Second Build

[Detour]

Engraved the dragon this AM. The 60 deg bit did a better job, but still not the glass smooth finish that the 90 deg left. I'm wondering if it's because the 30 and 60 deg bits are my go-to bits for engraving, and so the 90 deg bit is sharper. I may try using a fresh bit next time.



I went ahead and hit it with the silver paint after cleaning it up by hand. That's when disaster struck. The silver paint had toluene in it, and it dissolved the black paint underneath it. Doh!



So definitely going to need to start over from scratch on this. The only question is, what's going to be the plan next time? I may end up getting some black acrylic instead of the clear and simply engraving the dragon into the front, then painting silver, then simply sanding and buffing it back smooth again. That's a tried and true procedure for wood, and I have the equipment to get the acrylic back glass smooth again. It would be a lot less complicated too, though the final product will leave the engraving portions on the top side where they'll fill up with dust and goop and other detritus during use...

[jonwhitear]

I love how this guitar's turning out. Bummer about the pick guard - I agree it would be nicer to have the engraved side on the back. Is there anything you could seal the black paint with before spraying the silver? If not, could you use a silver foil rather than paint? If you're not stuck on the colour, you could use copper foil. I think you can also get adhesive aluminium foil. Either would obviously solve your shielding at the same time.

[Detour]

Hmmm foil could work. I wonder how it looks from the backside though? i.e. will the adhesive show through? Also maybe if I sprayed down a coat of polyurethane or polycrylic over the black enamel paint it would keep the silver from reacting with the lower layers? I'll have to experiment on some blanks first. I notice that it didn't peel up everywhere - mostly where the solvents could get under the top coat. I assume that I don't get great adhesion between the glossy acrylic and literally anything I'm spraying down on it. I wonder if I could put a fine scuff on the acrylic to get better adhesion without impacting the final look - I'll also have to experiment with that. It's been 30 years since I did a paint job of this style - not since I built my Tamiya Hornet RC car.

This has me thinking though - in the remake I plan on polishing the paint off the front back to a gloss finish again... why not do that now with what I have on the backside? I'll try and sand off the surface paint (black and silver) and then polish the backside back to a gloss again, and then just apply the black over the silver. With the silver already embedded in the engraving it won't come off with the sanding, and so this might work... I've got nothing to lose at this point anyway.

[Detour]

Well this could work. Sanded the backside down to the plastic with 220, then polished it back up to ~4000. It's not a perfect finish, but I don't think I need to put in the time to get a perfect finish - I think the paint will fill in the gaps and smooth it out. If not, I guess I try again...

[FrankenWashie]

I am so in awe of that pickguard, even in the failing of the first coating. Great work

[Detour]

Thank you, I appreciate it! I can't take much of the credit for how awesome the dragon looks though. I hired someone on Fiverr to draw it for me... this is what I sent him:



And what he sent back eventually turned into this:



That's quite an artist! This is the guy if anyone needs a dragon drawn: https://www.fiverr.com/allentotingski

That said, I'm still not happy with the final product just yet. Couple of lessons learned:
1) The rough edges of the engraving did turn out to be an issue. It's hard to see in the photo, but it doesn't really pop - the silver paint is very much dulled by the rough edges of the engraving.
2) The eye looks pretty horrible. I won't be using the synthetic opal for that again. Next attempt I'll use red metallic paint instead.
3) I don't see any difference from not fully polishing the backside before painting the black. The gloss is coming from the factory pristine front side, and the back side just needs to be black.

Overall it's not popping enough and disappears into the guitar once installed. I think I'll try making it again. For the next one I'll use the 90 degree bit everywhere and try to cut it a little deeper. I'll lose some detail, but should gain some contrast. I'll use red paint for the eye instead of the synthetic opal. I may try experimenting with flame polishing the engraving too - the more polished I can get the engraving the more it will reflect light and the more it will pop (I'll have to try that on scrap though). As far as process goes, I'll start with the engraving on bare plastic, then paint the silver, sand it back, then top coat with the black.

Here it is set in place on the guitar. IMHO it looks good, but not great. I can do better...

[Detour]

OK - my kid wants to play it, and I need to get back to work, so I'm calling it good enough for now and am doing final install and setup. I still plan on cutting a new scratch plate at some point and installing it, but that can wait a while. I replaced the knobs with chromed ones, replaced the white plastic with black, and put black covers on the pickups. For the single coil I was able to easily replace the white cover with a black one, using the CNC to machine holes to match. For the humbucker I wasn't able to get the white covers off, so the black cover you see is over the whole thing - time will tell how much of an impact that makes.



Redid the back cover. I ended up staying with clear. The tint didn't hold up well around the edges of the engraving, and I like being able to see some of the shiny mechanism in the back. I think if I went with the blackout look, I'd need to go with a sexier shape than a rectangle, but the clear in rectangle works.



A closeup shot of the paint. In the end I like how it turned out and was super cheap compared to the commercial offerings. My only gripe is the clear coat isn't professional quality smooth - After a dozen or so coats I got lazy and called it good enough. It probably could have used another dozen or so coats to build up enough to fill in the divots from the crystals.



Next time it snows I'll try and get some glamor shots of the final product.

[Detour]

One last shot of the whole thing. Now it needs a name.

[McCreed]

Your "client" should really like that! Definitely a one of a kind. None of his jam buddies will have one like it!

BTW, I loved your "concept dragon" photo. I think you should have gone with that!

I nearly snorted coffee through my nose when I saw it! I'd say you & I must have been in the same drawing class at school...

Good work.

[jonwhitear]

That looks great - I'm sure your son is very happy with it!