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[Gol Nazyne Vizsla]

This is looking soooo good!!

[illustar]

Another bit of progress this weekend - pulled out the heat gun for shaping my larger pieces. It's mostly going well.


Here is an issue. I caught one of the flanges of the breastplate at just the wrong angle while sanding, and ripped it off. I figured I could probably put it back together, so I saved the piece and moved forward (if all else failed, I knew the shaping would be good practice), so here is the piece shaped. But now that I'm at that point, I'm not sure how to reattach it - will bondo do the job, or do I need to glue it first? Does it need reinforcement on the other side? Now that things are shaped, it doesn't quite fit flush against the broken edge, so I need to fill in the gap. I thought I'd ask for advice before ruining anything. Suggestions?

[illustar]

Moving slowly ahead. I took the breakage question to my clan and got some good suggestions.. I ended up trying Devcon Plastic Welder, and then went ahead and used it to fill in the gaps in all my pieces (the toe seams on the foot armor, the chin on the mask, and the darts of the breastplate). This epoxy is apparently stronger than Bondo, but the process took a while. I would mix up a smallish amount so I could apply it all before it set, and then I left it alone overnight. Come back to see that it's pretty solid, but didn't over-fill the spaces enough to fill the gap flush. In that regard, it sounds like Bondo might have been more useful. In any case, I finally got everything filled, and last night I took my pieces to the sander. Breastplate is looking good! (Pics later.)

I also trimmed down a bunch of pieces for fit - took off a couple inches from the bottom of the breastplate and back plate, cut down the back collar so it will fit with the front half, and trimmed half of one gaunt to fit with the other half. Sanded down the corners of the mask so they'll fit together better - I tried gluing it previously, but it didn't work very well. This seems like it'll do better. OH! And I finally made the templates for my greaves, and cut out and sanded those too. (Again, pics later.)

Next steps:
-Hardware for thighs, pauldrons
-Shape greaves
-Tighten shape on new gaunt
-Glue mask pieces together, make cowl
-Details on breastplate - the recessed stomach area that I keep forgetting about, as well as a dip in the center (is this a dremel job?), and that groove on the right breast. And for that matter, there are a couple of grooves on the back plate that I should probably do too.

Most of these pieces I feel pretty good about, but I should probably put them all on and take some pics to double-check the overall fit/placement before painting anything. That way I can trim stuff down (I'm thinking about the back plate, particularly) and/or reshape without wasting time.

I've also been brainstorming the belt and weapon. I had hoped to get everything ready for pre-approval before I leave town for a couple weeks in October, but it looks like I won't make it. Maybe in time for Halloween?

[bolakor]

I give this a very hefty BRUH out of 5. I wanted to do a neo, but its a bit too complex right now. For sure when my first kit is done though

[EricaHawvermale]

Your progress on this is astounding!  I can't wait to see it when it's done!  Keep up the good work, it looks amazing!  I especially like your shaping on the chest plate!

[Kol Varek]

Looks great!

[illustar]

After leaving the country for a couple weeks and losing all my momentum, I've started up again. All my pieces are done being shaped except the collar, which still needs a bit of fine tuning (and a second person for assistance).



(And from the other end)


This weekend I wiped them down with alcohol to get a clean surface, and laid down a couple layers of primer (front and back - I wasn't sure if I should paint the back, but I'd rather it not be white...) Here's the first coat.


Tonight I put on the base color, a metallic aluminum. But lo and behold, it seems to have bonded to the primer and pulled away from the armor. I ran a finger down the wrinkles and the paint peeled right off. Unfortunately I didn't notice this was happening until I finished the first coat of everything, and it's happening on almost every single piece!
   

I'm using a Rustoleum paint that says it bonds to plastic, and all the paint is the same brand. I'm guessing it's because I didn't sand the surface of the sintra - I wasn't completely sure if I needed to, and I was just so sick of sanding... I should have double-checked. But now what? I'm guessing I need to get it all off and go back to the surface and rough it up right. What's the best way to do that? Or am I wrong and it's caused by something else?

[Naran Baatar]

Did you use two different brands for primer and paint, because if so, different brands of paint don't play well with each other and you get that pealing, which is never any fun. Personally I just avoid Rustoleum paints altogether because they seem want to peal like this more than other brands (at least at my experience)

[illustar]

No, the primer is the same line of Rustoleum as the paint. Bummer, though. I chose that brand because it had the closest shade of blue to what I wanted.

[Naran Baatar]

Temperature and humidity can also mess things up if it is too warm, too cold, or too humidity it can cause the paints to no bondo correctly or if there wasn't enough drying time between the primer coat and the metallic coat.

[OriKad]

It's gonna take a lot of sanding to get that back, but it'll be worth it.  You went to a lot of effort to shape the plates, so you can't 'cheap out' on the effort to finish them well.

The 'formulated for plastics' rustoleum has a stronger solvent in it than normal paint which might be affecting the primer layer and causing it to peel like that.  The alcohol residue might also be part of the culprit.  Give it a good water rinse next time and see if that works.  You can also wet-sand it with a fine grit sanding sponge.  That's how I get the final pre-paint prep.  Wet sand then wipe with a wet shop towel to make sure all the other residues are cleared off.

[Kol Varek]

I had this exact problem with my Mk I, it's a pain in the shebs. Like Naraan said, I avoid rustoleum too. I prefer to use Valspar which you can typically find at Lowes, it's actually the only paint I use now. I would strongly recommend that. Now another thing that might help is taking a light grit (like a 180 grit sanding sponge) and going a bit over all your plates. It might help the paint adhere to the plastic surface.

[Gol Nazyne Vizsla]

So impressed with your progress. And trust me a light sand before paint is always work it

[Redness]

Wow, your work looks great consider yourself bookmarked
As for the wrinkled paint - I always sand parts a bit first and then wash them with dishwasher liquid to make sure it's grease-free. No problems with paint sticking.
But as Naran said - temp. and humidity can mess things up big time. Happened to me when I took my paints from warm-ish flat to cold-ish basement :/

[Kris Jasra]

After a few similar problems, this is how I've ended up painting and I've not had a peeling problem since and my paint ends up rock solid (like, the blowtorch didn't even scorch it and I had to take a file to it to create damage, solid).

-Light sand - 30 second rough up is all I give each plate, nothing special) to get a good adherence. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove any sanding dust and leave to fully air dry before doing anything.
-Primer - take 3 or 4 passes to build it up slowly, leaving at least 30 mins between each pass at a decent 15-20 degrees C and dry (you'll have to translate that to F, I be British ) If the temp is outside of that, leave it for longer just to be sure. The colder it is, or the more humidity there is, the more time it takes for paint to degas and trapped gas can be a big reason for peeling and cracking. I bring the plates inside in winter to finish drying and put them nearer to a fan in humid conditions. I then tend to leave it for at least 24 hours then before adding anything else.
-I give the primer a very light sand, again 30 seconds works for me.
-Main paint layer, again, very thin coats. I usually take 5 or 6 coats to work up a full coverage with at least 30 mins between each layer. Putting one colour on usually takes me a full day, plus another day to just sit and degas.

The last armour plates I made took about two weeks to paint - 9 layers in total. It was a good test of patience