Well, there's nothing like getting here early in the morning, already exhausted from months of hard work, trying to put on a happy face for the world to see, and then having a major setback get thrown in your face. That's what just happened to me. What started out to be a somewhat normal day is turning into "one of those days" pretty dang quick.
As y'all know by now, I'm no professional painter. I've painted a few airplanes here and there, along with cars, motorcycles, etc., in the past. Some have turned out wonderfully, while others aren't so great. But for the most part, I know which end of the paint gun the wet stuff comes out of and which way to point it.
The paint for this B-24 was supposed to be easy. Flat black, brown, and green. All colors were duplicated from a book of original Army/Navy paint chips I have in my personal collection. This was supposed to be easy. However, from the start, the black paint, in particular, has given me troubles. It seems that in the old days, paint shops would use a powder to flatten colors out, which thickened the paint up. No problem, since you could simply use reducer to thin the paint back to a sprayable material. Nowadays, however, the flattener is a liquid (some environmental issues, I'm told). So now, when the flattener is added, it makes the paint thinner...much thinner. That was the problem with the black paint from the start.
I've had several folks ask me why I'm having so much trouble with spraying black. It's probably the easiet color to shoot overall. However, when you start out with paint that is the consistency of warm water, it's difficult to shoot it without it running off the airplane...not to mention that it's dang near transparent and requires several coats to get it right. Interestingly, the brown and green has been, for the most part, fairly trouble free. The only issue I've had with them is the fact that it occationally turns out glossy, rather than flat. The conditions in which I'm painting (open hangar), along with the rare humidity issues in Midland that only come about on the mornings I'm trying to paint, are certainly contributing factors to that glossiness. I usually get away with adding a second coat the following day and the paint will flatten right out, as advertised.
Yesterday's application of paint to the engine cowlings went right along with current tradition. The black paint was thin and transparent (although runs were kept to a minimum this time), and the brown paint stayed glossy. I figured that was no big deal and I'd just fix it this morning. So I started with the black, and mixed it as I've mixed it so many other times. I try to mix all of the paint products I use as close to the manufacturer's recommendations as possible (although I use no reducer with the black since it's so thin anyway).
As I started applying the black paint, everything looked fine. I made my way from the aft, outbd. portion of the #4 cowling, up towards the front. As I was moving the ladder, I heard something that sounded like firecrackers going off in the far distance (I'm very hard of hearing, so it's amazing that I was able to pick that sound up). I looked up and this is what I found............
Yep, the paint was cracking like a freshly poured bowl of Kellogg's Rice Krispies.
I have paint stripper that doesn't work this well at ruining paint. Talk about disgusted....man, I was saying a few choice words at this point (which most of you certainly could've heard, had they not been muffled by my respirator)!
So after a few moments, I thought, "you know, Gary, it's not all that bad. It's just one color on one side of one cowling. Just suck it up, don't worry about it, fix it later, and move on." So that's what I did. I decided that since the brown still needed to be flattened out, I'd move on to it.
Same song, different verse (only it took longer to start it's reaction, so I managed to get both sides of the cowling painted...I mean ruined
)........
So here it is, only a little over two hours into my day, and I'm already as grumpy as a physician at a Malpractice Attorney's Convention.
Now, I'm sure that many of you out there will recognize and know some of the problems that are causing this dilemma. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on it (or even better, having you come down to fix it for me), but I'm also going to have some "discussion" with the local paint supplier with this today. I've had some previous sessions with them regarding my difficulties with the paint, and they've actually been pretty helpful...to a point. I'll see how it goes with them today.
Nevertheless, I've now inherited yet another setback that I've got to deal with before the unveiling of the airplane. This must be fixed, because as we know, the general public rarely notices what's right...only what's wrong.
Gary
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It seems you have a lot to worry about. Being the head of transforming, this now classic aircraft that has become well known in the airshow circuit, into this first generation bomber is an extraordinary task!
