Painting hard to reach places?

[foz75 93]

Any tips for painting hard to reach places where spray won't reach? Specifically, the side panels on a hotshot wing. There's not enough space to get good coverage with the spray, and while spraying and then spreading with a brush is helping, it's not great. I wouldn't be too worried but I want to back the colour coat with white, and don't want the body and wing to have a different shade.

Is my only option to persevere with the spray and brush method? 

[alvinlwh 5895]

1 hour ago, foz75 said:

Any tips for painting hard to reach places where spray won't reach? Specifically, the side panels on a hotshot wing. There's not enough space to get good coverage with the spray, and while spraying and then spreading with a brush is helping, it's not great. I wouldn't be too worried but I want to back the colour coat with white, and don't want the body and wing to have a different shade.

Is my only option to persevere with the spray and brush method? 

Can you airbrush? Airbrush is smaller and allow lower pressure, and therefore closer to the surface sprays. I am not familiar with the body you are talking about, but one way is to, like you said, brush, AND THEN go over with a spray again after drying. Will not be perfect, but should work reasonably OK. 

[Willy iine 18806]

For hard to reach areas I use a what is typically considered a no-no when spray painting, but I do a spot spritz where I aim at the corner you are trying to reach, hit the spray nozzle very briefly without moving the can or RC body from about 6 inches away to get a thick coat. 

Another approach is I spray into a paint palette and use a very soft bristle brush to brush paint into the corners, followed by the spot spritz noted above.  Allow paint to fully dry (use hair dryer) before applying another coat with a very soft bristle brush.

Same principal applies to hard shells, but if one is painting a matte finish, you may need to very lightly #1500 sand the semi gloss resulting from the rich coat followed by final coat from a good 10-11” away to rid the luster and blend with the surrounding matte finish.  

[alvinlwh 5895]

8 hours ago, Willy iine said:

Another approach is I spray into a paint palette and use a very soft bristle brush to brush paint into the corners, followed by the spot spritz noted above.  Allow paint to fully dry (use hair dryer) before applying another coat with a very soft bristle brush.

Some people actually put it in the oven (NOT recommended for PC!). I once put a Lunchbox into the oven at 80C (not sure what is it in American) and it became a MELTbox! 😒

[foz75 93]

thanks for the replies. I already tried the "spot spritz" , but that just left an uneven surface where I didn't want it, and not enough coverage in the hardest to reach corners...  I think i will continue with the brush technique, the trick seems to be adding a little bit and then waiting a very long time for it to dry. If I try to add more after only an hour or so, it just seems to "melt" the previous attempt and smear the paint around. If I can get even enough coverage, I will not do a white undercoat and just leave as is. it doesn't look too bad, but there are lots of weak spots seen when holding up to a light source, and I think if I did the white undercoat it would be noticeable and blotchy. The other option would be an aftermarket or other wing with no hidden corners, but I would prefer to keep the correct wing.

[Tamiya Fan 1 114]

I've done this on a King Hauler, so different body, but will work. I think it was an orange and didn't cover easily with out running. Trying to fill in gap between sleeper and cab.

  I use Tamiya spray can paint. Spray on a clean surface, brush it onto small/tight area, as smooth as possible, and then spray the whole surface like normal. This will hide what you did usually pretty well and color filled in.