Body paint job done!
Finally we’ve had some decent weather again and I’ve been able to finish the spray paint job on the body! After painting the darkest squares (previous post) and masking the horizontal stripes only to do half of the “medium” coloured squares – I removed the horizontal stripes, put the vertical ones back on, and did a similar light-ish coat of paint to fill in the other medium squares. It was much easier to put the vertical ones on this time, as there were already lines separating the squares, so it was just a case of getting it to match up.
The finished paint job is as below – there is some slight variation in colour and texture which just makes it better, I think. Too uniform would probably look a bit odd.
Not bad when you compare to the prototype in the GIMP
The pattern goes all around the sides as well (which I managed to neatly avoid having to deal with on the prototype!), which was a bit of a nightmare to mask – difficulties of putting flat tape on a curved plane! – but came out well in the end:
The next step with this (once the paint is more fully dry – it is “touch dry” within 15 minutes so no chance of it getting marks on etc, but they recommend 24 hours to be fully dry enough) will be to put the lacquer on – several coats eventually. I have already lacquered the headstock and neck, so that is pretty much ready.