A Loud Acheta Domestica

I found this model online quite a few years back. In fact the first time I printed it was before I got into resin printing; I printed in PLA and used a ton of filler and did a bunch of sanding, then decided it was too much work and gave up. When I was stuck for ideas for a friend's birthday, I remembered this old thing and decided to try again, printing a fresh version and hitting it with some paint.

I no longer remember which version of the model I printed; there are several online. I modified the model somewhat, cleaning it up and supporting it for resin printing (the original was cut for FDM printing), and also modelling a 3mm hole up the handle to make it easier to paint. I thought of making a display base that incorporated a rod to hold the model, but I came across a fancy display base by Falconman, and created my own simpler version using that as inspiration (the one in the photos was an early version in grey PLA, I reprinted later in white PLA).

I wanted to paint it in chrome, which I figured would be easy: prime in gloss black, mask off the handle, airbrush chrome, varnish, done. Sadly it was not that simple. First of all I had to clean it all up. So removed the supports as best I could, sanded, applied greenstuff then later a milliput wash (following Marco Frisoni's guide) to fill the divots and other imperfections, and then sanded again, washed and left it to dery, before finally priming with Vallejo 73.660 Surface Primer Gloss Black.

At which point I found a number of fairly noticeable imperfections that hadn't been obvious before. I tried to fix them but only ended up damaging the primed layer in a way that couldn't easily be fixed. So I stripped the model using a local brand of household cleaner (I couldn't find any Dettol). Now I was worried the dettol would soften the fillers if I left it to soak, so I would apply the dettol and brush it off quickly. This made the stripping process more labour-intensive than usual.

Once I had stripped all the primer, I applied more filler to the trouble spots, left it to cure, and sanded yet again, washing the dust off and leaving it to dry. This time I primed with Tamiya 87064 Fine Surface Primer Light Gray. This was an aerosol primer than, in my experience, makes it much easier to do repairs as it doesn't "peel" the way acrylic airbrush primers do when you try to sand over them. The light grey coat made it much easier to find any remaining imperfections; I did a bit more sanding before washing and priming with gloss black again.

And that's where I screwed up the primer. See, I usually prime with a syphon airbrush that puts down a very heavy coat of paint. But I was feeling so precious about this model that I wanted to try to be more careful than usual to avoid and primer buildup - which I had experienced that first time I primed, resulting in large "droplets" of exess primer collecting and running down the handle.

So this time I primed using a fine-nozel double-action gravity airbrush. And for some reason the "gloss" black went down very matte through this airbrush. Which was a big problem, because having a smooth glossy basecoat is essential for the chrome paint to work properly. So when I came to apply the Alclad II Lacquer ALC 107 Chrome, it ended up looking like a slightly matte silver rather than a shiny chrome!

What's more I did a bit of damage to the handle when pulling off the mask, and when I tried to fix it with the original gloss primer it came out FAR more glossy than the rest of the handle. So I decided to try to apply a gloss varnish (rather than the correct "aqua" varnish recommended for chrome) in the hope that it would npt only homogenize the handle finish, but also make the model look more shiny. Instead the opposite happened, and it ended up looking even more matte! You can see it here next to a test model I painted much less carefully:
You can clearly see the huge difference in surface finish. At least it fixed the handle finish. In theory the surface, despite looking matte, should have been fairly smooth. So I decided it couldn't hurt to try to apply another coat of chrome, using the syphon airbrush this time to put down a heavier coat (after masking off the handle again). This actually helped; the result was now a satin silver rather than a matte. Still a far cry from the intended chrome, but at least it didn't look terrible now:
At this point I just didn't have it in me to put any more work into it (in my defense I've been pretty damned busy these last few months). So I called it good enough, doing a final bit of touch-up to the handle and hitting it with a coat of Alclad II Lacquer ALC 600 Aqua Gloss.


This is the second time I try to paint a relatively large display model, and once again airbrush issues meant that the final finish on the actual model was worse than the final finish on the test model. But I suppose it's my fault this time and not the airbrush, not really. Well, it was a learning experience, especially when it comes to effectively cleaning resin 3D prints. The milliput wash was great, but a hit with an aerosol primer and then a second cleanup pass is almost essential to make sure you've really fixed all the surface issues. I've heard that hot water makes it easier to remove supports; I tried and and it does make it easier - especially for very heavy supports - but I'm not sure it actually improves the final surface finish. Some smoothing and filling does still seem necessary at any rate.

I would love to come back someday and give this model a second try, preferably using a version with separate handle scales so I don't need to do any masking or anything. But that sounds unlikely tbh. Oh well. I'm trying to get back to actual painting - you know, with a brush, not just airbrushing. I kinda miss it. Finding the time is a real issue.