That's me all over!!!!!Originally Posted by Teaticket
That's me all over!!!!!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Tim, I think we are brothers!
Yes - I can already feel the Shapeways addiction shaping right up. I've just this morning ordered a pair each of the FE.2b and BE.2c!
I definitely got the Krylon on a bit too thick, as the following photos show - I buried the detail a lot, and it's got that "thick paint" thing going on. But if I have to choose between this and a grainy finish, I prefer this!
Future efforts will simply use less Krylon, and it all should work out nicely. Learning by doing!
Thanks again to all of you for the help. I've learned a lot and have a good sense of where to go from here.
More pics to follow as additional progress is made
So it looks like you are getting there! I would suggest not putting so much gloss clear on at one time. Less in a few more coats to avoid pooling of the clear in the low spots. I give mine a few coats while they are upside down, let it cure, then do the sides, then finally the tops. Here I will prop them so the top wings are level which requires spacers under the tail. If I do each area two hours apart, I can do dozens each time and dozens in a day : ) Well, the elves can I mean . . .
Yes, I definitely got carried away with the clear gloss! The idea of suspending the planes on their sides and inverted also occurred to me, as a good way to "do more with less." I was just so excited to see the grain disappearing that I kept at it. On the plus side, I feel I've now bracketed the "not enough" and "oops too much" ends of the spectrum, so I can focus on finding the Goldilocks middle!
My current WWI Shapeways backlog . . . where are those elves?
Only 76 to go! Crazy? Me? No its the elves . . . .
I do flip them over to do the bottom but haven't worried about the sides. Maybe I've been lucky with the amount of spray getting into the sides just by hitting the tops and bottoms.
I blame every single one of you for the $200 I just spent on Shapeways. If my wife asks where that money went you guys get to explain it to her
In all seriousness, though, it's been 3-4 years since I did anything with Shapeways and I'm really excited about the lot of stuff I've got coming in. I will be working with WSF for the first time and this thread has been a great resource. I'll need to get some Pledge from the hardware store when my birds come in...
De planes, boss, de planes!My current WWI Shapeways backlog . . . where are those elves?
Only 76 to go! Crazy? Me? No its the elves . . . .
I just ordered a couple of ME-262a's from there. I hope there as good im hoping.
Decals make everything better
Still some work to do, but very happy with the progress so far.
This is fun!
Welcome to the Shapeway Side, now you will learn who your true father is . . . . whoops, wrong site . . . !
The first rule of "Shapeways Club" is tell no one about "Shapeways Club" . . . except SWMBO, best to get one of their cool Jewelry items for her to introduce her to your new muse or mistress . . .I blame every single one of you for the $200 I just spent on Shapeways. If my wife asks where that money went you guys get to explain it to her
get her something that looks like gold, costs as much as gold, but weighs next to nothing (WSF sprayed gold!)
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
I overpainted the decals on the fuselage and vertical stabilizer per Wolff's scheme and then sprayed with a matte finish. It's not perfect by any means, but I'm quite happy with the result!
Thanks again everyone for the help!!
Looks great Steve. A great start to your journey down the endless Shapweways trail.
That'll do nicely!
Now for your next dozen!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Thanks guys! I really have enjoyed learning how to get a good result with these Shapeways planes. It's so fun to have such a wide variety on offer, and knowing that you can finish them in whatever scheme you like. I'm looking forward to finishing up the rest of these D.IIIs and then getting on with the Pups and Vickers-gunned N.17s.
Bloody April is in full swing
My big WSF Shapeways lot is shipping today, so I'll be looking back at your methods for inspiration here in the coming days. The results are fantastic!
What Krylon do you guys use, specifically? Making a trip to the hobby and/or the hardware store in the near future to prepare for my large incoming batch of WSF planes...
Krylon Clear Gloss for the sealing / filling
Krylon Primer after that
Whatever after that
Awesome, thanks Steve
I can photograph my spray cans later tonight, if it's of any help.
Yeah, that'd be great! I have 20 planes coming in this next order but I've never worked with WSF before, so I want to make sure I do it right
Started my Shapeways project last night. Gave my 20 new birds a bath and then started with the Krylon coating. I did two coats last night, and then decided to see how a brushed-on coat of Citadel basecoat black paint would look on one of the SE5s (my plane of choice for experimenting since I ordered four, and already have several Nexus copies of). It wasn't great - I thought before the paint went on it would look good, but it's still pretty grainy. So I'm starting a third Krylon coat this morning and will finish today after work.
