pixelatedMAYHEM is always looking for new bloggers. If you think you have something to say about gaming, then you are more than welcome to join the team. If you would be interested in joining us send me an email with the subject of "pM Blogger".
Painting my GH3 Les Paul, Part 2
Part 1 had me prepping the faceplate for painting. This installment has me priming and laying down the base color coat. In addition I'll create the preliminary drawings for the design. It's starting to come together nicely and I'm getting excited about how it's going to turn out.
Follow the jump for Part 2.
Follow the jump for Part 2.
After it was all sanded down it was time to lay down a primer coat. The primer prepares the plastic and lays down a good foundation for the paint that is to come. I'm using Tamiya's Fine Surface Primer. It's what I use on all my models. It is a synthetic lacquer and has a mild solvent in it so it will etch the plastic a bit to get a good bite on it. Any primer would work just as good and be quite a bit cheaper, but I'm familiar with this one so I'm going with what I'm comfortable with since I'm going to be stepping outside of my comfort zone later in the process.
Before I went to prime it I made a couple of outlines of the faceplate so I would have something to draw the desing on. The faceplate is larger than a standard sheet of paper, but that's okay, I wasn't planning on having the design cover the entire face. I made a couple of different outlines with the guitar rotated in different directions so I had some choices.
Here is a shot of it all primed up and ready to go.
The first thing you'll notice is that it is white, not the typical gray of primer. This doesn't make a difference, it's just what color my primer of choice happens to be. One thing I notice while I was priming that I need to point out if you are thinking of painting your faceplate. In part 1 I said I only needed to scuff the white line when I was sanding instead of sanding it completely away. This is still true for me, but if you plan on using a light color, you may want to sand the lines completely off. They are raised a bit off the faceplate surface and the hollows at the edge of the line can be seen on light colors.
After I had it completely primed, I set it aside overnight. I did this partly to let it dry completely, but mostly because it was getting late and I didn't have a good light set up in my painting area. An hour or two is really all you need to let this primer dry. You mileage may vary, but I don't recommend painting on top of the primer until it has been set aside for at least 2 hours.
While I had it set aside, I pulled out my drawing templates. A few minutes tinkering and I decided that my design would fit best on the one that has the faceplate running straight up the length of the paper. I lose a bit of the edge of each side, but I won't be using it, so that's no big deal.
I've always been a fan of the old 50's and 60's style hot rods, complete with flame paint job. This is the design I'm going to be doing. This is also where I step outside of my comfort zone. You see, I've never actually done hand painted flames. Model car flames are usually decals, so this will be something new.
To make it worse, I'll be doing a a two flame overlay so I have to do a flame design twice. I'll be free hand drawing the flame patterns onto my faceplate so this is just a pattern to go by while I do that. How about a shot of the design before we go on.
It's may be a little hard to visualize when you don't have it in your minds eye like I do. The flames with the black outline are the first ones I'm going to paint, in silver, so they will be obscured a bit when I paint the second set on top. Obviously, this means that the pencil outlined flames are the second layer which will be in a contrasting color, burgundy metallic.
After the primer dried I painted the base color over the whole faceplate. I've been going on and on about how important prep is to the final product and here is where that comes to an end. Once the color coat goes down it's hard to do anything beneficial or detrimental to the life of the paint job. I'm going to take this step slow and build up the paint in layers. The first 2 layers are mist layers and barely any paint actually builds up on the surface. Since the primer is flat, it is actually a very rough surface. These layers start to build up the paint in the small valleys in the paint. The next layer actually covers the entire surface with color. The 4th layer is more coloring to add thickness to the paint and ensure that all areas are covered. After this layer dries to the touch I check it for blemishes. Since I found a few bubbles and dust marks, I very lightly sanded them out. Layer 5 of paint is another color coat to cover the spots I just sanded. I let the last color coat dry for an hour or two before painting the last coat of paint, the wet coat. This is a very thick coat, almost to the point of running. The idea behind it is that it is thick enough that it will dry slowly allowing the paint to self-level a bit and get a smoother surface on its own. I'm not going to polish the faceplate so I'd like the paint to be as smooth as possible straight from the can.
Here is the faceplate after all the painting is done.
It's metallic black so parts of it look a bit off in this shot. If you look at the bright spot from the flash you can see it's not perfectly smooth, but it's close enough for this purpose. Finally, I have a close up shot showing off the metallic flakes in the paint.
