Dome Bits

Painting day. It was a bit overcast today, but the temp and humidity were within the limits on my cans of paint and primer, so I went for it. I went for it. <--- Aren't those someone's famous last words?

The basic idea is to make all the resin dome bits look as if they were fabricated from metal. Using spray paint!

Mind you, I can paint using brushes, I'm pretty great using an airbrush, but spray paint requires some arcane, inscrutable method that has eluded me for a lifetime! Conditions might well nigh be perfect, I might use endless feather-light misty coats...yet still something ALWAYS goes awry.

So I begin with several carefully-applied layers of primer (the sandable kind):



After testing my two samples of aluminum paint on some scrap, I proceed with trying to make the magic happen.

Well, drips happened. Spatters happened. Cracks happened. Quivering lower lips happened!

I let each coat dry 1/2 hour between applications, and it still looked rotten. I could tell it looked rotten, even though by the end of painting it was nearly dark. How rotten will it look in the light of day? Ack! Here is a shot under indoor light. Hmmm, we shall see if any of this can be fixed, or if I'm going to have a droid that looks weathered before I've started weathering it!