Sniper Progress: Rifle work, decals, light up saber

Update from the weekend and the past few days. First will be work on the main sniper rifle. I still need to get down and finish up the work on the other weapons. There quite a bit of down time while working on the kit as each layer needs a protective clear coat to sandwich each successive step. The process is fairly tedious, but in the long run, saves rework when mistakes are made or issues of incompatible products cause problems. The process is the following:
Paint cured
– clear gloss is sprayed
– decals
– clear gloss
– panel lines
– clear gloss
– paint chipping
– clear gloss
– filter/fade
– clear flat
– pastel weathering
– final clear flat

Allowing each clear coat to cure over night, the quickest I could complete the kit at this point would be about a week. Down time between curing sessions will allow me to work on the gun and hopefully finish everything some time next week.

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Sniper Progress: paint – mask – paint – repeat

The past few days I’ve been at home nursing a cold, so what better way to pass the time then cycles of painting and masking. Before my trip out to VA, Got the base coats of cobalt blue down, and over this I sprayed a clear flat. The flat coast is a test for masking, since the surface of the kit is now slightly rough and not ultra smooth as it would be with a glossy finish, the masking tape should be even less tacky, hence the chance for paint lifting is decreased. This update will mostly cover the work done over the past few days.

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Weekend in Virginia/Maryland

This past weekend, I went out to Virginia to visit Charlie. We went to Shenandoah National Park on Friday, Saturday was spent hanging out with various friend which ended in a small dinner party at Brian’s house; and Sunday was spent eating seafood – crabs in Annapolis then sushi in Germantown. I flew back early Monday morning and from the airport went straight to work. I finally got to offload and upload the pictures I took from the trip and now a little post about the trip.

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GM Sniper: Primed

I rarely have time over the weekend to just sit down and build for a day, so work on any kit is usually nonexistent save for a few moments before I crash out. This past weekend was no exception. The updates so far start from last week, and the past few week nights of work. Since i want the kit finished as soon as possible, I skipped out on the purple power soak and opted for a paper towel and some Mr Color Thinner and wiped all the parts. I plan on doing some extensive masking so hopefully the thinner wipe is enough to degrease the parts.

On skewers and ready for primer, all the parts were primed, and left to cure for a day. Hopefully I won’t get any paint lifts when get into painting and masking. I’ll probably take some masking tape and do some cursory tests.

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