Neil Weinstock emailed me some information on a better shade of gray -
Hi,
Just thought I'd share my experience with Rusto 2x "Perfect Gray" Ultra Matte paint. I ended up sanding down the awful (quality, not color) Winter Gray coat on my IRIS-T and repainted it with the Perfect Gray. I'd say it was just right for my IRIS-T build. Perhaps the ideal scale color would have been a bit darker, but the inkjet decals look better on the lighter gray so I am happy. This picture shows the model after painting. Of course it's hard to tell exactly how light or dark a gray is from a picture. It's pretty light, but still definitely gray. I struggled to decide if, despite the name, it has a very *slight* warm tone to it. Eventually I gave up worrying about for fear of driving myself crazy for no reason.
I found that the finish on the paint puts it somewhere (in my estimation) around satin; I was expecting it to be much flatter but it has some sheen to it. I decided to take a chance and apply decals to it directly, without any gloss coating first. As far as I can tell it has worked well (I also douse the decals in Micro-Sol after applying, just to maximize my chances).
Maybe most important though was how I acquired it. I could not find it in any store, so I ordered it through the True-Value website (CLICK HERE) and had it delivered to a local store for pickup, with no shipping charge. Not too much hassle in the grand scheme of things.
So overall I'm glad I went through the trouble to sand down the rocket (a lot of work, ugh) and repaint. If you need a lighter gray spray than the Winter Gray I can recommend it.
After a bit more consideration I would probably recommend glossing under the decals to insure absolute best performance, but it did definitely work OK without it. It's possible that if the base color were much darker I would have been able to see some silvering under the decals, but it's hard to know.
ReplyDeleteI hope I'll not be violating protocol if I take this opportunity to plug the build thread of that IRIS-T, which is nearing completion: https://www.rocketryforum.com/threads/build-thread-sport-scale-iris-t-missile-1-3-8-ish.145053/. It's been a fun one.
Hi Neil,
DeleteI don't know how I missed your build on TRF. I don't go there as often as I once did. I posted a link to your build in the above post so others can see it. Thanks and great work!
Thanks. It's funny, for all the detail work I put into that model, I still look at what's involved in the Saturn V build and think "no way."
DeleteI've been following Neil's scratch scale build and the amount of detail is amazing. In particular his reproduction of the homing lens of this missile is a work of art. Amazing.
ReplyDelete