Searls - Experimenting With Finish Products

[demonx]

Ok... I wasn't going to post pics of this till it was finished as it's more of an experiment guitar than anything, so I've chosen a straight forward quick body to build, simple specs all across the board, no inlay etc etc.

So, the mandatory wood pics so it's officially a build thread:

Paint grade Mahogany body black that I cut into my superstrat shape. These paint grade blanks are cheap but come complete with multiple worm holes, I ws lucky enough to position the template to avoid them:

Mahogany neck, no inlay, ebony board and the thickest binding StewMac had 0.09" - I wanted to know what extra large binding would look like. It looked good in my head, but I wanted to see it on a guitar.

I threw on a nitrile glove and rubbed ebony grain filler all over the neck then sanded and cleared:

The body I am playing around with some panel shop grade high fill primer and seeing how much I can expect from it.

Take 1 - I baked and layed it on thick - it blistered. I had to sand it all back...

Take 2 - I layed it on thick and only baked after the third coat. It blistered but only small blisters and it ran (as i didnt have the heat as I am used to to cure it fast)

Sand it back again and respray, this time no baking and thin layers...

With new products brings new processes and new reations to get used to. Especially when I've been used to using prima primer, which over here is over three hundred bucks a tun, this stuff is made by the same company but it's half the price. In my opinion half the product!

Jump forward a couple days in the paint process (to this morning) I've sanded the primer and getting into the color...

First thing I do when I'm setting up for paint is get an old mixing cup and pour about an inch of cheap thinner in it (for cleaning purposes) - I dont use the same thinner I use to paint with, I use the cheapest crap the shop has. It's usually the same price or cheaper than gun cleaner and better quality.

Spray a tack coat - move the gun real fast, not looking for coverage. This much or even less is ideal. I wasnt moving the gun fast enough today - I'm tired!

About five to ten minutes later I layed a full coat:

You can see that I have not sprayed inside the cavities completely on this paint job. Reason being is that I'm going to airbrush this one, so when I come in later with the airbrush I'll touch up the spots the full sized gun missed. This means I can be less fussy in the early stages of spraying, as long as I get zero runs.

This is how it hangs as of this second. Todays a paint day, so I'll update this thread with progress pics through out the day while I'm waiting for layers to dry. I'm not too handy with the airbrush, so this paintjob is like a bit of practise for me, if I screw it up I'll just cover it all with camo as a back up plan.

[demonx]

Ok.. so I've just sprayed a second full layer of black and then cleaned up. I'll leave it hang there for an hour before I start the next stage.

I figure I'll touch on my clean up process - only takes me a couple minutes to get it all done:

I'm finished with the full sized gun for now, so I poured the unused paint into a solvent proof bottle and then poured some of the cheap thinner I spoke of into the guns paint cup, gave it a shake and then sprayed full trigger (outside the shed) for about ten seconds. Then I pour the thinner out of the cup onto a weed (kills weeds real well!)

Back in the shed I break the gun down and put the cap, tip and needle into the cup from earlier. If you're using filters throw that in too. All mine are wrecked, need to buy more. I then grap paper towel and wipe out the cup, dip it into the thinner cup and wipe it out again, new towel, keep wiping until it's clean then wipe out with dry towel. I do the the cup lid at the same time.

Then I grab the gun and a cotton bud (just the cheapest ones from the supermarket that you use to clean ears) and wipe out the paint cup area and behind the cap. New bud, reapeat this time after dipping in the thinner, repeat repeat etc until clean then wipe it out with a dry bud. I then take the air hose and blow high pressure air through the gun at every angle. This cleans and dry's off all the thinner you used to clean with.

If you're using a filter under the cup then I take it out of the thinner at this stage and blow it out with an air hose then inset in the gun. After this I screw the cup back onto the gun.

Now I take the needle out of the cup of thinner and simply wipe it clean. It's been sitting in thinner so it's pretty good by now. I push it into the gun about half way.

Now the thinner only has the tip and cap in it so I grab the cup and give it a spin cycle, swing the cup left for fiv second, right for five seconds until you think its had enough.

I take the tin out of the thinner, blow it from the inside out with high pressure air hose then just blow air all over. It'll be clean and dry by now. Screwq it back into the gun

Do the same with the cap and screw it back onto the gun.

Put an air hose back onto the gun and spray it for a few seconds just to blow any thinner or anything out you missed. It should only be air coming out if you've done the rest of the steps right.

Just after I took this pic I topped up the thinner a bit so it was just over the cap. The level was low as I'd poured some into the gun at the beginning as it's easier to pour from this cup than it is a large tin.

Some people can afford fancy gun cleaning machines etc. I can't, so this is what I do.

[demonx]

Ok... it's been a long time since I've tried airbrishing so I started with the headstock to warm up...

Setup all the crap I think I'll need:

Start with laying down a background. Yep, very rust, no trigger control. This ws meant to be only silver on the edge, but its nearly all the way across, so later I blended it back slightly with black

I layed in a couple of curved pipes and then started to color in with a blue/green candy mix:

More color:

I layed black either side of the curved pipes, not so much a shadow but just to highlight it and seperate

[curtisa]

With the lighting in that first headstock photo I initially thought you'd scallopped the headstock - a sneaky optical illusion!

Sorry to sidetrack for a moment, but can I ask how you're doing your logos? Stencil? Decal? Something else?

[demonx]

can I ask how you're doing your logos?

I used to inly, then I decided to paint them - now I just use a vynil decal.

Much quicker and easier.

[demonx]

Started on the body:

Taped off some windows:

Started on the same background as the headstock - fine silver then the candy mix:

Waiting for the candy to flash off so I can start on the first window... Will post pics soon.

[curtisa]

I used to inly, then I decided to paint them - now I just use a vynil decal.

