Rustolium spray paint.

I'd be careful with using Rustoleum that you don't use the "2X" variety, which claims to cover better. You might find that it adds just a bit too much weight. I have used the normal Rustoleum spray cans which do go on very nicely. I can't attest to its fuel proof abilities as I'm yet to mount an engine to and fly the plane that I painted with it. I actually "baked" the paint on by sitting it beneath my wood burning heater. The finish seems very hard and nice and glossy.

I have two planes gifted to me with the Rustoleum finish. I strongly dislike it. It's not fuel proof even though many make claims it is. It eventually ends up sticky and it gets dirty with fingerprints as the finish become soft and taffy like. Rustoleum Stops Rust with the yellow symbol is what is claimed to be the fuel proof version. Colors are limited and the clear is ABSOLUTELY NOT FUEL PROOF.  I also find the finish heavy and adding polyurethane makes it even heavier. I'm using 10% nitro on my planes and raw fuel will attack it quickly. To circumvent disaster, I have sprayed just the  nose areas of these planes using a two part auto finish called Spray Max 2K. This isn't a Rustoleum product. This is a two part urethane which mixes in the can once you pop the plunger on the bottom of the can. The paint must be immediately used and if let sit, you may get 3 days of use out of it before it entirely hardens in the can. It costs about $25 a can but it works terrific for this application. I'm quite certain if a paint is going to kill you it's Spray Max 2K so read the cautions.

Hi,

Ive had reasonable success with the coloured Rustoleum 2X on its own. I use 25% nitro. I am not using it to make my plane look particularly good just as a means of sealing the balsa. I have used it on a number of plank wing, profile 049 planes made from quite light balsa. I applied it when the day temp was between 25 C and 35C. hung the plane from a tree, shook the can very very well and had left the can outside for a while to make sure it was not cold before using it. Then I dusted the whole plane with it. After approx 15 mins as described on can I re-applied a very very light coat to the plane. That was it. You can still see the balsa grain easily etc, but it is sealed, as crashing and breaking it has shown. :-)

I have been using several planes like this for months now (fly them every weekend) and it has not become tacky or fingerprint problems and is definitely protecting the balsa, BUT it is not a Show Finnish that is for sure! When I tried using it to make the plane look good and used several heavy type coats that I had hoped would make the plane look good, it did all the things Ken described and was very heavy indeed.

Works for me, but requires dusting on, not painting on, and needs to be re-applied after 15 minutes then I found it works for the purpose I described. I leave it hanging from the tree overnight and its good to fly next day. Maybe Im lucky and it gets Pixie dust sprinkled on it at night time from the local tree Pixie.

Yabby

How does it compare to butyrate dope? I have gallons of this stuff from a closed down hobby shop.

Hi Jim,

I have not used dope since I was in my teens and Im now 60. I reckon the traditional dope would be better, but the rustoleum is easier to work with. the planes I build and fly are not expected to last more than a season. They are very light, break easily, and I am a very bad pilot. :-) So it works very well for me, the way i use it, and what I expect of it. Profile Fuse. Plank Wing. 1 length of balsa = 1 plane

Yabby

706Jim,

I'm in NE MS, USA.

Where are you located? Care to sell some butyrate dope? I prefer to do local pickup, as shipping paint of any type can get pretty expensive.

PM with contact info if interested.

The major drawback with dope is the cost nowadays. The other is the smell and the fact that it's not fuel proof. No dope is fuel proof. Sig Lite Coat is the most fuel resistant and clearest dope on the market today. Depending on the dope, dope such as Sig Supercoat can totally twist your sheet wing 1/2A into a pretzel. Lite Coat won't do that. I've seen Randolph dope totally crush a model and my Sneeker which is silked covered is starting to buckle the trailing edge due to this problem.

         This isn't going to happen using Rustoleum. My buddy uses Minwax Polycrilic as a base and offers the wood two coats and goes to Rustoleum. To me, this seems incorrect as your mixing water based and oil based products but he gets very good results. As weird as this sounds, I've also seen him cover the model in iron on film and scuff and paint it with Rustoleum offering incredible results. I've seen him do this numerous times and it allows the plane to just be dusted with no wood grain.

          Not to detract from dope, you could put 7-10 coats of clear on a model and it will still be lighter than the Rustoleum finish. In addition, dope offers shrinking capabilities for open bay frame work. Rustoleum isn't going to do that.

           Dope is pretty much ready to go in short order once dry. Rustoleum is going to require a minimum of 2 week dry time before even exposing to exhaust residue.Dope is also very user friendly in that you can go back into it if needed such as a crash repair. Rustoleum doesn't melt back into itself and requires a lot more work to repair. Obviously the use described here has been for short term sport use so all is good in that regards. I've always been told that the only Rustoleum products that were fuel resistant were the cans that had the yellow and black Stops Rust symbol on them. There's limited colors available in this product. I've only done this once myself and I personally wasn't impressed. I've been gifted numerous planes with the Rustoleum finishes done to perfection as the late Allan Brickhaus suggested. I can provide pictures if interested.


            Here's my Brodak Zero which is the 48" wingspan. This is all covered in iron on and painted with Rustoleum.  My buddy Dennis built this and flew it at Huntersville, NC contest against Rusty Knowlton who was the moderator of this forum. Dennis took a second place, Shug Emery for those who don't know him the funniest man on the planet took a 1st and Rusty took a 3rd.



