Painted Body Tubes of the DEFCON 1

The painted body tube and forward section of the body tube (used as a payload tube to hold an altimeter, camera and beeper/finder).  When I was young, I only painted rockets and did not use primer. More recently I have been using primer under the paint. As a result, my finishes were very heavy. I've learned to use very little paint on top of the primer now, to keep the finish light. This particular rocket got 3 coats of primer and 3 light coats of white paint, just to add a bit of gloss to the finish.  Most of the body will be covered in large decal wraps, so I didn't need to go crazy getting a clean, glossy finish on this kit.

In this example, the payload tube weighed 12.7 grams, the primer for it 2.9 grams, and the paint only 2 grams.  The finished 10.5" payload tube now weighs just 17.6 grams.

For the main body tube and fin section, it has 5 grams of paint and about 10 grams of primer, so with the motor mount, baffle and Kevlar it only totals about 71 grams so far: not a lot of mass for a C, D or up to an F motor!