1969 Mercury Cougar

[AmericanMuscleFan]

I agree with Steve's comment on the bare metal technique but I have to admit the result speaks for itself.  Nice car, nice color, Bravo! ?

[papajohn97]

Beautiful cleanly built Cougar!

Im really impressed with your “paint over bare metal foil” job on the emblems. You’d need a microscope to detect the outline of the foil edge. Is there a tutorial for this technique posted anywhere? Do you sand the paint off using micro mesh or remove it with solvent? I’d love to try this sometime (versus my feeble attempts at freehand cutting foil around the border of molded-in script).

Nice job Bart! Thanks for posting!

[oldscool]

That looks very nice and good color choice! Looks better without the wing.

[bh1701]

2 hours ago, papajohn97 said:

Beautiful cleanly built Cougar!

Im really impressed with your “paint over bare metal foil” job on the emblems. You’d need a microscope to detect the outline of the foil edge. Is there a tutorial for this technique posted anywhere? Do you sand the paint off using micro mesh or remove it with solvent? I’d love to try this sometime (versus my feeble attempts at freehand cutting foil around the border of molded-in script).

Nice job Bart! Thanks for posting!

John (... and others !),

Thanks for the kind comments!

There are a number of posts in this site that describe methods used by folks for "painting over foil" for the badges and script. I searched the site using search terms like "foiling script" (matching all words in the phrase) and found lots of ideas. I suggest you take a look for those.

On the first model I foiled, I applied the foil before my final color coat went on. The car was painted using Tamiya's medium metallic blue. I found that the edges of the silver foil on the body still showed through the blue paint a bit, so the area around the borders of the badges and script all had this "halo" of a lighter blue than the rest of the body. I also used Tamiya modeling swabs and toothpicks to remove the paint; both had some lacquer thinner on them to help remove the paint. I was happy with the results, but thought I could do better.

The Cougar is the second one that I foiled the scripts on. My technique changed a bit this time. I put the foil on before I put the last coat of primer on. The last coat of primer covered the foil completely with no foil showing through the primer. I then put my initial coats of green on, and removed the paint from the foil at this point. Once I had my final color coats on, I removed the paint from the foil again. Why did I do it twice? Because I was worried that if I waited until the end, there might be too many layers of paint and primer to be easily removed.

I first used a craft stick (like a popsicle stick, only wider) to remove the paint. I did not put any thinner on it and carefully ran the edge (near the rounded bottom end of the stick) back and forth over the script. Tamiya paint seems to be pretty thin, so this worked to get the majority of the paint off. I then used toothpicks and swabs to clean up any rough spots. Finally, I used just a smidgen of thinner on these tools to further clean things up. Different brands of paint might be thicker and may require some thinner earlier on in the process.

The best advice I can give is to read different posts about how people do it and find one that works for you. A lot of patience and a magnifying lamp are also essential!

Thanks, and good luck!

Bart

 

Edited March 21, 2021 by bh1701

[BeakDoc]

Great looking Cougar! 

[Bills72sj]

On 3/21/2021 at 12:05 PM, bh1701 said:

John (... and others !),

Thanks for the kind comments!

There are a number of posts in this site that describe methods used by folks for "painting over foil" for the badges and script. I searched the site using search terms like "foiling script" (matching all words in the phrase) and found lots of ideas. I suggest you take a look for those.

On the first model I foiled, I applied the foil before my final color coat went on. The car was painted using Tamiya's medium metallic blue. I found that the edges of the silver foil on the body still showed through the blue paint a bit, so the area around the borders of the badges and script all had this "halo" of a lighter blue than the rest of the body. I also used Tamiya modeling swabs and toothpicks to remove the paint; both had some lacquer thinner on them to help remove the paint. I was happy with the results, but thought I could do better.

The Cougar is the second one that I foiled the scripts on. My technique changed a bit this time. I put the foil on before I put the last coat of primer on. The last coat of primer covered the foil completely with no foil showing through the primer. I then put my initial coats of green on, and removed the paint from the foil at this point. Once I had my final color coats on, I removed the paint from the foil again. Why did I do it twice? Because I was worried that if I waited until the end, there might be too many layers of paint and primer to be easily removed.

I first used a craft stick (like a popsicle stick, only wider) to remove the paint. I did not put any thinner on it and carefully ran the edge (near the rounded bottom end of the stick) back and forth over the script. Tamiya paint seems to be pretty thin, so this worked to get the majority of the paint off. I then used toothpicks and swabs to clean up any rough spots. Finally, I used just a smidgen of thinner on these tools to further clean things up. Different brands of paint might be thicker and may require some thinner earlier on in the process.

The best advice I can give is to read different posts about how people do it and find one that works for you. A lot of patience and a magnifying lamp are also essential!

Thanks, and good luck!

Bart

 

Very nicely done Cougar. I have done the same technique on occasion. Here is one.