And finally, Wookie's 82 begins !

Sounds like you had just the right conditions.

I also have about a 10c temp differential in my garage during Winter, so my painting cutoff was a few weeks ago. Only issue here is it can get down to around -15C by Christmas.

Injected wrote:

Sounds like you had just the right conditions.

I also have about a 10c temp differential in my garage during Winter, so my painting cutoff was a few weeks ago. Only issue here is it can get down to around -15C by Christmas.

The de-humidifier was the "game changer"  - I ended up leaving it on 24/7 until the clear was on to seal the basecoat. When it got cold and damp over night the surface of the basecoat was sticky again the next morning without it. I went with water based because I wanted to reduce my exposure to the isocyanates in 2K (can't afford an air fed mask set-up) but it is a fight this late in the year depending on the weather where you are in the  (would definitely be a fight in Canada I guess)

Well since my last post it has definitely been a few weeks of "one pace forward and ten paces backwards" !!!  First was the tank, as I mentioned there were several inclusions in the clearcoat which I intended to flat and buff out   which was going well until one of the said inclusions broke loose exposing the white basecoat under the grey  . So after more flatting I repainted the grey section of the tank followed by several coats of clear so that I could sand out any indiscretions without breaking through. Happily that went to plan and the finish is way better now than before
Next came the decals !!!!!!!!!! firstly I want to give a huge shout out to member "HowardHB" who did a fantastic job of CAD modelling my design and writing the print files  (idea shamelessly plagiarised from Stereordinary and Docrot) but with a Wookie twist. Also thanks go to a work colleague's husband who printed them at his workplace. The plan was to heat and bend them to the shape of the tank which went well with no issues, then to have them chromed and overpaint the colours. This was the first hurdle, the only company that came back to me with a quote for chroming nearly knocked me off my chair !!!! £270 +VAT plus shipping (that's about $400) "oh and by the way, this is a decorative finish not intended to be used outside. It "may be OK" if you clearcoat with 2k, we can do that for an additional charge". Well as you can imagine that was never going to fly with a cheap Wookie (even if they guaranteed it would last forever) And so the trial of endurance began with painting the decals
1. Painted with textured finish black base - tried to mask the areas that are black for the chrome spray. After about 6 hours I decided that the clear tape that I had just wasn't going to work
2. Spayed the whole decals with "chrome paint" then attempted to overpaint the colours (tried car touch up paint and Humbrol modellers enamels - both dissolved the chrome and mixed into metallic black and red !!!!!!
3. After washing all the paint off again in thinners I repainted the chrome then applied 2k clear to act as a barrier to the colours - The clear dissolved the chrome and turned it a "dull grey"
4. And so to the most recent attempt - painted all the colours, applied clearcoat and allowed to cure. Spent another 6 hours masking with some different tape then applied the chrome. I have gone back to it today as I couldn't remove the tape last night as the chrome was too soft. This is the best so far (pics below) however there has been some bleeding under the tape and some adhesive from the tape left behind (this would normally come off with some panel wipe but I don't dare go near them at the moment with that !!!! I have now brought them inside for a few days in the hope that when fully cured I will be able to "touch up" the black and white (I have emailed the manufacturer of the chrome paint for some guidance) And I guess that's that until after the holidays. I couldn't resist hanging the bodywork on the get an idea of what it will be like when finished. This has really been uplifting as I start to feel like it will get finished in a few months ready for the spring
I am sure there will be many opinions about the "SP" designation but I wanted something unique and I figured factory SP models have more power, less weight, better chassis, better brakes etc. This should tick all those boxes hopefully

VERY cool! Looking sharp!