My first model in 45 years! Whaaa?

[4knflyin]

My last kit was actually in 1994 when I built a micro model (1/72 ?) of a Cessna 152 (or 172, can't remember). That was to commemorate getting my primary ticket some years earlier, with the tail number from the plane I used for my check ride. Before that, in 1980, I built a Tamiya Lotus 78 Mk III, hastily put together as a gift for my father. And a year before that I built an Entex 1/8 scale McLaren M23. And in neither of those was there even a hint of not including the tobacco sponsor's logo decals with the kit. For both kits, I hand painted all the detail stuff, but used the decals on unaltered bodies. How I wish I had that M23 kit now. And how I wish I'd had access to an airbrush.

Back when I bought the Cessna kit, I also bought a 1/24 Porsche 959 and a 1/20 Benetton B192. Along with the various paints needed, and some tools, I bought a Paasche H. Well, I started building the B192 a couple of weeks ago and I'm spray painting it! I've wanted to know how to do that back when I regularly built models, mostly military aircraft, up to the ripe old age of 13. Then nary a model until the large, very large scale M23. That was 7 years later and I built it in a week.* And it was nice! And the Lotus, I still have that one, as it was preserved by my parents. LOL. Man could it have used a nice coat of gloss black and clear. Bare black plastic just doesn't cut it, even if it do have them purdy JPS decals.

So here I am into my third week with the B192 that I'm using as a learning mule. I have 1/12 Jägermeister 934 and Williams FW14B, with all the PE goodies, on the deck. To get a feel for PE detail pieces, nothing I'd ever heard of or seen, I installed a 6-point harness on the Lotus. I never lost interest in building models. I thought often throughout life the past 30-40 years about building one right, which to me means fixing sprue issues, puttying in mold dimples, back scribing panels, etc., etc., and, last and absolutely most important, airbrushing! Never used one of those things until earlier this month. Too bad I'm having a hard time reminding myself that the B192 was meant to be a learning device because it would be finished by now with many lessons learned.

Instead, I'm waiting on some replacement paint so I can try correcting the damage I've done with the airbrush. Some of it from simply not noticing some things, and others from ignoring what I saw until seeing the ugliness that not attending to them had wrought. So, in the meantime, I'm going to post some pictures and narrative to cover what's transpired with my humble B192. I'm hoping for some pointers where my solution was the hard way and/or the wrong way. A nice word when you think you've found something that deserves one would be appreciated, as well. 

First, this is where I'm at on the Benetton while I wait for the paint (about 10 days out). When I first opened the box I discovered that, back when I bought the kit, I had painted and built out rear-of-the-bulkhead and the cockpit. So this really is a painting project — an airbrush education project.

 

 

* I bought the M23 to exorcise demons of my adolescence. It was literally the thought of those demons that drove me to use what little money I had those days on this very big box of plastic pieces. Those demons that had prevented me from building three 1/12 scale F1 models when I was 13/14 years old. The F1 models of my youth just sat there, in my bedroom, terrorizing me. I thought there was no way I would finish one if I started it and, if I did, I would screw it up so badly it would haunt me nonetheless. And while completion of the M23 to plaudits from all who saw it helped, it wasn't a 100% cure. As I've learned, those demons are still pestering. So now I'm going to fight them off with a gun... a paint gun... an airbrush, LOL. 

Edited January 5, 2024 by 4knflyin

[4knflyin]

I'd been looking for an online forum to post, basically, a blog of the build. At each stage or interesting (frustrating) development, I tried to remember to take pics. 

My question is: Is that done here? Best to nip this in the bud if I should go elsewhere.

[Can-Con]

2 hours ago, 4knflyin said:

I'd been looking for an online forum to post, basically, a blog of the build. At each stage or interesting (frustrating) development, I tried to remember to take pics. 

My question is: Is that done here? Best to nip this in the bud if I should go elsewhere.

Yes, in fact, it's encouraged. That's what the "WIP" section is for so post away.  ?

 

[bbowser]

Looking real good so far.  I love seeing more open wheel cars here.

[absmiami]

Friendly advise, Mr Flyin:

your workbench is much to neat and clean - please correct in future  posts - thank you - 

[redscampi]

3 hours ago, 4knflyin said:

And the Lotus, I still have that one, as it was preserved by my parents. LOL. Man could it have used a nice coat of gloss black and clear. Bare black plastic just doesn't cut it, even if it do have them purdy JPS decals.

