The Little World

First question – does leaving the paint to dry overnight affect the ability to remove it with a power wash?

Ivan’s good green wing was well dry by this morning. I put a large colour cup on the old trigger gun, set the air pressure to 40 psi, and filled the cup with methylated spirit.

Yes, the Mr. Hobby aqueous acrylic turquoise green does wash off, and it washes off as fast as the fresh stuff did yesterday. Better, I discovered that careful finger rubbing after a big flood of meths was able to get the remains out of the sunken panel lines before the spray ate through to the lacquer varnish. The starboard wing is cleaner and less disturbed than the port one.

This is a great score for the team – the ability to track back when you find you are in the wrong place is just as good bushcraft as getting there right in the first place. Next experiment…

Okay – if wax masks are a mess and cardboard masks are not so good, either – shall we return to the White-tac and masking tape procedure…and this time set a stopwatch to it all?

Ivan’s wing and a rough camo pattern. This time the stop watch showed that the wing went on in 5 minutes. Time that forward to a complete masking job ( remembering that I do not mask canopies ) and you get to about 15-20 minutes to do an average plane – less if it’s smaller. And you do it with 1/5 of a pack of J. Burrows White-tac…or about 40¢ worth of putty and another 50¢ worth of tape.

The resultant pattern was sprayed with an equally vile green – this time a Mr. Color lacquer. This weekend I will try washing this off with the power spray. In the meantime it is far better edged than anything else that could be done.

The conclusion of this all is to stop bellyaching about the work involved in White-tac and masking tape and just get on with it. The search for a cheaper or simpler alternative shows that the compromises are not worth it.

Note: The vile greens. I like green, and that is probably the explanation of why I have so many of them in my paint rack. But why I have turquoise or bright green is a mystery. I think something must descend upon me when I am in the paint aisle of the hobby shop and sanity only returns when I get home.

I know that also applies to the kit aisle…