Last week I needed to finish my 1/4 scale ASP, which calls for fluorescent red-orange fins and nosecone, at least in the ROTW "Operation Redwing" livery. I am partial to Rustoleum spray products, and some searching on the Internet showed RustOleum 1655830 Fluorescent Red-Orange Industrial Choice in stock at the local Grainger. It sounded perfect, and the Rustoleum video showed them painting school lockers and stuff, so I assumed it would have to be quite tough. My rocket had already been painted Rustoleum 2X Gloss White several day before, and it looked great. I masked it off with Tamiya and painter's tape and headed out for the garage.
As expected from the previous discussions on this board about the difficulty of fluorescent paint, the first coat went on in a fine mist that barely covered anything and wasn't very regular. OK, fine. 20 minutes later, the next coat started to cover pretty well, another coat or two and all should be well. 20 minutes later, DISASTER. Big-time crazing on several of the fins, even at this stage. Hmmm, hoping for the best, I tried to lay down a fairly substantial cover coat and suddenly the can starts spitting out dust instead of paint. My rocket looked like at 70's Christmas tree that had been flocked. Disgusted, I stormed back into the house. 20 minutes later, and a final inspection confirmed my fears, half the fins looked like the Mojave desert with white gleaming through a multitude of cracks, and the rest were covered with fluorescent dust which could be brushed off with my hand.
I didn't look at the rocket again for a couple days, expecting it to be a complete loss. I finally brought it in and started sanding without removing any of the masking tape. I was surprised to find that with a bit of work, I was able to get back to a more or less uniform surface. Previously, I had noticed an unused can of Rustoleum 2x Satin Fire Orange. I would have rather used a gloss paint, to match the white, but I thought at least the satin might help hide some of the previous unfortunate events. The paint seemed to go on well, but I had no idea what I would find when removing the masking tape. The tape had been on for almost a week, the underlying paint had only cured a couple days before masking, and then it had been vigorously sanded on top of that. After pulling off the tape, I was amazed. The gloss white still looked pristine, and the Satin Fire Orange had (almost) completely masked the original disaster. The only imperfections were a few underlying cracks on the spinerons where I wasn't able to sand very well without destroying the plastic flaps.
Here is the finished model as it looked on Saturday at the UROC contest launch, it looks close enough to fluorescent red-orange to me, and the judges agreed:
I guess the moral of the story is, never forget that a bad paint job can always be sanded off. Oh yeah, and avoid fluorescent paint at all costs!!!
As expected from the previous discussions on this board about the difficulty of fluorescent paint, the first coat went on in a fine mist that barely covered anything and wasn't very regular. OK, fine. 20 minutes later, the next coat started to cover pretty well, another coat or two and all should be well. 20 minutes later, DISASTER. Big-time crazing on several of the fins, even at this stage. Hmmm, hoping for the best, I tried to lay down a fairly substantial cover coat and suddenly the can starts spitting out dust instead of paint. My rocket looked like at 70's Christmas tree that had been flocked. Disgusted, I stormed back into the house. 20 minutes later, and a final inspection confirmed my fears, half the fins looked like the Mojave desert with white gleaming through a multitude of cracks, and the rest were covered with fluorescent dust which could be brushed off with my hand.
I didn't look at the rocket again for a couple days, expecting it to be a complete loss. I finally brought it in and started sanding without removing any of the masking tape. I was surprised to find that with a bit of work, I was able to get back to a more or less uniform surface. Previously, I had noticed an unused can of Rustoleum 2x Satin Fire Orange. I would have rather used a gloss paint, to match the white, but I thought at least the satin might help hide some of the previous unfortunate events. The paint seemed to go on well, but I had no idea what I would find when removing the masking tape. The tape had been on for almost a week, the underlying paint had only cured a couple days before masking, and then it had been vigorously sanded on top of that. After pulling off the tape, I was amazed. The gloss white still looked pristine, and the Satin Fire Orange had (almost) completely masked the original disaster. The only imperfections were a few underlying cracks on the spinerons where I wasn't able to sand very well without destroying the plastic flaps.
Here is the finished model as it looked on Saturday at the UROC contest launch, it looks close enough to fluorescent red-orange to me, and the judges agreed:
I guess the moral of the story is, never forget that a bad paint job can always be sanded off. Oh yeah, and avoid fluorescent paint at all costs!!!