Hi friends.
I have been very busy with my work, but I have also continued to advance my model.
I have now finished the cloth covers that will cover the legs of the robot. I really like the look I have achieved on the legs, but the original model has them covered. So there is no other option.
I had never sewn (some shirt button and little else), so I had to look for a tutorial on Youtube "How to sew by hand". It turned out to be very simple, although very laborious. But I finally managed to make all four covers without major problem.
The yellow bands are glued onto the blue fabric. To get a good adhesion I used 3M-Scotch brand double sided tape. I first applied acetone to the yellow fabric with a wide brush, and before it dried, I glued a wide strip of the adhesive and pressed it hard so that the adhesive material went deep into the fabric. Before removing the protective paper from the adhesive tape, I cut the yellow strips to their final size and, finally, I also moistened the blue fabric with acetone and glued the yellow strips, pressing hard again to get them to stick together as tightly as possible.
With the fabric covers finished I already had all the pieces and elements to complete my model, so it was time to start the painting process.
Except for the head, the cloth covers and some other details, the entire robot is metallic with a steel look. I chose to use AK Interactive brand Xtreme Metal Steel paint. It is a paint that, if you previously apply a good gloss black primer, provides a very fine and realistic finish that looks like real metal.
The pieces are already painted in steel and I do not want to give it a protective layer of varnish because varnish always worsens the metallic appearance of the paint a bit. So I'm currently testing to see how I can apply volume and aging effects without messing up the metallic paint.
I have found that enamel thinners will damage this metallic paint, but alcohol can be used without problems.
I have also found that Marabu brand spray varnish (one of my all-time favorites) also damages this metallic paint.
From all the tests I have done, I think I will use two different techniques, depending on the area and the characteristics of the pieces.
The first is to use Tamiya black acrylic paint very diluted in alcohol to wash the pieces with smaller reliefs. Once the wash is dry, I remove the excess with a cloth soaked in alcohol. The piece is clean and the black paint only remains in the deepest corners.
The second technique is to use graphite powder and apply it with an old brush from which I cut the bristles very, very short. In this way I can darken the areas that I consider appropriate in a very controlled way.
In my next post I will try to attach photographs that clearly show the result of these effects.
Until next time and thanks for watching my thread.
Rafa