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Ok, this is my first real, proper, no crap taking, paint process
and I'd thought I'd share with you fellas.

Gotta love these pullback shells, the Skyline GTR R32 is a fave
of mine.

So here goes....

The Mask

First of all I gotta mask the shell and to do this I'm using
some pin striping tape for trucks that I scored from work.
This tape is more like a rubbery plastic that traditional
masking tape and I gotta say that it works really bloody well.
I can get right into the crevices of the windows and it
leaves no residue on the windows as at all. Booyah!



Now for the rear lights. I want to mask these lights so I can
put my red leds in later:



So I use this aussie product call bluetak. I've heard that Elmers Glue
(USA Product) works well in this situation also.



The bluetak fills in the holes and is flush providing a very good
mask for such a small area. It also works on areas that aren't sunken
but raised, like the front headlights in the pic below. I use a
hobby knife to straighten the edges of the bluetak.



So after doing this and sanding down the shell lightly with 600
wet and dry sandpaper she's all ready to go.



The primer

Now I'm new to this part of the process and I have noticed on a lot
of coloured shells I've painted that a primer is needed to help you
get that even colour and reduce any discrepancies.

He's the r32 with one very thin coat of primer:



With that done I've let it sit for half an hour and then hit it with
another coat of primer.



I guess you need to be carefull to to apply too much primer as it
can make the shell loose definition from too thick a layer applied.
I'm stil not sure if I needed to do two coats of primer.


Well that's it for the first installment, more to come. Feedback
from you experienced painters would be great.

ph2t.

I do 2 coats of primer on my jobs.. That looks great so far.. Detail is still sharp.. I like the way the primer gives it the sculpted clay look.



silla

ive found that 2 or 3 light coats of good auto paint is the shiznit. total detail but evenly covered. clearcoat protects.

on my 350z i painted the backside of the mirrors silver and then masked the front and painted over the silver.

Yeah I'm now trialling crazydave's method for flames on the hood and sides. I wanna get the pattern process down pat first before I apply it to this ride.

You know payaso that the primer was sticky for ages after the second coat. I was worried that it was too heavy but I learnt from my suprafuckjob(tm) that when in doubt, leave the bugger alone and don't continue spraying. After about a day the primer has dried completely and all is ok now.

ph2t.

You need some new primer mate. The stuff I use dries in about 20 min max..

If it takes that long to dry up, it probably is thicker than my stuff.

Try some "Krylon"


silla

I use model primer for pewter miniatures it dring in like 3-5 mins.
Mage by ral Partha but the Gamesworkshop stuff works just as good(a bit more $$) and I find that it lays in nice even thin coats.

Its the other paintng that always gets me lol I am used to hand painting stuff. But I have picked up ideas and mothods from all the posts.

ph2t what kind of clearcoat do you use? Do you warm it up before spraying?

payaso wrote:You need some new primer mate. The stuff I use dries in about 20 min max..

If it takes that long to dry up, it probably is thicker than my stuff.

Try some "Krylon"


silla

The shit is new, got it from Kmart, cost like $8, it's auto primer. When wifey ain't got my balls she's got the $$$$.

ph2t.

VooDooMafia wrote:I use model primer for pewter miniatures it dring in like 3-5 mins.
Mage by ral Partha but the Gamesworkshop stuff works just as good(a bit more $$) and I find that it lays in nice even thin coats.

Its the other paintng that always gets me lol I am used to hand painting stuff. But I have picked up ideas and mothods from all the posts.

ph2t what kind of clearcoat do you use? Do you warm it up before spraying?

I use some $2 nasty shit from the hardware store, it actually works well.
I heat up all my paints now, clear, coloured and primer for approx 15mins and then shake till my arm falls off then spray.

I've been trialling a method where I put flyscreen between the car and the spray can to make the mist even finer. I will be doing this process fully on the coats yet to be applied..

ph2t.

ya just gota get used to the nozzle. paint some pictures with it.

Well lets just say that I stuffed up. The bottom line is that the primer didn't allow the two top coats to stick to it. So as soon as I went to remove the flame mask all of the paint came off. Stupid bloody primer didn't let it stick, god this gives my the shits. You think bloody primer would stick to the bloody paint, but no! That's just too bloody much to ask for, arggghhhh!!!!!!

Heres the mask, was gonna look good. Almost killed my neck cutting out the bloody thing.



And here's the stuffup.



Game over and back to testing...............

ph2t.

I've had simular problems with undercoats of paint. Tamiya silver doesn't like anything sticking to it.

doh!
wonder if the primer didn't get to dry long enough?
man that sucks, but you know you can do it again and probably not get the same results.

I have had the same problem. I started sanding between primer coats. I find that it sticks better and I dry it under a 100W light. It helps it dry better. Just don't leave it under for too long. (I melted an S2000 that way)
I then went out and bought a cheap window fan. It sucks air out. I just put the body on a peice of cardboard on the window sill. I also tape and paper up the surrounding area (so I don't piss of my wife).
This allows me to paint in the house where it's warm. (It gets pretty cold where I live)


Also after painting, I leave the body alone for a full week.