Good afternoon. I was wondering what the standard/best ways are to paint low powered cardboard rockets? Is the best option spraypaint? I don't know much about painting in general so any tips would be great!

Thank you

Yep, Spray paint is good. You will want to seal/fill your balsa wood fins and/or nosecone first. Giving the rocket a couple of coats of a spray on primer/filler (from an automotive shop), with a light sanding between coats will do this and then a few light coats of spray paint to finish works well.

I vote for spray cans as well. Some brands work better than others.

As has been said, use a sanding filler on the balsa. I have also successfully covered balsa fins with paper (labeling material) in a kit (Interrogator) which gave great results.

Would something like this work?

http://www.supercheapauto.com.au/online ... 37#details

What is the actual purpose of filling?

Cheers

Yep, that stuff will work nicely.

Balsa wood is adsorbent due to its open grain which is the reason it floats so well....there are a lot small air spaces between the wood fibers. It does not matter how much you sand the surface and how smooth the surface looks it will still be pitted (even though you cannot see it). If you spray paint raw balsa the low viscosity paint wicks into these pits leaving a rough finish. If you sand this down and spray again it continues to wick. Eventually the paint will seal the wood and you will get a gloss but it will take many coats and unless paint is completely dry (not just touch dry) it is hard to sand evenly.

The filler has a higher viscosity and will not wick as much and it builds up better so it will fill the wood much faster than paint. It is also a faster drying material and is much easier to sand smooth. It will still take a few coats to seal the balsa but a lot less than using paint alone. When sanding the filler, just give it a light sand with fine sandpaper to smooth it out between coats....don't sand the filler off back to raw balsa.

You can also seal and sand the body tube of your completed rocket to remove the spirals although the glassine surface layer of the tube will paint well without sealing if the spirals don't bother you.

Give a scrap piece of balsa a few light coats of paint and see how it looks without sealing...nothing teaches like experience.

Post a photo of your completed rocket, I'll be interested in how it ends up.

Cheers,
Pete

Those clips were very helpful indeed. Is there much difference between using a filler on the fins/body tube first and then using the primer, compared to using a combined filler/primer spray?

I'm guessing filling first would give a somewhat better result (although it would take longer)?

Thanks again

Good stuff Mike...I forgot about Tim's "how to" clips. There is a wealth of information there about model rocketry.

I'm not sure if you will gain any advantage using a separate filler and primer David, I have almost always just used the combined primer filler.

I have used spray on high build filler but mainly when I really wanted to try to get a heavy build up over an imperfection - I did not find it all that much different than the primer filler although it did build up a little quicker and was easier than primer filler to sand. I now use an easily sandable cellulose based automotive filler for this application rather than the spray on type.

You may well find a better and cheaper method of sealing balsa by trying different products but I'm lazy and I do know the combined primer filler works. Feel free to experiment, just let us know if you come up with a better method.

Cheers,
Pete

Filling first will normally work out cheaper as spray primer/filler is bloody expensive compared to bog. Its not such a big deal on smaller rockets but on bigger ones you would need multiple cans of spray filler to get the job done.

Hi David,

Great advice from the guys above. We've used both the brands of spray paint that Supercheap carry;

i) "Powerplus" - 'Professional Touch-up paint' for $20 a can, and

ii) "Australian Export" - 'Paint' for $3.50 a can

We do prime, paint and clearcoat so you'll need at least 3 cans for a single colour rocket - based on the above, $60 bucks or $10.50 !

In our assessment;

i) The "Powerplus" is a more durable paint and can take a reasonable level of knocks.

ii) The "Australian Export" is still under review as the rocket we used it on we gave it rather a hardtime so showing some 'lived in' battle scars. I have since painted another rocket with this and it does seem prone to fingermarks still.

Here is a thread to the rocket and some pics using the "Australian Export" paint http://www.ausrocketry.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=2142

We have recently gone to the local auto shop and found a mid range (price) paint between the above, this is;

i) "Motospray' - 'Quick Dry Enamel'. Firstly, not so 'quick dry'. Although I tend to let the rocket sit for days between coats giving them as much chance of curing as possible. I don't like the nozzle and the 'paint flow' when sprayed as much as the two above so this paint, so far, i'm not a fan of. To be fair, i'll fly it first and see how durable it ends up.

For the first time I tried the combined primer/filler and seemed to have good success, I haven't flown the rocket yet to determine how durable it will be though.

Hope it helps.

Regards,