**FINISHED** Something a little Different - The Silver Spitfire
- Thread starter StevenBills
- Start date
Big updates today! But first, a bunch of canopy-related stuff.
Here's a photo of the canopy after it had been dipped in PFM and left to dry three times. Nice and shiny:
The next step was to cross my fingers and hope the PFM trick worked to save the canopy from the super glue fumes:
It worked! No crazing here!
**EDIT (11/13): I took off the canopy masks and it revealed that, indeed, the canopy did craze a little from the super glue. Darn.**
Also, one of the reasons I love the Eduard ProfiPack kits is because of the pre-cut canopy masks. This made masking the canopy a breeze. Took about ten minutes to get these guys on, whereas it would have taken upwards of an hour fussing around with Tamiya tape to get a good edge. These masks fit perfectly.
Here's G-IRTY all ready for the paint booth:
And here's a few after a (slightly) gloss black coat:
The black is a mixture of X-1 (gloss black) and X-22 (clear). I had heard that this was a good combo to get a nice shiny black base. I must have messed up the ratios, because mine didn't turn out all that super glossy. But not to worry, the next step is to sand it down with 5000 grit sand paper and then polish it up with Tamiya's polishing compound. Hopefully it'll be glassy smooth once that's all done.
I'm going to let this cure for a few days before I do any of that though, and then we're ready for the silver!
Thanks for watching!
SB
Here's a photo of the canopy after it had been dipped in PFM and left to dry three times. Nice and shiny:
The next step was to cross my fingers and hope the PFM trick worked to save the canopy from the super glue fumes:
It worked! No crazing here!
**EDIT (11/13): I took off the canopy masks and it revealed that, indeed, the canopy did craze a little from the super glue. Darn.**
Also, one of the reasons I love the Eduard ProfiPack kits is because of the pre-cut canopy masks. This made masking the canopy a breeze. Took about ten minutes to get these guys on, whereas it would have taken upwards of an hour fussing around with Tamiya tape to get a good edge. These masks fit perfectly.
Here's G-IRTY all ready for the paint booth:
And here's a few after a (slightly) gloss black coat:
The black is a mixture of X-1 (gloss black) and X-22 (clear). I had heard that this was a good combo to get a nice shiny black base. I must have messed up the ratios, because mine didn't turn out all that super glossy. But not to worry, the next step is to sand it down with 5000 grit sand paper and then polish it up with Tamiya's polishing compound. Hopefully it'll be glassy smooth once that's all done.
I'm going to let this cure for a few days before I do any of that though, and then we're ready for the silver!
Thanks for watching!
SB
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So after sitting on that speckly not-so-glossy paint up overnight, I decided to wet-sand it with 2000 grit sandpaper and give it another go. Here she is in the middle of sanding:
Also, the Silver Spitfire is doing a maintenance pit-stop in Seattle, and my dad was able to stop by and take some photos, which I'm just gonna dump here:
I wish I could have been there to see her in person, but it's still pretty cool that my dad got to go see it!
Tomorrow I'm going to sand the XF-1 flat black that I applied tonight (which went down MUCH smoother), and then apply a few coats of X-22 clear. Then sand, buff, polish, repeat.
Then metal.
Thanks for watching!
SB
Also, the Silver Spitfire is doing a maintenance pit-stop in Seattle, and my dad was able to stop by and take some photos, which I'm just gonna dump here:
I wish I could have been there to see her in person, but it's still pretty cool that my dad got to go see it!
Tomorrow I'm going to sand the XF-1 flat black that I applied tonight (which went down MUCH smoother), and then apply a few coats of X-22 clear. Then sand, buff, polish, repeat.
Then metal.
Thanks for watching!
SB
Oxford
Active Member
Oh I used gloss black mixed with clear (X-1 + X-22), as I had heard that you can add clear to the gloss for an even shinier surface, but that mixture gave me the slightly grainy finish as seen in post 22 (especially in the last photo).
I have looked into other gloss blacks, particularly Mr Hobby GX2, but I can't seem to find it locally, and I don't want to wait a month for it to come from overseas.
