On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 07:57:06 -0400,
wrote:

On Wed, 02 Jun 2004 11:14:07 +0800, Stealth Pilot
wrote:

here a tip that came to me after replacing about a dozen viewing
windows. find yourself a plastic bag that is fairly transparent. cut
and tape a piece of the bag over the transparent viewing window.
in use the bead bounceback hits the bag surface and the bag gets to go
translucent and not your viewing window.
replace the section of plastic bag as often as desired. you'll never
need to replace another window.

Oooohhh good suggestion. Thanks.

I still have the fuselage to do. I won't be able to do that with my
air compressor, it would take too long and the compressor would
probably seize from running continuously for days. I'll be renting a
commercial blasting rig that comes on a trailer and has a V-8 running
the compressor and blaster. I've used it before and it definately
doesn't lack for capacity.

now you're talking. that will give continuous air. I spent over a week
solid on two occasions and even with 2 compressors teed together I
spent lots of that time waiting for a pump up.

Painting will be the same extremely tiring process, except that I may
actually create a plastic paint booth so I don't have to frantically
drag it under cover if it starts raining.

another tip borne of sheer necessity.
no matter how much you look, no matter how much all your mates look
you will miss painting entire tubes. ...honest.
buy yourself a few bags of spring clothes pegs, the type you hang
washing out on clothes lines to dry with. when you commence painting
put a peg in the centre of every tube section. as you come to paint it
paint each end weldment then remove the peg and paint the middle.
complete each tube all round before moving to the next one.
you'll be bloody amazed at how many pegs remain when you have
completely finished painting :-) :-)
when you come to paint on the second coat start with pegs on each tube
section again. this time you'll really appreciate them :-) green on
green is a real challenge for "did I just paint that?"


your tubes are no more than half an inch across so using a huge spray
gun will paint your entire workshop floor with hundreds of dollars of
expensive paint overspray.
believe it or not I painted my entire Auster fuselage with a chinese
copy of a revel aeromodellers airbrush. it is the simple type (made by
humbrol as well) and I even used the little jar. (used 3 of them
actually as each one got clogged eventually by the epoxy paint)
I mixed my polyfiber epoxy primer in cut down soft drink cans and just
decanted into the little bottle as needed.
it is actually no slower than any other spray gun but it has the
advantage of having minimal overspray. minimal overspray equates to
minimal use of solvents and minimal lung damage and no wasted paint.
I managed a breeze through the hangar and only used a paper dust mask
over my face.
being simple they are a breeze to clean out as well.
the little airbrush runs at 30 psi and I made a fitting to attach the
little 1/8th tube to the end of my full size airline. for getting in
close to tube clusters it is without equal.
they cost me $14 each. The last one I bought for $5 in a throw out
sale.
after painting the entire fuselage the overspray on the floor almost
wasnt enough to sweep up.
Stealth Pilot