Gabriel,
your dusk photos are really excellently done, as they really show off your top notch build & two tone paint scheme. Well done my friend, very well done.

I'm really envious of what looks a perfect end to a beautiful day, as we still have a good month of winter to go, even though for the most part it's been more like early spring with a few exceptions.

Joel

Thank you' Michael!
Yes, it shows the metallic color much better, and also the depth of the transparent orange coat. My composition definitely suffers, but the model proper looks good. Also to be noted I have used a multi-focus camera, that's why no blur on the model, but only on the background.



Thank you, Joel. Yes, I was rather unhappy with the two colours were contrastig under artificial light, even set as 5500K temperature.



Yes, I've heard it was a mild winter both in North America and Europe. I know it sounds like a blasphemy, but here the weather is "boring": 24C in the early morning - 29C at noon - 26C (75F - 84F - 79F) in the evening And that average works just fine until the hurricane comes
Gabriel

Beautiful shots Gabriel, definitely shows off the great metallic in your paint work!

We have just officially finished Summer here. To give it a proper send-off, mother nature has given us approximately double our average MONTHLY rainfall for March in the past 48 hours.

Cheers, D

Quick question - when using Zero paints, do you put the Clearcoat Lacquer on before or after the decals?

Thanks

I'm not the Zero paints guru, having just used it for the first time, but in general I find that the decals will settle down over any smooth paint finish, then I clear coat after decals to protect them and the underlying paint from subsequent weathering products.

Cheers, D

Thanks Damo. Bit of a moot point at the moment as my airbrush won't go. I think its leaking air round the nozzle shroud so trying to get hold of some beeswax off a friend whose dad keeps bees to try and seal it up.

Neil,
There's no reason to ever use a clear gloss coat as a base for decals if you can get a smooth paint surface. I finally mastered that "Voodoo" art in my aircraft days after much effort and exchanging emails with Paul Budzik, who literally invented the procedure.

Zero, Gravity, & MCW lacquer based paints are true auto lacquers as per all of them. They're thinned with the proper lacquer thinner also according to them.

As I've posted many times the key to a perfect paint job is the prep work. The body shell needs to have all its issues properly taken care of as they will show up in the final product. Then a rub down with #600 or #800 wet emery cloth so that the primer has a surface to bite into.

Next the primer coat. Lite even passes, no cheating and stopping. 3 min between coats. I use Mr. Finisher 1500 primer cut with Mr. Leveler #400 thinner 2 parts paint to 3 parts thinner. It's really thin. Again, lite even coats until the surface is consistent. rub out with #3000 Tamiya sponge wet. It should be very smooth to the touch. You can go 1:1 if you have a lot of variation in colors including any filler, but you'll have more rubbing out to do.

Color coats with the 3 companies I mentioned are exactly the same. The paints are super thin for a reason. They lay down perfectly. Lite, even coats, no cheating with stopping. 3 min after each tack coat, 5 min between wet coats. Done correctly, you'll only have to rub out the color coat with 6,000 or 8,000 followed by 12,000.

You now have a surface so smooth that you can decal directly on top of it. The advantages to it is that you're not filling in any recessed panel lines with a ton of clear gloss that will cause some extra work and or issues with the panel line wash. The decals are much easier to work with on a smooth surface, and will lay down more consistently with less issues.

Hope that my long winded explanation is of some help.

Joel

Getting to the sharp end of the business here folks!

Running update on builds

3 weeks left to go, almost 33,000 views and 650+ posts
23 enlisted (two dropped out now - Pasi and Roman)
11 builds in progress (+1 still looking for decals)
9 builds completed

Aussiereg (Damian) - '36 Ford 5-Window Coupe - COMPLETED
Spruslayer (Mike) - '65 F-100 Service Truck - COMPLETED
TacFireGuru (Mike) - Louisville Delivery Truck - COMPLETED
Stickframe (Nick) - IMSA Mustang - COMPLETED
Joel_W (Joel) - '85 Mustang Roush Body - COMPLETED
bluebell914 (Patrick) - 66 GT40 COMPLETED
Cosimodo (Michael) Build 1 LHD - Escort RS1600 MkI 1973 RAC - COMPLETED
jimb (James) - '48 Deluxe Convertible "Greased Lightning" - COMPLETED
Szmann (Gabriel) - '66 F-100 Flareside - COMPLETED

