Here’s a quick spotlight on a technique that was discussed and joked about in last night’s TGG & Friends broadcast. The conversation about the technique came up because one of the participants was working on this technique and recently, another participant used the technique. The technique is not difficult in the least, and is pretty basic. It just plays off the use of contrasting a flat finish and a gloss finish with a single color. One of the guys called it the “clemstriping” effect and ended up becoming a running gag during the broadcast. I’m positive that someone else has long ago done this, so it’s nothing new, but we got a nice little laugh from it. Here are two examples of the technique; and hopefully after this posting, we’ll see many more examples.
Last night’s TGG & Friends Live Broadcast:
Our broadcast is set for every other Tuesday, so the next live broadcast will be Tuesday October 6th.
The basic technique is to paint and gloss coat the parts. If decals are added, the decals also need to be gloss coated. The gloss coat absolutely needs to be completely cured before trying this technique. If the clear gloss is not cured, the masking tape will pull up or leave residue that will be near impossible to remove.
Once the gloss has completely cured; masking tape is applied to the kit. Anything such as stripes patterns, or even a digital camo can be used here.
Once the masking is in place, spray a clear flat over the parts and that is all there is to this technique. Removing the masking will show the clear contrast between the gloss and flat finishes on the same color. And that is all there is to this technique Michael Wine also used this technique on his recently finished Gundam EX-S.
For folks that only use clear coats, this can be done without actually painting the kits. All that is needed is a can of clear gloss, a can of clear flat, and some masking tape; and once the kit is built and decaled; the kit can be clear glossed, allowed to cure, masked off, then clear flat; then remove the masking and you are done!
