Ask the Expert Question-and-Answer Archive

by Ron Joseph

December, 2008

Semi Gloss vs. Full Military Flat

Q. My organization is completing a ten year rebuild on a WWII training aircraft. The question now is how to paint it. The color chosen is Poly Fiber Nevada Silver. One group wants to maintain historical accruacy and do it in full military flat, the other group wants to use semi gloss. The argument of the group wanting semi gloss is, that it would be more durable and thus easier to keep clean. That same group says that if you were to wax the flat finish, it would whiten the finish. Any ideas on this. Thanks

A. A semi-gloss paint will give you longer life than a fully flat finish, but I'm not sure that your environment in Tulsa is such that you will see significant degradation of the flat finish. Bear in mind that if you apply a wax over the flat coating, you might not be able to repaint over it in the future, unless you strip off both the wax and the coating and start gain.

Regards,

Ron Joseph