Someone from another lists say to use a Grit Blaster and that he also
uses it to prep his models for painting. Anyone tried this?

Victor Baird
Fort Wayne, Indiana

Victor,
I have one of the North Coast booths, it works great. I do a little custom painting and use it to prep plastic brass or resin.
Joe Binish

Victor;
I once used my blaster (with the really gentle media) to try to removed new
acrylic paint off of a Westy G22. The paint I wanted removed had "pooled" in
blobs on the surface due to some issue with surface prep. The media barely
knicked the acrylic, but as it began to gradually whittle away the paint,
unknown to me, was deeply etching the resin around the paint. The surface
was permanently damaged.

I have used that same media to take off traditional paint, with few problems.
I never try to take it all off, as at some point you begin to damage the
surface, but only take off as much as needed to get a smooth surface ready
for coverage. I have found that just taking the lettering off is just as
good as removing most of the paint, as long as you prime it for light colors,
if needed.

I hope this helps.

Elden Gatwood

On Sep 20, 2006, at 6:10 AM, Victor Baird wabash2813 wrote:

Someone from another lists say to use a Grit Blaster and that he also
uses it to prep his models for painting. Anyone tried this?

Victor, I've used grit blasting for years both to remove old paint and to prep styrene and resin models for painting. Works very well and produces a matte finish to which all types of paint strongly adhere. I consider a grit blaster and booth to be essential modeling tools.

Richard Hendrickson

I have used my abrasive blaster on a number of resin models with no problems. Be aware though that the resin will have a speckled appearance from the abrasive particles. I suspect what has happened is that the fine particles become imbedded in the soft resin but not to worry as they are so small they do not affect the paint finish.
Mike Barone