First Foam Build: Iron Man

[BlueSteel]

Thanks for the advice bro. And yeah, im using a bristle brush now, also i think my scales batteries are coming tomorrow so no worries what type of grit would you recommend for sanding? Thanks again and good luck with your building, cool projects you have on the agenda

 

[BlueSteel]

Ok so i put a coat of epsilon on my shoulder bells, and its still a bit tacky after drying overnight, and my faults are really showing in what i see. Now this was only the first coat, so i expected it to be a 'chopping off the chunks of wood' kind of process, with the real smoothing happening with the second or third (if i do a third/should i?) coats, but even still i noticed that the brush strokes were painfully obvious. Also, i was told by many sources that no PVA is needed with epsilon, but on the second shoulder i had to rush before it expired and applied a bit thicker, and now there are a few little holes/spots throughout the surface. I used about an inch wide brush and it came out looking like a Jackson Polluck painting (anyone get that joke).
My questions are the following
1: Any specific brushes suggested?
2: Is my outlook on this entire process flawed, AM I MISSING SOMETHING?!?!
3: How long have you had it take for the material to be ready for sanding?
4: Any suggested techniques?
5: Will a lot of the imperfections level out in the next coat, other than sanding things?
Thx

 

[Ikras]

I'm not entirely sure with your exact resin but I've been seeing things recently about using silicon baking brushes as the resin can be peeled off them later, might help with the brush strokes as well but I've never tried it myself. The tackiness might come down to hardener ratio. I'm sure I've seen some discussion with bondo where they add a bit more hardener in the next coat and that sorts it. Might be equally applicable here but I can't say with any certainty.

I can't comment on all your points but with sanding grits I've been working between 120 and 400 for use on my foam just now and it seems like a good range. I'm not sure if you'd want to go a little higher to give a smoother finish.

Hope someone can give you more feedback on your points.

 

[BlueSteel]

Long time no see! Sorry for the wait guys. I'm basically done with the helmet. But still stuck on the colors. Here's the deal. After smoothing and spot putting to the best I could manage reasonably, I hit it with sunburst gold and red garnet medium. The gold was fine I guess.but the red was just way to matte, not even close to shiny enough. So I switched to anodized red, which looks better, but is still not shiny enough. Again I think the gold is fine, but personally I just wanna go full out chrome gold and red and say screw it. I'm probably goin to lay off the helmet for a while and give the rest of the armour some love, but it's just not shiny enough. Any suggestions? Thanks

 

[George]

I'd consult other IM build threads to check for paint brand/type and make a list to choose from.
Good to hear from you,Blue ! Looking forward to the photos