Fifth Element MultiPass Tutorial

Fifth Element MultiPass Tutorial

Time for painting. The pass has come a long way, and we're in the home stretch. Things are going to start looking mighty impressive, mighty fast!

This is what the pass looks like so far.

Sharpie is a weird thing, and it will show through primer, paint, and clearcoat. First thing I do is use a high grit sand paper to remove as much of the sharpie writing as possible. I sand very lightly and focused. I don't want to change the contour of the surface, just get rid of the writing.

Once that is done, I'm going to go over the edges of the pass with some sandpaper to remove the texture that was left behind after the laser went over it. This should be very light sanding. You can also use this opportunity to hide any of the seam marks that were left when you glued together the various pieces of styrene. You can use putty, or whatever you want. I am skipping that step here, just so I can get finished! I would recommend using putty around the battery case and associated layers.

To do the painting, I use a popsicle stick and some masking tape.

I tape the popsicle stick onto the back of the pass using a little bit of tape. I don't really care about the masked off areas on this part of the pass, as it will ultimately be covered by graphics. More on this later.

To make life even easier, I prepare a gripper to hold the popsicle stick while the paint dries. This picture shows the pass in the grip, right after my first coat of primer.
I use Plasti-Kote automotive grey sandable primer. You can find this at Pep Boys.

For the actual paint, I have found a REALLY good match to the screen used color. Plasti-Kote 1004. I forget the name of it, but it's some kind of grey. It's only available in the big cans. (yeah, I said "Big cans". Get yer brain out of the gutter!)

Plasti-Kote takes some getting used to. If you go on too thick, the metallic pieces will separate oddly. Too thin, and you'll get a weird texture. Experiment on a piece of styrene before blasting your multipass with too much or too little paint.
I recommend that you paint outdoors on a sunny day, but not in direct sunlight. If you paint at night in a cool room, the paint will get foggy on your prop.
Do two or three light coats. DO NOT soak the pass down with paint.

Let your pass dry over night on your clamped rig before handling.
All done!

	This is what the pass looks like so far.
	Sharpie is a weird thing, and it will show through primer, paint, and clearcoat. First thing I do is use a high grit sand paper to remove as much of the sharpie writing as possible. I sand very lightly and focused. I don't want to change the contour of the surface, just get rid of the writing.
	Once that is done, I'm going to go over the edges of the pass with some sandpaper to remove the texture that was left behind after the laser went over it. This should be very light sanding. You can also use this opportunity to hide any of the seam marks that were left when you glued together the various pieces of styrene. You can use putty, or whatever you want. I am skipping that step here, just so I can get finished! I would recommend using putty around the battery case and associated layers.
	To do the painting, I use a popsicle stick and some masking tape.
	I tape the popsicle stick onto the back of the pass using a little bit of tape. I don't really care about the masked off areas on this part of the pass, as it will ultimately be covered by graphics. More on this later.
	To make life even easier, I prepare a gripper to hold the popsicle stick while the paint dries. This picture shows the pass in the grip, right after my first coat of primer. I use Plasti-Kote automotive grey sandable primer. You can find this at Pep Boys.
	For the actual paint, I have found a REALLY good match to the screen used color. Plasti-Kote 1004. I forget the name of it, but it's some kind of grey. It's only available in the big cans. (yeah, I said "Big cans". Get yer brain out of the gutter!)
	Plasti-Kote takes some getting used to. If you go on too thick, the metallic pieces will separate oddly. Too thin, and you'll get a weird texture. Experiment on a piece of styrene before blasting your multipass with too much or too little paint. I recommend that you paint outdoors on a sunny day, but not in direct sunlight. If you paint at night in a cool room, the paint will get foggy on your prop. Do two or three light coats. DO NOT soak the pass down with paint.
	Let your pass dry over night on your clamped rig before handling. All done!