Much quicker and easier.

I see. Same sort of thing as stick-on logos for commercial vehicals, I take it? And the build-up of clear coats must blend the raised edges into the surrounding surface?

Keen to see how your airbrushing comes out, BTW. I have an airbrush somehwre under the house, but have never really used it since my WW2 model aircraft-building days from years ago.

[demonx]

I see. Same sort of thing as stick-on logos for commercial vehicals, I take it? And the build-up of clear coats must blend the raised edges into the surrounding surface?

Well, sort of but not really.

It's a raised logo, so the clear fills in the gaps around it and over, but it's not flush, you can feel it when you runa finger over it. Thats how I want them.

[demonx]

Window #1

Sprayed the whole area with a thick coat of metallic aluminium paint and then a quick layer or orange/black candy mix, then I shot a quick coat of thinner over the area to make it a bit more workable before dabbing all over it with a textured sponge to mix the layers and make a rust look.

I then layed a gear template over the top and went around the edges of the gears

I then took a bit of black and knocked the gear section back as it was a bit brighter than I wanted then freehanded in three hose positions

I'm just waiting for these hose parts to dry so I can lay a template over the top without making a mess.

[demonx]

Layed down the hoses then covered in a red/violet candy:

Now to window #2 - layed down diagnal strokes of aluminium and a orange/black mix:

Taped a hex template over the top and filled with silver:

Layed down a skull pile template and filled with black, then came in and freehanded some shapes in there so it didnt look so stenciled:

Window #2 - A burst of silver then some black squiggly lines before red candy followed by intercoat clear over the top as I want to spray white next and if you dont clear over the candy then spray white, it'll all bleed and make a big mess!

[demonx]

Scribbled down a little person, not sure if its a baby or an alien or what - it's an unknown... cut it out of masking tape and then airbrushed a white haze around it:

Threw over a bit of color on the "being" and then layed in a pipe:

Masked off some borders and repeated the earlier step of trying to achieve a metal effect:

I'm calling it quits for today. Got a headache and it's not turning out how I'd hoped, so this is how it will sit for the night:

[demonx]

In retrospect... When I go to do another one of these, I think I'll stay away from the bright colors and stick to the rust like colors.

Maybe if I could actually airbrush it might look a lot better! At least I'm having a go and can admit it looks semi horrible...

[Anthony]

Thats pretty sweet. It's like a guitar for an industrial musician with ADD. Lol. I really like it. Look, a squirrel.

[ScottR]

Very creative and lots of depth.

SR

[bob123]

Mind. %@#%^-ing blown.

[Robbinst]

That's amazing what you can do with some stencils and a steady hand. I actually thought the metal grate was real at first. Nice work!

[demonx]

Today if I get time (going to a woodworking expo) I'll lay in more background pipes over the metal grate edge where it hangs over the edge

I think I might knock back all the bright colors (the blue background and the red pipes) with some black candy so it's a bit easier on the eye

Also need some shadows under the metal frames when I decide what to do with the background

[demonx]

This morning I darkened everything up and went over the bottom corner where I had to cover up the overhang

Threw in some pipes and electricity:

I also went over the pipes in the top two windows to knock back the color as they were too bright

Now to clear coat as it aint getting any better unless I sand it back and get someone else to airbrush it!

[supplebanana]

for me its a little too dark now.... but still looks good.

[Maiden69]

for me its a little too dark now.... but still looks good.

I'm glad that you darkened it because I was thinking that it was looking over the top. Like going in all directions and adding stuff without making any sense.

[demonx]

for me its a little too dark now.... but still looks good.

It's a bit brighter in person. The pics aren't too great so it's hard to show what it really looks like. The earlier pics that look real bright were taken under halogen lights and the last pic was only under the ceiling flueros so it's not a true representation of the real finish. My fault.

I know I always blame bad pics on only using a mobile phone and not having a real camera, but at the end if the day I'd much rather spend x amount of dollars on more luthiery tools than a camera, so mobile phone pics it is!

[demonx]

I'm glad that you darkened it because I was thinking that it was looking over the top. Like going in all directions and adding stuff without making any sense.

Isn't that the theme of pretty much all biomech themed stuff??!!

Even when you look at Gigers biomech, the grand daddy of all that is biomech, there's stuff in there ghat you're just left thinking "what the ****" !!!

Also, I really need to buy more templates. I only have a few so I was very limited in what I could experiment with which I found frustrating and since I don't have the skills to freehand I really need the template assistance

[Maiden69]

Not at all, HR Giger's work is awesome and everything ties into one idea. Once you added the black, you achieved this, before it was just a lot of "ideas" separated but in the same plane

[demonx]

All airbrush art looks odd until the layers come together. Because you have to plan the layers from back to front it's hard to know (when you're a complete airbrush noob like me) what the end result will look like. If you've seen my camo threads even something that simple demonstrates this.

Take for example the metal mesh I did, it's just strokes of color and anyone looking at that will think it looks ****, but then once I free handed a slight shadow in each of the holes and knocked it back with some mist and removed the template all of a sudden you can see what it's meant to look like.

As to what my idea was - I wanted to accomplish a wall in a facility. The details beyond that are left to the viewers imagination, but I imagined a industrial factory like place where "beings" are grown. So I started with a wall and some windows. Then fill in the windows. Then frame them then finish with trying to blend it all.

I have no delusions of it being professional. It's not. It's my first attempt. It's "just" barely good enough that I won't sand it back and try again, but I'm not stupid enough to try charge for it. In fact the guitar this is going on I'll be selling for $500 LESS than I would have liked for it simply because I have airbrushed this on it. There's only one way to learn and I don't have time to practice, so I just used this guitar as a test panel.

[demonx]

The clear should be dry enough today that I could probably take some outside pics in the sunlight... Will do this later