First timer

[grelland]

I have lurking around this part of the forum for a while and secretly collecting some equipment and materials to finally start painting my shells using an airbrush and liquid mask.

So today, when the S2 shell for my Vega arrived, I started off by cleaning and prepping it, and then added 3 layers of liquid mask. I have never used that before, so i am really anxious to see how this will work out.

After 3 layers dried with a hairdryer in between coats, I started thinking about paint shemes, and at the moment the shell looks like this:


I will build up the courage over the night to bring out the scalpel, and start cutting tomorrow, and hopefully starting to lay the layers of paint tomorrow night.

I really hope I dont end up ruining a perfectly good shell, but now that I started to show the work here, I will post pictures of the progress and result, so I feel the pressure already

Most of all, I would appreciate some feedback on my work, as I plan to do quite a few shells over the winter, so hopefully my skills will improve

[kayce]

Originally Posted by grelland

Most of all, I would appreciate some feedback on my work, as I plan to do quite a few shells over the winter, so hopefully my skills will improve

1) First paintjobs suck, everybody's does, so don't worry too much about it.
2) Don't bite off more than you can chew, first time around.
3) Lean from your mistakes.
4) Practice makes perfect.

Have fun

[eyeayen]

The design you've chosen looks clear and I think it will come out well.

Remember to put your darkest colours down first, then gradually work up to the lighter ones.

Thin coats of paint dried well in between work best.

When you've got quite a bit of paint on there it's an idea to run your scalpel around the next piece of masking to make sure nothing tears when you take it off.

Good luck

[gingapaint]

Oh yeah, first ones are a voyage of discovery!! I still have some very early ones kicking about, and they're good for a giggle.
There are guides about which may be worth reading, I did a real-time step by step on my Facebook site a week ago too, which may (or may not!) be worth having a look at.
Most importantly, take your time, build up slowly (easier to put more paint down than take it off!) and enjoy!!

Oh, and wear a good mask

[grelland]

Thanks for the advice, guys.

My plan was to have the background color black, and use orange/yellow/white on the stripes/details.

So you would recommend to cut all the lines, and lay down the black first?

Or would it work to do the colors first, as long as I carefully back with white prior to doing the black?

Previously I have only worked with pactra rattle cans, so I have no experience in how well the Faskolor paint will cover.

[andys]

I found its best to cut all the lines 1st.
Then I clean all the marker off the shell, as it just confuses things when you get going and are looking for the cut lines.
Make sure you use a few thin coats to build up each colour, also make sure it's not transparent / see through, which can happen if you don't lay enough paint down.

I he the painted area up to a light, if I can't see my hand through the painted area it's ok and I know the paint is thick enough.

Apart from that, you can't go far wrong. As said, you may want to re score the odd cut line once paint is down. Good luck

[kayce]

Originally Posted by grelland

So you would recommend to cut all the lines, and lay down the black first?

Or would it work to do the colors first, as long as I carefully back with white prior to doing the black?

Previously I have only worked with pactra rattle cans, so I have no experience in how well the Faskolor paing will cover.

As the earlier poster said, always lay down your colours in order from darkest to lightest.
Even after backing a lighter color, you stand a chance of darkening or muddying a light color with black behind it. Sometimes it makes more work, but it's the end result you're after (and not something lesser because you rushed).

One other tip: since your primary color will be black, you might want to try doing a pinstrip around the graphics (maybe silver) to help them stand out.

[eyeayen]

Just to sort of back up what Kayce said above, if you do need to put a lighter colour down before a darker one, back it with white, that will give the colour it's brilliance. Then back that with silver, this is completely opaque and nothing will come through it, so you can put black down afterwards safe in the knowledge your colour is protected.

Be warned though the build from Faskolor / createx / auto air - ( they're all the same ) is much higher than from the thinner based type paints like Pactra, you design will start to get a bit '3D' after a few colours so backing with silver as I've mentioned above will increase this.

The design should still be okay from the outside though.

[grelland]

Originally Posted by kayce

One other tip: since your primary color will be black, you might want to try doing a pinstrip around the graphics (maybe silver) to help them stand out.

I was thinking the same, but since I dont trust my scalpelling skills yet, I kind of wanted to skip the pinstriping on this one.

I have 3 boys all running their own cars, so I guess I will have enough shells to practice on

[grelland]

I decided I just might to jump into this, so me and my oldest son went down into the basement tonight and got busy. He was in charge of the hairdryer, and I held the airbrush

First a shot of our paint-booth:

I have an old kitchen in the basement, so I simply use the ventilator from where the oven used to be. I will transform more or less the entire basement to a hobby room later, but this will do for now....

I started out by removing all the masking where the black was supposed to go:


Then i laid down 3-4 coats with the black; which turned out somewhat more charcoal in my mind; it was a black pearl, rather than the flat black I though I bought...

Never mind, I then started by removing the first area that was to have some color,


...and laid a thin layer of orange in the front, and yellow over the rest:

This was before I backed with the pearl white, so the colors were not that vibrant...

I continued to build the colors in the various fields, using only orange, yellow and the white, and after an hour or so, it came out like this:


I am quite pleased for being the first time, and once the daylight is back, I will bring out my proper camera and take a few more pictures of some details, especially of the areas where I have some questions.

The liquid mask was a pleasure to work with, but I see I need more practice with the scalpel...

[kayce]

Well done, for a first-timer.

Originally Posted by grelland

I see I need more practice with the scalpel...

As someone once told me, "That's why some of us are surgeons, and most of us ain't."

[gainsy]

Can't see much wrong with the scalpal work pal unless your missing a finger
Good job for your first shell

[grelland]

Thanks guys

This will never be a shell with the "wow" factor on the track, and some of the intention was to try out a few of the techniques, and also gain experience in the masking/cutting.

I am getting old (42...) som I normally prefer brighter colors, so probably I should have used white as base color, and not the black (which actually look more bronze in day-light).

[eyeayen]

The shell is quite dark, the cutting out and airbrushing themselves look fine for a first attempt. 1st ones are never easy.

If one of your colour area's had been swapped for the black that would perhaps have altered things. However it's something to build on for next time. By the time you've got this shell on the car and put some stickers on it I think it will be much brighter.

[grelland]

Winter is here, and there is not any daylight after work anymore, so detailed pictures will have to wait for the weekend, but I trimmed and mounted the shell on my Vega, so that I can test in this coming Saturday, so here's a shot of the finished car:



Not the hottest car around

[VintageRacer]

Looks pretty good, I hope my first shell comes out as good as that.