Space Whale

[Phil R]

Dux, He's not as precarious as he looks in the photo.

Locorobo, good point about the catfish. Notice the robot in the side window. He's in the front row!!!! on the other side reversing graphics. A more important robot is copilot on this boat! And of course they're also launching a satellite. This toy always reminds me of the odd spaceships in some japanese anime films. :P

[Joe K.]

Thanks, Phil, for stopping by the Museum this morning. It's always a pleasure to visit with you, and I'm never quite sure what you've brought with you for "show 'n tell".

Phil brought the Space Whale with him, this time. The pictures posted here on Alphadrome do NOT do his restoration work justice. It was impossible for me to tell where the original paint/litho ended and his "handywork" began! It was UNBELIEVEABLE! And to think, he did this all by hand. Fantastic!

Phil, "you da man"!!!

[Morbius]

What can I say? Incredible. Wish I had the patience for that sort of restore. I'll have to leave such things up to you! Beautiful.

[Phil R]

Thanks for all the compliments. Just remember, many of you have special talents.

It's especially enjoyable for me to visit Joe fairly often. He's always seems to have something I can add to my collection.

I have to say that one of the most important decisions I ever made with my graphics and fine arts background was to start restoration as an avocation in the late 1970s and then as my profession in 1998. We don't always get that chance to make an easy transition in a career change. :)

[plan3b]

I can't express how impressed I am with this project. I have loads of questions and wonder if I can email you or have you email myself so I don't tie up the forum? Just for starters I'm wondering what kind of clear epoxy you used to smooth over the cleaned rusted areas? Are the Badger paints you use water-based? When you mention that you mostly brushed it on do you ever mask areas? For example: I'm wondering if you masked the stripes off to get such clean lines...and how did you do the lettering? I am incredibly fussy when it comes to things like this but I can find nothing here to criticize and only things to marvel at!

[Phil R]

I can't express how impressed I am with this project. I have loads of questions and wonder if I can email you or have you email myself so I don't tie up the forum? Just for starters I'm wondering what kind of clear epoxy you used to smooth over the cleaned rusted areas? Are the Badger paints you use water-based? When you mention that you mostly brushed it on do you ever mask areas? For example: I'm wondering if you masked the stripes off to get such clean lines...and how did you do the lettering? I am incredibly fussy when it comes to things like this but I can find nothing here to criticize and only things to marvel at!

Epoxy- I use 5 minute 2 part clear epoxy made by several companies. I smooth it on with my finger, often in several layers. Make sure it's smooth. Remove residue from fingers immediately and use rubbing alcohol to clean residue off fingers. You can do additional smoothing with 220 or 320 sandpaper after glue dries for an hour.

Badger paints are acrylic and opaque (reasonably). I mask areas for airbrush primarily. When I handpaint I sometimes blend the transition area with airbrush to smooth the paint coverage. For the stripes in this project I use an artist's bridge to make it straight by gliding the brush along the straight edge(see some information in an earlier post). the lettering is somewhat traced with the design and painted with a very steady hand and great concentration. I actually have shallow breathing when I do this so that my body keeps still. I do some lettering less than 1/16.

The color match is experience and knowledge of what colors to start with. You can't match color if you use the wrong color to mix. You also have to know what you see when you look at the item. For instance to most people the whale background is dark blue. It's actually closer to a purple. Also it's important to understand what happens when a colored surfaces ages from sun and exposure and how much of the original surface needs to be covered with new paint. I retain as muh of the old litho as possible. It's important not to overdo the restoration. Let original content to show through to fool the eye. redmanrestores@suscom.net :)