Ars30, I use model masters brush on gloss sealer.
Kreeper2, thanks man. The paint was car model paint I found in a spray can at a discount store called Ollie's. Sorry, not much help.
Barry, thanks bro. Yes I do these with a brush after 2 coats of spray primer. As for the windex, I clean my brushes with it. One of the times I was practicing painting an astro and the white paint started getting chalky I dipped the brush in the windex and went over the area I just painted. To my amazement it broke up the crust that was starting to build. So I dipped my brush in again and stirred the small amount of paint in a cup I had out and the rest is history. Well, I am taking all the credit when I did pray to Jay the whole time I was doing this. He is the master and I have to come up with tricks and cheat to get these things decent looking.
now for the personal touch...
1. I do sleep from about 11:30-6. The cloning has not worked out yet. I keep getting a watery blob that falls apart on me. I really hope I can get this worked out because I have really taken an interest in customizing Joes these days. I have filed a petition to get 4 more hours in the day so I hope Osam...I mean Obama will go for it. To show how much I can use this 4 hrs this is my typical day.
6am - get up, get out of bed, but in over 20 yrs have not dragged a comb across my head.
6:20 - touching up whatever custom I was messing with the night before.
7 - get 2 landscape crews going for the day and go do what I need to
8 - sometimes later, back home, get on the best SW site on the net, then a few other sites, eat breakfast, check email, watch sk8 videos people have sent me or on web sites.
9-12 do work son! but I will sometimes hit a coat of paint on something to get a break.
12-1 - eat luch while seeing if Jay is in the chat room, if nothing is happening I may hit another coat of paint on something
1-3 or 4ish - design a landscape layout, see customers, check on sales at various shops, check on/work on my garden.
4-6ish - is useualy Jaxon time
6 - 11 eat dinner then go swimming, Family time, a bit of custom work, go outside and skate the mini ramp, back on the best SW site on the web.
2. The length of time varies depending on how far I am going with it. Sometimes I go all out for an "ultimate" custom and sometimes I just do simple parts swaps with no paint. Then we have these droids I have really been laboring over. One thing that helps is that I work on about 6 customs at the same time. That way when I mix up brown paint I can use it up on several customs rather than mixing it 6 times. I have wondered if I could sit down for 8 hrs straight what I could get done. I am going say an astromech takes me 4 hrs for a complete color change. About an hour to change just the details, like the blue on R2-D2 to black. Now action figures are much easier and most repaints can be done in an hour some time 2. Now I am not talking detail lines like Clonehead does that takes days of work a little at a time so you don't pull your hair out or kick the cat. Now lets take my Ultimate Toht, Blood of Kali Indy, German mechanic, some of my Bounty Hunters, latest Joes, these had some sculpting, scratch built stuff, soft goods, the works. Soft good is something I enjoy trying to work out. I know most people hate it but I think the biggest challenge is finding the right materials for this scale. I would say they take from 6-15 hrs for everything. Painting flesh takes a while for me because the paint is so thin to keep it smooth, then I may lightly shade that in desired spots. It also depends if I want the custom to fit in with the Hasbro line or be more like a piece of art. Been going with the art on most these days.
3. You will notice in my time alotment there is no TV. TV to me is what the wife has blaring while I'm tryin' to chill. I do watch a bit of History ch, Discovery, Animal Planet, Fuel TV, and...The Office. I tend to hate most sitcoms though everyone tells me I could write one...
