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Painting my GH3 Les Paul, Part 4
In part 1, I prepped the plastic and got it ready to be painted. Part 2 had me priming the plastic, drawing the flame design on paper, and laying down the backing color paint. Part 3 I finally started painted the design on it. Finally, the faceplate is done. It's been an interesting week. It's not exactly as great as I had hoped, but it was first time doing it. Maybe I'll do another and make it better. I have a better idea, what not to do now.
Let's get right to it. Follow the jump to see the finished piece.
Let's get right to it. Follow the jump to see the finished piece.
I want to apologize, I don't have one of the intermediate photos I had planned on taking for this article. I got excited and went straight from the airbrush to painting the color down. *big sheepish grin*
After letting the first color layer dry, I masked it off again with strips of tape. Note, a clear coat should have gone down first, the tape pulled the silver up a bit. It's hard to tell in the final photos, but I had to do some touch ups with a brush after was done. After masking the entire faceplate, I drew the second flame design and cut it out using the same process I used for the first design layer in part 3.
After I cut out the flames it was time to start painting. Remember in part 3 I avoided bleeding under the tape by spraying a layer of the black background color first. This way if it bleeds, it will not be seen because the bleed is the same color as the background. Since the new flames cross the boundary between the silver flames and the back background I can't use silver, black or any color for the initial layer. So I have to use clear paint this time. You don't need a heavy layer, just enough to seal any leaks.
After the clear has dried it's time to start laying on the flames. I'll be using Testor's Burgundy Red Metallic. SInce it's a metallic paint, it is semi-transparent and will get some of it's color from the color behind it. Dark colors will cause it to be flatter and reduce the depth of the paint, while light colors will increase the depth and brighten it. I chose to use silver, since the metallic nature will increase the beauty of the metallic burgundy, plus it will highlight the burgundy so that it goes nicely with the silver flames.
After the silver has dried a bit, I pulled out the airbrush and went around the edges in black. I filled in all the flame "extensions" in black as well. This will give the flames a subtle effect as if they were slightly "cooler" around the edges since it won't be as bright as the center portion. This is where I wanted to get the picture, but alas I don't have one so you'll just have to imagine it. Sorry.
Ok, we are on the home stretch now. After the black edging has dried a bit it's time to start laying down the burgundy finally. Going back to the same technique I used in Part 1 for the backing color, I give it 2 mist coats. I only give it 1 color coat since I don't want the color to be so heavy that you can't tell there is highlighting. I finish off with the wet coat to give it a nice finish.
After about 2 hours drying time I pull the tape off and set it aside. After a couple more hours dry time I put down a clear coat to protect it. I originally bought some lacquer gloss coat for it, but since I'm spray painting in the basement and lacquer has a lot of smelly fumes I decided to use some clear enamel that we had in the basement. I put about 8 coats of clear down before doing the wet coat this time. I'm slowing building depth to give it a nice thick protective shell. After drying I was surprised to see not a high gloss shine, but a semi-gloss finish. The spray can I was using didn't have a finish type labeled on it so I assumed it was gloss. At this point I could have put the lacquer on it to get the shine I wanted. I went to bed to sleep on it for a while. When I woke I knew I was going to leave it semi-gloss. It looks better against the black plastic than a high gloss shine would. They look like they were made to go together instead of having the face plate look like it was a separate piece. That was a happy accident.
You've stuck with me for a long time so now it's time for the pay off. Here is the finished faceplate.
And finally, a shot of the faceplate on the guitar controller.
After letting the first color layer dry, I masked it off again with strips of tape. Note, a clear coat should have gone down first, the tape pulled the silver up a bit. It's hard to tell in the final photos, but I had to do some touch ups with a brush after was done. After masking the entire faceplate, I drew the second flame design and cut it out using the same process I used for the first design layer in part 3.
After I cut out the flames it was time to start painting. Remember in part 3 I avoided bleeding under the tape by spraying a layer of the black background color first. This way if it bleeds, it will not be seen because the bleed is the same color as the background. Since the new flames cross the boundary between the silver flames and the back background I can't use silver, black or any color for the initial layer. So I have to use clear paint this time. You don't need a heavy layer, just enough to seal any leaks.
After the clear has dried it's time to start laying on the flames. I'll be using Testor's Burgundy Red Metallic. SInce it's a metallic paint, it is semi-transparent and will get some of it's color from the color behind it. Dark colors will cause it to be flatter and reduce the depth of the paint, while light colors will increase the depth and brighten it. I chose to use silver, since the metallic nature will increase the beauty of the metallic burgundy, plus it will highlight the burgundy so that it goes nicely with the silver flames.
After the silver has dried a bit, I pulled out the airbrush and went around the edges in black. I filled in all the flame "extensions" in black as well. This will give the flames a subtle effect as if they were slightly "cooler" around the edges since it won't be as bright as the center portion. This is where I wanted to get the picture, but alas I don't have one so you'll just have to imagine it. Sorry.
Ok, we are on the home stretch now. After the black edging has dried a bit it's time to start laying down the burgundy finally. Going back to the same technique I used in Part 1 for the backing color, I give it 2 mist coats. I only give it 1 color coat since I don't want the color to be so heavy that you can't tell there is highlighting. I finish off with the wet coat to give it a nice finish.
After about 2 hours drying time I pull the tape off and set it aside. After a couple more hours dry time I put down a clear coat to protect it. I originally bought some lacquer gloss coat for it, but since I'm spray painting in the basement and lacquer has a lot of smelly fumes I decided to use some clear enamel that we had in the basement. I put about 8 coats of clear down before doing the wet coat this time. I'm slowing building depth to give it a nice thick protective shell. After drying I was surprised to see not a high gloss shine, but a semi-gloss finish. The spray can I was using didn't have a finish type labeled on it so I assumed it was gloss. At this point I could have put the lacquer on it to get the shine I wanted. I went to bed to sleep on it for a while. When I woke I knew I was going to leave it semi-gloss. It looks better against the black plastic than a high gloss shine would. They look like they were made to go together instead of having the face plate look like it was a separate piece. That was a happy accident.
You've stuck with me for a long time so now it's time for the pay off. Here is the finished faceplate.
And finally, a shot of the faceplate on the guitar controller.
I would definitely go for something like this if the Xplorer had faceplates. Sadly my Les Paul has connection issues where it's detachable.
I've been lucky with mine so far, it still reads the buttons perfectly. Good thing, cause I hate the X-Plorer.
Thank you for putting this together. it was rather insightfully.
i tried to make my own custom faceplate for my Les Paul G.H. guitar. but i failed. had to use goo gone to remove all of the paint. after that it scuffed it up a bit. took the shine off of the faceplate also. and the white paint around the edge. so no sanding required. i am making a Michigan wolverines faceplate. yellow and blue. with a big M on the bottom of the faceplate. i am in the middle of it as of now. hoping it will look good.
its has a main cote of yellow with a blue M. as i said. i hope it turns out. thanks for the info. ill put it to good use. thanks again...