That's about as far as I can go for now. I'm going to let the color coat cure for a day or two. I'll be cutting the template directly on it so I want the paint to harden as much as possible before I get to the that point.
The third installment will have me transferring my design onto a template and actually laying down the preliminary design paint.
In the fourth and final installment, I'll pull out the airbrush and lay down some detail paint, finish up the main design paint work and clear coat for protection.
Before I went to prime it I made a couple of outlines of the faceplate so I would have something to draw the desing on. The faceplate is larger than a standard sheet of paper, but that's okay, I wasn't planning on having the design cover the entire face. I made a couple of different outlines with the guitar rotated in different directions so I had some choices.
Here is a shot of it all primed up and ready to go.
The first thing you'll notice is that it is white, not the typical gray of primer. This doesn't make a difference, it's just what color my primer of choice happens to be. One thing I notice while I was priming that I need to point out if you are thinking of painting your faceplate. In part 1 I said I only needed to scuff the white line when I was sanding instead of sanding it completely away. This is still true for me, but if you plan on using a light color, you may want to sand the lines completely off. They are raised a bit off the faceplate surface and the hollows at the edge of the line can be seen on light colors. After I had it completely primed, I set it aside overnight. I did this partly to let it dry completely, but mostly because it was getting late and I didn't have a good light set up in my painting area. An hour or two is really all you need to let this primer dry. You mileage may vary, but I don't recommend painting on top of the primer until it has been set aside for at least 2 hours.
While I had it set aside, I pulled out my drawing templates. A few minutes tinkering and I decided that my design would fit best on the one that has the faceplate running straight up the length of the paper. I lose a bit of the edge of each side, but I won't be using it, so that's no big deal.
I've always been a fan of the old 50's and 60's style hot rods, complete with flame paint job. This is the design I'm going to be doing. This is also where I step outside of my comfort zone. You see, I've never actually done hand painted flames. Model car flames are usually decals, so this will be something new.
To make it worse, I'll be doing a a two flame overlay so I have to do a flame design twice. I'll be free hand drawing the flame patterns onto my faceplate so this is just a pattern to go by while I do that. How about a shot of the design before we go on.
It's may be a little hard to visualize when you don't have it in your minds eye like I do. The flames with the black outline are the first ones I'm going to paint, in silver, so they will be obscured a bit when I paint the second set on top. Obviously, this means that the pencil outlined flames are the second layer which will be in a contrasting color, burgundy metallic.After the primer dried I painted the base color over the whole faceplate. I've been going on and on about how important prep is to the final product and here is where that comes to an end. Once the color coat goes down it's hard to do anything beneficial or detrimental to the life of the paint job. I'm going to take this step slow and build up the paint in layers. The first 2 layers are mist layers and barely any paint actually builds up on the surface. Since the primer is flat, it is actually a very rough surface. These layers start to build up the paint in the small valleys in the paint. The next layer actually covers the entire surface with color. The 4th layer is more coloring to add thickness to the paint and ensure that all areas are covered. After this layer dries to the touch I check it for blemishes. Since I found a few bubbles and dust marks, I very lightly sanded them out. Layer 5 of paint is another color coat to cover the spots I just sanded. I let the last color coat dry for an hour or two before painting the last coat of paint, the wet coat. This is a very thick coat, almost to the point of running. The idea behind it is that it is thick enough that it will dry slowly allowing the paint to self-level a bit and get a smoother surface on its own. I'm not going to polish the faceplate so I'd like the paint to be as smooth as possible straight from the can.
Here is the faceplate after all the painting is done.
It's metallic black so parts of it look a bit off in this shot. If you look at the bright spot from the flash you can see it's not perfectly smooth, but it's close enough for this purpose. Finally, I have a close up shot showing off the metallic flakes in the paint.That's about as far as I can go for now. I'm going to let the color coat cure for a day or two. I'll be cutting the template directly on it so I want the paint to harden as much as possible before I get to the that point.
The third installment will have me transferring my design onto a template and actually laying down the preliminary design paint.
In the fourth and final installment, I'll pull out the airbrush and lay down some detail paint, finish up the main design paint work and clear coat for protection.
I can't wait to see this done and on the LP ... though the Sex Pistols faceplate is really pretty awesome.
Guess I'll have to get my own LP and buy it off of you. ;)