So, let me tell you how it all went wrong. The painting started off well enough, primed them and they were ready to go.
then i decided to take a risk and mask and paint the white parts rather than use the decal, it did not go well for me. First i decided to make templates for the tape by scanning and printing the decal sheet and cutting out the shapes and using those to cut the shapes in tape it started off a pain, first realizing i had to flip the image cause the tape stuck too much to the front of the photo paper, then took me forever to figure out i had to save the image as a pdf to keep the exact size when printing of the image. Once i figured that out i was super excited cut the shapes stuck to the tape and cut and peeled and it all seemed like it was going to work. The i started by painting the white and this was the beginning of the end.
first off i got mission models paint cause i liked the mecha blue color they had and heard great things about the paint, at first everything seemed great, sprayed smooth, the coverage with the white was really good but then inspecting the paint the next day i noticed how soft the paint was when dry, almost powdery to the touch just accidentally hitting two parts together scratched the paint and just a rub of my finger on an edge rubbed the paint thin enough to see the primer underneath. I really don't think it was user error, i wore gloves every stage, used Ultimate primer which i know is great, kept the surfaces clean and smooth and used missions own thinner to spray with. So since the paint was so soft i didn't trust taping right on it, which may have been a mistake. I sprayed a thin coat of aqua gloss to try and protect the paint then taped everything off and here is the result
basically every line was like this, now if you look close its not so much that paint bled under the tape, which it did in a little spot or two, its mostly that the paint lifted at the edges, and i even pulled the tape off super careful and pulled it off as soon as it was dry too the touch. Not sure if it was cause the gloss, or the paint, or some other dumb mistake of mine, but i am throwing in the towel and she is off to the bin, its heartbreaking but can't really strip it cause thing like the thrusters painted and built into the legs. I'm just done, this is my first officially binned kit, ive got a couple i have put aside for various reasons, have one from the wheeled vehicles gb i made a big mistake on but just put aside cause i can strip it but none i offcially binned till now. I am super bummed. I feel i need to do something dramatic to officially end the kits life and give me some sort of cathartic release, but am yet undecided on what that shall be.
