Missile Nose Caps

I've played with the Sculpey a little, more to make rolled tarps and seabags. I liked how it worked for that, and I didn't even bake it. The bags were able to be molded to the vehicle a little more and then I painted them. The paint was a little touchy, didn't stick real well, but as long as it isn't handled, it did the trick.

Still think I'll get some of that liquid tape, just to give it a try.

I was going to go with that method, and had plans to stop at Lowes on the way home to see if they had some. I had to stop at the local art supply store and get a part for one of my airbrushes and asked the guy there what to use. He recommended some sculpting clay called "Sculpey" (www.sculpey.com). It is a polymer (plastic) clay that is very pliable initially. It can be molded, bent, whatever you need to do. Then, bake it for 15 minutes and it gets hard. After it hardens it can be sanded, drilled, sawed, whatever is necessary. It took a little effort but it worked like a charm. I needed an area on the front of the cap to put a bungee cord through so I made it a little long and then used a round file to scallop the area. I wound up spending about 30 minutes on each one but they look pretty good. I'll try and get some pix this weekend.

I think I need to head out to Lowe's or Home Depot this weekend and see if I can find some of this stuff. I had been wondering how best to go about making those covers a while ago and never really came up with a suitable answer. Thanks!

That dip is produced in black, red, green, and yellow. If you can't find any of that Tool Dip, then check for some liquid tape. That's small cans of liquid vinyl that have built-in brushes in their lids. The stuff is designed to coat splices in electrical/electronics wiring. It, too, comes in different colors--including yellow.
Both of these products can be found in the Eastwood catalog and the MicroMark catalog. The small cans of liquid tape are alot lower cost than the tool dip.
HEY, I just remembered a THIRD source material. I've seen these cheapy little vinyl repair kits in Wal-Mart, NAPA, and other places that contain real small plastic containers of thick liquid vinyl for spot repairs in upholstery. I don't know if yellow is one of the colors in the kit. Mix some of the red and green to get a sickly yellow. ( I think ) The nose covers we used in the AF were closer to International Orange. The covers for the proximity fuse was a matching color, but made of padded vinyl and velcro. The nose covers were small celled foam rubber.

Goode idea, Randie, thanks for the tip. I've seen that stuff but never thought of using it for this. It might work just fine as long as there is some color other than black. I'd never get yellow paint to cover black vinyl!

I don't know if it will work for you or not but, there is a product on the market for making coated handles on pliers and wire cutters. You just clean the handles good and dip them right in the can.
I don't know the name but, it is a liquid rubber/vinyl type material.
I wish I could be of more help.