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  • Please see the most recent updates in the "Where did the .com name go?" thread. Posts number 16 and 17.

    Post 16 Update

    Post 17 Warning

Painting tip?

PRB

PRB

Administrator
Staff member
This could be an interesting photo for us “painters” out there. Note the prominent “rivets”, which are not rivets at all, but panel screws. They're so dark colored because they have been treated with a corrosion preventative goo that has the color and consistency of molasses. Can't remember what that stuff was called... The panels come on and off all they time and the screws become stripped of paint, which is why we were always out there applying that stuff to the screw heads with little paint brushes.
PanelScrews_zpsd56773e9.jpg
 
Yep, our 16's started looking like that and it went out to the paint shop to correct, so they made up holders for row after row of apex head screws and kept a continuous flow of painted screws in the hangar supply room so that any screws that were removed had to be replaced with the correct color head.
 
Yep, we did the same thing. When the planes came up for the more involved long period inspections, we would paint the screws. But we never could keep up, it seemed, to the extent that all the planes always had nice painted screw heads. Especially when at sea, we just dabbed on the "Grade 4" (that's what the stuff was called!) and went on to more important things, like radars, INS, and bombing systems that didn't work... Speaking of F-16s, when I worked for the "Top Gun" outfit in 1994, they had F-16s. I got to see them up close for the first time. Interesting little fighters! Do you know about "dime washers"? Apparently used to shim and adjust the main landing gear in some way. We had problems with people using actual dimes for this purpose, with serious problems, as dimes are a bit softer than the so-called "dime washers". We had a lot of maintenance QA "issues" in that outfit...
 
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This topic takes me back a while to my 35 years of Military aircrew days. Those things were called Dzus Fasteners ("zoo-ss"), and we checked them in our pre-flights to ensure they were both fully rotated closed, and (therefore) not projecting out of their holes. The nice thing about the Dzus Fasteners was that it was so visually obvious if the fastener was not properly locked closed: Not only would the painted marks not be aligned with the screw slot, but the spring would have caused the fastener to "pop" and be projecting-out of its hole. They were neat-oh devices!

I'll shaddap now, but thanks for the memories.
 
Thanks for the info, PRB!

I've noticed the same thing on pictures of Armée de l'Air Fouga Magisters. Now I know why the "rivets" look so dark...


Owen.
 
Probably take me 5 seconds to give all my 'rivets' dark heads in the A12A Avenger II Paint Kit I'm making....the 'rivets' are all on their own layer...;)

The advantages of messing with 4096 skins...;)


Correction...all the time was in loading Photoshop....winding the layer up to 100% opacity was all it needed...;)

Quickie...

View attachment 84346
 
HighGround22 said:
.
This topic takes me back a while to my 35 years of Military aircrew days. Those things were called Dzus Fasteners ("zoo-ss"), and we checked them in our pre-flights to ensure they were both fully rotated closed, and (therefore) not projecting out of their holes. The nice thing about the Dzus Fasteners was that it was so visually obvious if the fastener was not properly locked closed: Not only would the painted marks not be aligned with the screw slot, but the spring would have caused the fastener to "pop" and be projecting-out of its hole. They were neat-oh devices!

I'll shaddap now, but thanks for the memories.
Click to expand...

Rgr "zoos" fasteners!

Looks nice, Jafo! Of course some panels would be affected more than others. The ones that stand out have "stuff" behind them that require more attention by maintenance... :)
 
Yes...to get it right there'd be some panels more 'battle-worn' than others. The whole idea of the Dzus fastener was to have a 'captive screw' that people wouldn't misplace....they were used in Motor racing as well...same reasoning ...;)

Looking at that photo inspires me to be more 'creative' with my rivets....[they're all fantasy, anyway...made-up detailing]....more variations of spacings at least...;)
 
Just a note. . .the Dzus fasteners were only used on panels that were regularly removed for maintenance (radar bays, radomes, circuit breaker panels, etc). Speaking only from my experience. . .the primary fasteners were apex (offset crosspoint) screws that we used a speed handle to install and remove. When installed correctly and with the heads painted the same colors as the fuselage (as related earlier) they were all but invisible until you walked up to the airplane and even then, being flush mounted, they left no surface (bumps) like a domed rivet would.
 
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