PasiAhopelto (Pasi) - '57 "Fireball Roberts" NASCAR - Body Painted - withdrawn due to paint issues
md72 (Mark) - '51 Custom Coupe - Chassis and drive train completed, interior tub painted and assembled, body prepped and primed
Dixon66 (David) - 1st Generation Bronco - Undercarriage, drive train and roll cage completed, engine detailing underway and body primed
tinbanger (Richard) - '65 Mustang 2+2 Fastback - Interior complete, body painting underway
Cosimodo (Michael) Build 2 RHD - Escort RS1600 MkI 1973 RAC - Body painted, drive train assembly, interior detailing
Hwa-Rang (Jesper) - '65 Mustang 2+2 Fastback - Body Prep Work
forest1000 (David) - "Thunderbat" NASCAR - Painted, decals on, assembly pending
JClapp (Jonathan) - '15 Model T - Parts Prep
Merlin (Rowan) - '40 Standard Coupe - Chassis/Engine Painted, Decals AWOL
Merlin (Rowan) - '57 Del Rio Wagon - Reviewed and hit the bench, engine/chassis painted, body prepared
Delbert (Delbert) - '57 Fairlane 500 - Body paint stage 1
RedwingNev (Neil) - 2017 GT40 Le Mans - Interior and base completed, shell primed
heavyjagdpanzer (Bill) - Mustang "Blue Max" Funny Car - Tube frame completed, engine assembly detailed and installed

Littorio (Luciano) - '65 Falcon Ranchero or '60 Starliner - enlisted
Ray_from_SA (Ray) - WRC Escort, Focus or Fiesta (or all 3 ??) - enlisted
betheyn (Andy) - enlisted
IronOwl (Sascha) - enlisted

Cheers, D

Impressive statistics so far!
650+ replies - that's more than 2/3 of my posts since I joined Automodeler, and almost half of my replies all across Kitmaker Network. I've been lazy, the statistics say )))

Gabriel

D,
As Gabriel said, the stats are truly amazing. You've really done an outstanding job, and I do consider your my co-leader in every since of the way.

Joel

Wow, I had to wade through 1 1/2 pages of text to find a photo on this page.
Anyhow, I managed to get the first coat of paint on the 51.

Had to polish out the hood when some smutz got caught in the paint.

Think I may have gone too flat on the first coat.

I'll cut back on the flat base for the next coat.

Mark, interesting approach!
I just had a conversation with a Canadian modeller these days, looking for the best ways to replicate the peeling off clear coat. I'm watching it.

Gabriel

I'm trying a salt treatment. You can see below the chrome line and on the front bumper where there's still some salt in place. I've got a coat of Tamiya Red-brown under the salt. Suppose you could do the same thing with salt on top of the color coat and spray gloss clear over it.

Mark,
That's an interesting approach. The 1st coat does look good. I'm sure that the best is yet to come.

Joel

Joel, Damian
I am going to call time on my second Escort build. The only thing required now is for me to make the decals but I can't see me doing that in the next few weeks. So I just might roll the car over to the next door garage for the Queens.

cheers
Michael

Michael,
I see. But the main thing is that you completed the 1st Escort, which is your official GB build. Leaving the 2nd one for the current Shelf Queen build is way better then just boxing it up.

Joel

Thanks for the advice Joel. My attempts to fix my airbrush were in vain, and at the weekend I gave up. For 13 years I've been battling with my Iwata Revolution, and it's a roll of the dice every time I use it whether it actually works for me. So rather than buying another expensive replacement, I decided to buy a couple of cheap knock-offs off Amazon. With my pathetic airbrush skills I'd rather battle something cheap than something expensive. Yesterday the first one arrived.



So I sprayed my Zero Paints white, and it was SOOOOOOOO thin. So incredibly thin. It isn't white paint, it's a transluscent white wash. In the areas where the white primer isn't so thick like here (where I've hand to sand it back, then put another thin coat of primer over it) it does nothing apart from add a light sheen.



Is it my airbrushing I thought? Ever paranoid about my lack of ability in this area. Nope, I tried the red and the blue and they sprayed beautifully, a couple of light coats providing good coverage. I didn't get a particularly tight line but that could be me or the airbrush - doesn't matter as I never spray freehand anyway.



On a test bed the blue went down great. That faint white splattering you can see on the wingtips is two coats of white.


My pipettes also show the difference. Nice residual colour in the blue and red. Almost clear in the white.


So I'm very frustrated right now. This build has been stalled for weeks because of the weather, and then my airbrush issues. The kit actually comes with decals for the white Ford stripe, but its around the front bumper and the doors that I really need a good coat of white paint. I'm going to order some Hataka Lacquer Insignia White, hopefully it will be here in the next few days.

Michael, perfectly understandable. Much better to have the time to do this job properly than try to rush to meet a deadline, especially when you have already completed the other build!

I look forward to watching the final stages at some time down the track (possibly a Garage Queen).

Cheers, D

Hi Neil.

I can see why you are frustrated. I am definitely NOT a Zero Paints expert, having just tried it for the first time, but to me that looks like the paint isn't fully mixed, or there is a problem with the pigment load.

I know that the idea with Zero is to build up light layers to sneak up on the depth of colour that you want, but given the total lack of pigment in your coats, it might end up half an inch thick!

