Primer applied
After assembly and before painting comes the application of primer. In this case, I used Tamiya’s Fine Surface Primer (gray) straight out of the can, which tends to work well for large objects in particular. This model used an entire can, which I anticipated. With the first coat applied, I assessed the surface finish, finding many flaws requiring repair using putty and super glue. I also checked to see if the masks remained in place (some did not, so this had to be dealt with). With the flaws repaired, another less intense coating of primer was applied, and a second inspection revealed a few flaws that could not be ignored. Those are being repaired, with putty drying as I write this.
The next stage is to use Mr. Finishing Surfacer 1500 in gray, applied using an airbrush. Because of the complex shapes associated with the subject, a fair amount of turbulence takes place when applying paint via can (to a greater extent) or airbrush (to a lesser extent). This creates areas where the paint flash dries before hitting the surface, producing a power that effectively forms a super matte finish and must be removed. The airbrush application of Mr. Finishing Surfacer will tackle this problem and fill in some sanding scratches that remain in a few places. The first and second coast of primer did reduce light bleed by about 50%; the Mr. Finishing Surfacer should take care of the remaining 50%. Ideally, when I test the lights on the model after all primer has been applied, I should see no light bleed, with the exception of the masks themselves.
Once I’m satisfied with the primer base, I believe the following paint sequence will be followed:
Yellow for phasers, thrusters and so forth, then masked off.
Red for warning stripes here and there, then masked off.
Black for warp engine grills and other details, then masked off.
Blue-gray for various details around the engines, etc. Then these will be masked off.
Following these details, the big job comes involving 4-5 layers of various Alclad II metallic paints. The engineering areas will consist of two dark metallic shades when compared to the overall body of the ship, which will be a combination of aluminum base shades (tinted with titanium gold, magnesium, etc.).
Then, I remove all the masks. No doubt doing so will reveal flaws that need to be addressed. Once those flaws are repaired, a gloss coat will be applied.
Decal application, followed by another gloss coat. All windows will be masked again.
Finally, a matte coat will be applied, followed by an appropriate level of weathering.
