painting details using Humbrol

[matt black]

Just a quick question. When painting the helmet details like the vocorder and grey ear parts how many coats should I do. I done one thick coat on the frown and ear parts but have noticed a slight sag in the paint underneath in the paint. I have put the helmet upside down for the night to hopefully reverse some of this. When I paint my vocorder should I do two thinner coats or do one coat and put it in the airing cupboard to dry faster. It seems to be taking forever to harden.

Many thanks for any help,

 

Rob.

[pandatrooper[TK]]

I usually do 2 light coats of everything. 1 thick coat of anything takes much longer to dry.

 

I find Humbrol takes a really long time to fully dry since they changed the formulations. A few people say to make sure to stir the paint thoroughly (which I do) but it still takes a week for 1 coat to dry!

 

I switched to Testors and they dry much faster and I find them a little more opaque.

[Quebectrooper]

I'm using Huummmbrol with no problem. One or 2 coats does it .

I like Huummmbrol so much i do my wife's nails with it everymonth !

[matt black]

Thanks Terry. Man, a week. Thats a long time. I'll do two coats on the vocorder.

Many thanks.

[dashrazor]

if you make any mistakes (like big gobs of running paint) wait until the paint is fully dry before trying to fix it...

[matt black]

Thanks Pat. Think I might do my wifes nails in stormtrooper colours. Nice.

[matt black]

Thanks Mason. It's not too bad. No runs. It just looks like it's pickled a bit I suppose under it's own weight.

[giftshopduane]

I always try to do multiple thin coats, I found that if I let each coat set up for an hour or so I can get 3 coats on and thats plenty. Paint it then set it down for a day, I put mine on top of the refridgerator, it keeps the kids away, its up high in the warm air, and I figure that the fridge fan must be circulating decent air. Also typically (for some reason..) darker colors take longer to dry, this was true in school with our oil paints too. I found the traps dried really quick, but it took one or two days before i was comfortable with the black. The pickling you see might be an incompatability with your base paint, what did you paint the helmet with (assuming you did and thats the pickling your seeing. Might need to let it cure and "off gas" longer.

[matt black]

Thanks for the tips Chris. I'll give the vocorder at least two coats and hopefully will not get this problem again. The helmet is not painted so it is'nt a reaction. I just think I done the coat too thick and the dry surface is moving about on the wet paint underneath.

Thanks again.

[EOTK]

I don't mean to hijack Rob's thread, but I'm planning on painting my details with Humbrol paint too.

 

Does the paint stick okay to a shiny ABS surface, or does it need it need some sort of preparation like sanding or priming? I was going to attempt to mask my details rather than do it freehand.

 

Also, do I have to use a clear coat or wet sand the paint after it's fully cured? Seems like I remember reading here that some troopers do that, but I haven't run across the info again.