat of gray primer on it. After that dried I put 4 coats of the acrylic on it. This gave a pretty even finish. The color is pretty dull though, not a very bright red. In person it looks maybe less bright than in the iphone photographs, the glossy clear helps a little bit. I then sprayed some rattlecan clear on half of the bottle, visible in the second photo, to see what the color would look like if glossy. Another thing- the acrylic doesn't seem to bond very well to primer. Maybe other acrylics are better than this, and maybe a harder clear coat might help that too.
Overall it appears that this is a reasonable method for painting rockets, certainly larger rockets. I'll have to research the thinner issue a little more, and try to find a source for larger, cheaper paints in more variety of colors, and it might be time to invest in a good detail spray gun from Amazon.
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