Pen Duick by BobG - Artesania Latina - 1:28

[BobG]

47 minutes ago, Voyageur said:

tried to warn you! 😀

Yeah, I think I should have left well enough alone. Oh well, I'm getting a lot of practice with my airbrush!

[BobG]

I've been going in reverse the last few days. My attempts to remove the slight orange peel effect I got when I sprayed the varnish clear coat did not work. In fact, each time I got close to success, another little flaw would show up like the paint starting to lift on an edge. It got to the point that I just decided to sand off the varnish and the paint and start over. I could have left "good enough" alone but it bothered me. I feel like I can do it better so I'm back to square one on painting the hull.

 

Here is a photo of the hull after I sanded off the paint and sprayed it again with Vallejo Gray Primer and sanded it with 600:

 

 

 

[VTHokiEE]

Not exactly certain how to react to it, but since it would probably always bother you it is good to be redoing it. Good luck! It’s going to look awesome!

[Voyageur]

Hi Bob, do you think you’ve identified the cause of the orange peel finish first time around? Just need more practice with the airbrush? Good luck! I’m certain you will get this done to your liking.

[BobG]

22 minutes ago, Voyageur said:

Hi Bob, do you think you’ve identified the cause of the orange peel finish first time around? Just need more practice with the airbrush? Good luck! I’m certain you will get this done to your liking.

I think it's was due to a combination of things but mostly simply my airbrushing inexperience. I had the horns on the fan spray nozzle in the wrong orientation for wide, vertical spray pattern so I was laying down too much varnish as I made horizontal passes. I tried to keep it wet thinking that it would self-level better and that probably contributed to a too heavy coat. I'm think I had the air pressure too high also.

 

There are a lot of factors that go into getting good results with airbrushes and I'm still in the learning stages. Honestly, I'm not too bummed about it. I feel like I'm learning and, after all, it's just paint. If I mess up I can sand it and redo it. It was a toss up for me as to whether I should or shouldn't try to fix it since it looked pretty good. I decided to try and fix it and it didn't work. I feel like it's all just part of the learning process.

[BobG]

2 hours ago, VTHokiEE said:

Not exactly certain how to react to it, but since it would probably always bother you it is good to be redoing it. Good luck! It’s going to look awesome!

Thanks, VTHokiEE. I'll get it done one way or the other!

[hof00]

Good on you chap for the perseverance!!

I mentioned to you that I had to sand my Pen Duick down to bare wood and start over after the Lacquer I used proved too "Hot"

(After that, (Sanding down twice after some Lacquer residue was still present), I decided to leave well enough alone. In total, I painted the Hull three times....)

 

I hope you have more success next Clear-Cote application!!

 

Cheers....HOF.

[BobG]

On 7/15/2020 at 7:10 PM, hof00 said:

In total, I painted the Hull three times....)

Gosh Harry, I hope I don't break your record! 😏

 

Thanks for checking in my friend.

[vaddoc]

Bob, I am a bit confused, did you have to sand the hull for a second time? It seems that after you sanded off the orange skin, you got the settings right and your paint went on fine.

[BobG]

11 hours ago, vaddoc said:

Bob, I am a bit confused, did you have to sand the hull for a second time? It seems that after you sanded off the orange skin, you got the settings right and your paint went on fine.

I think I've sanded so much I've lost track! 

 

Yes, I did actually sand the hull a second time. When I sanded the orange peel off some of the paint came off also but I thought I could probably paint over those areas when I repainted the hull. So I started by spraying the white stripe again but, when I removed the masking tape, it pulled off some of the previous paint and left a distinct edge. I tried to lightly sand those areas hoping I could still salvage the paint job without sanding off all the paint and priming the hull again. That didn't work either so I sanded all the paint off and primed the hull again.

 

I have now sprayed the white stripe again and, today, I will paint the green and maybe the black. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm!

[hof00]

 

Hi Chap,

How are you getting on with the painting?

 

Looking forward to your progress.

 

Cheers....HOF.

[BobG]

On 7/28/2020 at 8:57 PM, hof00 said:

How are you getting on with the painting?

Hello Harry,

 

Not much progress to report recently but the adventure continues. I've slowed down to a snail's pace with trying to get the hull painted to my satisfaction. I'm still working on my third go at it and I'm hopeful that this will be the last time I paint it. I've currently got the white and green done and will paint the black today and then see how everything looks. I'm determined to get it done well, not perfect, but very nice. I've found out that I'll never get it perfect!

