Sunday, November 12, 2017

Matra MS 640: Finally got the paint to stick

I have never had a paint job fight me this much. Although to be fair, most of my painting problems in the past have been either,

  1. self-inflicted due to impatience or sloppiness, or
  2. resulting from the challenges of working with resin, or
  3. both of the above. 
This was probably a case of #3, and the picture below shows a monumental screw-up that arose after putting on the white and taping up for the blue, then shooting a quick coat of clear to seal the tape. The clear, a Tamiya clear, immediately attacked the Tamiya spray paint underneath. Ugh. Back into the alcohol bath for a second time. (The first time was documented recently.)


An extensive conversation on the Model Cars How-To forum on Facebook didn't come up with any clear reason for the problem, except possibly off-gassing from the resin. As there were several coats of primer and two of white on it at this point, I find that a bit of a stretch as I would have expected this to arise earlier. Anyway it looks good at this point and I will let it sit for a day or two before buffing the blue around the base of the fins and putting on the decals. 


There was no bleeding or seeping of the blue onto the white, which is a big relief, although the blue I decanted and brushed on is a bit darker for some reason. 


Will I dare to try clear again? Hard to say. But progress is being made and what is left on this curbside is pretty simple: decals and lights, then the chassis and glass go in. I've also got some photo-etched grilles to put adapt. 

Stay tuned!

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