Looks interesting Ken, and a bit of a challenge too Good luck with the gilding!

Steve

Hi all as I said I've never guilded before should I paint the blue first then guild over that or should I guild the part first then paint the blue over it, and if painting is first should I use gloss paint guild over that then matt coat the blue.

Hi Ken.

Lovely looking ship there!
If by guilding you mean actual gold leaf then you'd have to guild the entire part first by painting it with a coat of 'size' which dries to a sticky finish, the gold leaf is then placed over the sticky part and gently pushed down into the crevices with a very soft brush (sable usually). Then you'd have to paint the blue background in between the figures.
If you mean a gold coloured paint then I'd paint the whole thing in a good matt blue (after a suitable primer) and then paint in the gold figures on top.
I've never used the gold leaf myself apart from a very small amount at Art College all those years ago!

Hope that helps!

Robin

Hi Ken,

Have looked at this kit several times on ebay.

A brave move with the gold leaf and that`s from someone who`s tried it and got some reasonable results with no training. (Self taught)

I bought my gold leaf kits off ebay at a very reasonable price, to use on my Sots build.

Some advise from my attempts is as follows:

A: Make sure the parts are clean and grease free.

B: If you have a spray gun, a light grey primer (thin coat). A plastic primer from a car parts shop in a spray can will do.

C: A deep maroon oil paint (as thin a coat as possible). This forms a backing colour to give the gold depth and if you have minor cracks in the gold, they don`t show up as much.

D: Now apply the "Size".

E: I found it easier to use smaller pieces of leaf. Even if the gold overlaps when tapped down with the brush, when fully dried if you very gently use your soft brush and brush over the gold, any overlap brushes off and can be used for gap filling if needed.

Hope this helps and good luck with the build.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Thanks for the Guilding info, very useful, nope can't read french but like to look at the pretty pictures.

Hi Ken,

That looks like a great start on the guilding.



Well done, looking forward to more of the same.

Don`t personally think you need a wash as the gold forms it`s own shadow spots and would be a real shame to lose all that "BLING".

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

well I've got to the first problem with guilding, getting a crisp line, mind you I still yhink it looks good

You`re right to an extent Steve.

Two possibilities:

1, The gold will only stick where the size is applied, or spreads, so finer painting of the size or using less of it may help.

or

2, As Steve suggests mask the line to make sure the size goes only where you want, remove the mask and then apply the gold.

If you apply the gold with the mask in place, you may end up with masking tape, size and gold all stuck together and a right old mess.

Hope this helps.

Regards
delboy271155
(Derek)

Well here is todays efforts, got to say this will be a long long build, but unless I ruin it, it will be a beautiful ship.

It is 33 inches I just hope I do it justice, even my missus says it's pretty, and I've barely started.