# Problems painting Iron Man



## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

I want to know how others have been painting their Iron Man kits. 

I have had my IM figure sprayed gold for quite some time now. I wanted to mask this off and paint the red now. I think I read that we should put down the gold coat first, if using the transparent red paint. 

I tried frisket film, which was just too much bother to cut little pieces to mask off the gold areas. I am currently painting liquid mask over the gold areas, but I have to do three coats and let it dry overnight. 

The way things are looking, I think I will have to clean this gunk off tomorrow and re-prep and prepare for a full-body coat of paint yet again. 

I think I might just strip the liquid mask now, and repaint the entire figure red with my handy spray can, then hand paint in the gold areas. After all the fiddling around I have done so far, I think this might be best. I wish I had done this in the first place, I would have finished the painting long ago!

So who has painted their kits in these ways :

1. Spray (can or airbrush) and mask and spray again?

2. Spray (can or airbrush) and brush paint the non-sprayed color? (I am assuming no masking is done in this case)

3. Hand brush paint the entire figure? (Again I assume no masking is done)

For anybody who sprayed all or part of the figure, if you used any type of masking, what did you use and how much bother was it to put on and take off when finished?

I wanted to try something new, since I know people use both frisket and liquid masks when painting models, and I thought maybe they would work for me as well. So far I think my decision to try these things has been a huge waste of my time, as well as a hugh aggravation to me (and I am generally aggravated enough without anything going wrong).

Please post any experiences on painting the Iron Man figure that you have.

I like the kit itself, but I think when I buy another, I will just spray it silver and brush-dot in a few rivets and call it the Mark II. That one should go quickly, and help even out my aggravation with painting the Mark III color scheme.


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## Parts Pit Mike (Jan 3, 2001)

I base sprayed metallic gold, then why dry sprayed transparent red.

Went back at it a few days later and added the gold details with a brush.

Pit Mike


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## TAY666 (Jan 8, 2000)

I know there was a set of paint masks that were available for a while.
That would have probably saved a lot of agrivation.


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## spock62 (Aug 13, 2003)

I've been a long time lurker here, but when I saw this post I had to reply. I just finished my Iron Man and it was a real pain to paint. First I sprayed the sub-assemblies Tamiya gold. Next, I used a paint mask set from Aztec Dummy. The masks didn't fit as advertised and I had to either use both the mask and masking tape or just masking tape. As the masks and some of my masking wasn't that great, I had alot of touch up to do, but in the end it looks good. One more thing, I went with the alternate red mentioned in the instructions, Stop Light Red, the one that supposedly doesn't need a base coat of gold. Wrong! It also needs the gold undercoat, if you don't and paint the red over the bare plastic, it comes out really dark, had to spray some areas over again. Anyway, hope this helps, good luck on your Iron Man!


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## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

Thanks for the replies. It's about what I thought, after my adventures in new methods so far. I'll see how it goes tomorrow with the liquid mask before I do anything drastic. I've gone this far, I might as well take it to the end of the experient.


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

I am interested to know how the liquid mask turns out. That's been my plan as well.

1. A good coat of gloss black. 
2. Fix any imperfections that show up.
3. A coat of gold.
4. Putty, sand, add another coat of gold.
5. Masking?? Not sure how to do this yet.
6. 1-3 coats of clear red.
7. 1-2 coats of clear.

Be sure to post your results!!


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

If you arent big on masking, paint the whole fig gold, hit it with transparent red, and then go back and paint any solid gold areas gold again by hand.

I would recommend using the Tamiya TS series spray gold (dries in a couple hours) and their Transparent red. If you have an airbrush, Alclad has some incredible clear colors (people usually think of their Chrome, Aluminum, etc.) and they can be airbrushed over Tamiya gold spray paint.


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## Dave P (Jan 5, 2005)

It depends on the results each individual modeler is happy with. Brush painting will not yield a smooth, metal-like finish. Especially over a glossy red surface. It will probably take 2 coats. But, if you are OK with that then go for it. No criticism intended.

Otherwise the key to smooth, quality paint work is having the patience to to do the necessary prep and masking. I would go with the overall gold, mask the gold areas and spray clear red. I sometimes use bare metal foil for masking with good result, but it's not that cheap. Cut out a piece large enough to cover the area to be masked, burnish it down with a Q-Tip then LIGHTLY cut along the edges with a fresh blade. Otherwise blue painters tape cut in thin strips (1/16") so it is flexible enough to outline the area to be masked, then fill in with larger pieces of tape. It will take time, but the results are worth it. Liquid mask runs the risk of a chemical reaction to the paint if you are spraying anything other than acrylic. I've never tried frisket on anything but a flat surface. It's difficult to get it to lay down over compound curves without wrinkles, which will lead to overspray where you don't want it.

I also highly recommend the Tamiya spray and Alclad paints.

And for the Mark II, the kit comes with rivet decals. 

Nothing is a waste of time as long as you learn from the experience. Best of luck.


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## DarthForge (Feb 5, 2009)

I just primed mine sprayed with Tamiya mica red which is a semi transparent paint with a fine metallic flake. Then hand painted the
gold.


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

I've just returned from my lhs, only $23 down. 

I'm hoping this will work...opinions please...

1. Testor's Flat Gray Primer
2. Tamiya TS Spray Gold 
3. Testor's Candy Apple Red (transparent)

That's it. That's all I got for paint. These should work, right?


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

Testors "primer" is still an enamel and the Tamiya lacquer spray will crinkle it. Tamiya fine white Primer is good... Tamiya has clear red also.


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

Thanks for the tips! I could've made a huge mistake here.

Check this out...Maybe a paint job for my 2nd Kit. I am thinking of this or using Chrome Alclad to make an MkII paint job.


