Gonk Droid

[The Chief Smeg]

So got my Mojo back after finishing building my new modelling space in the garage and cracked open a new kit, well actually half of a kit as I've already built the mouse droid. I give you the JPG Productions Gonk droid

 

 

for those who have not seen the kit before (is there anyone?) this is what you get

 

 

so I spent some time dry fitting, filling and priming, then forgot to take a picture before I laid down a coat of vallejo metal colour white aluminium 

 

 

i have also painted the corrugated leg sections with Vallejo model air Panzer Grey and the really observant amongst you will spot the leg 'pipes' still in their UMP Black primer. 

 

I finished the silver and let everything cure overnight and today assembled the main body with Gorilla Gel superglue

 

 

and I discovered something new - wiping off excess gorilla gel also removes the Vallejo silver and the primer!

 

this has now Ben touched up and I've also readied the copper colour on the leg 'pipes' using Tamiya dark copper and highlighted with citadel bright copper 

 

 

I have some really good verdigris stuff to put on tomorrow when I get the chance

 

i have also touched up the legs by hand as I had sprayed the silver at far too low a pressure and got loads of spatter all over the panzer grey

 

 

As you can see this is now fixed. Ignore the fact that the silver fades out this is only the layer I'm chipping to. Next step is a couple of coats of hairspray and then onto the colour scheme I have been trying out on this particular spoon

 

 

 

that is vallejo grey blue and the yellow is going around the centre section. Hopefully I'll not mess this all up with the hairspray chipping as my first (and only attempt so far) at this was a disaster but I know what I did wrong - I hope!  I'm spraying the yellow down first and then the blue. 

 

More tomorrow if if all goes well  

 

leigh

[The Chief Smeg]

So I have hit a snag and I need the advice of the collective to try to work out what I've done wrong. 

 

As as you can see drone the earlier pictures I painted the Gonk in primer and the silver. I the laid over a couple of coats of V05 (pump action bottle decanted into my airbrush) using a .4 nozzle at 10psi, left it to dry over night and the. Threw down the yellow and this seemed ok. I then added the blue (vallejo model air) using the same nozzle and pressure and THIS happened

 

 

amd it did it all over too. Some areas have had a couple of wet on wet coats just to see what would happen and if anything it got worse, I did the same with the feet (wet on wet) and they crazed and then stopped but I think there is a LOT of paint on them now. Anyone know what I'm doing wrong?

[Andy Moore]

Ah yes, that's an issue I've had on a few occasions when doing hairspray chipping. It's simply down to the paint going on too heavily. Doing a wet on wet coat would actually make it worse. What's happening is that the wet paint is activating the hairspray, which is then causing the top coat to crack.

 

Paint, especially when it's thinned for spraying, is predominantly water, and it's the water that interacts with the hairspray. When you do a normal (non-hairspray) paint job, the paint dries by the water content in it evaporating, leaving a thin film of paint on the surface. When that happens, the paint film shrinks back since half of its volume (the water) is gone. That's why a slightly gloopy paint job can often look better when it's dry, as the paint pulls back and tightens over surface details.

 

When you have a wet paint coat over hairspray, the HS is activated by the water in the paint then, as the water evaporates and the paint starts to shrink back, large cracks appear because the paint has bonded to the HS rather than the primer. The HS can't hold the paint due to it being softened by the water, and the cracks open up.

 

When you're spraying over HS, you need to lay the paint on in thin mist coats and build the coverage up slowly. Don't thin the paint too much, as you want to avoid too much water on the surface. Spray a mist coat on then leave it for 30 seconds to a minute to allow some of the water to dry, then give it another mist coat. Keep building the paint up like that until you get the coverage you want.

You don't want the overall paint layer to be too think though, as it'll have a tendency to come off in large patches rather than small chip, especially with vallejo which is quite a 'rubbery' paint when dry, and tends to peel rather than chip.

 

The effect you've got, while not what you wanted in this case, can be useful at times, if you want a cracked or crazed paint finish. You should still be able to chip this paint finish. It would be worth doing as you may end up liking the result, despite not being what you originally had in mind. If the chipping ends up looking to heavy, you could seal the surface with varnish, add another coat of hairspray and another top coat, and end up with a double layer of chipping, like it's had one heavily chipped paint finish, which has then been covered by another finish which has also started to chip.

 

Hope that helps

 

Andy

[The Chief Smeg]

Andy,

 

that is brilliant, thank you very much for the advice - I'll see if I can recover this if I get the chance later today

[The Chief Smeg]

5 hours ago, AndyRM101 said:

 vallejo which is quite a 'rubbery' paint when dry, and tends to peel rather than chip.

 

Andy

 

Iveseen in quite a few of your builds hat you use Tamiya quite a lot, I'm guessing that from your experience this chips better with hairspray yes?

[Mike]

Owww... that looks grim.  At least you can strip & re-do it easily enough because it's resin.

[Andy Moore]

18 minutes ago, The Chief Smeg said:

Iveseen in quite a few of your builds hat you use Tamiya quite a lot, I'm guessing that from your experience this chips better with hairspray yes?

