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by Mike Slaughter

Only one month ago, I had little experience with painting an airplane. I had painted cowls and trim with a spray can, but had never gone all the way with fiberglass and paint for the finish. You can’t depend on shrink coverings if you wish to build scale airplanes, because few of the correct colors are available. I have used Monokote flat tan and gray and Ultracote Corsair blue on small fighter models, and they look good, but they do not match the camouflage colors of most air forces.

I set out to learn how to fill the void in my modeling education. I decided that I did not want the expense and trouble of a spray system on my first try. Searching about for paint that could be brushed on and would match RLM colors for a German WWII fighter, I came across the Nelson Hobby Specialties website and the System Three paint that was briefly mentioned in the note that accompanied the picture of my model on ModelFlight #43. For me, the great draw of this paint was that it could be brushed on and was thinned and cleaned up with water. The ease of a brush and the convenience of water clean-up was enough for me. I ordered Luftwaffe colors of light and dark green and underside gray in 16 ounce bottles, and yellow and red for trim in 8 ounce bottles for my Focke-Wulf TA 152H (pictured above). I also got the water-thinned two-part epoxy primer, and the clear flat top coat in 16 ounce bottles. I could have easily made do with everything in 8 ounce bottles except for the primer. I might have needed less primer except I had some surface defects I tried to hide, unsuccessfully I might add. I did get some very good workouts for the upper arms while sanding off multiple coats of primer! The primer went over 0.7 ounce glass cloth and finishing resin. (I relied on a demonstration of fiberglassing given by Chuck Snyder’s at one of our club meetings to get me through this step.) The primer did a great job filling and sealing in one coat. It is a two-part epoxy that was extremely easy to sand and produced a smooth base for the color coats. I then put on a few panel lines and rivets with 1/16" graphic art tape and drops of thinned wood glue. I then put on another thin coat of primer to highlight these details before the color coats. UH-OH brushmarks! I could not sand them off easily with the panel lines in the way. Next time, skip the extra primer and go straight to the colors. The art tape came off after one coat of colored paint and produced great panel lines.

The System Three colors and flat clear are a polyurethane paint that is fuel-proof when mixed with a cross-linker (eight drops per fluid ounce color). The colors covered the light gray primer in 3 thin coats and dried to a very nice gloss finish. The instructions said 5-6 coats when spraying for complete coverage. I had trouble initially with brush marks from the foam brush using the primer. This was not too bad a problem, for it sanded smooth very easily with 150 or 220 grit sandpaper. With the color coats the foam brush gave me either excessive brush marks (too thick) or ran like crazy (too thin). I never did find the right thinning ratio for a foam brush, so I went to a 5/8" wide camel hair brush for the rest of the work. Both the primer and the colors went on very well with the recommended thinning ratio using this brush. One ounce of primer could cover an upper wing surface and the entire fuselage. I used the colors 1/2 ounce at a time, and this covered about 1/2 of the plane. The paint dried dust-free in about ten minutes, and was ready for another coat in four hours. I let it sit for about eighteen hours before I sanded lightly between coats with 280, then 400 grit sandpaper. I would have been better off in not sanding after the first two coats as I was a little too enthusiastic in applying this step. I learned that runs had to be prevented, banned, stopped and headed off at the pass because it was almost impossible to remove all trace of a run. It was a surprise to me that runs were caused by too thick an application, as well as excessive thinning. I even caused further surface defects in trying to sand out runs and ended up sanding off all the paint in an area and re-priming and painting. All thinning was done with water, and clean-up using water was accomplished with a good rinse of the brush.

The primer was $13.46 for 16 ounces, plus four ounces of primer activator. The colors were $17.96 for 16 ounces, and $6.26 for 2 ounces of cross-linker. I am sure this is cheaper than spray cans, considering the small amount of paint I actually used. I believe the cost was on a par with other paints that could be obtained in scale colors. I did not even use one-half of one bottle of cross-linker or one-half of any one bottle of color paint for the entire project. The activator and primer in my shipment leaked en route. I called Nelson Hobby Specialties, and they got a replacement set in the mail immediately, at no cost to me. The final bottle I opened was the red, used only for a fuselage stripe. Instead of the red I expected, the paint was a medium purple. I thought it might dry red, but it remained purple, a dark lilac color that was far from the RLM 03 red I ordered. This container will be returned. The extra paint is already calling for a scratch-built Dave Platt 1/6 scale FW 190D-9. (One track mind at work)

Overall I had a very positive experience with this paint system. The paints performed as advertised by Nelson Hobby Specialties (phone: 503-645-1492), and the included instruction booklet was full of useful tips. I know now what it means to put on a ‘thin coat’ of paint, and to cover in several coats. Before, this was only an abstract term. I think the greatest thing I learned in this endeavor is respect for anyone who can produce a flawless finish in paint. It is much more work than using Monokote. Paint does not hide any defect that exists in the fiberglassed surface. Care and attention to detail in the preliminary work is the basis to sound construction as well as painting for scale or eye-dazzling effect.

I wonder if I can squeeze a small automotive touch-up sprayer and compressor into my modeling budget?