painting ON covering?

[TAS_Kustoms]

Had this conversation with a few buddies of mine, wanted to see what techniques are being used for this process. Have some ideas for artwork on plain white covering. From what I undersrand, it's letting the covering shrink in the sun first, steel wool scuffing, but what type of Paint and does it need to be cleared? Let me know, sounds like something I'd like to do on my next gasser!

Thanks and God bless,
Tomas Simatovic
www.tas-kustoms.com

 

[dhal22]

It's been done but wrinkling is a problem. Pretty much how you describe it is the method I've researched.

 

[pawnshopmike]

I think Solartex covering with Solarlac paint is the way to go if you want to paint a plane.

We need @Jetpainter to chime in with his expertise.

 

[Jetpainter]

I painted an Ultracote covered wing many years ago. From what I can remember I used a single stage urethane after scuffing it with a gray Scotchbrite pad. I don't remember if I used any flex additive or not. It held up well, but was on a fully sheeted wing and stab.

Solartex fabric covering takes paint very well and goes on easy, but it's heavier than Ultracote or Monocote.

 

[TAS_Kustoms]

I was planning on trying a paint scheme on an all white 100cc plane, the gentleman I spoke to who does some killer artwork actually clear coated the whole plane and it added 5-8oz of weight from arf weight? Seems worth it to me if I'm going to be putting lots of hours into it, but I have a different idea in mind for a separate project.

Looking at picking up a new blue 104 ef extra. I did that scheme on a few foamies, but instead of stars, I added some consistent ghost flames in those areas where the stars would be. Was thinking about trying a white single stage paint on top of the clear I put on the tops of the wings and stabs... thoughts?

 

[Naughty Monkey]

Think it sounds bad ass. Can't help ya much other than that. I have heard rumor of some builders doing paint over ultracote so the colors all match. They said that monokote would get brittle after painting.

 

[nebwake]

@Terryscustom painted a plane. It looked amazing, but from what i heard it was very difficult to maintain.

 

[Terryscustom]

@Terryscustom painted a plane. It looked amazing, but from what i heard it was very difficult to maintain.

Yup, plane still exists and is on third owner. I was actually pretty amazed at how well it came out. I'll dig up some pics.....

 

[Terryscustom]

Here are a few pics of the one I did. Does it work.....YES. Does it look badass.......YES. Will I do it again.......HHHHHHHHHHELL NO.

I spent twice as long to paint this plane than I did to cover the plane all in white. It took crazy amounts of paper, taping.....then the tape lifes the covering so you have to iron it, repeat. Once it was done and cured it was badass. I did a match to apple green and black with white ice diamonds (AKA stripper sparkles) from Kustom Shop. It is all base coat / clear coat with Nason spot panel clear.

Once the clear had cured for a couple of weeks I was able to iron out wrinkles right over the covering justing a low heat in the 220 range without issues. The only places that had issues when I had it was the edges where I stopped the paint and could not use pin-stripe to cover. It wanted to chip a bit there.

 

[Terryscustom]

Thanks for bringing up the memory though, I loved this plane just needed to make room for more builds. This would be the second of seven builds leading up to the Viper-ST.