Painting is complete. It went almost as poorly as when I painted the Kampfer, but this time I managed to salvage it.
The first problem: The Testor’s paint caused the Sharpie markers to bled out too. This is mind numbingly frustrating. It means that out of three types of markers (Gundam Markers, Sharpie and Pigma), only the latter manages not to become runny. I don’t understand what this paint is made out of. Acid maybe?
The good news is that I monitored the pieces as they dried, and was able to often wipe away the runoff. I also found that a pencil eraser did a pretty good job or removing the runoff without stripping away all the paint. Interestingly enough, there were a few parts that actually looked nice and weathered due to the bleeding effect, so I left those alone.
As for the Krylon high gloss paint, it worked great on the frame. Nice and even and shiny. The same cannot be said for the Demolition Knife and the rifle. They both have a bit of an uneven coat, with occasional bumps and smudges (on the sword, said smudges contain my fingerprints). This leads me to believe that my problems with this paint are due to saturation levels. Too much paint (or too little) leads to poor results. I guess I’d have to experiment with it some more to find the right “touch” so to speak, but I’m not sure if I want to risk potentially ruining a model in the process.
I ended up scratching off some of the pain on the Knife, to give it a nicked up, worn-out look. I kind of like it; anyone who cooks knows that knives and other kitchen equipment never remain immaculate, so why would this sword?
While I may have salvaged the painting of this model, I’m still worried that I had to do it in the first place. At this point, I’m running out of options for topcoat. I still have to try out Krylon’s matte paint to see how it fares, but if that doesn’t work, I may be forced to order Tamiya paints, the cost (and speed of delivery) of which greatly concerns me.
Side Thoughts
I used a paper bowl (lined with paper towels) to spray many of these pieces. I’d simply lay them down in the bowl and let ‘er rip with the paint. My original reason for doing this is to conserve paint; I thought I wouldn’t have to move the spray can around as much, and would use less as a result. I don’t know if my theory held up, but the results were good.