By Mike Swanson
Between work and family activities, It's been a few weeks since I was able to work on the Monarch and update this blog. From the last blog entry, it was pretty close to being ready to paint and I finally finished it up this weekend ! I started by brushing on 2 coats of sanding sealer on the fins and sanding with 320 grit sandpaper to fill in the balsa grain and make the fins nice and smooth. I then wiped the entire rocket down with a slightly damp paper towel to remove any residual dust from sanding.
I like to start painting my rockets by using a gray filler primer to help fill in the body tube grooves as well as any remaining grain in the fins. Lately I've been using Rustoleum Automotive Filler Primer for this task. I applied a few light coats, let the primer dry, sanded the entire rocket with 400 grit initially, and finished with 600 grit sandpaper. I then wiped the rocket with a damp paper towel as I always do after sanding and before painting.
Next I applied a few coats of Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X White Primer until I got a nice, even white base coat on the rocket. This time, I sanded lightly with 800 grit to get a nice smooth finish and again wiped the rocket down to remove any dust/debris from sanding.
Finally it was time to apply the gloss white top coat. Again, I used Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X for the job and applied 3 light coats, letting the paint dry about a minute between coats before applying a heavier final coat. At this point I let the rocket dry for a few days before masking off the white areas in preparation for applying the green paint. To get nice, crisp stripes between colors, I use Tamiya masking tape along the edges and 3M blue masking tape and brown paper to cover the rest of the rocket. One way to create nice straight bands around a body tube is to use a rolled up piece of paper as a guide:
The instructions say to mask the rocket again and apply silver paint for the final accent stripes. Since I didn't feel like buying a can of silver paint just for a few stripes (plus I was getting a little lazy), I used some silver striping tape I had on hand. It still came out very nice and after applying the "Monarch" decal, I sprayed the entire rocket with a few coats of gloss clearcoat to protect the rocket:
The last step was to build the parachute per the instructions and attach it and the shock cord to the nosecone. I was really happy with the way the rocket turned out. It's a nice looking, good size Skill Level 1 rocket that should fly very well. I'll be sure to update the blog once I get a chance to put it in the air !
