 |
| The moment when I found out how good of a masking job I did. |
Previous Project Posts:
Lightyear Hyperspeed XL-07 Pre-Conversion
A post about the toy, it's features, and how it scales with 28mm miniatures (answer: quite well).
Lightyear Hyperspeed XL-07 Modest Modifications
Posting about the small details I added to the toy.
Zenithal Priming
I chose three spray primers with an eye towards the colors that would eventually go over them.
Krylon Fusion All-In-One Paint+Primer Matte Black
This went all over the toy as a base coat. Bonded to the plastic nicely.
Krylon Fusion All-In-One Paint+Primer Matte Coffee Bean
A dark brown that I sprayed over the top of the toy. My original intention was to paint the red directly over this, but it turned out too dark. However, it still provides a good undercoat for certain areas such as the cockpit.
Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (L) White
A highlight layer sprayed over the top of the toy. This resulted in a zenithal prime simulating light shining down on it. This stuff is the only reason I'm reluctant to take up an air brush for priming.
 |
| Not bad. I've done worse. |
Masking and Painting
I next masked off sections of the engines and the canopy. Both are getting metallic coats and I didn't want multiple coats filling in the details. I have enough experience with masking off sections of a model to know how little I know about it. This was good practice as the masked off sections were mostly straight shapes.
Krylon ColorMaster Paint+Primer Matte Poppy Red
This paint delivered good news and bad news. The dark and light underlayers show through the red paint. This makes the bottom noticeably darker than the top with a nice gradation in between. On the other hand, the paint was tacky in spots. I suspect the issue is with the different kinds of plastic used throughout the toy.
This illustrates something about our hobby - the only way to find out how two materials interact is to give it a try. No amount of internet searches, questions posed to online communities, or small scale experimentation will reveal every problem. These steps help, but it ultimately comes down to doing the thing and seeing how it works out.
I monitored the situation for awhile. The stickiness slowly improved, but not to the point where I felt comfortable painting over it. The project went into storage to give the paint more time to cure. That was back in 2022.
 | |
| The green arrow indicates areas of paint removed with my thumbnail. The blue arrow points to where I gently scratched the paint off with a screwdriver. Note that the primer underneath doesn't seem to be damaged. |
Updates
One of my hobby goals for this year is to get back into miniatures painting. With only a few months left in the year, I went digging around for projects to tackle. The red paint finally seemed to have cured which I checked on it. That sent this project back to my dusty work table.
Removing the masking tape revealed some clean work at protecting the sections I didn't want painted red. It's not a perfect job, but it's better than some of my prior attempts at masking. I'll want some more practice before taking on something that requires masking irregular shapes.
I brought out the paint brushes for the next step - the canopy's first coat of metallic color. I chose a new-to-me paint - Vallejo Game Color Metallic Tinny Tin. Basically, it's the replacement for my long dried up pot of Tin Bitz and does a wonderful job. It pops over the undercoat of Krylon Coffee Bean. I'm planning to add gold highlights over it to simulate sheen, but that's for later.
Then I made a mistake. Rather than use a miniature paint for the engine sections, I decided to test out a craft paint over one section - FolkArt Treasure Gold in Antique Silver. It went on thick. The brush marks were obvious and I worried about the details being filled in. I discovered the real problem after it dried. It did not adhere to the surface at all. I was able to remove it with my thumbnail.
At this point, I'll have to remove the FolkArt paint before moving on. Fortunately, I only painted one section with it as a test. I suspect that the FolkArt paint would do better on a more porous surface. I'll test it again when I have a project using MDF, cardstock, or something similar. For now, I have some scraping to do before I resume this project.
One of my hobby goals for this year is to get back into miniatures painting. With only a few months left in the year, I went digging around for projects to tackle. The red paint finally seemed to have cured which I checked on it. That sent this project back to my dusty work table.
Removing the masking tape revealed some clean work at protecting the sections I didn't want painted red. It's not a perfect job, but it's better than some of my prior attempts at masking. I'll want some more practice before taking on something that requires masking irregular shapes.
I brought out the paint brushes for the next step - the canopy's first coat of metallic color. I chose a new-to-me paint - Vallejo Game Color Metallic Tinny Tin. Basically, it's the replacement for my long dried up pot of Tin Bitz and does a wonderful job. It pops over the undercoat of Krylon Coffee Bean. I'm planning to add gold highlights over it to simulate sheen, but that's for later.
Then I made a mistake. Rather than use a miniature paint for the engine sections, I decided to test out a craft paint over one section - FolkArt Treasure Gold in Antique Silver. It went on thick. The brush marks were obvious and I worried about the details being filled in. I discovered the real problem after it dried. It did not adhere to the surface at all. I was able to remove it with my thumbnail.
At this point, I'll have to remove the FolkArt paint before moving on. Fortunately, I only painted one section with it as a test. I suspect that the FolkArt paint would do better on a more porous surface. I'll test it again when I have a project using MDF, cardstock, or something similar. For now, I have some scraping to do before I resume this project.
No comments:
Post a Comment