The painting of War Eagles A-7E has been very slow due to having to perform all work outside. During the winter we just never saw those normal days when the temp was in the 70's. The Spring has been very windy (more so than usual) and that trend appears to continue into the summer. Yesterday I spent most of the morning laying out the national insignia placement on the wings in pencil. During that time the wind was 15 - 20 with gusts to 30. Today I masked and painted and the wind was only 10 -15. It still seemed to constantly tear at my masking. At least it was warm: low 90s.
First I layed out the masks, then painted the backdround colors. White for the underside, gull gray for the topside.
After that had dried I painted the white portions. Automotive pen striping was used for the curves. Tape and paper for the rest.
After the white dried I masked and painted the blue, but even with all the preperation the &^%$*#@ wind still tore at the masking and paint found its way under the masking. Oh well, it is not as bad as it looks and I found when I painted the fuselage insignia the touch up was not too bad.
(Some of the blue is lighter, but that is simply where it has not completely cured.)
The fuselage insignia were painted last week and touched up today.
Before:
After:
There is still a lot of work to be done, but for the first time in a long time I feel like I am getting somewhere.
Good job there!!!
