painting some Pandora wings

[Grossman56]

A work in progress, thought I'd try to imitate the Great Art Scholl's Super Chipmunk wings.  We lost Art while filming Top Gun but I got to see him fly many times, an amazing pilot.
all Minwaxed and taped off.  I tried to find those old school sticker stars we used to get but had to settle for these foam ones I found in Wally world.  They work but really press them down.  My second wing turned out better, some touch up to do papered offyou can see the stars a bit bettermy air brush and compressor, both are Master brand, the brush is a G79, great gunfirst coat, I went a little darker after thatwings attached to a spare Pandora center sectionThese are the paints I picked up, the Black on the left is from Ace Hardware and the Cobalt Blue is from Wally World.  Both made by the same manufacturer once the blue was dry, I coated them in Minwax again and rubbed down the unpainted surface with a rag to remove any left over oil from the mold.  I found, for me, that this works very well.  A work in progress, I'll keep posting as I go along.....

Grossman56

[retiredflyer]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Looks good Gman.  I like the airbrush, going to get that exact one soon.  I have that same compressor.  My old Master brush broke and will move up to the trigger design.  Good work on the stars too.  I've been using that paint too.  How does that airbrush handle different paint consistencies?  I found my old one was very picky on how thin I made the paint.  Just a tiny bit too thick, and no output at all.

   Keith

[Hippie 64]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Gman looks great but your getting a little too fancy on us now !!!!


Bryan

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Yeah its a great brush, the kit comes with three different sized nozzle/needle combinations so you can't go wrong.  I've thinned out the paint to about 50/50 for camoing the P51, and added just a little bit of water for the blue paint, all worked fine.  You just have to remember to keep the tip clean as you're going along. " Paint is always drying" is the rule of thumb.
One of the fellows on one of the videos said that he always has a small sponge soaked with non ammonium Windex in his spare hand to wipe the tip regularly.
My second set of stars turned out great, the first need a little touch up but nothing drastic, I found that your really have to push them down firmly.  Anyway, I have the red paint now, went to Ace after work and scored some more blue and a couple of reds and various other colors.  Like I said, my planes cower in the corner now whenever I start assembling the airbrush!!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Well, since today was snowing (yep 60 one day 29 the next) I figured it was a great day to finish the wings so here goes..........
Stand by for the showroom pictures

Grossman56
[hr]

And here are the show room pictures!
Any ideas for the fuse and tail?

Grossman56

[Lon]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Well, since today was snowing (yep 60 one day 29 the next) I figured it was a great day to finish the wings so here goes..........
Stand by for the showroom pictures

Grossman56

[hr]

And here are the show room pictures!
Any ideas for the fuse and tail?

Grossman56

Excellent!

[Loneflier]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Nice! That looks great and I am sure it will really show up well in the air too. You definitely have a talent there for airbrushing. Impressive.

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Thanks guys, I've been rattling around some ideas for the fuse and will begin work today.  First its decal peeling time. I removed the blue Freewing nose decals, just found a places that weren't stuck down (not too hard to do) and lifted it off.  I was a little concerned because of the Minwax, but they came off fine.  Her tail is new and I had a Pandora decal sheet so I just put the decals on but haven't Minwaxed it yet, maybe a good thing.
Then nightmare thing about this is that the tape (in this case I used Frog Tape) did a number on the blue. I put two coats of Minwax over the blue, with a brush so they were nice and thick, but the tape lifted everything off.  I ended up using some blue tape to cover up most of the damage, which worked okay, but I'd love to know what you could use to eliminate that problem.  I even stuck the tape to my shirt a few times to take off some of the stick, still the same result.  On the fuse, I'm going to tape off the white first and then mask out the red, using the tape covering the white as a base to put the red mask tape on.  That should work.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

okay boys, brace yourself!!
Stripped of her decals
taped off and landing gear removed, first coat of redthe blue goes on, note the foam Wally World starsthe tape comes offand a quick assembly to see what she looks like! Believe it or not, all this done in about 3 hours!!

Warning, I have not yet began to paint!!

Grossman56

[Briggs79]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Super cool paint job dude. keep it up.

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Thanks Briggs, I appreciate the feedback!

Grossman56

[Hippie 64]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Very cool Gman , No problems seeing it for sure

Bryan

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Yeah, she's something else.  Ordered the flap servos and  another set of Dave Brown foam tires for the other Pandora, sick of the styrofoam tires and the Dave Browns seem to be a great substitute. Did some tail decorations and have some touch ups to do.  Then into the air with her!!
Just watched the video on Foam Tack and man, I can sure use that, ordered some in, MRC should look into this.

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

okay guys, here she is, pretty well complete, did a little tail work and put a star on the spinner.  Here she is with sister ship Pandora-2 who just got her low wing configuration.  Her wings were pretty beat up, so I took P-1's wings and put them on her

She looks fine!

Grossman56

[Loneflier]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Very cool paint job on that Pandora. Reminds me of the Miss America P-51 paint scheme! Nice!!

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

yeah, I was looking at pictures of Miss America when I was thinking of how to paint the fuselage.  So wings from Art Sholl's Super Chipmunk and fuse from Miss America

Grossman56

[Loneflier]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

That's it!! I knew I had seen a paint scheme like that on the wings, but could not think of the Super Chipmunk. Great combination. You have a one of a kind Pandora there!

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

yeah, cool huh!  I got to see Art fly many times at the Abbotsford International Airshow as well as see Miss America there several times, being flown by Bob Hoover so its a sort of tribute to the two best pilots I ever saw!

Grossman56

[Grossman56]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

I'm wondering what they use from the factory for paint?  Do they prime it with something because their paint seems to adhere extremely well, anyon know?

Grossman56

[Pauly]

RE: painting some Pandora wings

Nice Grossman56!