Painting a small rocket with Mirror paint by Stuart Semple

[Marc_G]

Hi folks,

Some time ago I started a thread (this one) wondering if anyone had used the new Mirror paint by Stuart Semple. This also spawned a thread (this other one) about boat tails / tail cones and such.

So, after trying the Mirror paint on some trim pieces on an Asteroid Hunter, with good success, I decided there should be an actual whole rocket painted with the shiny stuff. The paint is super pricey, shipped price close to $50 for a tiny little bottle that has half a fluid ounce.

In this thread I'll detail how I finished such a test piece rocket, the mistakes I made, and other random musings. The TL/DR version is that it came out pretty but not really a mirror, which is no shock. My surface prep was insufficient (again, no shock), and a key learning is that I really didn't need a black undercoat, I think.

So, the rocket, which I dub "Through the Looking Glass" is just a simple BT-50 based affair, three fins and a nose cone.

The fins are made out of a piece of 1/16" basswood that (years ago) was sprayed with several coats of Rustoleum Auto Filler Primer and buzzed down with an orbital sander. Here are the fins, after beveling leading and lagging edges to get the look I wanted:



They were attached with Elmer's Carpenters' Wood Glue to the body tube which already had the tailcone with motor mount in it. Some Kevlar thread is attached to the top of the motor mount. I had forgotten to mark the fin attachment points before gluing on the tailcone (with epoxy) so I had to sort that out. I took the body tube cutting guide for BT50, marked spots around it 120 degrees apart, and used that to transfer the markings to the body tube.

Using traditional double gluing technique, and using a stand as a visual guide to get the angle of the fins right, I stuck them on:



Here it is with all fins attached and glue drying:



I used fillets of No Drip No Run / Quick-n-Thick / Trim and Molding Wood Glue. Whatever they call it, this year. Not shown but remembered: launch lug on other side of rocket.

 

[Marc_G]

When all glue was fully dry I used a bit of Medium thickness CA along the cut edges of the fins to seal them. Sanded down with 320 grit sandpaper.

Originally, I was planning to fill the tubing spirals. My current go-to method for tiny spirals like this is Brodak sealer with some talc in it, on a pointy tootpick, drag along the spiral to deposit material there, let dry, spray primer, let dry, sand down. I really should have done this. Instead I just got lazy and decided to ignore the spirals. Key Learning: on a super shiny rocket, you will see everything. Fill the damned spirals.

I started with a coat of Bull-eye 123 spray sealer primer. This was an oldish can, maybe 20% left, and it was a cold day out, so it sort of sputtered. But it coated the rocket:



Yes, you can see the spirals, mocking me.


I figured they wouldn't be so prominent after sanding; I was wrong.

The fins had a bit of lumpy orange peel to them; here they are after brief sanding:



A bit more sanding with 320 grit by hand and the fins were smooth; I also knocked off the orange peel on the tubing. Spirals remained.

 

[Marc_G]

A coat of Auto Air Sealer Dark went on. The nose cone already had a brushed coat of Mirror on it, when I used up some spilled Mirror paint, so I didn't prime or black coat it.



The sealer went on a bit gritty; it's from a several years old bottle that I don't use much. You really can't sand this stuff without making more trouble than it's worth. So next day I just sort of buffed the whole thing with a soft cloth.

 

[Marc_G]

Time for the Mirror paint. I had been in contact with the manufacturer who recommended no thinning of the product and routine airbrush technique to spray it.

So, with the nose cone firmly attached (to put a sprayed coat over the existing brushed coat), I used my Master 233 airbrush with a 0.3mm needle and about 35 PSI of CO2.

The stuff laid on beautifully. Here it is after one relatively wispy coat.

[PPE note: Mirror is organic solvent based (I'm very curious WHICH solvent but that's another matter); I was spraying in my basement but there are a couple windows I can open and it was a windy day; I had good airflow and wore goggles and a respirator with carbon filtration as well as N95 particulate capture. I put at most a quarter of an ounce of solvent into the air but it dispersed in the wind and none of my family complained of stinky stuff!]



After just one coat it was shinier than any silver paint I've used before but on the not-smooth-enough surface really falls short of "mirror."

I let it dry, being unsure of recoating rules in this scenario and decided to treat it like a lacquer. I laid on a second coat a bit heavier. The stuff sort of flows-out as it dries; brush strokes and spray unevenness just sort of lay down if you are lucky.



It's pretty shiny; my reflection is a fleshtoned blob. Not quite a mirror I would shave by but certainly pretty enough.

Not sure the stuff is worth $40+ shipping per bottle, but it does go a long way, applies nicely by fine brush or airbrush, and I've got plenty left to do detail work on quite a few rockets in the future, so I'm glad I took the plunge.

Eventually I will get a glory picture; I have to decide whether or not to make a decal of a Cheshire cat grin to go along with the Looking Glass theme.

 

[neil_w]

That looks very good.

In hindsight, it makes sense that the mirror paint would require meticulous surface prep, since in general the glossier the paint, the more it shows defects. I guess if you know in advance that you'll be using mirror paint, then you should really go all out on prep to get the most out of it.

Still looks great, though, certainly as chrome-y a paint job as I can recall seeing. I would say that paint lives up to billing.

Are you going to clear-coat? The one thing I would be worried about is durability.

 

[KenECoyote]

Are you going to clear-coat? The one thing I would be worried about is durability.

Please also test this...unless the painted surface is durable. To my frustration, every chrome paint I've used dull to gray when clear coated. Thanks for your testing and posting!

 

[Marc_G]

Hi @KenECoyote see the original thread on Mirror (link in my first post in this thread). I found solvent based clearcoating (a Krylon UV protective gloss) instantly killed the shininess, but that Future had relatively little effect on it.

The paint seems very durable. My plans for clearcoating (with Future as the only option I'm aware of) depend on whether I decide to go with decals or just let it be. Still undecided!