Best way to paint a wing?

[aconsola]

Silly question I know, but here goes. Obviously lexan is painted on the "inside," but for a wing such as the jrx-2 v-wing, which side of the fins do you paint?
Do you paint the outside of the fin, continuous with the underside of the wing? (being lazy I'm tempted to do it this way)
or do you mask the outside of the fin and paint the inner portion? also then having to mask the top side of the wing.

Either way you will have paint on exposed surfases.

[mrlexan]

I used to paint the under side and either use vinyl (RC aircraft type) on the outside of the edges or cut larger sides from a painted piece of lexan and stick them on with double sided tape. BITD, that is.

[civilguy]

I prefer the bottom painted and to leave the sides clear on that type of wing. Just my 2 cents.
I've gotten some high mileage out of this pic, but the Dart body has the front wing as well and I think the clear sides look cool.

Photo courtesy mrlexan.

[mrlexan]

Nice pic!

[scr8p]

paint the bottom, and what would be the outside of the wing fins. and as jay said, you can add lexan to the sides painted on the inside, or vinyl over it. clear scraps from a decal sheet would work just fine. it would be the color you sprayed it, and it'd be shiny.

another thing you can try is to find a decent size decal to place over the dull areas. if there's enough of the clear decal sheet itself around the sticker, you can apply the whole piece, then trim of the excess. hope that makes sense.

[Halgar]

I like the idea of painting the underside of the wing and leaving the fins clear. Considering the only time you see the damn thing anyway is in the pits, so massive details really aren't necessary.

another thing you can try is to find a decent size decal to place over the dull areas. if there's enough of the clear decal sheet itself around the sticker, you can apply the whole piece, then trim of the excess. hope that makes sense.

If you have large enough scraps that's great, if you don't, you can buy water slide paper. Back when I did the Barbie Tonka for my GF's grand daughter, I needed printable waterslide. I found an online company that had it and asked them for a sample. They sent me one or two 8.5x11 sheets which was more than enough for the project and I've still got plenty of leftovers.

[mrlexan]

You're not allowed to post anything RC related. You are ONLY allowed to post rants about nothing (the Seinfeld theme playing in the background).

[aconsola]

Thanks for all the Ideas!

[Halgar]

You're not allowed to post anything RC related. You are ONLY allowed to post rants about nothing (the Seinfeld theme playing in the background).

I signed no such agreement when registering with this site. I have to say, it doesn't get much more non-RC than a Barbie Tonka.

[Brandon G]

Probably go with what Mr Lexan said originally with painting a larger piece of lexan and attaching it to the side of the dam. I was contimplating this on a boxart version of the RC10. How exactly do you mask the 3 line graphic on the side of the dams with it being impossible to access/paint the inside? I assume they used pinstripe tape to do this originally, but I will try the above trick instead.

[mrlexan]

From the old pdf file that was on the AE site, it looks to me from the pics like the pin striping on the box art body was done by hand with a brush on the outside of the body.

[bearrickster]

I paint the bottom, and the inside of the sides, so the paint doesnt get scrached wile racing. tape it up and tape it to a paint stick and you have a handle and paint both sides at once.

[slotcarrod]

From the old pdf file that was on the AE site, it looks to me from the pics like the pin striping on the box art body was done by hand with a brush on the outside of the body.

I think mrlexan is correct about the paint on the out side of the wing. In any case, it's near impossible to paint inside the dams with any detail on that wing. One thing I think is not painted, is the pink stripe on the body. I am sure it's a stick on pin stripe. Notice it's missing on one side? Must have fallen off!

[Brandon G]

They probably never put it on that other side since it wasn't facing the camera...

Which brings up the question:

If you were doing a boxart paint job of the RC10 would you leave that stripe off or just go ahead and paint it? Personally, I would have to paint it.

[Mr. ED]

Those are the easy wings! A lot of the older wings by kyosho (and Tamiya?) had fully molded side dams: very annoying to get the first color to go all the way in the small cavity without getting runners. If that first colour doesn't go all the way in you bet a secon will get just a bit further and shine through where you don't want

But at least for those it was clear you were supposed to do the inside indeed.