I have that Lotus kit and man it's cool. They're usually way expensive and rare these days but I lucked out and got one semi-cheap. If possible, I'd love to see the one you built, black plastic and all.

[4knflyin]

36 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Yes, in fact, it's encouraged. That's what the "WIP" section is for so post away.  ?

 

OK, I'm going to keep a record of that statement. Ha!

I need to learn what the quirks/features of the editor are. I'm sure you can do some groovy things once you learn how. One thing I've noticed, though, is that when providing a caption for a pic, it appears above the attachment. Unless, that just may be the way the guy I was reading chooses to do it — as if bringing a sense of editing conventions to the web anymore is actually pretty arrogant. I'll refrain.

So, onward...

[4knflyin]

On 12/27/2023 at 7:54 PM, redscampi said:

I'd love to see the one you built, black plastic and all.

Here you go. It's a shot after I installed the seatbelts, crooked steering wheel and all its various warts. It's amazing to see that the decals aren't all over the place (like the floor and just plain missing) and there aren't pieces falling off. 

 

Worn Out Mk. III: It's been around for some 40 years... tired.

 

"The Camera Can Take Years off a Face": Good lighting and a filter or two, and voila!

My very first experience with PE was the "Sabelt" in the next pic. For a multitude of reasons, it took over (I cringe to say it) five hours to complete. The Willans is in the model now. That one belt took about 30 minutes, and the set, plus installation, took under two for sure. Doing the Sabelt, I was Edward Scissorshands with the forcepts, tweezer, artery clamps, and more. The Willans was half or more done by hand.*

I'm amazed by PE and especially the designers. I cleaned up that which came with my 1/12 Porsche 934 RSR aftermarket detail kit. It felt like it weighed a veritable ton. So I actually weighed it: 137 grams... almost 5 oz of the stuff. The kit has a lot of parts, the PE easily has twice as many. LOL. But something tells me I missed the craze that seems to have happened on either side of 2010. Even the 934 detail kit is from that era. I read about it over the years, and I understood the concept from my work, but I'd never touched it, done anything with it. Now I have about 1 kg of the stuff waiting for four models to be built after this one, LOL. (The PE available for the B192 was overpriced.)

Putting together the Sabelt that I struggled with for hours, the stupid thing is, after all the times I've strapped myself into a seat with a six-point harness (but not since 2018) I let the directions throw me off instead of relying on my experience. Also, In the process I used about 1/3 the available red fabric on just that one belt. I had to learn to economize. That's somewhat of a theme here. Running out of paint is a drag. 

The seatbelts are from Reji, which I think is affiliated with Eduard. They do some really cool stuff! Some of those 3D airplane cockpits, amazing...

First Time Using PE: This'll Blow Your Mind: If you've been around for a while, consider that the Sabelt version took me over five hours to complete! The Willans afterward, about 30 minutes.

You gotta admire how cleverly they all, at one time or another, have to make it look like they included a load of detail they just couldn't afford to, whether for cost or because of manufacturing limitations.

And, yes, I lazily used the 6-point "rally" configuration on the left in the diagram below because that's what I'm familiar with. It's the way all modern race harnesses are set up, even F1. But way back in 1976, the two crotch points above the seat were just wrapped around each waist belt. The were free to slide laterally.

Among the things I learned:

• Not reading the directions and looking carefully at the photos before blasting off with the airbrush in hand would have saved me all sorts of grief. For one, there's between five and ten milliliters of paint I'd have had to do all the paint repairs that are holding me up now for lack of paint. I really shouldn't paint what isn't supposed to be that color!
• When you have your own life's experience with something, you don't need to rely on somebody else's instructions (this is not in conflict with above bullet... really) and struggle to see how something is configured when there's also a million photos of the part in real. That was hours of toil early, early in the morning. Grrrr.

 

 

A good traffic accident to close it out.

* Which brings me to something else, one I don't intend to point out again unless it explains something necessary. I didn't really notice it until building the seatbelts, that when I have to use my hands with fine motor movements, they shake. They even spaz sometimes, as in just fly off. Completely unnoticeable otherwise, even while typing and such. But when really getting down to some fine detail work, it can be a mess. I wasn't expecting this and it took many weeks to comes to some acceptance of it, especially since it's not constant. It has made what little I've done on this model three, maybe as much as five times more difficult in some situations. The Sabelt belt was my first and an extremely frustrating experience with it.

