Sanding and painting plastic props?

[StefanJ]

I was admiring pictures of models that others here have built.

It is both inspiring and daunting to see how nicely they come out. I'm just part way through my first build and others work gives me something to shoot for.

However: One thing kind of stands out on some of the example models: "stock" red plastic propellers. I think hand-crafted beauty deserves more than an injection-molded toy prop!

Would it go badly if I were to:

Scrape off the prop's mold lines.
Wet-sand everything to smooth the edges.
One coat of enamel primer. Wet sand.
One coat gloss white or other "real prop" color.
Polishing compound to make it shiny.

Would the added weight of paint possibly effect the prop's performance?

I'd give plastic landing gear wheels the same treatment.!

[supercruiser]

Scraping the logo/mold lines off the prop and wet sanding will not hurt the propeller performance. The paint won't affect performance if.... the coat of paint is very thin and does not affect balance. All of my plastic propellers are sanded for proper balance. This usually involves sanding the trailing edge of the heavy blade until the prop balances. I would paint mine but, I'm concerned that the paint will sag or accumulate in a particular spot and cause the prop to be off balance.

[ADW 123]

if you are flying it then that will work, if you arent then you can even re make our prop out of balsa or other materials and make it even better looking