And how do I hate Metalcast….. words from a noob who finalized his shield……
First of all the most important lessons of all. Do not start your shield if you do not have enough supply of the paint you have chosen!!
When I started to go through this thread I though hey, Duplicolor. No problem. We have that here. But no one tells you that Duplicolor America and Duplicolor Europa are not really the same and they will not import the paint for you.
Also living in central Europe, it is almost impossible to get any type of these colours, you name it Metalcast, Testor whatever….
Since I already bought my Shield with the North East Metal Spinners I ended up buying my Metalcast in the UK (bought the last cans) with Caswell. Paying the same amount for shipping as for 5 cans … yes… and don’t go there (yes it is nuts!!)
Coming back to my original thought for other noobs regarding painting a shield and please for all other senior guys in here please correct me if I’m wrong….
1. If you are not familiar with painting rotating objects stick to the normal way. I read so many post here that it would be best to do it when it is rotating so I put something together that the shield spinned. But in my 2 first attempts I oversprayed when I tried to cover certain areas which were not covered properly. I have sprayed with cans before and I also have done airbrush before but I completely fu…. up doing it this way. Just put it on a vertical stand, high enough so you can reach all corners easily and spray it like that.
2. Metalcast can. First of they do have a different spray head then the ones we use. SO that was a surprise. When it comes to spraying you can put the cans in warm water. You should also start to shake them well in advance before you start painting ~5 Minutes. You Don’t have to shake them like an idiot but you have to do it continuously. Also the 7-10 min between coats. Keep shaking (you can also put them in warm water). You will notice the longer you shake them the better the flow of the paint is when you push the spray head.Also don’t push the spray head full down. I did that on my first attempt and ended up in a horrible overspray. I noticed the best result is when you push down the far (opposite of the nosily) end of the spray head. Start of shield. When you hear a clear flow of paint start if you hear a slight spatting noise release again and start again. As I said the more you shake the less you hear spatting.
3. How to paint the rings. My suggestion is to start with the blue ring, then go for the outer red ring and then do the inner red ring. This way if you screw up one of them you could wash one of them down and leave the already painted ring on if that one was o.k.Don’t use Aceton to remove the paint. It will leave paint stains on the aluminium. Of course in the end it does not really matter since you will paint over it… but then again… there are better chemicals for removal.
4. Regarding mounting the brackets to the shield I had a quick discussion with Valor regarding the use of silicon glue. He suggested to use mounting tape as you do not have to clamp the brackets down. I somehow came to the idea why not use both since that stuff is sticky and flexible. I used it between the mounting tape. So far it holds on to the shield very well and with the mounting tape you do not need any clamping .. J
So what happen to my shield…..
I ended up having the blue o.k, the inner red with horrible spray dust (rusty look) and the outer ring with even more rust (blunt red) and only a small amount of red colour left.
So I washed down the outer red ring and repainted it (not rotating this time) and I think I got it more or less right.
Once you get the colour right you get that kind of grin on you face and satisfaction but that horrible feeling in the back of your head that the other ring is so …..arghh!!! and you do not have any colour left.
So I brought it to an auto shop to help (also asking for clear coting) and the guy, he also does the F1 cars for Sauber, did a great rescue job from my point of view.
Conclusion: Would I do it again… Only if I can make sure that I have enough colour at hand.
So for all of you out there who try to make a shield, make sure you have enough colour so you can have as many tries as you want. Otherwise ask one of the senior guys in here to make one for you as importing the colour is also way too expensive…
Marco
