Final Painting Chapter 35 & 37

I left off Chapter 35 - Upper Forward Fuselage at the point where the parts needed to be painted in the final cockpit colour, before being riveted in. Similarly, i left Chapter 37 - Roll Over Structure at the same point. 

The problem was that it has been winter here in Australia, and i have been unable to break out the Stewart Systems EkoCrylic, as it needs to be shot above 15c. I shelved a bunch of components from the above chapters and moved onto the parts preparation of the canopy. 

Spring is now here, and we have had a couple of days in a row above 20c, so i decided to get stuck in and paint all the remaining parts in one go. Each of the parts was scuffed with scotchbrite, then blown off with compressed air. I then cleaned each part carefully with Iso, and masked all the areas which i did not want to be the final cockpit color. 

The cockpit colour will only go on the bits you will be able to see when the canopy is open.

Parts ready to go!

I am using Stewart Systems EkoCrylic, in Boulder Grey. I initially mixed up 100grams of Part A, along with 4:1 of flattener. I then added 4:1 Part B and let it sit for 5 minutes, before adding half of the Part B weight in water. 

I sprayed on the first coat as a fog coat, then after around 20 minutes - once the paint was still sticky but there was no transfer onto my glove - i increased the flow a little and started a wet coat. I ran out of paint about half way through the roll-bar on the wet coat, so mixed up another 50grams of Part A as above. It is so hard to guesstimate how much you need on little parts like this. 

I reckon they all came out so nice - no runs anywhere. The colour is deep and the gloss is awesome. The 4:1 flattener gives a nice semi-satin finish. Overall i am very very happy with this paint. 

This is right after spraying - you can see some orange peel. This all totally went away as the paint flowed out and set. 

This is the area where i added the proseal to seal around the aft canopy seal angle and it's flange holes. I think it came out great painted, and i'm glad i did it now before it was installed in the airframe. The remaining sealant will be on the inside of the forward flanges, and i should be able to keep this looking neat by using electrical tape over the flange gaps.

Such a beautiful satin finish using 4:1 flattener

These are actually the side skins for the canopy - i painted the section which may be able to be seen from inside the canopy, just in case.

I then cleco'd on the forward fuselage and roll bar parts - i just had to see it start to look like an aeroplane! Doing it like this will mean a few rivets are not painted in cockpit paint colour, but i don't think this matters. It still looks awesome. I can always touch these rivet heads up with a brush, or perhaps use my airbrush, but i think i will probably just leave them. 

Next up is to rivet all this onto the airframe for the final time.