Edited January 2, 2024 by 4knflyin
Ended up adding a ton of BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH: Made it English and uncluttered it. Swaped out cleaned up photo for grimy original. And mentioned some important stuff.

[4knflyin]

Okay, back to the build at hand. But my ADD demands I digress just enough to say that I got my detail up master series for the MP4/4 winning car in the last F1 race I attended, '88 Detroit. That was back when F1 engines were revving to 20K and sounded like our planet's worth of angry bees. Odd to think that never again will that kind of spectacle be experienced.

Getting started on the B192 was hard! I really didn't know what to do. I'd seen so many videos with various individuals applying their own stylized motions to the de-sprueing of the parts. One guy, a kit of 500 pieces, he must have gotten to 400 of them. So, of course, I took all the pieces off their hangers. When I was a kid, I think I used to pluck them as I need them. However, in this case, it was obvious I needed them free so that I could mount them for painting.

And that I found can be very much a part of the creative process. I think my favorites were the pentalobe and other screws from my iPhone 5 that I deployed. Turns out I could have cut time by not using all but one of them, but it was fun. I've never seen anybody emphasize how they attach all those parts to the ends of bamboo meat skewers. When I couldn't clip them on directly, I found that I mostly used some double sided tape I had bought at Michaels no more than a month earlier in anticipation of this process.

It would be interesting to here your most unusual method, successful or not! LOL. This is a before and after of just three parts.

[4knflyin]

 

Sooo, this is a welcome addition. There are some things I'd like to try on the exhaust while I wait for the yellow paint to reshoot the whole thing. 

Also, I was on the Spot Model website today for I don't know what, and an item on my Wishlist came up: It's the MFH 1/20 Ford DFV detail up kit. So I may be airbrushing some white metal, which I've never done before (don't know why I say that, all that you see is all that I've airbrushed. And in the mail, I received a Top Studio Master Detail set for the 1/20 MP4/4. When I saw it in Detroit (with a pit pass I have hanging on my wall today), that was the last F1 race I've been to. What I don't know about that kit, and can't find any info on, is whether all the parts, resin, metal, and PE alike, need to be primered. I washed all the parts today since that's the sum total of the help on prepping the kit that I got from the TS FAQ. I'm guessing it outnumbers the parts total for the kit from Tamiya. It's intimidating, for sure.

Anybody know if even the teeny, tiny, AN fittings need primer?

Edited December 29, 2023 by 4knflyin
Correction

[4knflyin]

Back to our regularly scheduled program...

When I shot the body with primer, first I was amazed by the atomization from the rattle can of Tamiya gray fine primer. I didn't have a spray booth yet, and didn't plan on getting one until I saw all that fine primer mist floating in the air.

And, not surprisingly, as my first attempt doing this, it didn't come out well. I didn't expect to know what I was doing right from the start and get stellar results (I sorta was), but making a mistake this big was puzzling. Later on, like recently, I was using a $40 Chinese dual-action airbrush and the thing back flowed on me one afternoon upon my first test shot with my dwindling yellow paint. The loosely secured cap (because it wouldn't secure tightly) popped off and paint went up in the air was wasted making yellow polka dots on the bottom of my spray booth. l'd only had the airbrush for about 10 days and had cleaned it thoroughly the night before, disassembling it sitting at my table. I got rid of it the next day.

 

This is what it looked like when I got back upstairs.

regarding the dual-action Chinese knockoffs, there's something to say about the opportunities for 13-year old kids, like the one I was, who can now get a much superior airbrush for 1/3 and less what a bottom of the line one would have cost you back when I was dreaming about owning one. I suspect there's something I needed to know about the condition of that airbrush after I cleaned it. I must have missed something, bent the needle... something. Nonetheless, now having only played with the new H&S one, I can already tell you there's a vast difference between how the trigger works on it vs the knockoff. On the Chinese on, I could feel a prominent detent-felling hesitation every time I went to start the air on it. With the new one? Buttery smooth from top to all the way back and to the top again.

WRT the blobs of paint. All I can think of is that I got my finger in the stream and it dripped from the tip. From that point on, there were successive sort-of-failures, to include one of my longish head hairs plastered to a sidepod. But in the end, after more than four trips to the spray booth (yep, 4+!), it came out nice and and even without obscuring any details.

 

 

My Inexperience Showed in Many Ways: I was impressed with my work... couldn't stop admiring it. But remember, this is after more that four amateurish failures.

