Estes Wizard w/Classic Paint Scheme (part 2 of 2)

With the fins attached and the epoxy fillets applied and fully cured (I usually wait 24hrs), the finishing phase can begin. It was at this point in the construction I learned another lesson on painting...

After I had fine sanded the airframe I had used a damp paper towel to remove some of the sanding dust that was still clinging to the rocket just before applying the primer coat. Unfortunately, I had not wrung it out well enough and some of the water from the paper towel got into one of the tube spirals and I had also probably not given the whole rocket enough time to be completely devoid of moisture.

As a result, as you can see in the photos, I got surface deformaties as the primer reacted with the moisture underneath. The only saving grace here is that it was the primer coat and was therefore going to be sanded smooth anyway. Had this been the finish coat, I would have probably been looking at a strip and redo.

At this point I learned yet another painting lesson. When the filler-primer coat had dried and after I sanded out all of the surface deformities I tried to apply a coat of Krylon gloss white. Over 99% of the finish looked great, but in 3 or 4 spots, the paint was being repelled leaving small divits in the finish. So at this point I had to strip the rocket and start over. The second time around, I did not have any moisture issues with the filler primer and I added a step of applying another primer coat but this time using Krylon brand white primer. This is not high build filler primer, nor is it that sandable, but it IS chemically compatible with Kryon spray paint.

So now with the white coat finally applied, I let it dry for several days before applying the decals. It is important to let the paint fully cure before attempting to apply decals. The reason for this is that paint shrinks while it dries and if you were to try to apply the decals as soon as the paint was dry to the touch, then the decals will actually crinkle. Some gloss enamels can take up to a week to fully cure a thickly applied finish coat.

The last step of applying the decals went fairly smoothly. The one thing with printed decals is that the decals can be very thin. Some people recommend applying a decal film to the decals before application to make them easier to work with. For this kit I did not do that. I placed a small amount of water on the rocket airframe where the decal would be applied and used a large damp brush, to squeegie out the water and smooth out the decal after it was manuvered into its final position.

And finally we have our completed Estes Wizard, ready for active duty.
Note that I omitted discussing some of the same old steps like installing the shock cord and parachute. I did not take any pictures of those steps but they were done exactly the same as other minimum diameter kits on this blog, like the Centuri Micron for example.