Quite a bit has happened, get a drink....

Lets get started with something we need to talk about...

FUTURE.. No this is not the same conversation you get from your parents when you spent all your allowance. This is a product that you will see me reference time and time again. It is a floor wax that is buzzing around the model building community. Now first time I heard about it I thought they were all crazy, "what, you want me to spray floor wax onto my model I just spent 80 hrs working on?!".

This is an acrylic self leveling clear (gloss) product in a large bottle. So rather than spend $4-$6 for a 1/2 oz I can get this jug for about $6 at any hardware store. The great thing about Future is it sprays through a gun (airbrush) so well with no thinning. You can use it to dip clear parts in to protect them from the glues, you can spray it between layers of paint to separate them from each other and of course you can use it to put a nice gloss shine on it.

If you are bored and need some toilet reading time, here is a great article on Future across the world:

http://swannysmodels.com/TheCompleteFuture.html

Lets get started:

Lessons learned this week:

• When using salt to chip paint lay down a good coat of Future first, this will prevent the salt from sticking to the paint and lifting the base paint.
• Remove the salt as soon as possible and don't let it rest with to many coats of paint on it.
• To remove the salt, don't scrape it off but use a toothbrush (preferably not your own, wife's is okay just don't let her know) that is wet and work it off. Brushing will slowly allow the salt to 'melt' away rather than rip off.
  
• When masking be sure to lay down a coat of Future so the tape will not try and lift the paint up.
• Use distilled water for my salt that way it wont leave water marks on the finished paint.
  

Now onto the good stuff..

Now, from the last posting the hull of the boat was white and had chunks of salt on it. The plan was to have this hull two tone with a white stripe at the water line. Well due to my lack of planning I was unable to mask off the hull to my liking. So I decided to paint the whole hull black. After the paint set I begun the tedious work of trying to remove the salt from the hull and the main deck. As you can see some of the white is showing through. This actually worked out for the better because it is not uncommon for a vessel to go through several colors in its life.

If you look closely you can see that the hull is a dull black while the deck rail has a 'gloss' to it. One is with Future coat on it and one is without.

I have attached the main deck railing to the hull. If you look at the bow (or front for you land people) you will see how the paint is chipped but no rust. That is where the salt actually took off the layers of paint. I tried to pull the salt off not brush with water, plus there was no Future to help with the separation.







Here you can clearly see how the paint chipping on the bow has turned out. I wish I would have done the 'white' layer after the rust throughout the hull and side rail. You can see the difference in detail between the two. Next time...








Because the smoke stack will be black and the base will be red, I opted to not mask the bottom. The red is dark enough to cover the black over spray. Plus it is easier to mask a cylinder than to mask flat curve.









I have added the bow bit to the boat as well. Once again you can see the main deck has the paint removed from the salt 'chipping'. Because I had to rebuild the main deck I lost the guides that would mark where the bit needs to be. I had to measure out and put the bit in the place that I thought was correct.







Here is another angle of the same bow bit.












Here is the stern of the boat with the bits installed. The grating turned out beautiful, better than the original part that had plugged holes.

Here you can see I added the 3 bits there, the very small one is an odd one and I questioned if I even wanted it or not. In my years I never saw a bit of that size welded to the deck for towing. Because it came with the model and it gives the deck some flavor I put it on.




Here is another angle of the bits, turned out really well.











Here are the parts all masked up and ready to be painted red, or a Insignia Red to be exact. It is more of a caboose red than a stop light red.

Before the masking each part got a coat of Future to help with the masking.







Here you can see the red has been painted on and the masking removed to prevent the tape from bonding to the white. It took quite a bit of paint to get every nook and cranny of this main deck quarters.








Here is the wheel house all painted up. I still have time to add windows to the wheel house. Easier to add them later and not mask than to mask them up. But we will see.










Here the smoke stack is painted with red. It took a whole lot more red than I thought to cover up the black over spray from the first layer.


This will allow me to dust it with black smoke to give it a dirty look.






Here you can see I painted the inside of the vent shaft red. No Popeye is not going to come out of there with a can of spinach. lol This will be glued to the main deck near the bow.








Here is a what I could only guess is a storage bin. I painted it two tone like the box had shown. Boring but your standard masking over the white as well. This one is sitting on a quarter so it can give you an idea of the scale this item is.









Here is another vent shaft, but this one should be going onto the starboard side (right side) of the wheel house. I will be attaching this soon to make sure I weather it with the rest of the wheel house. The tip is white because that part will be above or even with the white roof.







Here is my tarp for the life boat, it is painted with a green zinc cromate. Next I will need to lighten it up and give it a worn look.