But the real trouble wasn't apparent to me until days later, after I thought I had finished the yellow base coat. The nose caught my eye as being deeply and kind of flawlessly colored, and I didn't feel like that about any of the rest of the parts. It finally  dawned on me — and I really don't know what took me so long — to mock up the parts and see how even it all looked. Not so even. Yellow is a notoriously difficult color to work with, and paint shops used to grouse about blending it with stern warnings to set expectations. So this is where the fun began and I started chasing an acceptable continuity throughout that drove me run out of that paint.

 

As you can tell from the initial photo in this thread, a much better consistency was achieved. However, I couldn't live with it. And while all this is going on over a period of weeks, I had never fitted the cockpit to the monocoque. Why would I? Maybe because the gaping rectangular section in the bottom of the monocoque should be telling me that, whatever goes there, it better be yellow, Zero Paints B192 yellow. Hahaha...

I better have learned the importance of doing mockups, dry fits, whatever. Fitting the parts early on and as often as there a significant change, is important. Later on with the addition of the green layer, not one piece of tape was laid across adjoining body parts... not even a single pair. That kills me! I did it all by eye.

Please let me have leaned that lesson, if only that lesson.

Edited December 31, 2023 by 4knflyin
Cleared it up with some additional details.

[4knflyin]

On 12/27/2023 at 7:42 PM, absmiami said:

Friendly advise, Mr Flyin:

your workbench is much to neat and clean - please correct in future  posts - thank you - 

I often read from my PC without my 'computer glasses' on. Works great for most words since I recognize them. In the case of your message, I read "Mr Flyin" as Mr Flynn. Oh well.

For you, in the future I will not clear a space for whatever I'm taking a picture of. Then, "Where's Waldo" is ON!

[4knflyin]

The two-tone paint repaint. O. M. G.!!

I got the new bottle of Zero Paints "Camel Yellow" that I need to deepen some areas and, wickedly, to repaint most of the line that separates the green and yellow colors. The yellow border at the bottom of the body is too wide. If I'd dry fitted the model even once before painting the green over the yellow base coat, I would have noticed the problems (with an 's').

As I mentioned, I had completed the cockpit and engine decades ago when I bought the kit. And that's where it stayed. For some reason I read the instructions to say to paint the bottom-exterior of the cockpit silver (I still have the little tin with the '11' stamped in it). Anyway, as the picture shows, that part is shown to the world and makes up part of the body work.

If I had dry fitted earlier, I'd have noticed this! In another life, I had hand painted the bottom of the cockpit silver:

 

As a result of not pre-fitting, I got to do this as an after-the-fact, instead of being able to plan around it:

  

 

Which got me to here, which presented some obvious decisions that needed making:

 

My options were 1. to align the yellow stripe at the bottom of the cockpit only, instead of 2. doing the rest of the body to match the cockpit line. Mind you, except for a slight deviation in the line, the green on the monocoque area was correct, running right to the mating of the cockpit bottom. Instead of just fixing that small error, I go for option 1, moving the line (double entendre absolutely intended!):

  

And this is what I get for not paying attention, and again, for not pre fitting days ago when I first masked for the green top coat. The obvious problem here is that I should have opted to extend the green top coat down instead of applying my precariously depleted yellow to go up. No, not to save the yellow! Cripes, that would have been a side benefit, and a big one at that. Instead:

The reason I should have gone down and not up is:

1. That would  have placed the color switchover line where it was supposed to be in the first place, and 
2. I would not have been building up a huge ridge by having primer + lots of yellow + green + more yellow. I could have just added green... end of story. 

The obvious misguided driver in my decision making was (besides lack of experience), that I'd have had to do all the panels with option 2. Now, I get to do even more to correct this and some other problems... if I want to go that route, and I think I do.

 

BTW, all of what I state, I do so in large part to explain my decision making and the technique and process I used based on the options as I saw them. All of this is begging for feedback. Begging. Did I understand the problem? Did I make the right choice. Was there an option I didn't identify (besides chucking it and starting a new one or giving up the hobby before I get hurt). What about technique? Where could I have improved on that? Please help with suggestions and observations. Thanks.

Edited January 7, 2024 by 4knflyin

[4knflyin]

What to do? I could use some suggestions.

