Section: 32
Hours: 4

I had problems applying the Stewart Systems EkoCrylic paint to the first batch of parts so I wasn't feeling too comfortable about jumping into painting the cockpit until I can refine my spray technique. I watched the Stewart Systems videos again to pick up further technique. Today I mixed up a small amount of paint and painted 2 small cover plates. I worked on getting the air pressure and spray gun adjusted to lay down a better fog coat. I backed off the pressure to the recommended 21 psi and adjusted the gun to barely put out any paint.

Here is a close up of the cover plate after the application of 2 fog coats with 10 minutes between coats. I adjusted the spay to generate as fine a mist as possible. As you can see, even with a fine mist, you end up with the mist conglomerating into larger wetted spots after the fog coat. I guess it must be a surface tension thing having to do with using a water borne paint.

Here's the cover plates after the 2nd fog coat. I waited another 10 minutes after this picture and checked the tack before painting the final wet coat. After 10 minutes I touched the paint and it was indeed tacky/ sticky but no longer wet.

Here are the cover plates after the final wet out coat. I got much better flow out today and almost no orange peel. It really helped to apply 2 fog coats before applying the final coat.