Q40 Larson Pround Bird - Paint Job



I purchased a complete Proud Bird Q40 from Lyle Larson. I decided to have him build it and get it ready for paint. He has very good prices and I couldn't resist getting out of a little building. Plus, I knew it would be perfectly straight and faster then greased lightning. I finally painted my new rocket and here are a few tricks I picked up along the way.

The fuse pole is an idea I picked up from a pilot at www.nmpra.org . I used two pieces of 1/32” G10 CA'd together and mounted it to the motor mount. I then cut a slot in the dowel and held the two together with a wood screw. Then I drilled a hole in a scrap piece of 2x4 for the dowel to slide through. This worked really slick. I could rotate the fuse around as I sprayed to capture the best light angle.



The next thing that worked pretty well was to mask everything with the wing attached. I made the mistake once on a F1 with an incorrect measurement. The stripes ended underneath the fuse.



Here's a trick I used for the canopy outline. This is a combination of an idea Dan Kane gave me and something I saw on American Chopper. Lay down your blue fine line tape. Mask over it with a lighter colored masking tape. Then strip the excess away with an exacto using the fine line tape underneath as a cutting board and template. I sprayed the red leaving the white basecoat when the tape was pulled. Go back and shoot the black. Walla, very little if any seam.



The final thing I'll mention here is the checkerboard pattern. Lyle showed me this one. First I practiced on the stand I picked up from H&M racing. It was a good thing too, I missed a square. (I'll show you the good side of course)



I used 1” fine line tape. I laid down 4 rows of the 1” tape. Then go back with a 1” ruler, I fashioned a 1” x 12” x 1/32” G10 straight edge, and make a cut perpendicular to the stripes with your exacto. Peel out 2 pieces, move back an inch, make another cut, peel 2 and repeat. I found it's far easier if you peel as you go.



As you can see nothing here is original by any stretch of the imagination. I've tried to listen and learn from the pros. Plus, it really pays to have good help.



More pictures can be viewed in the TEAMseaholm Photo Album under the album titled Proud Bird Paint Job .


 
Published: 11.14.2004