Palpatine cane painting advice

[Idaho Jones]

Hi guy's here's a project I took on just to see if I could do it, a scratch built Emperor's cane. I started with a 1.5" wood poplar dowel from Lowe's. I pinned the handle together with wood dowels and roughed out the shape with a belt sander and dremel. I built up a few spots with a wood epoxy putty.

I have applied a couple layers of primer and spot putty have sanded to a 220 grit sand paper. I still need to work the seam. My plan is to paint with a gloss black spray-paint.

I've never tried to get a shinny gloss finish before. How many grits do I need to go with my sanding? Any advice on getting a smooth paint job? Thanks

 

[Rebelscum]

Based on discussions on this topic before, there will be many opinions. And they probably all work.

I sand primer to 320, making sure every grit before that is completely and evenly covered with the same scratch pattern.

Then put on a coat of finish to get the basic color down (this might be a 2-3 light coats), then put on a wet coat.

The wet coat of finish is going to be hard on this because if it's not wet, it won't be glossy all over like you probably want. You'll have to do the entire thing at once and preventing a run will be difficult.

 

[Idaho Jones]

Thanks,

I know I had read on the subject before but couldn't get a search to turn it up. There was a discussion about a max grit for different paint, I was looking for. I picked up some 320 and I'll give her a go.

 

[Idaho Jones]

Thanks for all the advice, here is a final pic. Now to sculpt the broach, no sense in asking for advice on that :rolleyes

 

[Miker]

Very nice job! I'd like to know where you got the 1-to-1 scale photo to work off of? I'm heading down the same road
Mike