             Underside of plane. The meatballs and the cockpit were all done using Frisket paper and sprayed. The entire plane was covered in white UltraCote and then top side scuffed and wiped down with acetone. This plane was built a number of years ago and is other than some scuffs and chips remarkably holding up well

         

Yabby wrote:Hi Jim,

I have not used dope since I was in my teens and Im now 60. I reckon the traditional dope would be better, but the rustoleum is easier to work with. the planes I build and fly are not expected to last more than a season. They are very light, break easily, and I am a very bad pilot. :-) So it works very well for me, the way i use it, and what I expect of it.  Profile Fuse. Plank Wing. 1 length of balsa = 1 plane

Yabby

Hey Yabby. Nice to see that you've joined up. Another Aussie on the list. Guessed it from your Moniker.
I'm pretty sure you'll find that Rustoleum might be disappearing from our shelves. They bought our Motorspray products and then apparently pulled out of Aus. No more Motorspray, but still seems to be some Rustoleum around, but wouldn't surprise me if it disappeared.
Rod.

Goodaye Rod! :-)

Had a bit of a look on the rustoleum .au website and (as usual) says nothing about business intentions. The certainly list lots and lots of large sized business distributors like bunings, and all the other HW stores, and lots of paint companies. But that does not mean they wont pull out of here! If they do, I will find another solution that is less toxic than dope!!. My oncologist told me that the follicular Lymphoma ( which is the incurable one) I have is very touchy to toxins, so for me the dope is out. And he just shakes his head and laughs at the nitro-methane I use, and as it turns out Methanol isnt the greatest either. No point being here if you cant do things that are fun! So I wear rubber type gloves when I fly and handle fuel, and a mask when I put rustoleum on. But the dope was really a 'please dont use it at all one' hahaha so I listened to that one, and we agreed on using rustoleum with a mask when I apply it. So hopefully the rustoleum stays available, but one door closes and another opens. There will just be another way I need to find to do it. Im not tightening tissue, silk etc. just fuel proofing to some extent. And to be honest, at my crash rate I probably dont really need to bother fuel proofing anyway.

Yabby

Why are you crashing so much?

Hi Ken,

Pretty simple answer, Im not a very good pilot, Ive never in my life been given any instruction or ideas on how to fly a control line plane, I have just flown them and see what happens by trying things out. There is nothing really to lose by trying things out, nobody gets hurt in this sport. When younger I used to participate in a sport where sadly people died regularly, and it was always hard to know where the limits were without crashing to find out. So flying my models to me is just an absolute fun blast! I dont think about it too much or plan my flights, I just try stuff and learn as I go. I can fly round and round in circles and do wingovers all day and not crash, but Im not very good at inverted and I like trying it, and just flying flat inverted is not so bad, its usually my exits from inverted back to normal that cause problems depending on how I do it. I like finding out how high/low I can enter/exit inside/outside loops which at times ends up in rather hard powered landings Lol. etc. etc. HaHa. I also fly when I dont have to work, and if its really windy and I want to fly, I still go and fly and learn a lot by flying in really bad conditions.

Honestly, Im just not a good pilot, but I have a heap of fun doing what I do and thats good enough for me. And I am getting better. But as I improve, I will just push further. The planes and the engines are not the problem! At least Im honest. :-)

Yabby

Hi Yabby. It's good to read your stories! I'm a 1/2A C/L flyer too. I don't have too much experience.. and most of what I "had".. was 30 years ago. Self-designed slab-wing profiles are what I'm used to. You mention your accomplished maneuvers.. and I understand/know your story.

Are you able to build/source an "A-size" C/L stunter/combat-trainer, requiring a glow-engine .09-.19 size? An airplane with a ribbed/fully-symmetrical airfoil wing.. and simple profile fuselage.. and sheet-balsa tail-feathers? The Jr. Ringmaster and Jr. Flite-Streak are two popular vintage designs that you may want to take a look at.

The "airfoil wing-section" is what carves through the sky. The 1/2A slab-wing models require much more skill.. and engine-power to perform competition maneuvers.

Hi Roddie , thanks for that! I too enjoy reading all the stories on the forum from all the different contributors including your many contributions.

Sounds like our experience etc. is probably around the same point. I do have a 2.5cc OS LA and my version of a Dominator combat wing I built a while ago. I just have to cover the wing which I hate doing because no matter how hard I try or what I use it just looks like a 5 year old did it. Lol. And ive read lots of stuff on forums by people who are obviously very good at it and they describe how and what to do, but I just cant do it real well and never could. I think its also a bit of an attitude thing that stems from my just wanting to fly it and seeing the covering as a chore that hold me up. Anyway, ive got the goods and its what I used to fly when I was younger, but I sort of like my Cox half-A slabs. I have just finished building the scaled down version of the Ambush model from plans on outerzone and am going to give that a try. Although the amount of wing area looks like it might be a bit floaty, but it feels very light, so maybe it will work out well.

I have seen plans for both of the planes you have suggested and also read in many places on the forum people discussing them as being very good. I could certainly build one and give it a go. What to build though! Lol. Ive got a thing that I want to build a Gyro and saw the plans on outerzone also, so think that might come first. And I want to build a Little Satan, seen the videos etc. of them and they look neat!

Some of my crashes are caused through basic stupidity. Lol. the other weekend it was too windy and rough to take the boat out fishing, so I went flying instead................ :-) I was stuffing around trying to do nice slow but very high climbs as I came into the wind and then stalling the plane vertically and doing whatever to recover it. Good for the reflexes and developing instinct. HaHaHa. but eventually it ended in a very bad vertical powered landing. Lol.

Yabby

Hey there Yabby. I thought I had seen a mention of this to you previously, but if not, here is a link to a pretty indestructable 1/2a Cox powered flying wing. And I have tested them right from the get-go as was originally designed locally to me here. It is called teh Manwin Trainer.

http://www.balsabeavers.com/information/plans/manwin.pdf