Painting In The Right Order?

In the past, I have messed up a few Star Wars models through impatience but this time I intend to do everything right if it takes me nine years to finish. On the Millenium Falcon model there are six "hatches" aft of the top hull that should be painted medium gray. I can't decide whether it's best to first tape over the hatches then spray paint the hull and then do the hatches after the hull dries or whether I should individually paint the hatches then tape them over and spray paint the hull. Or does it matter which order things are painted? Opinions would be deeply appreciated.

Ron

Reply to
Ron
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Sometimes it matters, sometimes not. Deciding which order to paint, and more importantly, which parts to paint before assembly and which to paint after assembly, is one of the major skills to learn in scale modeling. With any new kit, one has to plan out the assembly and painting. Each model is unique.

The most important point is that assemblies which show a seam across a single color must be painted after assembly, filling and priming. Smaller one-piece parts are usually best painted before assembly. However, those parts which are the same color as the surface they are mounted on can be painted after.

Reply to
Don Stauffer

I'm not familiar with the Millenium Falcon model, Ron, but from your description, I would be most concerned about the ease of masking. That is assuming that your hatches are not separate pieces but rather molded on "hatch area". If the hatches are separate parts, then I would definately spray them separately. If they are molded on, you have the choice of taping over the hatch and using an Xacto to trim around the hatch leaving a hatch-shaped mask OR use many small pieces of tape to mask around the hatch and then spray the darker gray color on each hatch individually. Personally, I would feel that I would have an easier time of masking around the hatches and spraying the darker gray color. This also goes to the old wisdom of spraying a darkere color over a lighter color.

All that said, I would do the main lighter color first including Don's comments (above) concerning priming/filling/seams and then the darker color hatches after they are masked off.

T2

Reply to
Mrtsquare

The hatches are raised up from the surface of the hull, and actually it's pretty easy to mask them: putting a piece of that blue painters masking tape over each hatch, then rubbing the tip of a pen around the circumference of each one-- besides pushing the tape securely down onto the hatch, that makes a nice round circle for cutting.

When that's done I can either pull the tape off and use scissors to cut out the circle made by the pen or leave the tape on and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut around the circumference of each hatch. The scissors work a little better than using a knife as the circle made won't be at all damaged, while a knife-- although a bit easier & a bit quicker-- sometimes tends to nick the edges of the circles in places. :-)

Ron

Reply to
Ron

The hatches are raised up from the surface of the hull, and actually it's pretty easy to mask them: putting a piece of that blue painters masking tape over each hatch, then rubbing the tip of a pen around the circumference of each one-- besides pushing the tape securely down onto the hatch, that makes a nice round circle for cutting.

When that's done I can either pull the tape off and use scissors to cut out the circle made by the pen or leave the tape on and use the tip of a sharp knife to cut around the circumference of each hatch. The scissors work a little better than using a knife as the circle made won't be at all damaged, while a knife-- although a bit easier & a bit quicker-- sometimes tends to nick the edges of the circles in places. :-)

Ron

Well, OK, but would recommend using a much thinner tape than the blue painteres tape such as the scotch magig mending tape - a rather cloudy scotch tape. Take off a piece and stick it on your forehead for several seconds to collect a little forehead oil (sweat?). This will reduce its stickiness and reduce its tendency to pull up the previous white/liter coat of paint. BTW, make sure that you let the first lighter coats dry/cure for a day or 2 before doing the hatches. Put the scotch tape over/around the hatches and trim as necessary to leave only the hatches exposed. Mask off the rest of the ship with your blue painters tape and paper towels so as to ensure that the hatch darker gray color can be sprayed onto only the hatches. Once the hatches are sprayed, immediately clean you air brush and then remove the masking. This insures that the tape doesn't stay on so long as to pull up the backround color and has not dried/cured sufficiently to pull itself up when the masking is removed.

Since your hatches are circular, I would consider using a drawing circle compass and cutting the out til you come out with exactly the size of the hatches, and then make your masks off the model to reduce the damage to the model from trimming. Work slowly and to ensure you get the masks just right, put them on, burnish them to ensure paint doesn't get under, mask the rest of the model to avoid overspray, spray the hatches and then remove the masking.

Good luck;

T2

Reply to
Mrtsquare

Thanks for the tips; much appreciated. ;-)

Except with one minor difference I'll do as you suggest, as I was planning on using a fine brush to paint the hatches individually-- maybe they're actually vents-- whatever-- rather than spray them since it would only take a minute or two to do each one; possibly less.

Ron

Reply to
Ron

if you've got one of the mechanical/architectural drawing doodads with lots of different sized circles on it, you might get lucky enough that one of the holes is the right size.

Then you know exactly which size to cut

Reply to
John McGrail

OM wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

You can still find circle templates. I have 2 or three. One I found at a Staples or some such. It's plastic. The other I got from a hobby shop, it's metal.

Just be careful how much adhesive your tape has to block teh unused circles. Use as low a tack as possible. And they tend to load up with paint pretty quick, use an airbruch not a rattle can to reduce buildup and take your time.

Reply to
Gray Ghost

Any place that still sells drafting equipment (and there are a few) will have them. I use a RapiDesign No.40 Circle Template. It's fairly heavy, yet flexible plastic, ranges from 1 3/8" down to 1/16" and I've had it forever. I remember that they are (were) also available in metric for our European and Canadian friends 8-D.

Reply to
The Old Man

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I needed to draw some sophisticated curves for the Vulcan harp I was working on and found a lot of amazing things at the local art supply store that I haven't seen in years-- among them a set of circles that cost me about six bucks. One of them is just a tad bit larger than the circumference of the hatches, but not too much larger-- :-)

Ron

Reply to
Ron

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Odd Vulcan curves? Sounds like a job for the traditional French Curve.......

Reply to
The Old Man

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LOL. Before I discovered the *huge* Xerox machines at Kinky's-- uh, Kinko's--- I used those flexible rulers to make the curved shapes the way I wanted them. The only flaw is that after a while, the rulers no longer stay stiff and you can't keep them in the position you want without a lot of effort. :-)

Ron

Reply to
Ron

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