 

I think I have managed to encounter just about every problem, mostly of my own doing, that you can have when it comes to getting a perfectly smooth paint job on a hull like this one. I've encountered problems with orange peel, masking tape leaks and pulling up paint, airbrush clogs, and little flaws showing up in new places after redoing the painting. I ran out of the emerald green paint also and had to reorder it online and that took a while to arrive.

 

So, long story short, I'm still afloat...took on some damage but I'm not ready to abandon ship!

 

Cheers, 

[BobG]

The first time I painted the hull it turned out great. Then I botched up the clear coat and, after another series of missteps, I finally have a pretty nice paint job on the hull. I'm going to let it dry thoroughly for a day or two and then I'll cross my fingers and try to clear coat it again. Hopefully, the third time will be the charm!

 

 

 

[Nunnehi (Don)]

That’s beautiful, Bob!

 

Don

[Voyageur]

Yes indeed, that looks great! And think about all the learnin’ you got on this. 😀

[BobG]

27 minutes ago, Voyageur said:

Yes indeed, that looks great! And think about all the learnin’ you got on this. 😀

🤣 Yeah, nothing like skipping the practice runs and just ploughing through until you get it right!

[BobG]

42 minutes ago, nunnehi said:

That’s beautiful, Bob!

Thanks, Don. I've been following your Winnie build. What a gorgeous ship that's going to be!

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

Looks absolutely fantastic!!

 

Just a thought, take it or leave it, try a test piece before you do the real thing?

(If your going to get the "Shiny" finish that you desire, spray the clear layers up slowly.... 🙂)

 

Cheers and Regards,

 

HOF.

 

[BobG]

7 hours ago, hof00 said:

Just a thought, take it or leave it, try a test piece before you do the real thing?

Thanks, Harry. I plan to do a test piece just as you recommend.

 

I used to build flying, model rockets with my son when he was young. We had a blast firing them high into the sky but sometimes they would catch the wind and float away to some other part of town never to be seen again while sending him into tears. I still have a couple of these in the garage and I've decided to practice varnishing one of them with my airbrush as a trial run. I'll be trying a combination of the Vallejo Varnishes. They come in matte, satin and gloss. I would like to have a semi-gloss sheen on the hull so I will try various combinations of the varnishes and see if I can find a sheen that I'm happy with. 

 

I really do not want to mess up the clear coat again. I've spent way too many hours already sanding and painting and resanding and repainting the hull to have it all go wrong again with the clear coat. I'm apprehensive about spraying the clear coat but the hull really does need to have a protective coat over the acrylic paint.

 

Fingers crossed... 🙏

[VTHokiEE]

19 minutes ago, BobG said:

but the hull really does need to have a protective coat over the acrylic paint.

Out of curiosity (and maybe to play the devil’s advocate...) does it? I’m a novice but some much more experienced than I have mentioned that if you aren’t going to be heavily handling the model the paint should be fine. Or is this less about protection and more to get the right finish that you’re looking for? 

[BobG]

52 minutes ago, VTHokiEE said:

ut of curiosity (and maybe to play the devil’s advocate...) does it? I’m a novice but some much more experienced than I have mentioned that if you aren’t going to be heavily handling the model the paint should be fine. Or is this less about protection and more to get the right finish that you’re looking for? 

It's a combination of getting the sheen I would like and protecting the paint. The acrylic paint never feels rock hard to me and, although the model certainly won't be handled a lot, it's easy to mar the paint finish with little scratches, tiny dents and even fingerprints. I considered leaving it alone but it just seems fragile to me. Another thing I've considered is using Satin Wipe-on-Poly over the acrylic paint. They seem to be compatible with each other from what I've read. 

 

I'm about to try to airbrush some varnish samples and I'll see how it goes.

[vaddoc]

Bob, your paint job turned out great. Photographs are very unforgiving and reveal the tiniest of flaws but your hull looks great. Absolutely protect acrylic paint with varnish. The more matt the varnish (so the more matting medium it has suspended), the more difficult it is to use. You could also spray a gloss coat or two and then a satin on top to bring the shine down. But definitely test on your rocket first! 

[BobG]

5 hours ago, vaddoc said:

Bob, your paint job turned out great.

Thanks, vaddoc!

