Disaster Strikes!

I sprayed the superstructure color on and waited 24 hours to remove the masking.

Well the moment of truth arrived and I removed the masking. The decks went very well and looked great. Then I pulled the liquid mask from the hull sides. And virtually every last spec of the white hull paint came up too! !@#$%^&*! I hate it when that happens.

I then faced the moment every modeler faces... box it up and put it back in the stack until I had the nerve to face all that ruined work or try again. I went upstairs to watch TV and to avoid thinking about all the work I'd just ruined.

The next day, I took the hull, placed it in a one quart plastic baggie and hosed it down with easy off oven cleaner. I let that sit for 24 hours to thoroughly loosen all of the paint. It's important because you don't want to obscure that beautiful detail with too much paint.

After 24, I used a tooth brush to scrub off the paint. It should come off pretty well and I didn't cause any damage to the resin hull.

I queried some folks on the internet and they recommended priming the hull with Tamiya Surface Primer L (Gray) . I bought some at the local hobby shop and remounted the hull to my building slip with Rubber cement. (I found that the PVA kept drying too much and the hull became loose)

After a quick spray of the primer, I'm back to square one.

Hull Masking

 

After the Hull had dried for 24 hours, I masked the hull sides with the same techniques used for the deck. Note the masking tape near the barbette and at the bow and stern. Once the liquid mask has dried for 24 hours, the superstructure color can be laid on.

Deck and Hull Painting

Once the hull was firmly mounted to the slipway, I sprayed the deck with an acrylic paint available from Walmart. It was "Plaid" brand and was #953 Camel. Any "deck looking" color will suffice because there's a lot more that's going to be done to the deck before finishing. It's best to think of the color as a base coat.

Once the deck is painted, the real tedium begins. I lay a strip of masking tape down on a sheet of 1/4 glass that I use as a cutting base. I then cut off a thin strip from both sides with a single edge razor blade held against a ruler to ensure a straight line. I also cut the ends square. I then cut a long single strip from the tape that's as thin as I can get it and still get a good gluing surface on the underside. (The pics illustrate the width)

Using a pair of sharp tweezers and an exacto knife I begin to cover all the edges of the deck. I will try to do all the edges parallel to the keel of the ship.

Covering the entire deck can take more than a week. I also try to work in short sessions so that I don't get frustrated and hurl the damn thing into the wall (haha). I find that using an optivisor for this work invaluable. It may seem like an expensive luxury but in order to do fine detail work at this small scale it is a must.

Apply liquid mask to all the open areas and cover up to the tape edges. This allows you to get crisp edges and still cover the whole deck in a timely manner.

Once the liquid mask has dried for 24 hours, I sprayed the hull white. Again this was done using a generic acrylic color obtained from the Walmart crafts section. Don't forget to apply the photoetch to the hull sides. I had to keep making a mental note of this to make sure I didn't forget.

The next step is to start masking the trim line between the superstructure and hull side in order to paint the superstructure a "buff" color.