Today’s update is all about masking Kanu so that I can paint some detail areas. I use four different masking techniques. For the areas that boarder between the masked and unmasked areas, I use tamiya masking tape. Tamiya masking tape is very thin and is easily cut with a very sharp(brand new) hobby knife blade. Below is the part ready for masking, I will be masking off the skin areas to paint the body wrap and the hair.
Weekend update. A good amount of work was accomplished on Kanu over the weekend, some rework to resculpt a broken/missing piece, and a build gathering capped out the events of the long Labor Day weekend. Because of the amount of hard alcohol consumed, I spent the day recovering. I’m still not 100%, but at least I’m no longer orally evacuating last night’s liquid consumption.
With the clear gloss cured for a full day, I can now apply the decal. The first picture shows the planning stage. Once I have a good idea on where I want the tattoo (decal) placed, I can now dip the decal in some water for a few seconds then take the decal out of the water and let it sit on a napkin for a minute or so. This loosens up the decal from the paper backing and doesn’t completely dissolve the glue that’s on the decal film. When I went to slide the decal onto the skin, the decal fell apart, several decals fell apart… so I took my gloss clear and sprayed the decal sheet and let that set up for a couple of minutes. Once that completely dried, I tried the attempt again, and the clear gloss added some strength to the rather thin decal film. The bad part about this is that the clear gloss added a little thickness to the decal film.
Now that the skin has had a day to cure, I move on to the next step. The narcissist in me needs to put my stupid tattoo logo on all my figure kits, so the first step towards that is to spray a clear gloss coat onto the skin. I sprayed all the skin tone with the clear gloss even though I will only be applying the decal in one area. The reason for spraying all the skin areas is to keep consistency in tone. The first picture below shows the upper torso clear coated, notice that the tone is darker now. A clear gloss will darken the tone, and conversely, a flat coat will lighten the tone. So to keep everything uniform, I gloss coated everything. The gloss coat needs to cure, then I can apply the decal tomorrow (I haven’t decided where I want to put the decal yet…) Then the following day, I can apply a flat coat, then wait another day for the flat to fully cure and set up before I mask off the kit to paint the rest of the parts such as the feet, hair, and body wrap. Patience comes into play because it is imperative that I allow each coat to fully cure for a full day or longer.
