Painting an Apogee Saturn V

[matt38]

Hello all,

I recently finished building an Apogee Saturn V and am having a bear of a time painting the black areas and silver on the fin shrouds. I tried just painting on liquid mask and scoring with a sharp knife with limited success on the corrugations. Is there a secret? Can you folks share techniques with me? I do not want to ruin this beautiful rocket!

 

[sodmeister]

TAMIYA TAPE is your friend ! I used several widths from the thinest to the thickest(been using this tape for years )
I also remembering (according to the CDrom instructions)using a black felt pen to make the demarcation lines from the various colour transitions (black to white ,black to silver) then taping up close to the line with the thin Tamiya tape and using a toothpic or similar to burnish down the tape edges so the paint does not bleed through.I never did use masking fluids,never have..too much rubbing to remove (just my opinion)

I think the word of the day is ...take your time ,don`t rush .
It also helped to pencil in the lines .

It`s gonna take awhile ,but the finished rocket looks very impressive when finished.

AND NO...I`ve never had the nerve to fly it

Oh....just a disclaimer !! I never did clearcote the rocket after decals ,did not really need it.BUT....if you decide to do so ,be very carefull.The clearcote can/will make the black felt pen demarcation lines you applied RUN .You may then have a blackish ,purple mess bleed through your paint job.Trust me ,I found out the hard way (different project)

Paul

 

[bguffer]

When i painted my Apogee Components Saturn V, i had Tamiya yellow tape and Pactra tapes available. I liked the way the pactra tape was laying down, so i used the Pactra tape. Turned out decent.

I did not do any of the penciling/markering in of the edge lines. I used Duplicolor paint, and did got a matching Duplicolor Scratch Fix 2-in-1 paint marker/brush to manually brush on color to correct for some of my masking mistakes. The Scratch Fix color is not an exact match for the corresponding color from Duplicolor spray cans, but they match fairly closely.

Bob

 

[Bravo52]

This is an old trick used by many.

Put down a normal base coat of white (what ever color the base coat is) and let it dry. Tape the markings as needed. Spray another coat of white to seal the tape edge. Paint the final color on top of the white seal coat. Let the paint just tack up then peal the tape off. If you let it dry too long, the edges could chip.

I've had great sucess with this over the years

 

[matt38]

Thanks all...keep the tips coming. I have a confession to make: This is my first rocket build. My 3 year old and I were in a hobby shop a couple of months ago and he saw an estes kit that he had to have. The construction consisted of attaching the shock cord and parachute. Well, the bug bit and as my motto is "anything worth doing is worth overdoing" and I watched the apollo missions as a kid, so I found the biggest Saturn V you can fly without certification and bought it. The instructions are awesome and it turned out beautiful. The paint is my last obstacle so thanks for all the tips! I also build a launch controller for this and the many rockets to come. What a wonderful hobby to share with my son!

 

[troj]

I'm reading this, as well, as I also have one in need of paint. The painting requirements on it are a bit...intimidating.

-Kevin