painter needed for 1/25 model
teegeefla
01-18-2014, 08:17 PM
Okay, after my ninth or tenth attempt to paint a Lindberg 1961 Impala coupe I am throwing in the towel, raising the white flag and looking for help. I have gone through two bodies and it looks like it might take a third to get this right.
I paint with rattle cans as I do not have any skill with an airbrush. I use Tamiya primer on all the attempts. I have built/modified fifty or so 1/43 kits and never had these problems with painting them, but I cannot get it right with this particular larger scale paint job. I am not a fan of clearcoating but do it when the situation demands; polishing has been an alternative but hard to get satisfaction, especially with edges and body contours. Since most of my builds are race cars, I actually prefer the natural look, not the over-glossed "clear bomb" approach; however this car is intended to be as close to stock as possible.
I have completed the build of the Impala interior and chassis, so all that is left is to finish the body. I want to paint the car in the Midnight Blue metallic color from 1961, and I made my first effort using the custom color paint from MCW and the Preval spray attachment. The results were ok but when I polished it I ruined it. Into the brake fluid bath for the first time.
This was followed by another unsatisfactory attempt with MCW (not the fault of the paint) and then several failed efforts in using custom mixed paint from a variety of 1:1 paint match companies. The problems ranged from too much of the metallic element in the paint looking out of scale to the colors not even coming close to matching the correct color. I even had a couple of cans of this paint that would spray either bone dry (I could not get a wet coat from 3" away) or would sputter and leave runs or an uneven spread of the metallic element.
By then, the first body was weakened and graining from so many trips into the brake fluid or EZ-Off (or whatever I could find that would strip the various brands of paint). I then moved onto a new body, tried the enamel approach, other lacquers etc and still had poor results. I also have at least a half dozen cans of various metallic paints that I bought and tested but are not close enough to the proper color.
I freely admit that the problem is 99% me and my lack of technique with painting in a larger scale, compounded by my inability to convert an adequate paint job into a smooth final finish.
I spend a lot of time prepping the body and getting the primer coat extremely smooth, using a progression of grits up to 2000 paper before I spray a drop of color. I do not have excessive orange peel, and other builds in 1/25 and 1/43 have only needed some buffing with Novus polish to get a smooth final result. I just seems I am snakebit on this Impala.
So...I am looking to hire someone with a high level of skill to prep, paint and finish a body for me. I think the MCW paint will be best (it was the closest of all the ones I tried) and I want the body to be finished with bare metal foil (and there is a lot of chrome trim on this particular car). I am open to completing the job with either clear coating or polishing or a combination of both. I have the detail master photoetch set for this car, and I would want it to be used for the various badges and lettering, so some pre-primer work is involved in removing the plastic logos and identification and some additional work in attaching the etch after the paint and before the final treatment.
I will provide the body, paint, photoetch and BMF but will leave the choice of clearcoat and/or polish to the painter.
If you are interested, please contact me either by e-mail or PM (see my profile for contact options) and give me your background, show me some examples of your work and hit me with a price. This model has consumed over a year of my time, is a key element of my collection, and something that I need to get completed. Thanks.
Tom
I paint with rattle cans as I do not have any skill with an airbrush. I use Tamiya primer on all the attempts. I have built/modified fifty or so 1/43 kits and never had these problems with painting them, but I cannot get it right with this particular larger scale paint job. I am not a fan of clearcoating but do it when the situation demands; polishing has been an alternative but hard to get satisfaction, especially with edges and body contours. Since most of my builds are race cars, I actually prefer the natural look, not the over-glossed "clear bomb" approach; however this car is intended to be as close to stock as possible.
I have completed the build of the Impala interior and chassis, so all that is left is to finish the body. I want to paint the car in the Midnight Blue metallic color from 1961, and I made my first effort using the custom color paint from MCW and the Preval spray attachment. The results were ok but when I polished it I ruined it. Into the brake fluid bath for the first time.
This was followed by another unsatisfactory attempt with MCW (not the fault of the paint) and then several failed efforts in using custom mixed paint from a variety of 1:1 paint match companies. The problems ranged from too much of the metallic element in the paint looking out of scale to the colors not even coming close to matching the correct color. I even had a couple of cans of this paint that would spray either bone dry (I could not get a wet coat from 3" away) or would sputter and leave runs or an uneven spread of the metallic element.
By then, the first body was weakened and graining from so many trips into the brake fluid or EZ-Off (or whatever I could find that would strip the various brands of paint). I then moved onto a new body, tried the enamel approach, other lacquers etc and still had poor results. I also have at least a half dozen cans of various metallic paints that I bought and tested but are not close enough to the proper color.
I freely admit that the problem is 99% me and my lack of technique with painting in a larger scale, compounded by my inability to convert an adequate paint job into a smooth final finish.
I spend a lot of time prepping the body and getting the primer coat extremely smooth, using a progression of grits up to 2000 paper before I spray a drop of color. I do not have excessive orange peel, and other builds in 1/25 and 1/43 have only needed some buffing with Novus polish to get a smooth final result. I just seems I am snakebit on this Impala.
So...I am looking to hire someone with a high level of skill to prep, paint and finish a body for me. I think the MCW paint will be best (it was the closest of all the ones I tried) and I want the body to be finished with bare metal foil (and there is a lot of chrome trim on this particular car). I am open to completing the job with either clear coating or polishing or a combination of both. I have the detail master photoetch set for this car, and I would want it to be used for the various badges and lettering, so some pre-primer work is involved in removing the plastic logos and identification and some additional work in attaching the etch after the paint and before the final treatment.
I will provide the body, paint, photoetch and BMF but will leave the choice of clearcoat and/or polish to the painter.
If you are interested, please contact me either by e-mail or PM (see my profile for contact options) and give me your background, show me some examples of your work and hit me with a price. This model has consumed over a year of my time, is a key element of my collection, and something that I need to get completed. Thanks.
Tom
Some_Kid
01-19-2014, 02:12 PM
Just wanted to comment on your thread. But it does take some time to be able to learn how to polish without burning through. Im a very heavy handed polisher so I have to be very careful.
You had mentioned that you go up to 2000 grit sand paper in body prep but I would suggest you get some polishing cloths or papers that have 3200-6000 grit. This will definitely make polishing easier for you.
When polishing I would use q-tips for sharp edges. Also sometimes it's not always necessary to polish an area when waxing could produce a high gloss and not cut the paint too much. I use meguiars scratch x and gold glass liquid wax. If you are concerned that you may burn through a certain portion of the paint. Wax it first to see if you get a satisfactory result.
Also knowing when to quit the polishing process is also very important. Finding the balance between all of it is simply a matter of experience. I would gladly paint this for you but I don't have a reliable way to eliminate dust. But I thought I would try to give you some advice. Hope this helps.
You had mentioned that you go up to 2000 grit sand paper in body prep but I would suggest you get some polishing cloths or papers that have 3200-6000 grit. This will definitely make polishing easier for you.
When polishing I would use q-tips for sharp edges. Also sometimes it's not always necessary to polish an area when waxing could produce a high gloss and not cut the paint too much. I use meguiars scratch x and gold glass liquid wax. If you are concerned that you may burn through a certain portion of the paint. Wax it first to see if you get a satisfactory result.
Also knowing when to quit the polishing process is also very important. Finding the balance between all of it is simply a matter of experience. I would gladly paint this for you but I don't have a reliable way to eliminate dust. But I thought I would try to give you some advice. Hope this helps.
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