The vinyl is in the mail.
While waiting for it, I realized that I could Future the inside of my ring, since that was going to be far easier now than after assembly. So it turned into a bit of an experiment.
First I sanded with 800, much like I did the rest of the rocket. The hand-painted interior was a bit rough, again much like the rocket. After sanding for a while, it smoothed out a bit and looked mottled (say it with me now: "much like the rocket".)
The dark areas are the original gloss, the light areas are the sanded parts. The high areas "protected" the low areas from the sandpaper, so the parts that are still glossy are the low areas. If I kept sanding, I presume it would eventually all look like the lighter sanded areas, once all the high parts were completely sanded down.
What I wanted to see here was whether the Future would equalize the two areas, and I'd end up with a uniform gloss.
First I wrapped the outside with tape, because I was sure I was going to get some Future on the outside.
Then I applied my first coat of Future, as always with a foam brush, and blotted off the excess. Here's the result:
That, uh, doesn't look too much different. The answer? More Future! (I'll refrain from using the more cowbell GIF again):
Maybe it's a *little* better, but not much. It would seem that Future is not readily capable of glossing up an 800 grit-sanded area. Although it's 100% fine on the inside of the ring (you can't see it unless you get directly light reflecting off it, which won't happen on the ring interior once it's assembled, it does not point to good results if I were to apply a coating of Future directly to the rocket in its current state. I can see a few possibilities:
1) Apply another coat of white to the rocket to restore consistent gloss the whole thing, even if it is a little bumpy.
2) Sand the rocket with much finer grit before Futuring the whole thing. I don't know how fine I'd need to go to enable the Future to gloss up properly. I have some 1500 at the ready, have never gone beyond that.
3) Sand the entire rocket down further right now, to achieve a uniform finish, and *then*, at the end, sand with a finer grit.
I'm not really sure where to go next. Still unclear if this represents a different behavior than I've seen before or not; don't recall encountering this but it's possible the conditions are not quite the same this time.
If anyone has input, I'm all ears. Basically I need to decide on my strategy before I apply the next color coat (which is black). [aside: I really should try to figure out a way to do the red before the black, but dealing with the ring will be such a pain if I try to do it that way. Hmm...]
While waiting for it, I realized that I could Future the inside of my ring, since that was going to be far easier now than after assembly. So it turned into a bit of an experiment.
First I sanded with 800, much like I did the rest of the rocket. The hand-painted interior was a bit rough, again much like the rocket. After sanding for a while, it smoothed out a bit and looked mottled (say it with me now: "much like the rocket".)
The dark areas are the original gloss, the light areas are the sanded parts. The high areas "protected" the low areas from the sandpaper, so the parts that are still glossy are the low areas. If I kept sanding, I presume it would eventually all look like the lighter sanded areas, once all the high parts were completely sanded down.
What I wanted to see here was whether the Future would equalize the two areas, and I'd end up with a uniform gloss.
First I wrapped the outside with tape, because I was sure I was going to get some Future on the outside.
Then I applied my first coat of Future, as always with a foam brush, and blotted off the excess. Here's the result:
That, uh, doesn't look too much different. The answer? More Future! (I'll refrain from using the more cowbell GIF again):
Maybe it's a *little* better, but not much. It would seem that Future is not readily capable of glossing up an 800 grit-sanded area. Although it's 100% fine on the inside of the ring (you can't see it unless you get directly light reflecting off it, which won't happen on the ring interior once it's assembled, it does not point to good results if I were to apply a coating of Future directly to the rocket in its current state. I can see a few possibilities:
1) Apply another coat of white to the rocket to restore consistent gloss the whole thing, even if it is a little bumpy.
2) Sand the rocket with much finer grit before Futuring the whole thing. I don't know how fine I'd need to go to enable the Future to gloss up properly. I have some 1500 at the ready, have never gone beyond that.
3) Sand the entire rocket down further right now, to achieve a uniform finish, and *then*, at the end, sand with a finer grit.
I'm not really sure where to go next. Still unclear if this represents a different behavior than I've seen before or not; don't recall encountering this but it's possible the conditions are not quite the same this time.
If anyone has input, I'm all ears. Basically I need to decide on my strategy before I apply the next color coat (which is black). [aside: I really should try to figure out a way to do the red before the black, but dealing with the ring will be such a pain if I try to do it that way. Hmm...]
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