 

Success! My third attempt at airbrushing the hull and clear coating it with varnish is done and I'm happy with it. This has certainly been a learning process for me since this model is my first time painting with an airbrush. I made some mistakes along the way which required me to dig deep into my perseverance and roll with it without giving up but, in the end, it has been worth it.

 

I did a test run today on an old model rocket I had in the garage that I had painted gloss blue from a rattle can many years ago. Vallejo Varnishes come in matte, satin and gloss. I wanted a sheen on the finish that was somewhere between satin and gloss. So I sectioned off the rocket into 3 areas and sprayed the first section with satin, the second section with a mixture of 2 parts gloss to one part satin, and the final section with a 50/50 mix of gloss and satin. I also added one drop of Vallejo Thinner and one drop of Vallejo Flow Improver to each drop of varnish and mixed it well in the airbrush paint cup. I lowered the air pressure to about 20 psi and sprayed from a distance of about 3 inches from the rocket using a .3 mm fan spray nozzle for a wider, vertical spray pattern since there is a lot of surface area to cover. I sprayed the varnish on fairly wet but nowhere close to risking any runs.

 

I'm not sure how well you can tell the difference in the sheens in the below photo but the section on the right is 100% satin, the middle section is a 2:1 gloss to satin mixture and the section on the left (the nose cone) is a 50/50 mixture of gloss and satin.  I decided that I liked the 50/50 mixture and that's what I ended up using on the hull which is shown in the second photo below.

 

 

 

 We all hate to learn through our mistakes but here's what I learned to do differently from the first time sprayed the clear coat and ended up with orange peel.

 

The first time I sprayed the clear coat I did it outside in the garage. The air temperature was too warm and the spray was drying too quickly. In addition, I had the ears on the .5 mm fan spray nozzle cap in the wrong orientation which resulted in a narrow, horizontal spray pattern so I was applying way too much varnish in narrow, concentrated area as I made passes.

 

This time I sprayed indoors in my airbrush spray tent and I switched to a .3 mm fan spray nozzle with the ears oriented for a vertical spray pattern. I also thinned the paint to a consistency close to 2% milk and added Flow Improver to help prolong the drying time just a little bit and I paid attention to keeping the distance of the spray gun to the hull consistent with nice, even passes while spraying. I would take the hull and inspect it closely after each coat of varnish to see how it looked. I ended up putting on 3 coats. It looked good at that point and I've learned that more is not necessarily always better in anything I do in ship modeling!

 

Thanks to everyone for your comments and encouragement even when I was making a mess of things. It is much appreciated.

 

Cheers,

[VTHokiEE]

Looks beautiful Bob! I’m glad you kept at it. I need to bookmark this for the future!

[gjdale]

Well done Bob - looks great! I’m continuing with my own painting trials too.

[Justin P.]

That satin!   Wonderful job Bob.   I hope you are pleased. 

[BobG]

2 hours ago, Justin P. said:

That satin!   Wonderful job Bob.   I hope you are pleased. 

I am pleased, Justin, it's been a bit of an ordeal. I just had a lot to learn. 

 

I agree, the satin is incredible! I can't believe how good it looks if that's the sheen you are shooting for. I've heard of plastic modelers spraying a gloss base and then going over it with matte. So maybe the old gloss blue on the rocket has something to do with how good the satin looks. The other thing about satin finishes is that they don't magnify tiny imperfections in the paint like the glossier finishes tend to do. You can see that in the photo of the glossier sections of the rocket versus the satin section.

 

I wanted a near semi-gloss finish since I'm trying to simulate the resin hull that Eric Taberly made when he rebuilt the Pen Duick in 1958. I got close to that with the 50/50 mixture of gloss and satin but I think I it could have just a bit more gloss. However, I'm done and not touching it at this point! The only thing I might do is polish it a little with some Tamiya Finish Paste on a Tamiya Polishing Cloth. 

[Voyageur]

Looks great Bob. I think the tamiya paste would also be good.

i also have several rockets in my basement that I may use to test paint finishes on. 😉 Seems to have worked well for you!

[BobG]

9 minutes ago, Voyageur said:

i also have several rockets in my basement that I may use to test paint finishes on.

Those rockets were exciting and fun except when they climbed out of sight never to be seen again! 

[hof00]

Hi Chap,

One word, "Nice!!"

Your perseverance has most certainly paid off.

 

Are you going to mount the Hull on pedestals/plinth?

(Easier to Mast/Rig in my humble opinion.)

 

Anyway, onwards and upwards.... 🙂

 

Cheers....HOF.