New brass Milwaukee Bipolar EP-2 clinic- part 2

[Sokramiketes]

The smoothness of the paint is a huge improvement!

[robert3985]

The smoothness of the paint is a huge improvement!

+1

Cheerio!
Bob Gilmore

[u18b]

Orange has cured.
And I had several hours to spend on painting today.

Masking always takes me a while.



Airbrushed black on the body shells.




Glad I got the airbrushing problems worked out.




I was pleased that the noses came out a bit cleaner this time.




As almost always happens, there can be a bit of over spray (where the masking lifted a little and paint got underneath.).   I'll go back and re-mask and do a quick shot of orange.







I did something different this time.  Looking at some HO brass models, I saw that they painted the entire vestibule black.  I though that was a good idea.
Looks better.

[peteski]

Another big thumps-up Ron!

[Missaberoad]

Oh my! Those pics have me imagining a fantasy 1970's version! 

[coosvalley]

As almost always happens, there can be a bit of over spray (where the masking lifted a little and paint got underneath.).   I'll go back and re-mask and do a quick shot of orange.

A way to stop(or, at least, minimize) this is to spray a clear coat(flat, gloss, I use paint adhesion promoter because I buy it in BIG spray cans, but it's still just "clear") before the new color, or spray the masked edges with the same color being covered up, before spraying the new color...I've used both methods and they worked well for me, no more "spray bleeding"..

I am really glad you decided to re-paint these, looking much better!

[u18b]

Found some time to do some more work.

I touched up the slight overspray of the black.




I also stripped the walkways in acetone and cleaned them up.
I then re-painted them orange.

Much smoother.
Also, the rivets stand out more on the sandboxes.




Next steps are hard.

Masking for the red- especially on the nose.

And masking the orange top walkway surface in order to paint the underside of the walkway black.

[OldEastRR]

A way to stop(or, at least, minimize) this is to spray a clear coat(flat, gloss, I use paint adhesion promoter because I buy it in BIG spray cans, but it's still just "clear") before the new color, or spray the masked edges with the same color being covered up, before spraying the new color...I've used both methods and they worked well for me, no more "spray bleeding"..

I am really glad you decided to re-paint these, looking much better!

Another way to avoid blurry edges is to spray along the edges of the masking withy the color paint you used under the masking. Just along the edge of the masking. Then when that dries spray on the other color. The pre-spray of bottom color fills in all the little gaps along the masking the overcoat usually fills so a nice crisp line. That's a Jim Hediger trick.

[chessie system fan]

Comparing the latches or hinges (whatever they are--the square thingies on the color separation line) it looks like the black is not perfectly straight.  It dips slightly towards the right.   

[nkalanaga]

Yes, it does, now that you mention it.

[coosvalley]

Another way to avoid blurry edges is to spray along the edges of the masking withy the color paint you used under the masking. Just along the edge of the masking. Then when that dries spray on the other color. The pre-spray of bottom color fills in all the little gaps along the masking the overcoat usually fills so a nice crisp line. That's a Jim Hediger trick.

or spray the masked edges with the same color being covered up, before spraying the new color...

That's what I said!

[peteski]

While the techniques described here work well for when paint wicks under the masking tape, some of the areas on Ron's model had a feathered overspray. That means the masking tape was lifted high enough for the paint not to wick but simply be sprayed on. I think that in those areas the above mentioned sealing techinque would not have worked.

[u18b]

What Pete described is exactly what happened.

While I made sure the mask was well adhered to the model when the masking was done.... by the time I actually airbrushed it had become un-stuck in a few places.

Which leads to a bit of a discussion on how to mask-- what to think about.

Everybody has their own technique.  These are just a few things I think about.

This model is honestly the hardest I have ever painted.
What makes it particularly difficult is the wonderful 3-d details.  They are very hard to work around-- and keep everything straight.

The enemies of masking are many:

1.  Poor choice of material.  It can be not sticky enough, or it can be TOO sticky (and pull the paint off when removing).  I'm using Tamiya tape.

2.  Dust.   You have to constantly watch for dust fibers adhering to the mask at the edges. These fibers will either lead to noticeable bumps in the paint-- or when they are removed your separation between colors will not be smooth.  I constantly look for dust, rotating the model so the light hits it at different angles.  And I do ONE last check just before painting.

3.  But the number on enemy is oil.

God gave it to you on your hands.  And your hands get it everywhere.  When oil gets on the model or the mask (or both) the tape won't adhere properly.  It might even appear to adhere but then lift-- and that is probably what happened to me before.

When I paint a color on a model, I try very hard not to handle it to look at it with oily fingers.

When I'm ready to mask, I wash my hand thoroughly.  The best around the house item is probably something like Dawn dishwashing detergent which is strong on grease cutting.  Some soaps have extra emollients (for example some have silicone, or aloe, etc) added to help prevent a person's skin being dried out by the soap.  For the purposes here, we do NOT want these kinds of soaps.  The drier our skin the better.

But the problem is.... when the oils have been removed from your skin, your pores release more!   So if you are going to be masking for more than 30-45 minutes, then you probably need to wash your hands again before going too far.

Today I masked one Cab for the red.  I decided it was so hard, that doing two at one time was too much (the first try a while back I did two at one sitting- yikes).

Doing just one cab took me about 3 hours of painstaking work.  During that time, I washed my hands about every half hour or so (I didn't check the clock, but you can feel when they are not as dry as before).  I washed about 4 or 5 times during the masking and when I dried my hands, I used fresh paper towels (not the same kitchen towel over and over again).

But wait- your oil is everywhere.  Today I used a work mat, scissors, X-acto knife, steel ruler and a small screwdriver. Even the Tamiya tape dispenser could use a wipe down.   All these tools needed to be clean before I started using them.

Now granted, all of this is tedious and sounds like overkill, and a short paint job would not require as much diligence.
But this one is tough... so I went the thorough route.

I'll post photos of what I did today in a moment.

[u18b]

Overall, it turned out better than before.   A little touch up is needed here and there, but not much.




While the separation lines for the red turned out well, you can see on the right side the black masking did not adhere as well as it could.
Since it is on the back side, I won't worry with it too much.  I might do a quick mask when I'm finished and do a quick shot of black.




The front (which is a nightmare to mask) did much better than before.  That's a little bit of underspray in the bottom of the curves, but not that much.
But overall, the curves look better.

And that orange speck at the top of the door is where a small screwdriver accidentally scratched the paint when trying to get masking material off.  Easy to fix later.




Deep crevices are hard to deal with.  Space is tight.  Not only can you see that the black did not do well in the corner.... but look at those two red spots in the top recess.  That is red spray that found its way through very tiny gaps in the mask.  Easy to fix, but I wanted to help you see that separation lines is not all that you have to be concerned about.  The whole model must be perfectly sealed.



Not it is starting to look like a Hiawatha loco!

[wazzou]

@u18b - I recommend using powder free Nitrile gloves to handle the model before and during painting.