Build Update 2 – Painting

I started drafting this post in early April, straight after Build Update 1. Since then I have published the dilemma with the motor in “My motor choice went up in smoke“. Throughout the motor reselection process I was progressing the build, thus this post spans the build progress from April to now, mid-May.

Experimenting with Paint

At this point, in early April, I have applied my first coat of yellow paint (Humbrol 69). A single can of spray paint was wildly optimistic for a model of this size. I have (quite crudely) cut the slots in the phenolic body tube, and have fit-tested the motor/fin-assembly, it looks as such:

My progress was thwarted by paint supply. My local art shop happened to stock some Airfix type models and paint, hence the Humbrol 69, but they only had the one can. Then the four-day Easter weekend meant all shops were closed in my area, and online retailers couldn’t process their orders. After what felt like an age, Airfix online sent some more paint, and the base paints were finalised in mid-to-late April. At this point, the model looks as such:
This was far too plain of course, it is just a base. I tried initially adding some waterslide transfers (decals) as well as painting a black band across the midsection (reasons for this will become apparent later in this post). With the decals, it looked as such:
Not at all satisfied with the decals, I removed them and set about masking up the rocket and painting the chevrons instead. I found a proprietor on Etsy that could cheaply produce a Mylar stencil (a trademarked kind of polyethylene terephthalate) of my rocket name.
Thus more hours in the garage passed…

Finalised Paint

Finally, after more sanding and repainting than I care to admit, the rocket is in a state that I can declare painted. The finish isn’t great, close up it has distinguishable imperfections due to the repainting. However, from any reasonable distance it looks fine by my eye. These slight blemishes don’t affect airworthiness. I’m certainly not aiming for altitude (quite the opposite!), thus I felt at this point, I’m good to go…

An Estes Alpha III for scale.

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