I have recently purchased another HVLP sprayer. I plan on using automotive paint to paint the rocket Yellow of course. I haven't decided on if I should paint the rocket like Sponge Bob or not.
8/10/04 - Most of today was spent filling then sanding then filling then sanding. Using epoxy based bondo to fill holes and shape the both fin ends that meet the body tube and regular drywall joint compound for the rest. The joint compound is used to just take care of low spots that are small. If they are really deep or more area than a square inch, then I use bondo to fill them sand that out again. The real nice thing about using joint compound to the smaller stuff is that it sands real easy. I worked on all the body pieces including the nose cone. The most work was of course was the fin can. This took the majority of time with lots of work.
So I started off with applying joint compound to the upper and lower body tube in very thin layers. This was used to fill the small little voids from the nylon sock that was used to glass the body tube. This worked very well. As you apply the compound over the holes it fills the holes in the nylon and leaves just a little puddle of joint compound. This is just enough for the primer to cover and fill in the rest of the hole and hold the joint compound in. This makes the body very smooth and flat (for the most part). I finished up both body tubes and started working on the fin can. Same thing here more filling and sanding. I used bondo around the fin tips areas to smooth out the transition from the fin to the body tube. The epoxy based bondo I use came from Home Depot and is very nice because it cures so fast. You can be full on sanding in 10 to 15 minutes. Anyway it shapes real nice. I wasn't quit finished with the fin fillets but I need to paint today because I was running out of time. The rocket is almost ready for paint. The paint that was used is a two part base coat clear coat along with a two part primer. All are from the PPG Omni line. This is the cheaper automotive line of paints, but it coats great and is very strong.
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