funkey7

Jan. 25, 2001
The weather's been pretty crappy here lately, so I've only been able to paint a little. The red is done, and the white windshield frame, as well as the black fins on the boom and the chin windows.

Here's a tip for you: When painting a fuse that has 2 parts (front and rear) like mine, assemble them before you paint. I painted mine separate from each other, each mounted on its own painting stand, and I noticed when I assembled the parts the paint didn't match perfectly! I sprayed the front a little thinner than the back, and the gray primer was still tinting the white on the front. So, knowing I had to spray the windshield frame, I masked off the frame, assembled the 2 halves with washers in between the seam for spacers (so the paint wouldn't collect on the seam and "glue" the halves together) and re-painted the entire fuse from the tail boom seam forward. Now the paint layer is uniform throughout and it matches perfectly.

You can see in the pics the windshield is cloudy. That's the liquid masking film I left on the inside of the windshield to prevent any overspray from getting on it. I'll leave it on until I finish the entire paint job. That stuff works great! I used it to mask off the chin windows and the overhead windows that I painted black today. I recommend it for those difficult to mask areas....

Next comes masking off the black stripes on the top and bottom of the fuse!

I live under the downwind leg for the local airport. I'm out in the driveway painting away, and I hear a heli. Look up, and there it is, the CHP Long Ranger I'm modeling mine after! I grab the camera and blast down there for some pics. I got a couple. He never did a full-stop, so I couldn't get any detail pics, but it sure was fun watching him. He was practicing auto's!! He'd cut the power mid-field, and drop to the runway in a 180 degree turn. It was awesome! He air-taxiied to the end of the runway for a minute or two which is where I snapped this picture. Sadly, it's the one CHP LR that does not have the CHP badge on the side of the fuse in front of the letters. I'm putting the badge on mine, but may use the "N" numbers off this one. I have some pics of this particular heli with the badge, so it did have it at one time. Maybe it's in the process of re-paint!

Jan. 28, 2001
What a frustrating day! After spending almost 8 hours last night masking off the fuselage stripes, today I painted them. The black didn't appear to be covering well, so I put on 3 coats. It looked nice, until I started peeling off the 3M fineline tape I used for edging the stripes. Either I pulled the tape off too early, or I waited too late, because as I was pulling the tape, part of the black was coming with it. Now, I've painted many a model and have never had this problem! Why today? I always paint, clean the gun, then strip the masking off. The paint is slightly tacky, yet dry enough to peel the tape off without making a mess. Except this time. It almost looks like the black did not bond well with the underlying white. I didn't sand where the black would go, but I've never had an adhesion problem before. Compounding the problem, I think, was the paint was applied too thick, even though it was sprayed in thin coats, with plenty of time between them. Look at the pic of the right forward fuse area, that's where it's the worst.

Okay, so it's all dorked up. Waddami gonna do? Hellifino. I'm gonna stare at it for a few days and try to come up with an adequate fix. I don't want to go through that taping mess again. There has to be an easy solution. Any ideas? E-mail me! I'd love to hear them. Some how, some way, I'll get it fixed!

It's too bad the paint got all F'ed up. It looks pretty good from about 10 feet away! I'm starting to see the finished product!

By the way, I flew the Raptor 50 that's going in this project today for the first time today! It flies great!! I'm running the OS .50 slobbering rich for break-in and it still goes great! For those that asked, I ended up using a Century 3033A exhaust. It fits in the fuse, the engine performs well with it, it sounds good, and it's only $39! SAB CF 600's are the blades I'm using, and I like them a lot. Lots of energy. I almost don't want to put it in the fuse for a while so I can fly it some more! It's much more solid and stable than my .32 Rappy. Hmmm.... Maybe I'll upgrade it? If you're considering the OS .50 upgrade, so far I'm impressed with it!