Tyberos the Red Wake - Day 5

So far, I've been writing these posts about the previous day's work.  So by the time tomorrow's post goes up, the progress in this post is over a day old.  Just thought I'd mention that.

Right... so last night was a bit of a motherfucker as I lost about a day's worth of progress on the model itself.  Or at least a few hours of work and a day's worth of waiting (thanks to my work schedule).  It turned out that my primer coat had fuzzed on me and i was back to the Simple Green bath.  This made it very hard to maintain the 'keep on happy painting' vibe the Massive Voodoo guys are into.

aaaaand it turns out that most of the pictures I took last night were garbage.  Except this one:

Luckily for me, things resolved nicely so no ashes to sift through.  Plus I got a nice, fat educational moment to play with.

For me, there were a number of lessons I learned or at least had reinforced by the experience.  Some things I think have a great deal of value as far as improving the knowledge of other people who maybe aren't quite as into the whole painting thing as I am.

Educational Moment - Primer:  It always pays to get a good primer (keeping in mind that mo money doesn't always equal mo better).  A good primer will have better paint qualities and be less prone to sucking total ass.  But at some point it WILL suck total ass - even if only for a moment.

Fuzzing may not be the worst thing a primer can do to your model, but it is one of the most common.  And nothing ruins a paint job quite like a good primer fuzzing.  If your primer coat gets all fuzzy - under no circumstances should you try and power through to the painting stage.  That new fuzz texture you're model is rocking will not magically fix itself once you add paint.  At least try and sand the fuzz down with some fine green sandpaper.  Be prepared for that solution to fail; be prepared to dunk it and try again. 

Educational Moment - Thin Layers:  Mini-crises like this fuzzing situation are where those thin layers of paint the experts are always on about come into play.  Thin layers of paint not only preserve detail on the model and prevent visable brush strokes, but it also makes fixing fuck-ups easier.  That thin layer of paint is much, much easier to strip off.  And even though you may not get it all, the leftovers are less likely to fuck up your next attempt.


Educational Moment - Patience:  Related to the above theme of fuck-ups is the idea that with painting it doesn't pay to get angry.  Frustration is natural and good, but you gotta calm it down before it gets into the kind of thing that'll effect your judgment.  You gotta get past the anger when things are breaking down. That totally great idea you had while angry may just turn an unfortunate mistake into irreparable damage.

This is a hard one for me sometimes - I have a temper and I place a lot of personal importance on my hobbies.  Anger and dissapointment are bad combination.  The primer fuzz set me back, potential ruined a $26 lump of resin and was a downer all around.  So before I did anything to fix it, I spent some time to calm down and get some objectivity back.


Educational Moment - Apoxie Sculpt:  Is Waterproof.  Says it right there on the container.  I didn't know/remember that until I dunked the model and noticed the repairs we're intact.  So there's another advantage epoxy clay has over green stuff.

But the night wasn't anywhere near a total loss.  I learned some things about Apoxie Sculpt AND I made some more progress on the base components:

Sorry for the shit pictures.

I added the  epoxy clay around the gaps in the bottom section.  That''l be ready for the last few bits of construction and then its on to paint.

The top plate got some love too - I distressed the edge a bit with some fire and a pair of pliers.  Then I added the little sticky out bits.  That'll get paint even sooner than the base (I've got a pretty involved weathering echnique in mind and the two parts need to be serperate).

Lastly, I rounded out the night re-priming the model.  Which went better than I hoped - with only a few very slight hints that I had stripped the model down.

Tonight will probably be the last few bits of minor construction and maybe some Grey paint on Tyberos.  Most of the action will happen Saturday - so expect a much cooler update.