So this is the route we're heading down now. I'm letting the flat black cure for a few days, then I'm going to hit it with a few layers of X-22, and then buff and polish that. Hopefully it all works as planned.
SB
Madhatter
Sr Member
Shame about the grainy finish from mixing X1 and X22. X18 is a good alternative too. I often use it as a base coat and with some X22 thrown in would make it more glossy to. I often find that X18 lays down very smoothly. Can you get Alclad where you are? Their gloss black is awesome to use if you can get it.
anamorphicWayne
Sr Member
Little bit of progress today! Well, I've been working on it a bit each day this week, but paint drying isn't very exciting. Just takes time...
So as I said, I sanded down the X-1 with 2000 grit, then I painted XF-1 (flat black). I let this dry for a day and then hit it with X-22 clear, let that dry for 24 hours, then hit it with another layer a clear. Then today I wet-sanded the clear with a 3200 grit sanding pad, wiped it down, and then went to town with the Tamiya polishing compounds. These photos are from after all of that was done. I then used distilled water in my airbrush to get the leftover polish out of the panel lines, rivets, etc...
It's hard to get a good photo of a reflective surface, but I did my best:
I'm pretty happy with how the polish came out. It's not 100% glassy everywhere, but I'm fine with that. Also, as you'll notice in a few places in the photos, I accidentally applied a bit too much pressure while wet-sanding the clear, and I went all the way down to the plastic in a few spots. I think they're small enough where it shouldn't really matter. Oh well.
I'm going to let this sit until Monday and then we'll finally get started on the silver!
Thanks for looking!
SB
So as I said, I sanded down the X-1 with 2000 grit, then I painted XF-1 (flat black). I let this dry for a day and then hit it with X-22 clear, let that dry for 24 hours, then hit it with another layer a clear. Then today I wet-sanded the clear with a 3200 grit sanding pad, wiped it down, and then went to town with the Tamiya polishing compounds. These photos are from after all of that was done. I then used distilled water in my airbrush to get the leftover polish out of the panel lines, rivets, etc...
It's hard to get a good photo of a reflective surface, but I did my best:
I'm pretty happy with how the polish came out. It's not 100% glassy everywhere, but I'm fine with that. Also, as you'll notice in a few places in the photos, I accidentally applied a bit too much pressure while wet-sanding the clear, and I went all the way down to the plastic in a few spots. I think they're small enough where it shouldn't really matter. Oh well.
I'm going to let this sit until Monday and then we'll finally get started on the silver!
Thanks for looking!
SB
Haha thanks! It is certainly a roundabout way of getting there, but it got me there. I ordered some GX2 from overseas to do some tests with later. I've heard that's the bees knees for a gloss black base.
Also, your Zvezda ISD is insane. I've got one in the stash for when this bird is done, but man. Looking at yours makes me want to just chuck mine in the garbage before I even start. It's that good!
SB
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Silver is down!
Honestly, it's really hard to get a good photo of a reflective surface like this. It came out pretty good. Maybe not as shiny as I'd have hoped, but honestly I feel like this is pretty good for what it is. Also, with these paints, it gets shinier as it dries. So maybe tomorrow there will be something more there. I'm going to let this cure overnight and then shoot it with some Alclad Aqua Gloss, which is made to be put over metal finishes (like Alclad), so hopefully it doesn't dull the shine too much.
Thanks for watching!
SB
SB
Honestly, it's really hard to get a good photo of a reflective surface like this. It came out pretty good. Maybe not as shiny as I'd have hoped, but honestly I feel like this is pretty good for what it is. Also, with these paints, it gets shinier as it dries. So maybe tomorrow there will be something more there. I'm going to let this cure overnight and then shoot it with some Alclad Aqua Gloss, which is made to be put over metal finishes (like Alclad), so hopefully it doesn't dull the shine too much.
Thanks for watching!
SB
SB
Thanks! It's coming along...
Next up is a clear coat from Aqua Gloss. Stay tuned.
SB
Next up is a clear coat from Aqua Gloss. Stay tuned.
SB
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