Sega New Astro City (Part 3)
Primer! It’s Sunday, one day after applying the first coat of primer. I’d thought about doing another play-by-play - like in part 2. But couldn’t be bothered. So you’re only getting the result, rather than the process.
Priming
I’m using Hempel’s Primer Undercoat, in a very Playstation-esque mid-grey. Going by the manual, it should be touch dry in around 5 hours, and ready for recoat in 6 to 96 hours?. Well, whatever, I’m in no rush.
My goal for this weekend is to get a single coat on every part. Then next week I’ll sand them down and give them a second coat. The manual implies that two coats is enough for glass reinforced plastic, and I’d be inclined to agree. I actually think it looks quite nice with just the primer, and depending on how it ends up looking and feeling, I could see myself slapping a clear-coat on top of it. I probably wont do that. But I could. And I might.
Painting
Once I’ve finished the priming, it’ll be the big job. I think I’ll make a point to take a day off work when the weather is fantastic (or as fantastic as English weather can be in February/March). The paint I’ve decided to go with is Hempel’s 10121 Matterhorn White. Which is rgb(244,244,244). Not quite VW Candy White, rgb(220, 219, 212) - apparently the original colour of the cabinet. But it trends closer to pure-white, which seems to be what most people expect anyway.
I’ve decided I’m going to roll and tip rather than spray. I spent an unfathomable amount of time comparing compressors, airless spray guns, nozzles and other bits-and-bobs. And every time I felt I had a working solution for spraying, I’d do a final check and find out Wagner products are shite, Graco products (like the A30) only take nozzles up to a size 15 (when I need a size 19-21). And then I’m back to the drawing board looking at compressors and comparing CFM.
I’m not a complete idiot - at a point, it’s likely whatever I bought could be made to do the job. But at the cost of this stuff I’m inclined to buy once or not at all. I suppose in this case, I’ve picked the latter.
So - roll and tip. Rolling and tipping. This is how boats are regularly painted - apply with the roller, then lightly stroke with the brush tip. This presumably works to achieve a good even finish because boat paint is normally oil-based. Having applied thick top-coats before (varnish, mostly) - I can see how it works. Of course, I’ve never done this with paint, and I can only hope it has the same sort of self-levelling you can see with (i.e.) Rustins danish oil.
Backup Plan
So let’s say I screw up and the paintjob is shite. I’ll be trying somewhere inconspicious first - specifically the underside of the cabinet. But lets say I can’t get an even finish and it looks really bad. What to do? I’m not thinking much about it now, but here’s some ideas:
- Just stick with the primer. It looks pretty good, is matte, so it can be sanded to a uniform finish. Varnish-in-a-can would go on a treat. Downside would be that the primer is grey. Upside would be that grey is cool.
- Figure out spray painting. Resign myself to online-shopping purgatory until I buy something takes paint out of a tub and fires it out of a gun-shaped object. An expense I’d like to avoid.
- Take it to a boat painting place. They have the kit, I can supply the paint. Primer is already done. The problem is finding one - I live on the coast, so there’ll be at least one. Probably.
- White gloss spray-in-a-can. It works, it was what I originally used, and that looked fine. Probably less than £150 in total, and I know from the first time I did this to skip straight for the ‘premium’ plastikote and not bother with the cheaper stuff.
Next update probably when I’ve had a chance to piss about with the topcoat.