Prepuary

It's true. Almost no one likes prepping.

It's slow, tedious work that requires manual dexterity, attention to detail and, above all, patience. Unfortunately, as Sarah Minkiewicz-Breunig points out, it's also an extremely important component of quality finishwork.

In an effort to make prepping a little less painful, I asked the members of the NaMoPaiMo Facebook group to share their best prepping tips. Today's post is a result of that query.

photo by Ela Zarzecka

From Kristen Cermele: Here are a few things I've learned beyond the super basic stuff. 1) If you are prepping a resin, darken the room and hold the resin up to a bright light. If there are air bubbles close to the surface, you'll be able to see them. I've found some super thin areas on barrels, etc that way. I just open them up with an X-acto knife and fill them in with Magic Sculpt.

 2) At the same time you're doing that, take a marker and circle or fill in all the pits and imperfections you need to sand or fix. I'm generally too lazy to do this, but I've found when I DO, I get a lot less angsty by the end of prepping, because I can see the light at the end of the tunnel rather than finding every issue as I go along.

Along these same lines, Laurel Haig cautioned us not to use Sharpie markers while prepping, as they have been known to bleed through primer and paint.

Without exception, everyone agrees that Rio Rondo's carbide scrapers an essential item for anyone who plans to do their own prepping.

photo by Rio Rondo

Jennier Kroll aslo recommended these sanding sticks by Lumberton...

and Karen Gerhardt added that she could live without her Riffler files, saying: They've got sanding surfaces all over the inner and outer sides. Great for sanding inside concave places and things like wrinkles.

photo by Karen Gerhardt

Another topic that merited a lot of discussion was primer. Everyone has a favorite type. So much so, that's it's impossible to categorically say that any particular brand is the universal best choice. Still, it seems like Rustoleum grey is a pretty safe bet.

 

It was also pointed out that cold, winter weather makes priming more difficult. While various indoor options were discussed, I would like to reiterate Anne and Hilary's advice: As long as your model and the primer are roughly the same temperature, it's okay to spray outside and then take everything in to dry. That's much, much safer than spraying chemicals in your house!

I hope these tips have been as helpful to you as they have been to me. If not, there's always Alicia's advise:

Happy Prepuary, everyone!