80mm Super Scorpion Repaint

[seaviper]

Thanks guys for the encouragement. It has been a fun project so far.

Alpha, I will check out those pilots. Thanks for the kind words.
Prowler, I finally gave up on tinting this particular canopy as I want to go ahead and finish the bird. But I will check into that.
Beeg, your camo renderings of the Avanti gave me the initial idea. Aros' article on painting gave me the idea that is was possible to do.

If anyone wants them I have bigger photos of the bird. Hope to get my wife and the good camera out to film later when the bird is back on flight status.
Now I can't wait to repaint the other one.

[Boots Whirlygig]

On your prep work, wiping down with acetone is to remove contamination such as oil from handling I assume. On models that aren't painted from the factory like the E-Flite bare foam models, is there a mold release agent on epo or is it naturally slick feeling? The decals remove quite easily. Again, your paint job looks amazing!

[seaviper]

Boots I removed the servos and hardware, then used the acetone to clean off all the old paint and decals as well as to wipe any mold release. The stickers, like some striping, just peel off. After that I fixed any dings in the foam with some lightweight spackle (3m patch plus primer, very messy stuff). Then I sanded the bird with very fine grit before priming. Before painting, I re-assembled most of the bird leaving the power system out. I didn't want any overspray on the fan unit.

On the next bird, I am going to try doing a few things differently. In particular I am thinking of spraying her in polyurethane prior to painting. Then clear coating prior to decals. But the method I used here worked just fine.
I may stay with what works since this one (surprisingly) came out ok.

I ordered two of those 1/12 pilots from JHH. :) Not looking forward to painting the pilots though. Working on some water slide decals today.

[Boots Whirlygig]

I'm not familiar with the finish on the Super Scorpion. I didn't think it was painted, that it was natural white foam with vinyl decals. Or maybe you are redoing a previous paint job and removed it with acetone?
I'm modifying an E-Flite Opterra to make a sorta military jet. Adding a pilot and canopy. I thought it was an original idea but then found similar kit bashed and painted Opterras on the inter-web. Mine will be different tho! I purchased a couple cans of Rust-oleum from Walmart. For the 50s- 60s look I have chrome and matte clear. I'm trying to get a natural aluminum metallic look. Now I better pick up acetone to wipe it down first.
Do you put your planes on the scales before and after? Years ago a friend of mine built the Sig Skybolt, a 6 to 9 lbs plane, if I recall. Rather than monocote he decided to fiberglass the fuse, coverite the wings and laid down a beautiful paint job. It weighed nearly 12lbs. Not the aerobatic biplane as advertised!

[seaviper]

The Super Scorpion had the original factory scheme in paint, water slide decals, and stickers (stripes). It's the exact same jet in my avatar...the very one. The new paint job adds an insignificant amount of weight if any.

As for my project I am going to go ahead and clear coat it and await the new pilot figures. It's a sport jet and it's about as detailed as it's going to be. I do plan on painting the other Scorpion in another aggressor scheme. The Super Scorpion is excellent for our rough grass field.
The high intakes with no cheater keep the fan unit clean. The 60mm wheels and suspension gear work well. It's just a good all around jet to keep currency in between scale flights. I love it enough to spend time repainting it.

[Alpha]

Hi Boots Whirlygig, here is a photo of the Freewing 80mm Super Scorpion in its stock form:



The product page on our website contains more photos if that's what you're looking for:

https://www.motionrc.com/products/freewing-super-scorpion-80mm-edf-jet-pnp

I agree with Seaviper that on a foam electric EDF jet this size, the weight of a couple layers of paint is insignificant and will not perceptibly affect the aircraft's performance. Traditional methods of refinishing wood planes, be it with dope, sheeting, glassing, painting, clearcoating, and other methods certainly did pose a potential weight increase which depending on the model's size and how extensive the resurfacing was.

[Boots Whirlygig]

The Scorpion is a handsome a/c and your scheme definitely enhances it. I was starting to think every edf used a cheater hole, and am happy to hear the SS doesn't, probably because it's a sport jet and no scale size inlets to mimic. I chose the SS landing gear for my Opterra and also the got the FW 50x15mm wheel (W20110136) to replace the 45mm nose wheel to further help it on grass fields.

