I took the fuse into the local hobby shop in Rockport, ME and started a nice discussion about my send question, paint. I want to keep the ship light so I was looking for a dye option. Someone suggested Koolaid of all things says it works nice others said fabric dye. The fuse leans towards the yellow and if I could get it orange that would thrill me. What is your professional take on this?

From : Don Stackhouse

I haven't tried Kool-Aid, although I expect that the vegetable dye in it will fade in the sun quite rapidly. Rit dye is an old standard with fairly good results. It's best to use fairly warm water and expect to soak it quite a while. I've used it to tint Lexan canopies for helicopters with good results, but I haven't tried it on fiberglass. I expect that any kind of tinting agents will tend to accentuate any seam, etc. in the layup. If you don't care what it looks like up close, that's not a problem.

If you're just looking for something to color it for in-flight visibility, and not worried about getting a "Toledo Show" finish, then permanent felt markers might be your best bet. These work very well on fiberglass, although they do tend to bring out any imperfections in the surface finish. Do not sand the fuselage if you use markers, it isn't necessary and will just open up more pinholes. Black works very well, as does red or blue. For visibility and overall covering ability and durability, I recommend black. However, any dark color will tend to heat up in the sun, perhaps enough to approach the glass transition temperature of the epoxy, possibly causing weakening and/or warping of the fuselage. Try to keep the fuselage covered or in the shade except when flying. This is true for all composites, but especially true for fiberglass with a dark finish. This is also why most composite wings are painted white on top.

Don Stackhouse
DJ Aerotech