Here is the prop of the tug boat. Propellers are made in two types (typically), brass and stainless steal. Brass is a cheaper prop but bends at the tips if you hit the bottom. Stainless steal tends to snap off because it is not as soft as brass. I first tried to hand brush this on because it is so small and I really didn't want to dirty an airbrush for such a small part.








I painted it with a brush and was horrible, the paint was to thin and just would not get a good coat. I even tried to dip the whole thing in the paint and still bad looking. SIGH: so I had to brake out the airbrush.. This stuff airbrushed so nice and smooth...






Here is a coat of Future on the smoke stack. This is after the paint has had time to dry. I have added the Future because I will be adding salt onto the part once again.










I have added Future to the hull as well and the main deck quarters (not shown).












Here I sprayed the part with distilled water through the air brush. Just enough to give it a nice wet shine, no real puddling. I then sprinkled normal table salt on the part in a random pattern.








This will allow me to use a light coat of either white or gray paint. I am not sure which one I am going to use yet but what this will do is give it a worn look.

Have you ever seen a car or plane that the paint looks sun blotched and uneven?







This will (in theory) brake up the nice clean painted look and give it an uneven random faded look.

The white parts will get faded and worn by doing a oil wash.








Because this part of the boat, the smoke stack, is the most exposed to the elements it will get a wash to help with the fading of the paint.

That is all the updates for now. Thanks.

The painting has started....

Lets get started...

I have found my new found friend.. With my airbrush set I received 6 air brushes, 3 different models which had two of each. The top one is great for small area of painting, a REAL pain to paint huge parts. The bottom brush when I first stated to paint was a horrible brush. Now that I am a bit more experienced with thinning the paint I have discovered that this is amazing for large area painting. This brush will lay down paint like no ones business.

Before the following steps I laid down a coat of 'rust' paint on the hull, main deck and key parts. I know this seems pointless but this will allow me to have chipped paint and rust coming through when it is all said and done.


After the rust paint has dried on the hull I used a medical eye dropper to dab water droplets. I would then use normal table salt to drop on the water. The salt grains will puddle up.

I found that if there is too much water I can take a piece of paper towel and just barely touch the water droplet. This will soak up the excess water and leave the salt grains.



By letting the water fully dry, the salt will turn from a clear color to a more white color. When it is white then it is dry and ready to paint.

Here is an overall view of the main deck after it has been painted with rust and salt trick.

This will allow the rust to show through the next layer of paint in key places.





With small items such as this bit, you can do this little trick.

When you have your salt wet or with a little bit of water below it you can move it around to the desired direction before it dries. Once it is dried to the part then that is where it will stay.




Here are all the pieces on my paint paint bench. Each part will get painted and added at the last minute.

Being the first time I have built a model I am trying to plan my build wisely. Kinda like chess, you need to plan 6 moves ahead and hope it all goes well.








Here is a close up of one of the boat bits, you can see it has been painted with the salt already on.









Here is the boat main deck railing with the boat bits as well. These will later get more rust dusting to blend it all together.










Here is a closer look at the paint drying on the stern of the boat.










The main deck has been painted with white. The edges and under edge needed to be painted white as well. Because the next colors will be black and red there is no reason to mask off to prevent over spray.

The hull rail has salt all along it due to the impact and abuse it gets from bumping into docks, other boats and various things.






You can see another example here how the salt provides random but grouped masking. Again this will give it a chipped paint/rust look.









I have begun to remove the salt from the parts. You can see how the rust color is now showing through the black paint.












By strategically placing the salt I can replicate normal wear and tear on the boat and its paint. Through the rope port you can see how the rope would wear away the paint from towing. As well as railing chipping paint from items banging into it.







You can clearly see how the salt has allowed me to chip the paint in a direction that is commonly used with rope and wire. Remember this is a 4mm high bit.



















Here is the main deck quarters. The upper deck and hand railing will stay white while the main deck quarters will be red. Easier to cover white with red that cover red with white.

I did not do any salt tricks on this section because it will have rust but nothing of that scale.







Here is the life boats tarp. Or commonly known as toilet paper.. hehhe.. It is primed and ready for a green tarp look. This will require some real messing with to get it to look just right.









Here is a ladder (may need to click on it to zoom in) that I have painted white. This piece did get the salt trick to give it a worn chipped paint look.








Here is one of the bow bits that will take quite a bit of abuse. Same tricks were applied to this one as well.

After some time, lets get started...

I have been out of the garage due to my son's birthday and every day life. I was able to get into the garage and actually do some great work this weekend.

Rather than paint every little piece the same color I have glued them down to have them painted. The roof of the wheelhouse will be white and all the contents of it.

