kalkamel
Master Member
I bought a chest armor from a member here awhile ago. Its of fiberglass construction, but thin and not the thick GT ones of old. Like with every cast I've worked with, I prepped it in this manner: washed with warm soapy water to remove any mould release residue, sanded with 180 grit, 360 grit and 600 grit sandpapers, hit with primer, filled the bubbles and imperfections, sanded again and primed again until I get a nice smooth surface.
My first attempt, I painted the gun metal first. Left it to cure for 24 hours, masked the appropriate parts and spray painted the black. After the paint dried, I peeled off the masking tape and it was so tacky that it left a lot of residue on the surface, and even pieces of tape itself. No amount of WD40 or lighter fluid could effectively remove the residue. Thinking it was the masking tape I used, I stripped the paint, resanded, reprimed, repainted it gun metal, used 3M painters tape to mask and painted the black. Same result.
This time I thought it was the gun metal paint and its long curing time that was the culprit. So I stripped the paint, resanded and reprimed again, and painted the armor black. Left it to cure for 4 days and then masked, and painted gun metal. That's the one in the picture below after I peeled off the masking tape.
I'm gonna try to remove the residue later and resand the black parts. But I'm really hesitant to put any more masking tape on this armor as I have wasted so much time, effort, sandpaper and paint on it to redo it again. I'm officially at my wits' end. I've used the paints on other projects before and they've always turned out fine. Am I prepping the surface wrong?
Forgot to mention all the paints are rattlecans. Some how I don't think the problem is the paint, but more to the cast itself.
My first attempt, I painted the gun metal first. Left it to cure for 24 hours, masked the appropriate parts and spray painted the black. After the paint dried, I peeled off the masking tape and it was so tacky that it left a lot of residue on the surface, and even pieces of tape itself. No amount of WD40 or lighter fluid could effectively remove the residue. Thinking it was the masking tape I used, I stripped the paint, resanded, reprimed, repainted it gun metal, used 3M painters tape to mask and painted the black. Same result.
This time I thought it was the gun metal paint and its long curing time that was the culprit. So I stripped the paint, resanded and reprimed again, and painted the armor black. Left it to cure for 4 days and then masked, and painted gun metal. That's the one in the picture below after I peeled off the masking tape.
I'm gonna try to remove the residue later and resand the black parts. But I'm really hesitant to put any more masking tape on this armor as I have wasted so much time, effort, sandpaper and paint on it to redo it again. I'm officially at my wits' end. I've used the paints on other projects before and they've always turned out fine. Am I prepping the surface wrong?
Forgot to mention all the paints are rattlecans. Some how I don't think the problem is the paint, but more to the cast itself.
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