Sadly, my actual supply of "wisdom" is very limited, so I'll be going with posts about hobby mistakes and what I've learned from them and how to recover.
These posts will occur as the actual event unfold and, given my track record, there will be a lot of them.
Today's post is about keeping track of spray paint colors - always put the cap that indicates the color (or lack of color if it's a matte sealer) back on the can. NEVER trust your memory that "yes, this is the tan spray paint - I'm sure of it.
I tend to batch up priming models / terrain pieces and often use multiple colors. Every now and then I get get lazy and don't replace the cap on a can I know I'm going to use again. The result of said lapse in judgment is pictured above. This has also happen with white primer coat being mistaken for matte sealant. On some once very nicely painted 28mm Perry French Dragoons. I wasn't in the right emotional state to take pictures of that sad day, but it is remembered in the Lair as Black Sunday March 2013.
How can you avoid the heartache of spray paint color mismatch?
1) I now only buy the small cans of dull coat from Testors so I can easily discern what is spray paint vs matte coat.
2) Put the color code caps back on the damn cans in-between use, This is revolutionary thinking but is worth the risk of being accused of blasphemy.
3) For those of you who can't abide by rule #2, only buy one color of spray primer. As with nuking form orbit, it's the only way to be sure.
On a more serious note, I really enjoy the artistic aspect of this hobby but sometimes fall into painting process ruts. I often need to remind myself that trying new techniques keeps the creative post of the hobby fresh but comes with an increase in the rate of mistakes. Since 99% of mistakes in this hobby are recoverable its more than worth taking that risk. As for the other 1% that are unrecoverable - get over it - it's just Toy Soldiers!
I suspect another hobby disaster from yours truly are just around the corner....
7 comments:
Thanks Mikes, we value your wisdom. I can share some recently learned wisdom of my own. Don't stand up under a shelf that's 6" shorter than you - my learning experience came with stitches in my scalp.
It's not clear what went on, perhaps you wished to avoid the true horror to protect the more sensitive among us. But I think you wanted to prime a building in tan but it came out white. On the whole not as bad as it could be.
I avoid these errors by only using white primer and never making time to protect my units with varnish!
Revolutionary thinking indeed. 😀
But you are not alone. I once sprayed black primer on finished models bc I grabbed the wrong can and wasn’t paying attention. I was priming one batch while sealing another. 🙃
I believe your mistake was spraying white over part of the building when it should have been tan. If this was primer/undercoat, then you were simply unconsciously making a start to the process of introducing colour value variation for the coats which will be going on top.
I once narrowly missed using white undercoat instead of spray varnish on a finished unit.
I to have done this but I put my incident down to stupidity!
Been there, done that, still haven't learned my lesson!
Oh dear!
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