Aston Martin DB3S: Still more paint learnings

Step 1: A couple of coats of Zero Paints primer on both the DB3S and a sacrificial resin bit from the boneyard. Wait 20 minutes.

Cleaning the airbrush was particularly challenging here. Lacquer thinner may not have been the right solvent; I see Gravity Paints (a competitor) recommends acetone for cleaning up their primer. Seems a bit much to me. (I  didn't write it down, but I seem to recall that I used Tamiya primer the first time around.)

Step 2: A couple of coats of Zero Paints colour coat, again on the DB3S and the test coupon. Wait a day or two for it to harden properly. The surface doesn't seem to be as rough as it was the first time I put the colour coat on. (I still have about 1/3 of the bottle in case of further 'issues'.)

Cleaning the airbrush is turning out to be the biggest hassle out there. Clearly one should use this only when the spray cans aren't providing the necessary results, mainly in terms of custom colours. 

Step 3: A heavy coat of TS-13 on the test coupon. Looks fine so far. 

Step 4: Light sanding to get the DB3S smooth, then decals.

Step 5: TS-13 clear, starting with a couple of very light mist coats, ten minutes apart, to keep the decals from reacting, followed by a couple of flood coats. 

 

Now to keep my filthy mitts off it until it hardens! And hopefully this brings this saga to a close.

 

By the way, the colour I used for the DBR1, Tamiya TS-78 (Field Grey) with a top coat of TS-13, is pretty close to the Zero Paints colour if one ignores the metallic component. 

Stay tuned!