Hi All, finally found the time (and weather) to start my first ever kit after having it for 4 or 5 months! Here is what i've done so far and some of the things i've found. I have a few questions moving forward as well so any help is appreciated.
First of all i did the check of all parts and did a mock build. The pictures don't show it but i put the tuning pegs in and ran some thread down to check the neck alignment etc and i must say the kit was so much better than i anticipated, very happy with it.
Then i started the sanding process. The wood was in pretty good shape to begin with so didn't have to sand too much. I watched the sanding video from here (i'm not much of a handyman so needed all the help i could get) but ended up sanding with 240, 600 then 1200 which turned out to be too fine for painting! So on advice i sanded back with 400 just lightly to get some grip.
Once that was done, i tapped up the neck pocket and filled a couple of key holes and made a makeshift spray booth. I purchased the SCA Primer / Filler, White and Clear acrylic paints for the next step.
I sprayed around 5 or 6 light coats of the Primer / Filler leaving around 15min between coats. Left it overnight and did a light sand with 400 dry just to even out some paint blobs etc. There were a couple of spots i could start to see the wood, but for the most part was all good (enough coats of Primer). I had some gloves on while spraying and i found my finger was slipping forward and just getting in front of the spray, causing it to spray blobs! Easily fixed but felt pretty silly.
I had a two paint run issues in the colour coat on the front where the monkey grip is (i was so disappointed). Trying to spray inside the monkey grip was difficult and so i avoid it for the most part after that. I sprayed around 5 or 6 coats lightly of the white colour and besides the run issues was very happy with the first set of coats. I'm now letting that dry before moving on as the weather is too hot today to spray.
1. I do have a couple of questions though moving on from here. I noted a couple of very small dents which i hadn't picked up before and not sure how to deal with them moving forward. Do i fill before moving on and if so how? They are around the size of a grain of sand but noticeable.
2. Do you sand between coats of your final colour? If so do you wet or dry sand? I'm a bit unsure of where to from here. Wasn't sure if i should just continue on with the coats until i'm ready for the clear and then sand before the clear and after the clear etc?
3. For the monkey grip, thinking of just using a brush as the spray can is not working for me.
I must say though, i surprised myself as i've never really built anything before, and was very happy with the SCA spray cans, highly recommend if you don't have spray equipment.
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