Refinishing a Foamie

[CubsFan812]

Hi all, First post here. I just picked up a 1400mm Freewing P-51 that I want to refinish. My goals are: (1) get rid of the foam look and give it more scale panel lines, etc., (2) provide some durability, and (3) repaint it. I've seen some blog posts where folks have applied half-ounce fiberglass and repainted. I've also seen another guy refinish with polycrillic. I"m wondering which approach would work best. The guy at the hobby shop recommended against glassing the plan. He said it would add too much weight and not fly well. But I'm not sure the polycrillic would be any better. Any advice would be appreciated.


I also want to implement a few mods: (1) operational vent in the rear, tied to flaps, (2) a sound system, (3) a beacon light on the tail, (4) and metal machine gun tubes with LEDs.

[doctormike]

The film coverings talked about elsewhere on Hobbysquawk are probably what you are looking for. Sorry, don't remember the name or title it was under. I'm sure someone will. Doc

[Mike O.]

I refinished the F7F Tigercat from dark blue to yellow. Also did the B-26 from silver to yellow. Both planes were modeled after Navy versions.

On the F7F I bought some Fusion Colormaster Flat White primer from Ace Hardware. Comes in a rattlecan. Primed over the dark blue with the primer. After the primer dried ( wait about 8 to 12 hours) I shot the yellow using Liquetex Professional spray paint from Dick Blick Art supply. The paint job turned out great. The panel lines which were the dark blue show up just fine.

Now if you want to go down to bare white foam get some Mineral Spirits and a roll of paper towels. Wipe the mineral spirits onto the painted surface and wait about a minute. Wet the towel again and begin to wipe the paint off. You will use quite a few paper towels in this step, but the paint comes off. When you have all the paint removed take some 70% alcohol and wipe the surfaces down. I used the same brands of paint on the B-26 and am happy with the result