Rocket paint

[Wayne Johnson]

My Gizmo is almost ready to paint. I was thinking about putting on a
bit better finish than my usual Krylon.

If you listen to some of the painting fanatics, they push House of
Kolors. I tracked down Welle Auto Supply as a local supplier.
Problem is that with House of Kolors and those other auto class
paints, you need a paint sprayer and a compressor. Not sure I'm ready
to lay out that sort of cash. The guy at the counter suggested a $170
airbrush and small compressor for another $300.

Anyone else have any suggestions?

[Pat Arneson]

Have you ever tried Duplicolor?  Automotive rattle can available at various automotive stores.  There is a decent select of colors including some metal flake varieties that are fun (my L1 and L2 rockets were both painted with the metal flake).  The primer is super nice too, dries to sandable in very little time.

I've also been curious about the graffiti paints they sell at art stores.  I have no idea how well it would work for rockets, it's pretty pricey but they have a huge variety of colors.

I'm also use future floor polish for that super glossy clear coat.

Pat

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[MICHEAL D CORBETT]

Wayne, i have owned 5 or 6 airbrushes over the years, and about as many compressors. Not an expert but i'll give you my two cents worth.
 
A airbrush can be single or dual action, gravity or siphon feed, and internal or external mix. All airbrushes can be defined by these three functions. Now what they mean. A single action airbrush is one where engaging the trigger controls the amount of air only. That is all it does. Most of the time there is a adjustment nut on the end of the brust to adjust the paint flow. On a dual action airbrush the trigger controls both the air and the flow of paint. The trigger moves both up and down, and foreward and back to control both functions.On a gravity feed brush the paint sits in a small cup mounted on top of the brush and flow by gravity into the brush. On a siphon feed the paint is located under the brush in either a cup or bottle. Internal and external mix are sort of  self descriptive. In a internal mix, both air and paint are mixed inside the brush. On a external mix brush the air flows over a small tube which sucks the paint up and is mixed with the air outside the gun.
 
Now what do you want. For the job you want to do, painting rockets, i would a single action, siphon feed, internal mix. Why? The single action is much easier to use than a dual action and is better suited to painting larger surfaces. Its on or off like a larger spray gun. The dual action is better suited for artists and t shirt guys that are doing blending and shading where precise amounts of paint is often needed. The bottom feed allows the use of bottles to hold the paint, prevents spilling and the bottle can just be unscrewed and a air tight lid put on for storage. A internal mix gives a much finer spray, and is pretty much standard on all medium and high end airbrushes.
 
Now on to compressors. A special airbrush compressor is not needed. Why use them? Very quite and very portable. You can use them almost any where in the house. If you can live with the noise, a standard compressor with a good regulator will work fine. Just remember to adjust the pressure before you connect the airbrush (airbrushes and their hoses do not like 100PSI). A oil less compressor is the best and a line dryer or mosture trap should be used.
 
Another idea is to get one of the smaller auto type paint sprayers. Most of them do a good job and cost less than a typical quart size sprayer.(Do not go the Harbor Freight way, have not heard much good about their small sprayers.)
 
If you go for a air brush, ebay and sometines craigs list are worth checking. For more info, two good websites are, badgerairbrush.com, and tcpglobal.com. Tcpglobal sells both badger brushes and House of Kolor paint (some in 2 and 4 oz sizes). I have bought from them in the past and have not had any problems.
 
What do i use? I have a Badger, dual action 175, and Badger, single action 200. Both are bottom feed and internal mix. I use the 200 single action most of the time. Why Badger? No real reason, they work fine for me and seem to offer a good value/price ratio. I also use one of the smaller auto type sprayers that i paid about $50 for and it works great. For a compressor, i use a Porter-Cable, oil-less, 135 psi, 6 gallon pancake. Works for me. A good airbrush can be had new for $70-80, less for a used one, and a $100-150 air compressor can be found at Menards, or maybe even Home Depot or Lowes. Just my two cents worth.
 
I do like Gizmos, looking foreward to seeing it fly Wayne.
 
Mike corbett
 
 

> Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2011 16:41:12 -0700
> Subject: [tripoli-mn] Rocket paint
> From: wd...@yahoo.com
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