I have, of course, decided to go for a grand prix, win or go home, type fix. But how to do it is still open, although I have a plan. I just don't know if it's the best plan. This is where I'm at now:

 

Some of the detail of how I got to this place. I had noticed there was a problem with the fit of the air intake. I finally — and I mean I have no idea why it took so long — took a closer look and noticed that the rear cowl had a flat spot on the top of its portion of the intake. I fixed it with, first, some CA hardened with baking soda, and then with some UV activated resin (UVR) on top of that, followed by one of the longest sanding sessions ever... maybe 90 minutes or more. When I realized I needed more material on top of the CA, I went with what I'm comfortable with. 

I held the intake against a steel block covered with aluminum foil and dripped on some UVR such that the steel block formed a straight edge (picture was taken in haste and through my magnifying lamp... sorry). You can just make out how the UVR spread into a thin layer I snipped off. The flat edge is what I was worried about and wasn't sure the CA wouldn't stick, at least in part, to the foil. On the other hand, I knew the UVR wouldn't.

      

  

 

Then I notice the bulge on the left side of the intake and decided to take care of that:

    

 

I ended up with this as the current state of the intake. Note that the little flap at the rear got bent during the process — I have no idea how it lasted this long! — and I have yet to sand the putty:

 

When I say I'm not sure of how to do the repainting, I mean I don't know whether to strip all the parts and start over, or piecemeal shoot the yellow and then the green, and in some cases vice versa. It's all on the table. I hate to go forward without input from hobbyists with experience, but I'm afraid that's how it's gonna go, given that's how it's gone. I'll probably start painting late afternoon / early evening today. If you have anything to say, and I mean anything, even if you're not sure it would be helpful, please do. Remember that at the top of this post are larger pics to help get an idea of what I'm working with.

Oh, and lest I leave out the protagonist in waiting of the past 10 days or so, ta da. It's about to take center stage:

Edited January 7, 2024 by 4knflyin

[bbowser]

Only my opinion, but I would strip it down to bare with your stripper of choice,  apply a couple thin coats of primer and then finish the body work to your satisfaction.  Then proceed with the color, lightest first.  You picked a tough one to come back but I really like the choice!

[IanH]

+1 to this, rather strip it down. 

53 minutes ago, bbowser said:

Only my opinion, but I would strip it down to bare with your stripper of choice,  apply a couple thin coats of primer and then finish the body work to your satisfaction.  Then proceed with the color, lightest first.  You picked a tough one to come back but I really like the choice!

 

[4knflyin]

7 hours ago, bbowser said:

Only my opinion, but I would strip it down to bare with your stripper of choice,  apply a couple thin coats of primer and then finish the body work to your satisfaction.  Then proceed with the color, lightest first.  You picked a tough one to come back but I really like the choice!

 

6 hours ago, IanH said:

+1 to this, rather strip it down. 

 

 

An IPA bath it is!

Thank you, both... sort of. JK. I am grateful to you. I feared that would be the best course., but I wasn't going to start there. What convinces me (aside from your experience), and what I had only in passing thought about, is the next step — shooting it with primer to validate the fixes I've done so far. It definitely needs that. 

Primer is amazing stuff. I was surprised after only the first coat what all it revealed. My only hesiancy is the monocoque. I spent a lot of time while masking the first time to maintain the monocoque interior because of the decals inside it. I hand painted and decaled it circa 1994. I have replacement decals, though, so it's on with a bath of 99% IPA. Ugh.

Can't thank you both enough.

 

 

.

Edited January 7, 2024 by 4knflyin

[4knflyin]

Upon further thought...

7 hours ago, bbowser said:

Only my opinion, but I would strip it down to bare with your stripper of choice,  apply a couple thin coats of primer and then finish the body work to your satisfaction.  Then proceed with the color, lightest first.  You picked a tough one to come back but I really like the choice!

6 hours ago, IanH said:

+1 to this, rather strip it down. 

 

 

All of what I already said still applies, however there is one more reason that almost, but only almost, trumps the rest: In the end, it's the easiest!

[4knflyin]

Is there something I need to be aware of to do differently when repainting?

I just went to start in with the toothbrush, and I didn't expect what I found:

 

It's been, what, 4 or 5 hours that it's been stewing. That the green flaked off while the yellow stayed attached to the primer doesn't right away concern me. However, I am curious about what it means.

Can I get your opinions about whether it's indicative of a problem, or even just a concern, about which I need to take into account when I start repainting?

