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.
Cycles of painting and masking, repeat. Starting with the cobalt blue layer. I masked off a diagonal section down the torso which extends to the lower right arm, and the backpack. Then small squares are masked to complete the first level of masking. Over this, I sprayed a mixture of cobalt blue and pure white. In hindsight, I should have mixed a darker tone for the blue, but in the mixing jar, it looked dark enough. Reason 1 for doing test swaths of paint.
With the baby sky blue color cured, the next level and most laborious session of masking takes place. Small squares of different sizes are masked over the existing mask as well as the light blue. All said and done, a final coat of turquoise blue is sprayed over the parts to complete the paint scheme.
Once cured, all the masking tape is removed, then select parts are masked again, to paint the gray highlights. I based coated everything with black first, then went over with a dark gray tone. Once that cured, the masking is removed and most of the upper torso area is assembled. I do plan on weathering and paint chipping this sucker, so there is much to do, but this is progress so far. At first, I wasn’t overly happy with the masking result, but after painting the extra highlight areas and putting the sucker together, I’m getting more accustomed to this. All in the name of experimentation with techniques I know little to nothing about.
The legs are not done since most of the parts for the lower sections of the legs needed to be glued together, so several sessions of masking are necessary to paint all the details. The thrusters were primed, based coated with a white, then coated with a dark yellow to finish off the interior of the thrusters. The pistons pieces for the upper thigh area are painted with alclad free handed as the parts were so small masking to paint is just over kill.
Last of all is the head piece. Aurora decal film is cut and put into place on the head parts.
