Painting Cockpit Stringers - Any Good Tips?

[Chris Johnson]

Anyone have any tips on how to paint cockpit stringers so that you end up with good sharp demarcation lines? Even using masking tape sometimes doesn't work so well where the horizontal and vertical stringers meet.



Aside from a steady hand, a sharp tipped brush, and plenty of patience, I can't think of any other way to do it, but I'm sure open to suggestions!

Cheers,

Chris

[gcn]

Hmmm a tricky one that.

With most of those squares being the same size I would be going down the masking tape route.

I'd paint the base cdl colour, then add the shading around the stringers and then mask and paint the wood colour. The only thing I'd would be wary of was the oils seeping through the masks.

To be honest it doesn't have to be too accurate because you'll never see any unevenness once its all buttoned up. Saying that I'd hate it if it was uneven.

[GAJouette]

  Chris,
I guess I must be a little lazy. For the most part I remove all molded in details like stringers and such.I prefer to build my own interior frameworks from scratch. That way I don't have to mess with attepting to cleanly paint molded in details. Just paint the frame as a unit.
Highest Regards,
Gregory Jouette

[Des]

I find one of the easiest ways to colour the stringers is to use a fine tip felt pen, these particular pens use Indian Ink and are a permanent marker, they come in a wide variety of colours.







The picture below shows the stringers in my Snipe build coloured using the felt pens, it is quite easy to do as long as you have a fairly steady hand. The pens can be used for other applications as well like highlighting panel lines and the gold colour is great for doing small items which need to look like brass.

Des.

[kornbeef]

Run the tip of a sharp No 11 blade along the point where frame and linen meet to sharpen the demarcation between the two. Another point to remember is that only the sides facing the cockpit opening need to be dead accurate, those out of sight don't need to be a accurate. A lot of the stringers in the tripe for instance are out of sight once everything fits in.

Personally I find masking each off more tedious and irksome than freehand painting each one by one, side by side.

Nice tip Des, gonna go see if I can find those beauties tomorow.

Keith

[Ian from Doncaster]

Oh for a steady hand!!!

I would personally go with the masking option, tedious as it is...

[lcarroll]

   I usually use Greg's approach; sand them off and then add the frame members (I use Evergreen Strips). I'm the first to admit that most is invisible after assembly, but I know it's in there!
Cheers,
Lance

[Chris Johnson]

Thanks for all of the tips guys. I'm going to try Des' routine with the ink pens.

Cheers,

Chris

[petero]

Those pens look like a great idea, so I've just ordered a set.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000FCTC5C

They don't seem to be available separately, but the Terra set has good woodworking colors.  They come with the Brush tip rather than the Superfine, so I'll see how they work out.

Peter

[Des]

The pens are available with different size tips, it depends on what application you want to use them for, I found the fine tips ideal for doing the thin stringers on some kits.

Des.