bpatty
lvl.1
United States
Offline
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Chris, I was a little concerned about weight as well. Not so much about the paint, (explained at the end), but with the gps tracker that is mounted on the skid. Also, the wind resistance hitting the side of the tracker, the larger skids and the foam "landing" cushions. Didn't find taller ones with built in pads like the original til afterwards. Needless to say, the first few flights were low and slow. I agree, some weight was added by the paint job, and more by my add on's. Think my flight time has been reduced some, but I never try to come that close to using all my battery anyway.
Have had some questions about the paint process on another forum so I will give it a try to explain what I did. Whenever I would use "rattle" cans for painting plastic models, and not an airbrush, paint build up is an issue. With that in mind, I was very impressed with the House Of Kolor paint in spray cans. (which you can also use with an airbrush as it is available in 4 oz bottles.) I did mask off and paint some practice shots on small plastic sheets to get a feel on how it covered and if it reacted to the plastic in any way. (bubbled up, didn't dry right, etc.) Mainly, I wanted to see how the paint and masking tape acted together. Was very pleased when I removed the pretend masking pattern. The tape just peeled right up without tearing at any of the seams and at the edge of the paint/tape joint there was no "lip". The paint, when applied in light misty coats, builds up to a nice color and is the way to go.
Then the next test was to see how the clear coat reacted with the decals. Again over a House of Kolor base paint with a clear coat applied, I put down 2-3 spare decals, let them dry, and sprayed a clear coat over them. After an overnight drying time, I again was very pleased as the clear coat did not react with the decals. No wrinkling or running of the decal ink colors. So I was set as to what I was going to use to paint my Phantom. Now if I could just get everything to come together.
I guess my biggest disappointment was that I tested everything out first, but didn't think about testing the solutions that I use when applying decals to plastic models. That is a 2 part process of using a "softener" first, placing the decals down, then using a "setting" solution. The softener is great to enable the decal to conform to compound surfaces. What I didn't think of is that the softener reacted slightly with the first few decals that I applied and the edges turned out a little wavy. Can't tell if House Of Kolor played a part or not. From then on I didn't use either of the solutions and the decals were fine.
With all of this being said, I was glad I gave it a try and did this paint job. Would I do it again? That's a "yes" and a "no". I would really like to see if I could come up with another color scheme, but at the same time, when I am out flying, I am more concerned about crashing and messing up the paint job. Which isn't a bad thing, but I can tell that I'm flying more conservatively than before. I guess regardless of flying more conservatively, I DO want to attempt it again!
Thanks to EVERYONE for all of your very kind comments. It's very humbling!
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