Lately many people have been posting first time Alclad pics and with great results. Filling my apparent role of bringing balance to the universe[;)]… I had a couple of problem areas. Can someone tell me what I did wrong? And can I just sand that smooth and apply another coat or will I need to touch up with that black undercoat in these spots first?
Marc - looks like you were either spraying too far from the plastic or at too high of a pressure. The alclad will dry before hitting the body making a rough sandpaper like texture. You should be able to sand it with high grit paper and polish it smooth to respray that area. What pressure were you using? I found anywhere from 15 to 17psi works best, and I stay about 1.5 to 2 inches from the body when spraying…
Thanks for the reply Tom. Somewhere around 15 PSI but a whole lot more than 2 inches.
Bounce is what happened. Paint literally bounced off the wing and onto the fuselage then hardened. Next time try shooting the joins of wing/fuse and elevator/fuse first and make sure to get a band of coverage well along on both sides of the join; then when you spray the wing or fuselage shoot away from the join. Low air pressure helps eliminate this along with low paint flow.
You can sand it out but don’t start any coarser than 1000 grit, do it wet as well. If you’re careful and only sand off the excess paint you shouldn’t need a fresh coat of black under it.
Thanks Ron… good idea aboutthe wing root. 3200 grit and got down to the black undercoat and it is beautifully intact. Gonna try knocking a few PSI off too.
You’re welcome…can you tell I’ve done it myself? Odd as it’s going to sound, learn to turn the model so you’re spraying away from those inside corners, even if the model is upsidedown and sideways from your normal practice.