If it all looks good to you so far, please, please let me know. Or, if I did or didn't do something between coats that I need to correct in my technique, please help me with that:

• Primer: Tamiya Fine Gray from a can sprayed multiple times over multiple days, as I kept needing to sand or repair things.
• Paint: Zero Paints lacquer; it came as a set:
  • The yellow was done over a couple of days. Some wet coats and some dry. No method at all. Besides the primer, it was the first time ever that I'd sprayed a model. I just went with the circumstances and tried to keep up.
    • The initial layer was done spraying each part multiple times after about a 5-10 minute delay (as I went around spraying the rest of the parts). The next day:
    • I got the shock of seeing the body dry-fitted, and seeing the uneven depth of the color (pic posted 28 Dec), I started what I can only say looking back was an undisciplined, anxious type of spraying the large parts. Those were definitely wet coats. On some areas, I needed to spray more paint just to get the thinner to dissolve some of the "waives" of paint (too much, too close, too high pressure – 35 psi). That worked, btw.
  • The green went on calmly. I sprayed a thin layer of clear from a can to seal the masking, and then just painted each piece, the waiting time based on how long it took to do a full rotation — again, about 5-10 minutes. I took about four coats, and I felt good about it in the end.

The black paint is Humbrol enamel, applied with a brush almost exactly 30 years ago. And I still have the tin, lol.

So, that's where I'm at. I'm going to go do some toothbrushing. Hopefully I can get some guidance, if any is needed, before I pass the point it would have been needed. Thanks all.

Edited January 8, 2024 by 4knflyin

[Bainford]

It's coming along nicely, Marcus. You've got the wherewithal to get it right, a necessary ingredient for a great model. Stripping paint is definitely the right move at this stage. As you mentioned, mocking up and pre-fitting is vitally important, especially with a kit of this complexity. This stuff becomes second nature as you progress through a couple builds.

[4knflyin]

8 hours ago, Bainford said:

It's coming along nicely, Marcus. You've got the wherewithal to get it right, a necessary ingredient for a great model. Stripping paint is definitely the right move at this stage. As you mentioned, mocking up and pre-fitting is vitally important, especially with a kit of this complexity. This stuff becomes second nature as you progress through a couple builds.

Driving a Lotus is a Triumph. Well said, Sir Sterling. Well said.

On to more serious matters, your avatar is excellent. 

Thanks for the input. So few observations, tips, critiques from others, it makes each seem like a momentous occasion. And they are. It's great to get feedback from others who share an interest and who have vastly more experience. Those guys encouraging me to strip the paint were really helpful for this project. I didn't benefit from you having read my most recent post before your comment... because I'm still in posting quarantine and it wasn't yet posted. In fact, as of this writing, it's still not posted. Oh well.

Re: the paint stripping: until you've stripped a model you spent 20 hours painting and repainting — I kid you not — you just have no idea that it's a rational decision to undo all of that instead of try to work with it. Much of what is going to change is that it won't take me 20 hrs to get to the point I was at before throwing it in reverse. Or at least, it better change!

Again, thanks. Stop in every now and then, would you. I'm starving for input.

[4knflyin]

I know I need to strip the black enamel from the interior. I've ordered some Testors enamel thinner (should have just gotten some mineral sprits, I suppose) because the IPA isn't cutting it. In any case, I used all the 99% I had in the first dipping and the gallon I ordered won't get to me until Wed. 

My question at this point is, am I deluding myself by thinking that the parts aside from the black are good to go? The stripping with a towel, and using an electric toothbrush for the tight spots, took a while. Add the time I spent sanding those parts, and it's been a pretty solid eight hours of work. That Tamiya gray primer is stubborn stuff! Wow, it's nice to know that, when you don't have to strip a project, your paint has the support of that primer underneath it. Trust me, the surfaces are smooth as a baby's bottom. However, I have no idea if the new coat of primer will blend with the old or just highlight that I left some behind. lol.

There's a part of me that doesn't care about the insides, that all I need to do is sand with some 80 grit paper (kidding), apply some black over that, and call it done. Agree?

I left the pictures large so you can zoom in on them (it's amazing those decals in the cockpit are still there... I may try to preserve them just becasue):

[Can-Con]

The alcohol isn't much good for enamel. I've always used Easy Off with no problems.

I don't think I'd use the Testors thinner or mineral spirits for stripping, might melt the plastic.

[Bainford]

First of all, don't be concerned about the apparent lack of participation in your WIP thread. The race car part of the forum is not nearly as well attended as some other parts of the forum. Only the die-hard race car builders hang out here, and there appears to be far fewer of them than builders of road cars, customs, and hot rods.