 

All acrylics can be used, but they each have their own quirks. Tamiya is a good all round choice for chipping, but I sometimes have trouble with it as it dries quite fast and can be harder to remove. If you're going with Tamiya, I'd add at least a couple of coats of hairspray to make sure you'll be able to chip it. Vallejo chips much more easily than Tamiya, but the chips can sometimes flake off in large chunks. Generally one coat of hairspray is enough for Vallejo, and don't let the paint build-up get too thick, as that's when it starts to peel and flake.

 

At the end of the day, it's a hit and miss technique with so many factors that can affect the outcome. Even the temperature and humidity in the room can affect the way the paint chips. The best thing to do is keep trying it, and you'll start to get a feel for how different paints, different number off hairspray coats, and different time lengths between paint application and chipping can alter the outcome.

 

Andy

[The Chief Smeg]

Thanks Andy. I have practiced on a few spoons recently and had mixed results, lot of rubber like scrapings and large sections coming off. Guess I'll just have to keep going and, as you say, find what best suits me. 

 

Right, back to the garage and let's see what I can do with old Gonky boy!

[Pete in Lincs]

Good luck!

[The Chief Smeg]

Cheers Pete 

[The Chief Smeg]

Ding Ding; Seconds out - Round Three

 

So after words of encouragement from you good folks, I had a bit of a stab at recovery action; starting with the feet

 

 

 

And I'm fairly happy with the results.  They need further weathering and a touch of dry brushing here and there where I was a little too vigorous, but overall I was content with the resultant look..these are currently drying following a gloss coat..

 

i picked up up the main body and it felt rather rubbery so I decided to have a bash at simply scrubbing off the paint using copious amounts of water and a toothbrush. It actually started to look a lot better, sure larger sections than I wished came off, but this was always going to be layer one of the colour coating anyway.

 

 

 

this is also now drying following a coat of gloss varnish.  Again I was a bit heavy handed and have gone through the primer and silver to the resin but this just needs some careful dry brushing to recover, followed by some sponged on darker blue.

[The Chief Smeg]

On 23/07/2017 at 3:35 PM, Mike said:

Owww... that looks grim.  At least you can strip & re-do it easily enough because it's resin.

Mike, 

i think I've got away with this, I'll know better when the varnish has dried (unless I've messed that up too), if all does go wrong then I'll dig out the fairy powerspray and start again.

[The Chief Smeg]

So the gloss coat dried rather well so I managed to sponge in some other blue shades and I'm very pleased with the result. I have now stated detai painting some parts and I added the 'green screen' section and put on the little scratch built monitor housing I had spent far too long on and it looked awful. Pulled off the frame and dropped it into the scrap pieces box and tomorrow I'll be scraping off the translucent green that you can see in this picture

 

chamge of plans is called for

[Madmonk]

That's a good save Chief.

[The Chief Smeg]

I think I was very lucky Madmonk!

 

Not really managed to spend much time in the garage since the other day but I did grab a quick hour today:

 

assembled the legs and began the weathering

 

 

The verdigris is Citadel Nihilac Oxide on top of Tamiya dark copper with highlights from citadel bright copper. Got to add a lot of oily grime next so I'll be digging out my UMP washes. 

 

Also scraped off the Tamiya translucent green paint and started to modify the flat panel area by drilling a flat bottom hole and adding a bit of plasticard. The counterbore actually has a pilot hole in the centre that was filled with Superglue gel, got a little control know to make yet

 

 

the gold colour you can see on the left-most items is just a base for something I'm trying. Really enjoying this build, resin is a very forgiving medium (or have I just been lucky). 

 

Thanks for looking

 

Leigh

Edited July 29, 2017 by The Chief Smeg

[Andy Moore]

Looking very nice. I love the oxidised copper pipes.

 

Andy

[The Chief Smeg]

2 hours ago, AndyRM101 said:

I love the oxidised copper pipes  

Cheers Andy, that is thanks to the Nihilac Oxide shade from citadel, it is just so easy to use on top of a copper base, I believe you are supposed to paint on and wipe off the excess, but I used a slightly damp brush to paint it on so it was thinner than usual and it worked rather well, then painted it onto a wet surface for the runs and streaks at the bottom.  I'm learning all the time from everyone else's builds on here. 

[rockpopandchips]

Looking great and the copper looks fantastic. Definitely going to order some of that citadel oxide somthing i will definitely use when i get around to building my nautilus.

[The Chief Smeg]

Ooh seen that kit, you are going to need a about a gallon of bronze/copper paint for that 

[The Chief Smeg]

Bit more progress has been made over the last week;

 

 

the next task was to add another greeblie to the display panel.  I wanted a lever of some sort so had a hunt around for a nice spherical knob for the end - and I found this

 

 

and if Mrs Chief Smeg realises the chord on the bathroom blind is a little bit shorter I will be in real trouble

 

 

Anyway, got it in place and added the screen to the front panel too, apologies for the poor focus, I only have my phone with me when building

 

 

so I have been layering the weathering and I'm now going to call this guy finished for now - head on over to RFI for some completed shots.

Edited August 5, 2017 by The Chief Smeg