Before repainting I wiped down with metho, hand sanded the raised grain, second metho wipe down, more hand sanding, and then thought I was ready to go. I was not.
This time, mixing things up and going for consistency, I laid down a base coat of black water based acrylic (all wiped on). Then streaked on lines of the blue paint that will mix in to create the blue/grey colour I'm after.
By rubbing back hard and not allowing any surfaces time to dry, I got something I really like and that is finally pretty consistent.
Unfortunately, the forearm contour grain raised right up again and it was impossible to get a colour consistent with the front.
I sanded back to 240. More metho. More sanding. Up to 400 this time. Multiple times, multiple directions, until the grain stopped raising anywhere on the body. This also allowed me to spot some dings and scratches that I had completely missed and take care of them. In the end the body is super smooth but still has black acrylic highlighting the grain.
I watered down the blue paint 50/50 and brushed it on this time. I got a consistent result but it's kind of meh. I may do another coat later. Maybe less watered down, and then add a green blue. Welcome to the idiot lab, all we do is experiments.
The sides and back will be black, but I'll still likely need to attend to some of the edge transitions.
After that I went and had a shower because I feel like crap. Turns out I've got a 38.5 degree temperature, so that thing the kids picked up at school has decided it wants a piece of me. Woot. At least I achieved something today.
Reply With Quote