I had a thought--Why do we NOT talk about...?

If we don't talk about body work, we definitely don't talk about airplanes!  It's a Vans RV-10.  It's probably about halfway done, and if I don't stop spending all my free time either racing or fixing crashed race cars, it's never going to get finished.  Here's the build log, if you'd more photos.

The Vee was sprayed with PPG Omni, which is basically the only single stage paint I could get locally.  I used my EZ-up with plastic taped to the sides as a paint booth, but given the amount of paint dust I got on everything in the garage, I'm not at all sure that accomplished anything.  It's my second attempt painting a Vee, and it went much better than the first time.  Still, I'm not sure if it's me, my gun, or the paint, but this Omni is so thin that it seems like it's nearly impossible to get a wet coat that doesn't run. Either dry splatter, or runs with some magic spot in the middle. I actually sanded down the center section and did it again because of the runs the first time.

I know they make paint thinner, do they make paint thickener? You know, something to make it lay out without running? Something to make it dry quicker, but not shrink so much that it cracks? Or are you just going to have to sand the runs out each time?

I'm doing this today.....

In reply to MiniDave :

Ironically, what you are looking for is called "reducer". Paint is too thick to spray and self level, so it is thinned to a certain viscosity using reducer. The reducer has some say in how much time the paint has to self-level so as to not have orange peel.

The thing is that paint reducer comes in three flavours: Slow, fast and medium. Most of us use medium because we don't really understand the nuances of paint reducer and spraying environment. Most of us get away with it to some degree.

PPG Omni can be mixed with less reducer, which does reduce runs, but then it doesn't want to lay flat...  As far as I can tell, the answer is: get really good at spraying exactly the right amount of paint at exactly the right speed at exactly the right distance.  Just enough to be wet.  I tend to get distracted in the first coat over a primer/different color and act like I need to get all it done in one shot, which is where I get in trouble on a vertical surface.  I do wonder if better paint is easier.  I have a much easier time with primer.

My approach to spraying paint is to always put down a light first coat. My logic is that paint will seek to chemically merge with paint, and having  a light coat  tacked up on the surface is like having billions of anchor points for the next coat to latch on to.

That said, there are more ways for paint to go wrong rather than right, so practice and education do come into the game. The actual gun motion requires muscle memory and there is only one way to get that.