I hope you can find the problem, or have better luck with the Hataka.

Cheers, D

I wish everybody here good health in these difficult times, stay safe and look after those closest to you.

Running update on builds

2 weeks left to go, Over 33,700 views and almost 670 posts
23 enlisted (two dropped out now - Pasi and Roman)
10 builds in progress (+1 still looking for decals)
9 builds completed

Aussiereg (Damian) - '36 Ford 5-Window Coupe - COMPLETED
Spruslayer (Mike) - '65 F-100 Service Truck - COMPLETED
TacFireGuru (Mike) - Louisville Delivery Truck - COMPLETED
Stickframe (Nick) - IMSA Mustang - COMPLETED
Joel_W (Joel) - '85 Mustang Roush Body - COMPLETED
bluebell914 (Patrick) - 66 GT40 COMPLETED
Cosimodo (Michael) Build 1 LHD - Escort RS1600 MkI 1973 RAC - COMPLETED
jimb (James) - '48 Deluxe Convertible "Greased Lightning" - COMPLETED
Szmann (Gabriel) - '66 F-100 Flareside - COMPLETED

md72 (Mark) - '51 Custom Coupe - Chassis and drive train completed, interior tub painted and assembled, body paint and weathering underway
Dixon66 (David) - 1st Generation Bronco - Undercarriage, drive train and roll cage completed, engine detailing underway and body primed
tinbanger (Richard) - '65 Mustang 2+2 Fastback - Interior complete, body painting underway
Hwa-Rang (Jesper) - '65 Mustang 2+2 Fastback - Body Prep Work
forest1000 (David) - "Thunderbat" NASCAR - Painted, decals on, assembly pending
JClapp (Jonathan) - '15 Model T - Parts Prep
Merlin (Rowan) - '57 Del Rio Wagon - Reviewed and hit the bench, engine/chassis painted, body prepared
Delbert (Delbert) - '57 Fairlane 500 - Body paint stage 1
RedwingNev (Neil) - 2017 GT40 Le Mans - Interior and base completed, body paint under way
heavyjagdpanzer (Bill) - Mustang "Blue Max" Funny Car - Tube frame completed, engine assembly detailed and installed

PasiAhopelto (Pasi) - '57 "Fireball Roberts" NASCAR - Body Painted - withdrawn due to paint issues
Cosimodo (Michael) Build 2 RHD - Escort RS1600 MkI 1973 RAC - Custom decals left to do, unable to complete due to time constraints
Merlin (Rowan) - '40 Standard Coupe - Chassis/Engine Painted, Decals AWOL

Littorio (Luciano) - '65 Falcon Ranchero or '60 Starliner - enlisted
Ray_from_SA (Ray) - WRC Escort, Focus or Fiesta (or all 3 ??) - enlisted
betheyn (Andy) - enlisted
IronOwl (Sascha) - enlisted

Cheers, D

Here is an update on my entry:-

Richard,
WTG!! You're almost at the finish line.

Joel

D,
We're hanging in there the best we can, but as seniors, and a healthcare system that's starting to show cracks, honestly, I just don't see any end to this virus until they come out with a vaccine.

We can't stay in our homes forever, and literally, we're going broke as the market just crashes everyday. Forget a world wide recession, it's going to be a depression. World Wide, we just broke the 200,000 mark and climbing at an alarming rate.

The food stores are literally empty at this point, and you can't even buy toilet paper.

And yes, I'm starting to suffer from depression as there is no quick fix or answer. Flat lining the curve makes no sense as you can't contain a virus by making everyone stay at home. Just wait till cable and the internet goes out due to no one able to run the show. It will happen because it always does happen.

Sorry I sound so depressed, but that's because I am. I honestly thought I'd go by either another major heart attack, or my 3rd battle with Cancer, not a stupid virus.

The hope that with the warmer weather, the virus will slow down like the flu. But you guys are in the tail end of summer, and it's down under as well.

Joel

Thanks Joel!
My first time using Gravity paints,next up is there clear coat.
I think we can all relate to how you are feeling about the world situation.
It looks like I will be going on a three day week soon, I will try to occupy my self building models and using my lathe.
Take care.
Richard

Richard, lovely work so far mate. That red is nice and rich and the detail on the engine bay and interior look great! Looking forward to the clear coat going on now.

Joel, I hear you mate. I've had trouble even finding the basics to put a meal together for the family recently. In saying that, it appears that the initial panic buying and hoarding is starting to flatten out a bit and the supermarket shelves are getting restocked.
The crunch will come with business downturns in a lot of sectors. Qantas and Jetstar are talking 20,000 employees being stood down for a couple of months (April-May) at least due to travel restrictions and reduced flights.
Tough times ahead for us all I'm afraid.

Cheers, D