How to paint Dreamcast console
Since there are still many who have their problems with painting, I'll write a few things about what you can do and what you should pay attention to. I only paint with an airbrush gun because the result is simply the best. All that is done is primed and clear-coated with a can.
What do i need?
- Airbrush gun with nozzle for body or large area painting
- Compressor or via adapter car tires or air pressure can
- Filler or spray filler from the can
- 2 component clear coat
- Airbrush paint from Revell (Email Color) The advantage is that it is ready mixed and does not need to be diluted any more. If you want to dilute, you should give me an extra punch.
- 600 and 1000 wet sandpaper
- Alcohol / isopropanol or Fit
What is to be considered?
- The room must be free of dust and nothing should be flying around. So don't vacuum somewhere and paint in it immediately if everything is still flying around.
- It is important that there is room temperature! Do not try to paint outside in the cold garage or in the cool basement! The color simply spreads best at room temperature.
- This point is actually a matter of course: be careful not to smear anything else and wear a mouth and nose protection if you don't want to have any red / yellow / blue boogers afterwards (depending on the color).
The preparation / the grinding
- Put the 600 wet sandpaper in a bucket of water and wait until it rolls up.
- Now sand the console until every point has been processed. It doesn't have to be much, this is just to make the primer stick better. Sanding is generally done in circular motions, not just up and down as with the door frame! The sandpaper can then still be used. Lasts forever.
- After sanding, rinse the console and get it free of grease. Preferably with alcohol / isopropanol. If you don't have that, just take nail polish remover or Fit.
- Let it dry or speed it up with a hair dryer.
Priming
When priming, as with painting, it is important that you do not start spraying on the console, but start before the console and stop after the console. The reason is that you have the same amount of color everywhere and not a little more from the beginning or the settling. It is also important that you go over it calmly and evenly and not one lane fast and the other slow again. Of course, also when priming and later when painting in cross-coat spraying. Best from top to bottom and then from left to right. If that's not enough, do the same thing diagonally again. The primer dries quickly, you can always start with the next layer after 10 minutes.
The first coat of primer should only be very light. The whole thing is repeated 3-4 times depending on the coverage.
IMPORTANT: Hard-to-reach areas such as grooves should be worked on first, regardless of whether they are primed or painted! It's best to go a little closer and spray them. As soon as this has happened, the actual priming or painting begins. This avoids the problem when everything is ready, but you can still see vacancies in grooves. So: only start with the actual primer when these grooves are already filled.
When everything is ready, you should wait a day and only then continue.
Grind again
Now you pack the 1000 wet sandpaper into the water and wait there again until it rolls. Now everything is sanded again with the sandpaper. Don't worry, 1000 grade paper is so fine that you won't damage or scratch anything, it only serves to remove the finest bumps and ensure better adhesion for the color. Again, please sand in circles as described above.
Rinse the console again and remove grease. Then let it dry.
The paint job
The same procedure is used here as with the primer. So start spraying in front of the object, go over it and only stop after the object and not in the middle of it.
Please forget the information on drying the paint. Every painter in the world is a smoker (not me anymore) and the rule of thumb applies: paint, go smoke, continue painting. In other words: 5 minutes are enough to then continue.
Personally, I ALWAYS paint 4 layers, so you get absolute coverage and a super flat surface. Rough consoles are then as smooth as a baby's bottom (which also comes from the sanding and the filler).
My layers look like this:
- from top to bottom
- left to right
- from top right to bottom left
- from top left to bottom right
Now let everything stand again. You can easily estimate a day here.
Clear coat
The 2-component clear coat comes from the can. This is the easiest part: Shake the can, paint as described above and you're done. 2 layers are usually sufficient here. Also only serves for protection.
I think that's it. I could also provide instructions for filling and dremeling, but first you should get a decent finish before you think about further steps.
