Orange paint !

This morning was pretty demoralizing. I scuffed the top and belly of the fuselage as per the instructions, and applied the “wet” coat. Within about 3 minutes it started to run, quite badly, and I realized that it was going to need to be re-done, probably with a lot of sanding to fix.

In hindsight, I think what was needed was probably another “tack” coat. But the instructions don’t say this. I’ve found the instructions deficient in a number of areas, they assume a certain base level of knowledge which obviously I don’t have, hence why I’m reading the instructions. There are also some old videos on YouTube showing how to use Stewart’s Systems......but when I rang I was told they don’t recommend that method and more. Perhaps an idea to remove those videos from a customer satisfaction perspective.

So I proceeded with painting the sides. It was somewhat laborious, but I persisted. Most of it went ok. However I started to notice some small bumps in the paint, almost like dust. I don’t think it’s dust though, and it’s very consistent. I did notice that the gun seemed to be spraying less paint after a while and I suspect it was becoming blocked, and perhaps spraying air at the wet paint. Maybe this has caused the effect I’m seeing. I also noticed the “orange peel” effect, which I think is characteristic of too little paint. The big issue is that I don’t know what I don’t know, and it’s frustrating.

So. My feeling is that somewhere along the line I’m getting a blockage that is causing a number of these issues, but I’m not certain. I’ve stripped and cleaned the spray gun again. My plan is to lightly sand the whole fuselage. This should fix all the issues, and I’ll make sure to give it a tack coat. Then maybe just one cross-coat.

At least I’m happy with the color and saturation.