1966 Mercury Comet

[MarkJ]

14 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Very interesting. What brand material are you using and what is the method for doing this?

"Micro Mark mask it easy". It has the look and consistency of Elmers glue. I might have just bought a big expensive bottle of Elmers glue. You mask the area you want to paint with tape and paint the stuff along the tape and wait for it to dry a little. Then pull off the tape. it leaves a pretty sharp line of mask and if you paint using it as your mask the paint will not leak under it like sometimes happens if you use masking tape as your mask. It says if I have a hard time removing it, I should use warm soapy water. they say to wait two hours for it to dry before you paint but overnight is even better. I will find out how well it works today. Humbrol also makes a liquid mask, but I couldn't find anybody who sells it. It's probably the same thing chemically. Probably Elmers glue.

[MarkJ]

Well, the liquid mask turned out to be anything but easy. 

I will just have to use tape and hope for the best. I repainted the white and red parts of the car and tomorrow I will mask with narrow pieces of tape and paint the black parts and hope that it will turn out okay. I really want to move on to something else on the build. The painting, as usual, is not going smoothly. Pun not intended. Hopefully I can get the paint good enough to put a coat or two of Testors gloss clear acryl on it and then I can polish that, and the final future will give me something presentable.

[Pierre Rivard]

Sorry to hear that. Bleed through or problems with pulling off the mask?

I hope it will not be too much work to fix this. This is such a great project.

[MarkJ]

13 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Sorry to hear that. Bleed through or problems with pulling off the mask?

I hope it will not be too much work to fix this. This is such a great project.

It did a good job against bleed through but getting it off the model was like trying to remove concrete. it actually sticks to the model too well. I probably asked you this before, but what kind of tape do you use? Your making on the GTO looks perfect, and that's a super curved line you were masking.

Edited March 31, 2022 by MarkJ

[Pierre Rivard]

3 hours ago, MarkJ said:

It did a good job against bleed through but getting it off the model was like trying to remove concrete. it actually sticks to the model too well. I probably asked you this before, but what kind of tape do you use? Your making on the GTO looks perfect, and that's a super curved line you were masking.

I use Tamiya products. The white one is  2mm plastic or vinyl and is great for curves because it stretches and bends well. The brown one is 6mm wide traditional type but thin (fine edge). I use the brown when the curve is too tight even for the white one. Best example is a tight window corner when I want to do the painted chrome. I apply the tape and cut along the edge of the trim and remove the unwanted piece. On a smooth surface I would precut the tape.

Allow me to post pictures to help visualize. On the GTO I pre-cut the corner pieces, On the MC I simulated cutting on the body because it is right on the trim edge.

 

 

[Bill J]

Mark I use Tamiya masking tapes alsp. They have some that works really good on curves also. A little pricey but considering the cost of painting and the cost of your time, the Tamiya is well worth it's cost.

As far as the liquid masks go. I have tried several over the years, Humbrol being the most functional. It's a rubbery vinyl sort of and it peels off fairly easily as long as you do it soon after the paint dries. I only used it inside bodies, like the grey on a 80'90's NASCAR. I never attempred using it on multi colored paint schemes. I use the Tamiya to mask my breaks and cover the larger areas with some regular masking tape and some kitchen cling wrap.

Painted this Bud Moore  with Rangoon red, whimbledon white and black, I used Tamiya paint except the red was Scalefinishes acylic enamel. Tamiya tapes and the cling wrap technique to cover large areas.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Bill J

[MarkJ]

Thanks guys. I used some Tamiya tape but the black still found its way under the tape even though I thought I had sealed the edge of the tape with some clear vallejo satin varnish. I guess i'll just scrape it off and touch up the red and white where needed and go on to the next step, which is clearing the paint with Testors gloss clear acrylic I found and put in a dropper bottle. I will hopefully polish that and follow up with future after I decal the model. Have I told you the painting part of model building is not my favorite part of modelling?

[MarkJ]

I keep fixing the paint and then when I wet sand I keep going through to the primer and I can't get a good line between the colors. I might just have to give up and get some rattle cans to finish this one.  I'm just going around in circles and can't get finished with painting this body. It's very frustrating. Plus, this paint doesn't do well with the scriber. Instead of letting me dig the excess paint out of the door and trunk seams it just comes out all bunched up instead of giving me a smooth crevasse. Maybe i just don't have the talent for the brush painting I thought I had. I have lost track of how many coats I have put on this model.

[Pierre Rivard]

13 hours ago, MarkJ said:

I keep fixing the paint and then when I wet sand I keep going through to the primer and I can't get a good line between the colors. I might just have to give up and get some rattle cans to finish this one.  I'm just going around in circles and can't get finished with painting this body. It's very frustrating. Plus, this paint doesn't do well with the scriber. Instead of letting me dig the excess paint out of the door and trunk seams it just comes out all bunched up instead of giving me a smooth crevasse. Maybe i just don't have the talent for the brush painting I thought I had. I have lost track of how many coats I have put on this model.

I'm sorry to hear you have so many issues with this paint. I Hope you can find to repair the body. 

