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Finally done the painting!!!

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Well guys, I’m happy to report 9 months later the painting is finished. As many of you know it’s quite the task to paint a biplane, the eagle scheme doesnt make it easier. Now to sanding and polishing, assembling and the FAA inspection for airworthiness. We used the Stewart System to paint, as many of you have found out it’s not the easiest paint to lay down a glassy finish, it’s almost impossible compared to urethane that just seems to flow like glass. BUT to be able to paint without the toxicity in a homemade paint booth, I would use it again. As with any amateurs, by the time I finished I could lay down a pretty good pattern that would flow out pretty good and with ALMOST no orange peel. A couple things I learned about painting in general and this paint that I found to work for me. There are a couple ways to do it but here is what I found most effective at the end for best results.

1. For long straight lines, green 3m 218 fineline. When I could use blue fineline, I would, less bleed throughs than the green but hard to make straight lines.
2. Press down all tape overlaps right before spraying with your fingernail or a sharp knife to help with bleed throughs.
3. Use a viscosity cup with the paint to get the consistency right for better results spraying.
4. I like the eco prime for sanding vs the eco fill, it’s easier. Used a DA when I could to cut down the time but still took a long time.
5. BUY the best spray gun to help you right out of the gate. I used the devilbis finishline gun $250ish and I got all I could out of it, I should have bought the tecna pro light gun they sell for $450ish.
6. Follow Stewart’s Direction on cleaning surfaces exactly, it helps. Many times I would start to deviate and find I skipped something ending in a bad result.
7. My final spray technique that worked the best for me. 2-3 light fog coats, holding the gun 12” away, moving pretty quickly to bring color up to saturation. I would do this in one session, as soon as I finished one coat I would go back and start the next coat right away in a perpendicular pattern to avoid tiger stripping. Paint would look like 1000grit sandpaper with low sheen when I finished. Then wait 45 minutes, come back in and lay down one wet coat and your done. Turn the fluid up a little more on the gun slow down your speed, the finishline gun needed to be about 4-6” from surface, tighten my overlaps up and be careful not get a run or orange peel. Orange peel was to little paint, run to much, practice keeps you in the small sweet spot. MOST IMPORTANT PIECE FOR ME IN PAINTING WAS SUPER LIGHT, ON AN ANGLE TO WHAT I WAS PAINTING TO BE ABLE TO SEE THE PAINT FLOW BEHIND THE GUN. THIS IS CRITICAL TO A GOOD PAINT JOB, SEEING THE PAINT FLOW TO DETERMINE IF YOU NEED TO GO BACK OVER IT FOR ANOTHER PASS. LIGHT COLORS ARE MUCH HARDER TO SEE THAN DARK COLORS. A rolling light stand would be a good idea.
8. I didn’t clear the paint, from what I’m finding so far, sanding and polishing will work to eliminate orange peel on this paint but it’s like everything WORK. I have been talking to a super knowledgeable guy by the name of Mark Moser about sanding and we have come up with a system now that seems to work with this paint and yield decent results. My method now is wet sand by hand with 1200 to get 80% of the orange peel out, then 1500 wet to get 15%, and 2000 wet for 4%, 3000 on the DA and 5000 on the DA. If you use the DA for the early cuts instead of by hand you get pig tails in the paint that won’t come out. Then I machine polish with the 3m perfect system 1,2,3. Final product is pretty good.
The pics below are before sanding and polishing.

I wanted to get some thought down for everyone before I forgot them. Again this worked for me, hope this helps others.

Hopefully we can get to Oshkosh

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