As you have found, IPA wont strip enamels. Don't use paint thinner to strip paint, it can seriously damage the plastic. There are several common items used to strip paint, some work better then others depending on type of paint (lacquer, enamel, acrylic), specific manufacturer's formulation, type of primer, how old the paint is, and curiously, the colour (some don't strip well, such as flat black or silver). Here is a link to a thread with much good information. It's 27 pages, so probably way too much information, and some mis-information (if it doesn't sound right, question it). Everyone has their personal favourite paint strippers for removing different paints. A quick breakdown of the common players;

- Castrol Super Clean degreaser, colloquially referred to as the purple pond (great for enamels, sometimes works on lacquer and acrylics). Pour it into a suitable container and dunk the whole body in it. Can take from hours to days to work, depending on the paint. It's re-usable. There is a knock-off product called Purple Power, but it's not nearly effective.
- Easy-Off HD oven cleaner (NOT the fresh scent or lemon scent stuff). Like Castrol Super Clean, it employs lye as an effective ingredient. Put the parts in a zip-lock bag, hose the parts with the Easy-Off, and seal the bag.
- Isopropyl Alcohol (IPA). Use at least 91% IPA. Works great on most lacquers and some acrylics.
- Brake Fluid. Can be a bit messy, but can also strip stubborn to remove paint. I use it when the others don't work. It's re-usable.
- There are also a couple a bespoke products that work very well, though I've not tried any of them. One is ELO (Easy Lift Off), a Testors product, I think (could be wrong, but the linked thread will have the vital info). You don't soak parts in this stuff, but apply it with a brush/rag to soften the paint, then remove the paint.
- ...and a couple tips; All strippers work best when warmed slightly. Also, paint will strip easier, especially stubborn or old paint, if the surface of the paint is abraded with sandpaper, allowing the stripper to get in under the outer cured layer of paint. Also, it's best to use latex gloves or similar when handling any of the strippers.

I appreciate the reticence to strip a paint job that took many hours of work to prepare and apply. The impetus is to try to save as much of the work as possible. However, in the end, you will find that if you are not happy with flaws in the paint, you often will not be happy with attempts to fix it. Some flaws and issues can be skillfully repaired with an airbrush, so it's not always a loss, but we have all put more hours of effort into trying to save a hard won paint job, reluctant to strip it all off. Often you come to the conclusion that putting 200 hours into a build with a compromised paint job is not nearly as satisfying as putting in 220 hours into a build with a great paint job. Though a pain in the butt at the time, the end result is a model you are even more proud of, knowing you went the extra mile to get it right. You soon get used to removing a paint job that did not go down well as soon as you realise it's not good, thereby saving all the hours and effort you would have put into a doomed attempt to save it. The real nuisance is when the model has a lot of repairs, corrections, or custom work involving putty. Most paint strippers damage most putties, requiring all that work to be redone. In some of these cases, sanding off the damaged paint may be the best way forward. It depends a lot on the type of body and its details that can be damaged by sanding. All very subjective.

It looks like your body panels are ready for primer again (it's usually not necessary to remove all traces of the previous primer job). Give the parts a quick wash and scrub with mild soap (absolutely must be silicon free) and warm, running water. Rince well using a fine nail brush to get into all the crevices, dry with a lint-free cloth, and let air-dry thoroughly. Give it a quick wipe with IPA on a lint-free cloth. Then apply your primer. Once the primer is on, you can assess the quality of the surface finish, and do some fine follow-up sanding if needed. Re-prime if necessary. A final light rub with 1000 or 1500 grit sand paper, used wet. A final thorough rinse and dry, final wipe with IPA, and you're ready for paint.

 

Edited January 8, 2024 by Bainford
Bats in the belfy

[IanH]

I am not familiar with the paint strippers mentioned above, a local hobby shop here in South Africa sells an unbranded bottle containing oxytol. 

I kid you not, I have stripped a body which I had primered with Tamiya grey primer, red Tamiya LP paint as well as automotive 2k gloss coat in less than 10 minutes. 

There is no need to sand afterwards, the paint is gone completely, I just agitate it a lit with a brush, and that's all. 

I too have painfully made the decision to strip knowing how much effort went into what I am throwing away, but from this you get experience, confidence, etc. After the hard times easier times will come, as each step in this process becomes a new skill.