[MarkJ]

Pierre, I think I will try cutting my own thin strips of masking tape from some 3m blue tape I have. I think in the past I might have had some success with it. It's just a big hassle to cut thin straight strips, I'm going to hobby lobby today. Maybe some fresh Tamiya tape might work better, if they have some. It seems like lately, every time I go to hobby lobby, they have less and less items to sell for modelers. The kits are supposed to be 40 percent off today. 

[MarkJ]

I was thinking about how the liquid mask was like Elmers glue so I decided to try it on an old model body I had left over in a bag from the seventy's I masked along a feature line on the old body and then put a piece of tape along the line. I then smeared some Elmers along the top of the tape and waited for it to semi dry and removed the masking tape. I waited till the Elmers dried to the touch and painted along the line made by the Elmers. when the paint dried I removed the dried Elmers and it left a straight paint line with no paint incursion like the tape has been doing to me. I did the same thing to the comet and painted it and will remove the Elmers today and see if I get good results.  Below are pictures of the process. You can barely see the Elmers when it is smeared on the body, but it peels off much better than the liquid mask I bought did. You had to scrub the liquid mask off.

[Pierre Rivard]

I hope this will work out for you.

I am puzzled why I am not suffering from the same masking issues knowing we use the same paint and technique.

[MarkJ]

Well, the Elmers did not work on the Comet. I had to sand off the Elmers. It's just like the big bottle of mask it. For some reason they both adhere too well to acrylic paint, but they don't adhere to enamel paint. the Elmers worked fine for the old gto model that I had painted with Testors enamel in the seventies, but it did not work on the comet as a good masking agent because it would not come off unless sanded off just like if it had been paint. I will try again with the skinny blue tape but this time close to the tape i will use a very small brush and not let the paint build up along the tape line then I will switch to the larger wider brush to finish painting the roof white again. i will do this again when masking between the red sides of the car and the black portions of the car. I already did the white roof and it turned out pretty good using this technique. I'm not giving up.

[MarkJ]

Finally got all the paint done. Just need to do some small touch up work and then I can add the clear gloss acryl that I can polish.

[Pierre Rivard]

Wonderful! 

Happy to see your perseverance rewarded.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Pierre. I'm going to try the testors gloss acryl as my clear. I put some on the old gto body and will see how good it polishes out before I put it on the comet. If it doesnt work very well, I will try to find some Tamiya gloss clear acryl. You have excellent results with it if I remember correctly. That is what you used on your current GTO project, correct?

[jjsipes]

Looking great Mark! Glad you got the paint issue squared away.

[Pierre Rivard]

3 hours ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Pierre. I'm going to try the testors gloss acryl as my clear. I put some on the old gto body and will see how good it polishes out before I put it on the comet. If it doesnt work very well, I will try to find some Tamiya gloss clear acryl. You have excellent results with it if I remember correctly. That is what you used on your current GTO project, correct?

Yes, Tamiya X22 acrylic clear with some X22A thinner and Retarder for acrylic.

[MarkJ]

11 hours ago, jjsipes said:

Looking great Mark! Glad you got the paint issue squared away.

Thanks, Jason. It's so long between builds for me I forget how to do the paint. 

[MarkJ]

10 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

Yes, Tamiya X22 acrylic clear with some X22A thinner and Retarder for acrylic.

Thanks, Pierre. What is the ratio of drops of thinner to drops of clear and retarder on the Tamiya?

[Pierre Rivard]

38 minutes ago, MarkJ said:

Thanks, Pierre. What is the ratio of drops of thinner to drops of clear and retarder on the Tamiya?

I would say about 50% clear, 30% thinner and 20% retarder. I put a bit more retarder on my GTO and it seems like it was a bit more fragile when polishing.

Suggest you experiment on a scrap body first. You may want slightly different ratios.

[MarkJ]

32 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

I would say about 50% clear, 30% thinner and 20% retarder. I put a bit more retarder on my GTO and it seems like it was a bit more fragile when polishing.

Suggest you experiment on a scrap body first. You may want slightly different ratios.

Thanks, Pierre.  If the testors clear doesn't work out for me and I get the Tamiya I will try your recommendations. Testors says to thin their clear at 20 percent which I tried on a scrap body last night . I will see how it takes to polish sanding today.

[Bill J]

Mark, the 66 is looking great. Glad you got the painting sorted out. A car I always wanted to make myself but lacked the skill to turn a 67 into a 66, you're a master at such things and it shows. Looking forward to seeing yours all done. I can marvel at yours and not try to make one myself

[MarkJ]

Thank you so much, Bill for the kind words. I never could understand why amt did not do a better kit for the 66 Comet instead of the 67. They did a good 65 Comet kit also, but the most famous nascar comet they made people rely on a promo deal to build it.  I've seen another 66 Comet kit, but it has a red drag car on the top of the box. None of these 66 Comet kits are readily available. Thats why I decided to change a 67 into a 66. It's not quite correct and I have figured out what the slight differences are, but I'm not telling anybody. Right now, it looks more like a 66 then a 67, that's all I care about.

[MarkJ]

Finally finished with the body till the end when I will decal, and pledge floor finish it (a.k.a. future). Ended up using the Testors clear gloss acryl at 7 drops paint to 3 drops thinner and added 2 drops creatix reducer to get it to flow and get rid of the brush marks. Now I can finally move on to the engine, chassis, and interior.