There's a lot of prep work that is required before you ever touch a paint brush. So, strap in as we go inverted and slam the throttle to the fire wall, Yehaaaaaaaaa!
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Getting Started
Talk about a big undertaking, this is it! Ya know, I heard it said many, many moons ago, " When yur hind quarters and elbow in alligators ya begin to wonder why ya came to drain the swamp." HA!
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When this beauty arrived I realized this was not gonna be much fun getting it prepped for paint. This gun deck is a 3D print, 1/16th scale rendition, accurate and impressive from Shapeways, specifically designed by Sasa Drobac. Link is here: https://www.shapeways.com/shops/distefano_3dprint
Sasa has a pretty impressive line up for boat builders of all kinds and many scales, so this is a good source. However, back to my initial impression upon delivery, yikes! If you've never dealt with nylon printed 3D parts you're in for a surprise. It's a lot of work and I never did the intel search to find out otherwise, it never crossed my mind. My boof!
Prepping The Pieces For Sanding
Not all is lost, won't get done lookin at it anyway, right? The nylon print actually is better for anything that is large or has delicate configurations. But, it does have a fuzzy, or grainy appearance and does not like to be sanded unless you give it a resin coat or hit it several times with a primer. After much research I went with the XTC-3D resin filler, worked like a charm. However, as with any resin, make sure your mixes are exact or they won't dry and that tacky coat is a real bugger to get rid of. Trust me on this, I ran the learning curve for you, lol.
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Once the resin had cured and was sanded with 200 grid paper the deck began to look much better. All kidding aside, this is a lot of work, so be prepared to spend days getting it to where you can paint it. In the end, it's all worth the grumbling because nobody makes anything coming close to what I needed and Sasa with Shapways was the only answer. Sasa will special design to your needs, which is what he did here. It took a bit of communication back and forth to get it right, but like I said, well worth the extra time to get what you are looking for.
More to follow soon. Cheers, Ski.