Sorry for the resurrected thread! Thought it would be better to continue with an old one.
I'm currently working on the FM Falcon, and have reached the point where I can start painting. It's important to note that I'm not in this for the long haul, just this one kit (OK, you got me, maybe a couple of kits if Molds releases a Y-Wing too).
In any event, I'm a Star Wars nut, not really a modeler, so I've bought the basics---necessary paints, thinners, cheapie Aztek brush and compressor, etc. I know Aztek stuff sucks, but like I said, I just want to do a decent (read: non-Tony-Agustinian, sub-Ignatzian), one-off job for this kit. I've already invested more $$$ than I'd care to admit (to myself or wife) in the Great Doomed FM Falcon Project.
SO--the problem is that my living situation works against me in every way possible in regards to airbrushing, as I live in a 3-unit condo in an urban area.
I could paint in the large basement, but it's shared, the first-floor condo's floors are thin (read: noise, so I could paint only when the owners were away), and I'd be painting relatively close to three gas-fired furnaces, three gas-fired water heaters, and a bank of gas meters. With no ventilation. Um, yeah.
I could bring everything up to my condo unit (second floor), but that would require painting around Things And Furniture That My Wife Would Not Me Want To Ruin. It would also require investing hundreds in a spray booth/ventilator setup, which I'm guessing still wouldn't prevent fumes from getting into the curtains. Not to mention the noise and smell and whatever fumes weren't ventilated turning a spare bedroom into a Superfund site in less time than you can say "moron."
I could spray outside, either on one of my front or back porches, or temporarily setting up shop in our very small (I'd have to move a car), detached, unheated garage. This could work, as long as I waited until spring (I live in the Northeast, and it's currently in the single-digit temps outside).
I could commission someone to complete the Falcon for me, but I'm guessing I could buy a Lexus for what that would cost.
The final, cheapest, safest option is to draw an outline of the Falcon on a piece of notebook paper and yell "VRRRROOOMMM!" while running around my condo.
So you see my problem. What I get for not doing my homework up front.
Any recommendations? I suppose if all of this proves too much, I'll have a partially assembled, unpainted FM Falcon up for sale, and a lot of paints and supplies going in the trash. :-(
Thanks!
Atticus
kylwell wrote:I've got a friend who's an airbrush artist, does cars or whatever he can find. When he was first getting seriously into it he when tto the doctor with a sore throat. The doctor looked down his throat and saw black & blue guck running down the back of his throat. Though Doug had some bizarre disease. What was happening was Doug had refused to use a mask (the cheap ones gave him a rash) so the paint dust was accumulating in his nose and giving him a sore throat as it ran down the back of his throat.
Fun eh?