By bromie
#362274
Now, i've seen that everyone seems to use a different paint finish on their traps, but i was wondering - does anyone know what the accurate finish should be?

Most people seem to agree that flat black is the proper finish, but then some say that this is TOO flat, and a semi-gloss is more preferable. I've been looking through the pack builds to see what they use, and the most accurate i saw discussed was:

Hammered paint underneath
then Automotive Primer
and a Satin/semi-gloss black topcoat

This gives the finish seen on some of the movie packs, and the primer gives the topcoat a flatter finish, preventing too much of a glossy finish.

That discussion seemed to show that someone had nailed a screen-accurate finish, but has anyone done this on a trap?

Does anyone have any input about what they think is the method that provides the most accurate finish? I would have guessed that it might be similar to the proton pack, but is this the case?

Dan.
By Filandrius
#362397
Yeah, similar to the pack is right on the money. And that's satin black, not semi-gloss (as subtle as is it, there's a difference) All the equipment had the same satin black finish, pack, thrower, trap, pedal... Automotive primer and satin black top coat is the way to go (except for the hammered paint. The trap wasn't textured. The pack shell was textured because of the materials used in its construction. The trap was made from aluminum plates)
By bromie
#362416
Okey doke, that's good enough for me.

For people planning on weathering the finished trap to give a worn metal look, would you still give a coat of metallic silver or something under the satin black? I've read the primer gives the satin topcoat a flatter finish and stops it going too glossy, but would a metallic undercoat prevent this?

Obviously the automotive primer is still useful as it evens out the surface of the material, but i was curious as i'm still working out the best way to give it a convincing weathered finish.

Thanks again for the input.
By Filandrius
#362434
Depends on the material of your build. On my shell I used a metallic base coat (Krylon Fusion metallic shimmer nickel) for that express purpose; but now I know that this isn't accurate (the screen-used shell were primed in light gray, hence the automotive primer) But for the trap, since the screen-used one were made from aluminum, for an accurate weathering you need this. So with a resin trap I would use the metallic base coat (without any primer, the Fusion is made for this) slap on a couple of satin black coats, then weather the black with several grades of steel wool (as a matter of fact that's exactly what I did, and it worked beautifully) Just make sure to wait at least 7 days for the base coat to cure propely (at least if you're using Krylon Fusion :P)
By bromie
#363507
That's good enough for me. I'll be using the Matty trap as a base, so i'll probably follow your method fairly closely.

Don't know yet whether to leave the door as-is or remove the stickers and try and paint it properly. If i do, what paint/method do people use for the doors? I've had a quick scan but no-one seems to go into detail, so i can't find a standard way of doing things. We'll see when i finally get the trap.

Thanks again for the great advice :-).
User avatar
By nick-a-tron
#363606
Real quick explanation of how I paint the doors on my traps....

Spray the doors with gray primer.
Spray the doors with a few thin coats of yellow until the colour is uniform.
leave to dry overnight
Mask off the stripes you want to keep yellow
Spray with black*
Remove masking tape
Handpaint the sides black.

*In the past i have found a few yellow sprays have quite a gloss sheen to them when dry and this makes the black paint seperate on the surface like water on oil. If you spray a matt clearcoat over the yellow before the black this helps break up the surface tension.
User avatar
By janderson0719
#364444
nick-a-tron wrote:Real quick explanation of how I paint the doors on my traps....

Spray the doors with gray primer.
Spray the doors with a few thin coats of yellow until the colour is uniform.
leave to dry overnight
Mask off the stripes you want to keep yellow
Spray with black*
Remove masking tape
Handpaint the sides black.

*In the past i have found a few yellow sprays have quite a gloss sheen to them when dry and this makes the black paint seperate on the surface like water on oil. If you spray a matt clearcoat over the yellow before the black this helps break up the surface tension.
Awesome advice. I had to snap shot this with my iPhone haha. I need a trap kit :(
By Lewis Tully
#365521
bromie wrote:Don't know yet whether to leave the door as-is or remove the stickers and try and paint it properly.
The doors are stickers?!? I had no idea! I hadn't looked that closely at them, I suppose.
By bromie
#366153
Finally received my trap the other day! I've had a close look at everything after trying to work out what was possible and how easy it'd be, and have a fairly good idea of what needs to be done.

I think i'll leave the doors, they seem ok and it'd take a bit of messing around to get rid of the 'hinges' and paint the stripes wider. Maybe a bit of flat clearcoat or some Fuller's Earth or something will improve the look?

The only problems i can see are the sides. The silver and black sections are all one piece, and are attached inside the hollow wings. Does anyone know how these are attached? They look like plastic rivets or something?? The easiest way i can see of doing things is by drilling the connections out from inside the trap and then cutting pieces to fit inside the wings. I'm guessing these can just be epoxied in, and then the metal plates can just screw into this (a bit of modelers putty can fill in the gaps). It actually doesn't seem that hard to do, the annoying bit will be getting the cut pieces to fit in the gaps.

So far i've attached red tape and cable ties to the ends of the cable (which sounds simple, but is a recommended mod as it looks SO much better), and just finished attaching roller skate bearings in place of the wheels. This wasn't too hard to do, it takes a bit of wrangling to get the wheels off but everything else after that is a breeze.
Oh, and i've nearly finished the pedal. I'm waiting for the ribbon cable from GBFans (and the lens, but this is for the trap after everything else is done), and i need to transplant the electronics from the Matty pedal over to mine, but after that all it needs is a lick of paint and it's done!

I'll start posting pictures once i've made a bit more progress.

And finally, i've posted in the wanted section, but where does everyone get their trap labels? I want the basic set, plus the pack label (for the bottom and battery box), the metallic label for the relay, and a waterslide for the other project box (i've only seen this as part of a set for the proton pack and seems a waste of $20 or so for one label, so may just use a printed label).

Right, THIS is the final question - how many metal plates are there on the trap? MMM has a six (GB1) and seven (GB2) plate set, but where is the extra plate?

Sorry for the long post, and thanks for the input so far!

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