Newbie Paints 1st Team: Success/Failures

[ki6ds]

I started painting my first team this week, and am learning a ton of things, and had a lot of fun. Here are some things that I learned, good and bad.

I used the acrylic paint from Michaels, Apple Barrel. I like it, easy to use, covers well, and easy to clean up. One trick that I learned by trial and error is that you have 2 containers of water, one that you use to first dip and clean which gets dirty really quick, and a second that is used for the final cleaning after the "rough" cleaning is done. The second one will stay clear and does a great job on the brushes. Use room temperature water, NOT hot, as it will dissolve the glue in the brush. (Art teacher at my school told me that little tip.)

When I bought the paint, I asked the lady what to use as a sealer, and she sold me a can of acrylic paint sealer. Problem is that it does not work on decals, cause it causes them to dissolve and run.

Speaking of decals, I got the ones from Miggle, and as far as I am concerned they are not good to use at all. They are the peel and stick kind. Hard to use, look terrible, and not worth the high price that you pay. I would not recommend that you use them. I ended up printing some of my own using decal paper that I have. The old fashioned put in water, slide off kind that we all used as kids on our model cars.

My first team is the 1940 Raymond High School Bulldogs. White helmets, white jerseys, brown pants, no face mask, numbers only on jerseys, black high top shoes, very plain looking team. Geno Hendricks, who is well known on this board is my cousin and his dad and my dad played on the team. He has a team picture and is going to scan it and send it to me soon so I can get the numbers right. Interesting thing is that Raymond played 6 man football. Everyone was eligible to catch a pass. Made for an interesting game. Played on a field 80 yards long instead of 100.

The away team will have purple jerseys, everything else is the same. I have one player painted for each team so far.

My second team will be my grandson's Pop Warner team. They are the Merced Bears, and have orange jerseys, black numbers, black helmets, black pants and black shoes. Then neat thing is that they have the players names on the jerseys. I used my laser printer and decal paper and was able to make decals with the players' names for the jerseys. Lots of fun trying different fonts and sizes to get it right.

When I painted the first player, I did it in this sequence, suggested by Geno. First I used an exacto knife to clean up the flashing on the player, cutting off the midline on the helmet to make it smooth, and cutting off the facemask. (using BuzzBall figures). I painted in this order. First: Flesh for the face, arms, hands, and legs. Second: White for the helmet, jersey and socks. Third: Brown for the pants. Last: Black for the shoes. Then I put the decals on, and didn't like them from the start. They are too stiff and don't conform to the shape of the player like a real decal does. Then I sprayed with the sealing spray for acrylic and had a disaster. When I sprayed the player, the numbers just started to run and were ruined. So, I peeled off the number, threw it away, and had to repaint the white jersey. That is when I decided to make my own decals. I used Krylon clear to seal the player. Worked great and did not harm the decal at all.

I will post pictures later. They aren't great, but I am happy with them for my first attempt at painting in over 40 years, grin.

I have a question. Is there anyway to print white decals other than getting an Alps printer??? Thanks, Doug