[seaviper]

Got the decals finished and satin clear coat applied. Almost ready for flight status. Just waiting on my JHH 1/12 pilots.

[OV10]

Got the decals finished and satin clear coat applied. Almost ready for flight status. Just waiting on my JHH 1/12 pilots.

Hello Seaviper.......you making your own waterslide decals?? If so, what brand decal paper ?? The "service this aircraft with.............." decal. :Cool:

[Aros]

Nice touch, I like that! I may have to "borrow" that idea for future use. :)

[seaviper]

Borrow away Aros. lol

It's the clear inkjet decal paper from Bel USA (decalpaper.com). It works great. This time I used Valspar gloss clear to spray the decal paper. The decals came out a bit stiff. I had to wet them with denatured alcohol to get them to stay put.
Next time I am going back to the Krylon Crystal Clear for spraying the decals. I have had good success with Krylon before.

This project was just an experiment to see if I could successfully paint a foam jet. The plane looks good enough for me. But it is far from perfect. The next paintjob (Scorpion 2) will incorporate all the lessons learned from this one.
I am looking at maybe another aggressor scheme but with different colors for the number two bird. Callie graphics is top notch too. I will use them in the future.

Subscribe for photos and video on this one when the pilots are installed and she's back in the air.

[Aros]

Well for a first effort you did a fantastic job seaviper! One thing I've learned in all my years of painting my models is just like a musician only hears all their mistakes in a recording (even though their listeners rarely do), a painter only sees their imperfections, as minute as they may be, even though nobody else does. I like to say that as long as we are not trying to enter our models into the hyper scale Top Gun contests, nobody is going to notice our blemishes unless they enjoy looking at our models 4 inches away with a magnifying glass.

;)

[seaviper]

Boots...the painted and clear coated bird weighs in at 1 oz more than the original bird. But that is without pilots. I am sure the JHH pilots will add a little more. Still it's pretty close anyway. Actually closer than i thought.

Aros..thank you sir. I agree. I had so much fun doing this project that I have already started on the second Super Scorpion project. This coming from a guy that hates painting.

Gave the bird a checkout flight today after repairing the nose cone and landing gear as well a complete tear down and reassembly for painting. Signing her off.

Edit: Changed video to a better encoding. This flight was from 2-23-17

[Aros]

Nice flight...Man that really looks great with that livery. You may have helped sell one... ;)

[Boots Whirlygig]

Looks great, and only adding an ounce of weight is amazing!

[seaviper]

Updated the video above. Finally figured out how to get clear video on youtube with mobius.

[Aros]

Nice! Gotta love the 60FPS Mobius! Unfortunately I lost mine in the woods yesterday. :Angry:

Maidening my FW 90mm F-18 and I noticed some white part fluttering away from the model over a tree line...I assumed it was one of the missiles. When I landed I found out it was my battery hatch with my Mobius attached!! DOH!!! I spent hours looking for it yesterday and this morning to no avail. Hey Mobius, I have a great idea for a new feature...A Homing Beacon! How cool would that be if it enacted a loud chirp every few seconds if it sensed an impact or stopping of movement for more than a minute or something...

[seaviper]

Yeah I love the mobius now. I film about every flight. Dude you need to find that mobius. Did you look up in the trees? I bet it's stuck above ground somewhere

[Aros]

I did. I even brought out my binoculars to no avail. It's very thick woods full of evergreen trees so it could easily be nustled within a thick branch and needles where I would never see it, especially if the black side is facing down. I think I have the area pretty well triangulated but it's like looking for a needle in a haystack. However, I am going to try a quadrant just west of where I had been looking in the off chance that is the area. I am going to go fly my HSD F-16 with a buddy first, then come home and go back out for one final search.

[Aros]

Quite frankly that's what I get for a) not bringing a spotter buddy with me so he could keep his eye on precisely the spot it fell down and b) flying too close to the tree line. Aaaack. Oh well, my buddy is going to give me his that he never uses and I found a guy online who was kind enough to offer me a new hatch, so I feel fortunate all things considered.