Friday, May 18, 2007

Canopy Spraying

The last few gallons were spent learning and practicing backward flights. Boy, its one of the tougher maneuvers, yet... During which there were many occasions when i couldnt judge which way the heli was tilting. The whole yellow canopy didn't give much perception of depth. So i decided to put some colours onto the stock canopy that came with the kit.
Prepare the surface for spraying. This is the most important part for most spray jobs. Its hard to for paint to stick to the raptor's bleech bottle canopy so the first step is to sand it rough! I started with 240 grit sandpaper, then 400 before finish up with 600.

See all the mess!
Wipe clean the dust with cloth and use a lighter to slightly torch the surface. Then clean again with alcohol.

Found a use for those fuel bottles, can use them as spraying stand. I spray white paint as base coat. Let dry, sand and spray another coat, sand again. Now its really smooth and ready for some colour.

Mask with masking tape.
Again spray 2 coats. Found that paint didnt stick well to some parts, sand and spray again. Still not complete yet, wah its dam tedious all those sanding n spraying. No wonder those custom canopies costs so much.

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