MCriscione
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- Jul 9, 2015
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For most of my rockets I use pretty simple paint schemes with solid colors, especially at break points where upper/lower or body/nose separate to deploy chutes. For these rockets I typically paint each subassembly (i.e., nosecone, main body) separately, masking as needed.
In building my first fiberglass HPR, I've decided to use a more ambitious paint scheme that has a number of asymmetric stripes running the length of the body, crossing the av-bay and onto the payload section. I'm using a number of masking layers to accomplish the job and I'd like everything to line up nicely when assembled for the pad.
So here's the question. Do I paint the finished rocket in 'launch' configuration? Or do I assemble, mask, cut the mask at each separation point, break into parts (fully deployed config), paint, reassemble, repeat until I've got all my color layers complete? I've got about 4 colors to lay down and I'm not looking forward to the repeated assembly/disassembly. Is it reasonable to leave assembled the whole time and simply hope it all comes back apart properly at the end of the process? I would plan to at least run a hobby knife over the separation points, but I'd concerned about any paint collecting between BT and coupler and fusing the parts together.
What do you do, especially on larger rockets?
In building my first fiberglass HPR, I've decided to use a more ambitious paint scheme that has a number of asymmetric stripes running the length of the body, crossing the av-bay and onto the payload section. I'm using a number of masking layers to accomplish the job and I'd like everything to line up nicely when assembled for the pad.
So here's the question. Do I paint the finished rocket in 'launch' configuration? Or do I assemble, mask, cut the mask at each separation point, break into parts (fully deployed config), paint, reassemble, repeat until I've got all my color layers complete? I've got about 4 colors to lay down and I'm not looking forward to the repeated assembly/disassembly. Is it reasonable to leave assembled the whole time and simply hope it all comes back apart properly at the end of the process? I would plan to at least run a hobby knife over the separation points, but I'd concerned about any paint collecting between BT and coupler and fusing the parts together.
What do you do, especially on larger rockets?
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