How many coats of Krylon do you guys use? I am happy to keep experimenting but I don't want to ruin all my precious planes! I'm thinking one more coat ought to get it pretty close to where I want it, and I'm expecting the spray primer to even things out a bit better than the brushed on base coat I did for my Scout Experimental...
How many coats? Depends on the surface you want. I think I usually do 3-4, then a flat black primer. I stop short of a totally glassy smooth surface. I actually like a tiny bit of texture. With planes that have a very bad surface I will take a file to it after the black primer and then prime again.
Some planes have better surfaces than others from the get go, a bit of randomness in the printing process.
I sprayed my Krylon coats with good light, and just kept a careful eye on how smooth the surface looked based on the reflections. When I stopped seeing grain and started seeing those long straight lines denoting a smooth surface, I stopped. Honestly, IMHO a bit too much is better than not enough - there's not exactly tons of detail on these things anyways, so a smooth surface is good.
With that said - definitely try spraying the coats on the top surfaces and then allowing the plane to dry upside down. This should help reduce pooling in between the wing ribs (and elsewhere) and help those retain more definition while still filling the grain. I did not do that on my planes, and those rib details are pretty submerged now, but I'm planning to do it in the future and (per other feedback in this thread) it should work well.
Good luck - take your time - be patient. You'll get a good result!
Armed with all this good info I am going to dive into Shapeways for a small flock of SE 5As.
I don't really have a good source of light where I've been spraying (first, my garage, until the wife complained about the smell - then I moved outside), and I think that would definitely help me sort out the krylon situation. That being said, I think I've done OK. I'll have to post some pictures, but I finished a Pup last night that I'm pretty pleased with. The level of detail isn't super high but the surfaces are mostly smooth and that's the important thing.
I had several planes which I thought were ready for paint, but after spraying the undercoat, still had a fair number of bumps, and, as it turns out, some little holes (air bubbles, perhaps?). A trip to Wal-Mart for some wall spackle seems to have mostly sorted that problem out, though, so the project continues.
This is fun!
Here are some pictures of the first Pup.
Attachment 220874
Attachment 220875
Attachment 220876
Filling these little holes is easier by brushing on a coat of something liquid - I use "Pledge" floor wax.
I won't deny that spraying is faster, particularly for large surfaces, but many "holes" will remain. I don't have an area for spraying anyway, so I have become well used to brushing the stuff on!
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
I wasn't sure what kind of Pledge to get (so many options!) when I was at the store, so I went with the wall spackle, remembering reading about it here.
Do you brush Pledge on as the first step, with no spraying at all? Your planes always look amazing so I might try that technique next time if that's how you do it.
"The improved formula Klear is now...."
"Pledge Multi-Surface Wax"
"Brilliant Floor Shine"
3 - 4 coats of this, applied by brush. I don't spray at all (it all goes over my hands, up walls, into my lungs..................................!).
I laugh in the face of danger - then I hide until it goes away!
Nice! I'll have to keep that in mind. I might do a whole batch of planes brushing to see how the methods compare.
Keep it coming, taking notes here....someday I will order some.
I bit the bullet yesterday and ordered two Fe.2b
Time to learn to paint again ...
AH Hell...I hate you guys.......
Ordered 2 Dh 2's and a couple of Alb D III's today. Never going to get them otherwise so am going the Shapeway route. (Hint, buy the decks of cards from the WOW game for extra plane cards)
Will keep you updated on them, but need to find a good source of decals first.
Planes arrived today, and got the decals for the DH 2 Friday.
First off will try to get pics up latter.
The DH 2 had slightly wavy tail braces coming from the wings and the MG in front had bent barrels. Surface was grainey but you can see the ribbing clearly top and bottom. Edges were fuzzy also but should sand up smooth.
The Alb DIII were both well detailed with light ribbing on the wings top and bottom; One airframe did have slightly scewed landing gear with angeled wheels . All in all all airframes are very acceptable.
First stage tonight after looking them over was to pledge em. I will let em dry and hit them with a second coat tonight. Tomorrow will take flex sandpaper (thin u frame with a strip of sandpaper closing the open end so the sandpaper conforms to shapes) and smooth out the wing edges and the body of the D III's. I wanted at least 2 layers of pledge to seal things before sanding so bits will not flake off.
Will keep you updated.
Do try the hot water treatment when you get a Shapeways plane with a little bit of the "Bends". For more details see the sticky on surface preparation.
Hot water to restore shape BEFORE surface prep!
The surface prep makes the model retain its shape.
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