I am unsure if I am going to build the windows for the wheel house or not. Will require cutting clear styrene and dipping in Future.


So I found the bit to be a little toy'ish for me which is the one on the left. I have begun the process of scratch building a new one. The plastic post is 4mm in hight and 2.9mm in width. I drilled out one side of the post so the other styrene rod will slide in just like the original one.

I will drill out the other post on both sides and slide it down the stick. Make sure it is the correct width and glue it down. I will then need to add the support fins. I did this by making a rectangle the size needed, then cut a 45 angle in the desire location.



I have also decided to glue on the hand railing, steps and some other things on the stern end. These all need to be white with the deck so I can paint them in one pass.











Another shot of the hand railing.










This is a life raft that usually has a netting at the bottom. The original piece had injected plastic at the bottom to 'look' like netting.

I removed the bottom with a file and installed my own PE piece. The netting will be black while the rest will be a rescue orange.







This is the 'tarp' that goes on top of the life boat. The original part is smooth. I put white glue on the original part and then laid toilet paper (single ply) over the top. After painting this should look worn and like a tarp.. We will have to see if this works, if I don't like the way it looks i have a back up plan.







Once again I couldn't stand the original part. The part on the right is the injected part. You can see that each hole is plugged from the 'blast' plastic.

I got some PE (photo etch) grating and rebuilt that piece. Once painted it will look like the back deck or platform of a boat.






Here is another bit that I needed to rebuild. The original one actually broke. The main reason I wanted to rebuild this item is if you look at each end of it you will see what 'looks like' rope.









Once again, rebuilding another bit that goes onto the bow of the boat. The one one the left has imperfections in the injection and would be easier to build it from scratch.

Discouraged but not beaten..

5 seconds and I was ready to give up..

I am learning real fast what to do and what not to do when it comes to airbrushing. A huge problem that I ran into was trying to spry primer over a red plastic is quite hard. I was thinning my paint way to much (25% paint 75% thinner) so it was taking 2-3 coats. As you can see here the paint is not getting into the panel lines very well.

I have a HUGE seam going down the front and back of my smoke stack. Not sure if I can even fix this. I know it will require some putty and sanding but unsure if I want to take the time..

An overall view of the primed smoke stack.

It took quite a bit of paint to get the red plastic to go away. I noticed after the paint it was very rough to the touch. I wet sanded it with 6000 grit and now it is smooth for the next coat. My concern is the amount of primer paint it is taking to do this.. Am I doing it wrong?

I learned something else, you need to wash your parts to get all the oils off. Well I did but not well enough because one of the side panels failed to paint. The paint puddled up like oil on water. I soaked the part in simple green (not diluted) for 20 min and the paint came off without hurting the part. I think I will make the parts first before I paint again.. Get all the seams nice and smooth.

"Why is my model melting?"

So I sanded down the main deck to remove the ropes that were molded to it. Doing so I was impatient and used to low of grit sand paper. This left deep scratches in a few places once I painted it with primer. My only option would be to remove the paint and try to smooth out the scratches. Well I used my paint thinner as a medium to remove the paint. It was working fine till I used it to much and my main deck started to melt.

That only left me with one option; scratch build (build it by hand from spare styrene) the main deck. With tons of sanding to mold it I was able to get the new deck right. I used clamps to hold the deck to the hull and glue it in place. Any extra styrene or unevenness I was able to sand down.

The life boat is designed to have a molded “tarp” cover to

it and tied down. The tie downs were molded to the

side of the life boat and smooth. The box has it as a life boat with 4” wood planks rather than a fiber glass boat. I sanded down the tie downs molded to the boat smooth and started to scribe .93mm planks. It is tougher than I thought to carve these lines on such a small item, but once I started I was committed. After all the lines were scribed I wet sanded with 6000 grit to smooth it out. In theory once it is painted it will show slight groves for the planks of wood.

I used non-drying clay to hold the main deck edge to my work bench so I could glue the two halves together. With the scratch built deck this brought a problem, there are guides on the bow and stern (front and back) that guide these edges. I had to make my own pegs to guide this. It is currently drying but my plan is to

mount it to the bow and stern, leaving the sides unglued. This way once the bow and stern are dried I can spread the rails where I want them.

The main stack to the tug has molded ladder going up the side. With a little bit of sanding I removed these moldings. I drilled small holes and made my own ladder out of wire. Each step is less than 1 mm wide and 1mm away from the stack.

So far I am letting stuff dry now. On the main deck (not shown) super structure it also has molded hand rails. This is something I ‘may’ sand off and add my own. Several hurdles I may have are the size of the wire (1/108 of a 4” pipe is .92mm, so a 2” is much smaller) and can I sand down the original one without hurting anything else.