Astrocam: To paint or not to paint
farr...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu
Folks,
I took some of my birthday $ and bought an Astrocam this week. Looking
through the instructions, I noticed it said *not* to paint any part of the
model. I'm not so fond of the black-on-yellow color scheme & would like to
paint it. Obviously, you don't want paint on the optics or in the moving parts,
but are there other reasons not to paint it? Have any of you painted an
Astrocam with good results? Any suggestions would be appreciated. TIA.
Yours,
Tim F
The Silent Observer
I'd suggest not painting any part of the camera/nose cone itself -- too
easy, even with the optics well masked, to get paint into the shell joint
or dark-slide slot and convert your camera to an oddly-shaped, but
completely inert nose cone.
OTOH, there's no real reason not to paint the carrier rocket fins and
tube; the fins are styrene, and should accept any paint that would work
on a nose cone or on a plastic model, including ordinary spray-can
enamels (though you may have trouble with wrinkling on the 2nd/3rd coats
with cheap enamel). You may have trouble with paint adhesion on the
glossy body tube (which is pre-painted, sorta); I'd suggest scuffing it
with sandpaper (ideally before gluing on the launch lug), then adding the
launch lug before painting. If you want the tube and fin unit different
colors, you can paint them before assembling the tube to the fins, or
even before installing the motor mount in the fin cannister. Otherwise,
it's probably easier to paint the whole carrier rocket after assembly.'
I usually do mine before installing the shock cord mount, if only to keep
from getting paint on the shock cord, and to keep from leaving shock cord
trails in the paint if it should slip out of the body tube while I'm
moving it around for painting.
Of course, if you use a suitable color, you can put the stock decals on
the rocket after the paint is thoroughly dry (if you want).
--
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Helen Rapozo
farr...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu writes:
>Folks,
> I took some of my birthday $ and bought an Astrocam this week. Looking
>through the instructions, I noticed it said *not* to paint any part of the
>model. I'm not so fond of the black-on-yellow color scheme & would like to
>paint it. Obviously, you don't want paint on the optics or in the moving parts,
>but are there other reasons not to paint it? Have any of you painted an
>Astrocam with good results? Any suggestions would be appreciated. TIA.
>
But I wouldn't recommend painting the camera itself.
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Ph#: (808) 845-9202 | | at the end of a picnic, more
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cs_r...@hccadb.hcc.hawaii.edu /| |\ with water from an ice cooler!
he...@hcc.hawaii.edu |_|___|_|
s...@cellware.de
In message <518vkm$1...@news.vanderbilt.edu> - farr...@ctrvax.vanderbilt.edu wr
ites:
:>
:> ....
:>Obviously, you don't want paint on the optics or in the moving parts,...
I think that's the point. Estes sell their kits to all kind of rocketeer:
from the small kid to the well skilled BAR. To be on the sure side, they have
to recomment not to paint it at all.
:> Have any of you painted an Astrocam with good results?
Yes, I did. I wasn't very fond of the way my 'RastroCam' looked after all the
necessary modifications to the nosecone camera I had to do to have it look
back. So I didn't glue on the hood with the mirror, covered the lens and
future glue joints of the hood with a pad of tape and sanded the thing
smooth. After cleaning it with moist cloth, a brush and finally pressured air
I painted it glossy black using a small paintbrush. I sprayed some color in
the bottom of an upside down coke can (I very often use this 'tool' eg. for
paint jobs, mixing epoxy etc.) and used the brush to avoid haze of color
on the mechanics. After the enamel cured I glued on the separately painted
hood.
Worked fine.
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Do 't tou h the f op ydi ks su f ce!
C. James Cook
It's a camera rocket. Looks are unimportant.
Just ask any competitor type - they all leave their models unpainted
as paint just weighs them down.
Same thing here.
-J
Rocketwrks
I have flown many Astrocams on many different boosters. I
never thought of painting the payload section because I was affraid that
any other color would reflect the light into the lens, causing poor
photos. But I have painted the boosters different colors to find out which
color works best for lookdown conversions,and I found that orange works
the best.
-Ray Halm
Ray Halm
Rocke...@aol.com
Tripoli Western New York
Douglas Caskey
In article <518vkm$1...@news.vanderbilt.edu> farristh wrote:
>I took some of my birthday $ and bought an Astrocam this week.
>Looking through the instructions, I noticed it said *not* to
>paint any part of the model. I'm not so fond of the
>black-on-yellow color scheme & would like to paint it.
>Obviously, you don't want paint on the optics or in the moving
> parts, but are there other reasons not to paint it? Have any of
>you painted an Astrocam with good results? Any suggestions would
>be appreciated. TIA.
Well the body you can make any color you like, but I would think
the instructions not to paint is directed at the camera itself.
Seems plain and simple that *ANY* paint (or overspray) is VERY
likely to get into parts of the camera, which obviously will mess
it up. I also would take it as a "disclaimer" by Estes... they
have probbaly had in the past, flyers who have painted thier
Astrocam(s) and messed them up, and by stating NOT to paint it
this gives them some recourse when someone decides to disregard
the instuctions, screws up the camera, and tries to return the
rocket for a reason that would purely be the builder's fault. If
you feel that you can paint the Astrocam without screwing it up,
by all means go ahead - just don't blame Estes if you do screw it
up. BTW... from witnessing 2 members of our club (Ray Halm & Ron
Piet - who Art Nestor recently wrote about in SpoRoc) make lots of
flights with Astrocams - their main object is to take *good*
pictures, not to make a pretty rocket. In other words, my opinion
would be to worry about taking the utmost care in *building* the
camera correctly and not worry about how it looks. Just because an
Astrocam *looks* great , doesn't mean it will take great pictures.
;)
Doug Caskey
Rock...@gnn.com
http://members.gnn.com/RocketWeb/RocketWeb.htm
Dean C. Pilato
Tim F writes:
>>...bought an Astrocam this week. Looking
>>model. I'm not so fond of the black-on-yellow color scheme & would like to
Spice it up with trim monokote, available at any hobby store. Avoid metallic
though, since the reflection off it could glare your pics.
--
Dean Pilato
Email d_pi...@michsb.trw.com
========================================
Don't shoot me, I'm only the keyboard player.
Kikko
My friend painted one and the ejection charge made the paint bubble. I
guess it's the yellow on the body tube.