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## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

Well, the liquid mask worked great! 

Unfortunately, I didn't follow the directions, so I have a bit more touchup to do than I would have had, had I done the prep work correctly.

I was so anxious just to get something *done* that I sprayed the red without first trimming the masking material so that it covered only the area to be masked. Therefore, when I peeled off the mask once the paint had dried, areas that should not have had any masking on them did have it. So I had to peel the painted over masking off, so that the painted surface wouldn't be lumpy.

If I had trimmed the masking before painting anything over it, as the instructions plainly said, then I could have cleanly peeled it off after painting was done and had a near-perfect finished result, based on the results that I did get.

I will definitely use the masking again for vehicles and figures like Iron Man where I want a smooth sprayed finish that has more than one color.

Anyway, I have the touchup painting to do now, and I still have to get some paint on the base I made. After that I will post some pictures to show how it turned out.


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## Bwain no more (May 18, 2005)

If anyone wants to paint their MKIII kit to do the MKII variant, Frank has the decals from the MKII kit available separately for (IIRC) $10 postpaid. Not sure if this is on the Moebius site or Doll & Hobby but I will try and find out...
Tom


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## TAY666 (Jan 8, 2000)

Another thing to keep in mind next time you need to mask something.
Another masking option is silly putty.

I know. It sounds strange. But it works like a charm.

After hearing about this tip several times on the boards, I put it to work on my godzilla I did for WF this year.
Worked like a charm.

I had painted the mouth before I put it in the kit.









Then masked it with the silly putty and painted it.









Worked like a charm.


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## Fozzie (May 25, 2009)

I've also used putty as a mask on occasion. Not for every masking situation, but it has its uses.


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## spock62 (Aug 13, 2003)

This might seem like a dumb question, but, after you finish painting the model that has the Silly Putty mask, can the putty be reused? Seems to me like it would be a one shot deal.


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## Ignatz (Jun 20, 2000)

I reuse the Silly Putty all the time. Don't seal between painting with Dullcote though. I did this and it turned the putty into a sticky mess. At least I think it was Dullcote. Might've been Citadel's Matte Varnish.


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## spock62 (Aug 13, 2003)

Ignatz said:


> I reuse the Silly Putty all the time. Don't seal between painting with Dullcote though. I did this and it turned the putty into a sticky mess. At least I think it was Dullcote. Might've been Citadel's Matte Varnish.


Thanks, I'll have to give it a try on one of my next projects.


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## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

I thought about trying the SillyPutty as well, but I didn't have any handy.

So does it have to be 'real' Silly Putty or will one of the generic knockoffs do ok for masking?


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## starmanmm (Mar 19, 2000)

I never had any good luck with the knock offs. The real stuff is easy to find at most places like Toys R Us or Wal Mart.


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

Bruce Bishop said:


> Well, the liquid mask worked great!
> 
> Unfortunately, I didn't follow the directions, so I have a bit more touchup to do than I would have had, had I done the prep work correctly.


Bruce,

How many coats of liquid mask did you lay down?

Is this the basic process?

1. Prime
2. Paint Gold
3. Mask
4. Paint Red
5. Peel Mask
6. Touch-up


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## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

*How many coats of liquid mask did you lay down?* 
_I did one thick coat, rather than three, which was recommended. _
_However, this did prove to be enough.
_
*the basic process?

1. Prime
2. Paint Gold*
*
3. Mask*
_After the mask has dried overnight, trim the edges of the mask carefully to the contours of the shape to be covered and peel off the trimmed edges. Do this with a new sharp hobby knife blade. This is the step I did not follow in the instructions. _

_If you only trim the mask AFTER painting the red, then the edges of the gold areas that were masked will be sloppy. Then when you peel off the masking, it leaves some of the areas that are supposed to be red, the gold color, because the trimming of the gold area masking was not done BEFORE painting the red._
*4. Paint Red
5. Peel Mask
6. Touch-up*


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## Bruce Bishop (Jan 17, 1999)

My Iron Man is almost finished. I still have to do the touchup of the red paint, since I peeled some of it off when I pulled off the masking. Then I will paint the eyes, chest and hand lights white. And I will probably change the color of one side of the wall on my custom base. 

Then I will screw him to the base, and glue some felt on the bottom of the base to make it nicer. 

After that I will take new pictures in better light this time, and post them.


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

Cool! Can't wait to see the photos Bruce!

I start my Iron Man this week. I've already gotten my LEDs, display case, and Enamel (Spray) Paints and now I'm ready to start!!


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## ricecooker29 (Jul 25, 2009)

djnick66 said:


> Testors "primer" is still an enamel and the Tamiya lacquer spray will crinkle it. Tamiya fine white Primer is good... Tamiya has clear red also.


hi guys
so i'm new to all this and my first model is also iron man

all my paints are from Testors

I have a 
flat gray primer spray
metallic gold spray
metallic red (for brushing)


Will using a Gray primer be okay? Cause I was not able to find a black primer from Testors. So If i do get a black primer, it has to be an enamel right? Meaning that if i were to get a Tamiya paint, I wuold have to get a metallic gold and metallic red from Tamiya as well because since mine are all Testors, they would crinkle with the Tamiya primer??


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## Jhawk19 (Jul 27, 2009)

You're correct! :thumbsup:

I used all Testors paints as well. All enamels. I used a gray primer, followed by the gold. The final coat was a Candy Red spray from Testors. I didn't brush anything on. 

I did brush on the final details, like the chest, neck, feet, etc...because they were such small details. 

Check my thread, Yet Another Iron Man in Progress, for photos of my work in progress kit to see what these paints look like when finished.

I will post more photos to that thread tonight of the finished kit with all the "trimmings"!


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