Serpent Custom 3 - Priming
Just a short update today, but an important one!
Now that all my parts are dry, I began priming! This is huge because once the primer dries on even a small subset of parts, I can begin the digital camo patterns, which will easily be the most time consuming part, and prime the rest while i'm doing my painting. Speaking of which, I need to double check I have all the shades of blue I need, and maybe amazon a few more - vallejo are my paints of choice, acrylic all the way! I tend to like a dark primer and the Model Color line for realistic stuff, where as I'd use a grey or white primer and the Game color line for more vibrant/cartoony looks. Both can look great on a gundam. I stick to the separate metal color line for metallics.
Anyways, back on topic. First Thing I did is take my primer, put it in a ziploc bag (rolled tight so theres very little air). Then I shook it up and let it sit in warm water for 15-20 minutes. I find even on a nice, sunndy day like today, this just helps the primer to act smoothly right from the start.
While I was doing that, I did two things: prep the parts, and make a box. Well three things because I put my gloved from the last post back on so I wouldn't be touching the clean plastic with my fingers. But to prep the parts, while many of you use a block of styrofoam and skewers with alligator clips, I found a similar thing on amazon pretty cheap that I decided to try out. It doesn't give you the freedom to just put the skewers wherever, but all the alligator clips (20 for each base) have rubber coating to not hurt the part, and the base has enough weight to sit pretty still. I used these clips to hold up the first 2 full steps, from the backside of the part wherever possible.
Then I made my "amazon Prime-r" box (hardy har har! I'm so funny) out of the cardboard box from a recent delivery, cutting off one side and some flaps, and propping the back flap up with extra popsicle sticks from the sanding file sticks. This way if a part falls the box will catch it, and it limits some overspray, blocks some wind, and etc. Whenever priming outside I want to cut out as much wind and sun as possible, if i had a bigger box I'd have loved to have 3 sides and a roof, with just the part facing me open, but you'll see the box isn't quite that big and the area I was using was a little precarious.
with that settled, it was time to prime. A final check on the weather - almost perfectly sunny and 70F, less than 50% humidity, a little wind but nothing we couldn't handle. I headed out to the patio railing. I rent an apartment so I don't have a lot of good open space outdoors or a garage, but luckily theres plenty of room off the railing.
You'll notice one of the photos is from after priming. Before I started priming, I took another look and said "ya know, I might get some spray on the railing" and decided to lay down a dropcloth to protect it, but didn't think to take pictures till afterwards.
Anyways, everyone knows the spiel - Hold can 8-12 inches away, start spray off to the side of the parts, move steadily across the parts, not too fast or too slow. change the angle, and repeat. Prime, prime prime, until the first batch was done. Here's where I need to get some cheap foam blocks - I didn't want to touch or set the parts down on anything until after an hour had passed and they were relatively dry. If i had a nice foam block to stick the sticks into, I could leave them upright but use the heavy bases with some of the other 40 sticks I had. But for now I had a good batch started I'll be able to paint soon.
Typically this type of primer is mostly dry to the touch in 20 minutes, actually dry in about an hour, and hour and a half, and completely set after 24-48 hours. I've worked with things as little as 3 hours after being primed, but I usually prefer to wait at least a day to make sure everything has settled. After 30 minutes i put all those parts on one stand, and took 8 more parts out on the freed up stand and primed them. Now I've got 24 parts I'll be able to paint while the next batch I prime is drying.
I'm excited, everything's coming together! I've got my masking tape all set to go, and I really hope this paint scheme turns out good. Wish me luck!
Now that all my parts are dry, I began priming! This is huge because once the primer dries on even a small subset of parts, I can begin the digital camo patterns, which will easily be the most time consuming part, and prime the rest while i'm doing my painting. Speaking of which, I need to double check I have all the shades of blue I need, and maybe amazon a few more - vallejo are my paints of choice, acrylic all the way! I tend to like a dark primer and the Model Color line for realistic stuff, where as I'd use a grey or white primer and the Game color line for more vibrant/cartoony looks. Both can look great on a gundam. I stick to the separate metal color line for metallics.
Anyways, back on topic. First Thing I did is take my primer, put it in a ziploc bag (rolled tight so theres very little air). Then I shook it up and let it sit in warm water for 15-20 minutes. I find even on a nice, sunndy day like today, this just helps the primer to act smoothly right from the start.
While I was doing that, I did two things: prep the parts, and make a box. Well three things because I put my gloved from the last post back on so I wouldn't be touching the clean plastic with my fingers. But to prep the parts, while many of you use a block of styrofoam and skewers with alligator clips, I found a similar thing on amazon pretty cheap that I decided to try out. It doesn't give you the freedom to just put the skewers wherever, but all the alligator clips (20 for each base) have rubber coating to not hurt the part, and the base has enough weight to sit pretty still. I used these clips to hold up the first 2 full steps, from the backside of the part wherever possible.
Then I made my "amazon Prime-r" box (hardy har har! I'm so funny) out of the cardboard box from a recent delivery, cutting off one side and some flaps, and propping the back flap up with extra popsicle sticks from the sanding file sticks. This way if a part falls the box will catch it, and it limits some overspray, blocks some wind, and etc. Whenever priming outside I want to cut out as much wind and sun as possible, if i had a bigger box I'd have loved to have 3 sides and a roof, with just the part facing me open, but you'll see the box isn't quite that big and the area I was using was a little precarious.
with that settled, it was time to prime. A final check on the weather - almost perfectly sunny and 70F, less than 50% humidity, a little wind but nothing we couldn't handle. I headed out to the patio railing. I rent an apartment so I don't have a lot of good open space outdoors or a garage, but luckily theres plenty of room off the railing.
You'll notice one of the photos is from after priming. Before I started priming, I took another look and said "ya know, I might get some spray on the railing" and decided to lay down a dropcloth to protect it, but didn't think to take pictures till afterwards.
Anyways, everyone knows the spiel - Hold can 8-12 inches away, start spray off to the side of the parts, move steadily across the parts, not too fast or too slow. change the angle, and repeat. Prime, prime prime, until the first batch was done. Here's where I need to get some cheap foam blocks - I didn't want to touch or set the parts down on anything until after an hour had passed and they were relatively dry. If i had a nice foam block to stick the sticks into, I could leave them upright but use the heavy bases with some of the other 40 sticks I had. But for now I had a good batch started I'll be able to paint soon.
Typically this type of primer is mostly dry to the touch in 20 minutes, actually dry in about an hour, and hour and a half, and completely set after 24-48 hours. I've worked with things as little as 3 hours after being primed, but I usually prefer to wait at least a day to make sure everything has settled. After 30 minutes i put all those parts on one stand, and took 8 more parts out on the freed up stand and primed them. Now I've got 24 parts I'll be able to paint while the next batch I prime is drying.
I'm excited, everything's coming together! I've got my masking tape all set to go, and I really hope this paint scheme turns out good. Wish me luck!
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