Summertime - the Painting Season

 I work in our wash house which we converted into a painting studio for me. Though it's very well insulated, it's unheated, so I can only paint when the weather is warm enough and fairly dry. My painting season stretches from around May through September, and in this time I have to paint all the models to be sold throughout the year.

After the shells are dry, I grab a bundle of my painty wires,
pop the wire through the tail hole, out the neck hole, and twist
it into a hanger. The Wash House has wire pony lines
stretched across the back section and a line stretched beside
the painting box.

Safety first! I always wear a mask and
headgear (my air compressor is at my feet and it's
very loud!)
I've scared the postie a few times with this get-up.

This is my workhorse brush. It's a RJ-Global from eBay.
It's a very inexpensive brush and is very similar in design to the Iwata.
I use it for priming, white-coating, and clear-coating. I decided on the
trigger grip to give my hand a rest as the above processes involve running
the brush at one pressure for a long time.

The only thing I really dislike about this design of brush is the size
of the nozzle tip - it's about the size of a grain of rice!

Priming is such a boring process that I like to have a little fun
experimenting with markings on the coloured plastic.

I liked this colour so much I decided to use it properly
on a later model.

After a batch of models are all primed, I hang them in the
back to dry. I usually have 20-30 models going at one time.

My precision brush is a Badger Patriot Xtreme Arrow 105.
This is my new brush as my first one died at the beginning of
this painting season. I get all of my Badger supplies and parts
fro Barwell UK Airbrush Supplies.

I find this model very easy to clean and break down. It can make a wide
spray or a very narrow line and is very responsive without being too moody.

I prefer to use Liquitex Professional Soft Body Acrylic paint.
They have a wide range of colours and they thin well for brush
painting and airbrushing. The new tube design is excellent as well -
very little mess, easy to open and close, and great to re-use for
custom mixed colours. I've yet to throw out an empty container.

I buy my paint online from either Cowling & Wilcox or Cass Art -
depending on what sales are on and who has the most of what I need in stock.

Once a model has been primed, I let it rest for a day and
then white-coat it. This can range from a full body coat to just
a leg and the face, depending on how the model will ultimately
be painted. If needed, I add a coat of pinking to muzzle and
other soft areas.

After drying for a day, I use blue painter's tape and
Ammo Ultra Liquid Mask (it's blue and I buy it on eBay) to mask
off any markings.

This model has just had its first colour coat.

Blocking in the shading

Adding the second colour coat

Adding the third colour coat

After getting the black coat and having the masking
removed. I generally remove the masking a couple of
hours after the fine colour coat.

Pinto models take a bit more thought. This one has had
its white coat and has been masked to leave the areas to
be coloured exposed.

The first colour coat has been applied

Here the second coat to the chestnut section and the
first coat of the black section have been applied.

After spraying the black shading (a custom mixed colour
I call "muzzle-black") and removing the masking.

Models which have been fully painted get sent to the
storage shed to hang out until I'm ready to clear-coat them.
This protects them from getting misted with paint dust in the
Wash House and frees up space on the painting lines.

Clear-coat days have to be warm, but not hot, and with the humidity
below 70% on my studio monitor, otherwise it can go cloudy or grainy.