Mistakes happen, not just to amateurs, but to professionals, as well. In today's Start to Finish guest post, DeeAnn Kjelshus shares the problems she's run into with her 2024 NaMoPaiMo model and - more importantly - how she fixed them. Thank you DeeAnn!
Start to Finish
by DeeAnn Kjelshus
My NaMoPaiMo model is this impressive Ankle Biter resin by Rayvin Maddock. She exudes emotion, and I love her! Lately, however, she has been giving me a bit of a hard time. I thought I had her ready to go, but she surprised me. After applying her base coat, I found some tiny pinholes that I'd missed during prepping. These photos show the process of fixing that problem.
1) This photo shows Biter in red Duplicolor primer. She has a base, but can be a little tippy without it so I made a makeshift base out of non-hardening clay. I taped up her tail and rear legs to stand her in the clay without getting full of the clay. She's going to be a black overo pinto. Her whites are blocked in with a white acrylic/gesso mix.
2) I started blocking in her base coat with acrylics. This was when I discovered two teeeeeny pinholes on her back.
3) After I got over my disappointment about missing the pinholes, I got to work sanding down her paint and primer. Doing so revealed a lot more bubbles/pinholes under the surface. This happens! Not a big deal, just treat them the same way you would one pinhole.
4) I forgot to take a photo of her back before Bondo, but this photo shows the same issues.
5) I applied Bondo, (wearing gloves, and a mask, this stuff is not good for you) to her back where the pinholes were appearing and let it dry in a well-ventilated room for twenty four hours.
6) I sanded the Bondo smooth, but still had some pinholes. I added more Bondo and waited another twenty four hours.
7) I sanded the area smooth again and it worked! I painted on primer, then Gesso and a light layer of paint to make sure she was ready. She agreed to work with me, and we were once again ready to paint!
8) The first layer of her dark basecoat was applied with a layer of black/burnt sienna in acrylics. 9) Here she is now after four layers of oils. I managed to cover up her white markings when I buffed my oils. Oopsie! So much for saving myself a little time. That’s okay though. I will just paint them back in later. It’s been fun following all the tutorials on masking techniques. I tried using masking many many rears ago and failed miserably. I've been wanting to try it again and will definitely give it a go on another horse coming up. It sounds like it would be really helpful!
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That is one cool end photo: great texture! I appreciate the variety of perspectives on masking and on oils. It's like looking through many windows into one room. Also, there was a time when my own NMPM filly had to be sanded down and repaired, midstride. It seems there are universals in this game.
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