Although having no experience whatsoever, I figured airbrushing the sunburst would yield the best results. Fortunately my Dad had two different brushes that I was able to borrow, as well as a few different nozzles.
I cut out a few LP shaped cardboard bodies and began practising until I got to a point where I felt marginally comfortable (and ran out of cardboard bodies). I masked off the neck pocket and took one last shot sans sunburst
My first attempt at airbrushing went well... until it didn't. About half way around the body things were looking pretty good, but then I started getting spattering and ended up with a grainy mess around the bottom
Fortunately I was able to remove the paint before it dried using Goo Gone followed by an all-purpose cleaner. From there I lightly sanded with 400 grit and applied a coat of sealer; and then dejected, I called it a day.
Sunburst attempt #2
The next day I tried again using the other airbrush at a lower PSI, this worked much better!
Not sure if this will help anybody, but here's the formula that worked for me: Aztek airbrush with a general purpose nozzle, using Createx Wicked Jet Black airbrush paint mixed 1:1 with Createx Reducer at 25 PSI.
Compared to the rendering I made in Photoshop, I'm happy with how it turned out
Remember earlier when I said that masking the binding would lead to heartbreak? Well here we are.
I let the paint dry for five days and began removing the masking around the binding. Somehow I slipped and my thumbnail put a 1" long scratch in the paint of the sunburst. To make things even more hilarious I tried to touch up the scratch by painting with a fine line paint brush and blending with a cloth; this actually removed a section of paint.
I had a mini conniption, composed myself, got out the airbrush again and repainted the affected area. Can you see it? Because I can!
I can't see it. Looks bloody good from here.
'As long as there's, you know, sex and drugs, I can do without the rock and roll.'
Holy wow, that is looking awesome, looking forward to part two!!
Fantastic burst, that’s going to look phenomenal when cleared.
Tony
Sorry, accidental double post, can’t seem to delete it.
Last edited by VonScott; 10-04-2018 at 04:34 PM. Reason: Double post
Looking great. I think you were wise to tape up the binding. A shame about the scrape but there's a very large chance you'd have added more than one scratch if scraping the binding. Plus, scraping the binding when it's covered in black paint (or any opaque colour), is very difficult and it's very easy to overdo it and scrape paint off the body (which means more touching up).
When the paint's dry, I'd suggest wetting the touched up area with turps or white spirit. If the colours blend together when wet so you can't see a difference, you should be fine once the clear coats go on.