Up until now I've followed pretty much the same finishing process on all my models:
1) Fill and prepare all surfaces. Fins are almost always papered, other balsa pieces are CAed or papered or CWFed or some combination, spirals are filled with CWF and sanded.
2) One heavy coat of filler/primer (I've used both Rusto 2x and Duplicolor with approximately equal results)
3) Let dry
4) Sand most of it off
5) Paint top coats (usually Rusto 2x), two light coats and one heavy coat in a session.
Frequently, I find myself needing to sand and in some cases put second finishing coat on at the end, despite starting with a very smooth surface in step 4. This is generally a result of my lack of skill in painting, combined with haste because I'm usually working within a narrow time window. I've actually been thinking of trying a slightly modified version of step four, which is to paint a couple of light coats, let dry, sand, and then apply one final top coat. Whenever I've applied my final top coat on top of a sanded-smooth surface I've gotten very good results.
Anyway, despite my success thus far, I'm having a bit of a thought experiment on what would happen if I skipped the filler/primer step, and instead simply shot a good coat of regular primer immediately (in the same paint session) before applying my first top coats. I have two reasons for considering this:
1) Eliminate one complete paint/dry cycle. For me, finding opportunities to spray is incredibly difficult, so anything I can do to reduce the need is extremely beneficial.
2) Eliminate the filler/primer sanding step. Not because I hate doing it, but because on intricate LPR models I'm finding it to be incredibly difficult. Priming all the parts beforehand works sometimes, keeping the primer off the future glue joints is not always straightforward. Trying to sand the primer off an intricate model after assembly in some cases almost impossible.
So exactly what sort of downsides am I likely to experience if I do this? I know that there is a certain amount of surface irregularity that I will no longer be eliminating if I skip the filler/primer, but I have no idea how bad it would be or where exactly the most likely trouble spots are. I should say going in that my objective for my paint jobs is "very good" but not "perfect"; I always end up with plenty of imperfections even with using the filler/primer, but the results are still pretty nice.
All input welcome.
1) Fill and prepare all surfaces. Fins are almost always papered, other balsa pieces are CAed or papered or CWFed or some combination, spirals are filled with CWF and sanded.
2) One heavy coat of filler/primer (I've used both Rusto 2x and Duplicolor with approximately equal results)
3) Let dry
4) Sand most of it off
5) Paint top coats (usually Rusto 2x), two light coats and one heavy coat in a session.
Frequently, I find myself needing to sand and in some cases put second finishing coat on at the end, despite starting with a very smooth surface in step 4. This is generally a result of my lack of skill in painting, combined with haste because I'm usually working within a narrow time window. I've actually been thinking of trying a slightly modified version of step four, which is to paint a couple of light coats, let dry, sand, and then apply one final top coat. Whenever I've applied my final top coat on top of a sanded-smooth surface I've gotten very good results.
Anyway, despite my success thus far, I'm having a bit of a thought experiment on what would happen if I skipped the filler/primer step, and instead simply shot a good coat of regular primer immediately (in the same paint session) before applying my first top coats. I have two reasons for considering this:
1) Eliminate one complete paint/dry cycle. For me, finding opportunities to spray is incredibly difficult, so anything I can do to reduce the need is extremely beneficial.
2) Eliminate the filler/primer sanding step. Not because I hate doing it, but because on intricate LPR models I'm finding it to be incredibly difficult. Priming all the parts beforehand works sometimes, keeping the primer off the future glue joints is not always straightforward. Trying to sand the primer off an intricate model after assembly in some cases almost impossible.
So exactly what sort of downsides am I likely to experience if I do this? I know that there is a certain amount of surface irregularity that I will no longer be eliminating if I skip the filler/primer, but I have no idea how bad it would be or where exactly the most likely trouble spots are. I should say going in that my objective for my paint jobs is "very good" but not "perfect"; I always end up with plenty of imperfections even with using the filler/primer, but the results are still pretty nice.
All input welcome.