Glitter Boy Mini Project (100% Complete & SHINY )

[Hotrod]

EDIT: The model is finished! Time to go strike a blow for NEMA on my desk.

Thanks to my loving wife, I got the Glitter Boy miniature for Christmas, as well as a Molotow mirror paint pen. I have some varnish on the way (shipping delay), and I just ordered a $4 matte gray spray-can of primer. I also have some very basic acrylic paints and a few brushes lying around. Once I have all the components, I'm going to have a go at assembling and painting this miniature. My goal is to make this look like a mirror-finish Glitter Boy. Fair warning: I've done basically no model building or painting in 27 years, so I don't know all the lingo and tools all that well.

My initial impressions of the model today were pretty good. There aren't a lot of posing options, but I'm not looking for a lot of dynamic poses; Glitter Boys stand and shoot, and that's what I'm going for. The fact that I can place the empty-handed arm at any angle I see fit makes me want to get a miniature American flag to hold in its off-hand. The model comes in four pieces:
1. The main model component has the head, torso and legs, and it appears to be 3D-printed. It's got a couple of leftover blocks under the feet and a few tiny filaments of printer material hanging off it, but these should be very easy to clean off. The surface isn't perfectly smooth, but it's close enough that I'm not worried about it, except along the inside and outside of the right leg, where there's a bit of a jagged discontinuity in the surface. I think I can smooth that with a nail file and gentle scraping with a knife, and I only saw it with a very close inspection. This component has a lot of fine details. Some of these details will probably be lost with the mirror paint that I'm applying. There's no way to thin the mirror paint, but I can be strategic about where/how I apply it and paint around recessed areas as much as I can. The feet are not posed flat; both heels are raised, the right one more than the left. If I want to show this model as being ready to shoot, it'll have to have something under both heels.
2. The Boom Gun doesn't have the 3D printed look; it has a few little flashes where it looks like some material squirted out of a mold. The gun itself is slightly crooked; this is not surprising given how long and relatively slender it is. I tried to straighten it. *snap* Some mild profanity and a couple of minutes of gluing later, it's back together (scotch super glue sucked, but Loctite did the job), and it's a little straighter now, so hooray for happy little accidents! Overall, it's got plenty of detail, and its not-quite-perfectly-straightness should only bother perfectionists like me who look at it way too close.
3. A sprue holds both arms, the ammunition belt, and the back thrusters. These have some of the same mild flashes of material popping out here and there, but I see nothing that should be much of a problem. The sprue itself should give me something I can use to experiment with my paints.
4. The base has a nice rocky look to it, but it has two issues. First, there are no obvious places on which to position the model. I'm hoping this won't be an issue later. More concerning is that the base itself is warped. I can press it down to a rigid flat surface, but it doesn't stay there, and this makes for a wobbly base. I'm not sure how I'll fix this; maybe I can find a thin, strong, and rigid disc or ring I can glue the base to. Alternately, I could simply chuck the base/use it for painting practice and make my own base instead with some glue, some sand, and something like a thin poker chip. I could try to bend it back into shape, but after my mini-fiasco with the Boom Gun, I'm reluctant to try to reshape the model's components.

My plan:
1. Remove components from the sprue, Clean up the components, removing the flashes and smoothing out mold lines and surface discontinuities with some knife scraping and/or a nail file. Possibly find a suitable American flag to pose with the model's off-hand.
2. Prime, paint, varnish, and shade the model components separately.
3. Assemble the Glitter Boy model.

Outstanding issue: The model's base is warped and wobbly. I need to find a way to flatten it or just replace it with something custom-made (like a coin or poker chip with some sand glued on the top).

Comments and suggestions are welcome.

[Kraynic]

I'm not sure how big this base is, but do you have a palm sander, or maybe even a belt sander? Maybe a neighbor or friend has one to borrow for a minute? That would probably be the easiest way to remove a bulge from the base if you don't end up adding a ring to it. If you do end up wanting to put a ring on it, you might be able to find a compatible diameter among pvc pipe or fittings, which should also be easy to sand/paint.

[Hotrod]

I got all the pieces off the sprue and cleaned up today. A few notes:
+The pose of the GB is on its toes, so in order to have the heel pylons engaged, I'll have to make sure that both heels are on elevated bits of the base.
+The ammo feed belt is quite delicate. While I was sanding down the remnant of the sprue off one end, I broke it. It was an easy fix wit a touch of super-glue, but if I make another one of these, I'll be extra careful with this part.
+The blocks at the bottom of the main component's feet took some sanding, and the nippers on my pliers couldn't get a good bite out of them. I wound up using 120 grit to wear them down first, then switched to 220 once I got close to the feet themselves. The feet have a slight cowboy-boot heel shape to them, but one of them was mostly filled in in front of the heel so I had to scrape this out with a knife..
-The off-hand arm isn't quite as pose-able as I thought it would be. This isn't a problem for my plans, but it might be for folks who want to incorporate an off-hand weapon.

Outstanding Issues:
-I'm still not sure what to do about the model's base. It's slightly little too wide to glue/clamp down to a poker chip. Unless a solution presents itself, I'll probably just make my own base with some glue, sand/gravel, and some appropriately-sized disc.
-I need to figure out how I'm going to mount these pieces for priming, painting, and varnishing, so I don't touch them directly until they're all done. I'm thinking about gluing a bit of each one that doesn't show to some wires or nails sticking out from little scrap blocks of wood.
-I'd like to drill the boom gun's muzzle a bit deeper, but it's about half as thick my finest drill bit (mine is 1/16th inch).

I also did a test paint of the bare, un-primed sprue today; I'll let it dry overnight and have a look in the morning.

[Hotrod]

I'm not sure how big this base is, but do you have a palm sander, or maybe even a belt sander? Maybe a neighbor or friend has one to borrow for a minute? That would probably be the easiest way to remove a bulge from the base if you don't end up adding a ring to it. If you do end up wanting to put a ring on it, you might be able to find a compatible diameter among pvc pipe or fittings, which should also be easy to sand/paint.

I have a palm sander, but the warp is too pronounced, and the base is too thin, to sand away the irregularities.

[Shark_Force]

no idea what the plastic is, but it may be easier to bend if you can heat it up. you'd be surprised what you can do with a hair dryer sometimes

on the other hand, if other parts have been too brittle, that may not work. maybe get a feel for how much you can do with a piece of sprue first.

[Hotrod]

no idea what the plastic is, but it may be easier to bend if you can heat it up. you'd be surprised what you can do with a hair dryer sometimes

on the other hand, if other parts have been too brittle, that may not work. maybe get a feel for how much you can do with a piece of sprue first.

Using heat... that's a good idea. I'll give it a go, but I'm not optimistic at this point; there are multiple axes of bend to correct, and I'm a little nervous about fiddling around with my wife's hair dryer with this, as I would probably heat the thing unevenly. I found a video tutorial involving boiling water and ice water that looks promising. I'll see what I can do.

[Hotrod]

I did a test paint of the mirror-finish pen last night on the sprue. The paint is thinner than I thought it would be. It has good consistency, it only seemed to go where I wanted it (wasn't runny) and it is as reflective as I could wish for. The result was not as mirror-like as I want it to be due to the roughness of the underlying sprue's surface. I expected the paint to be thick and hide a lot of those bumps; that did not happen. This means I don't have to worry as much about losing detail, but it also means that I do have to worry about some of the slight graininess of the surface from the 3D printing process. I'm hoping the primer will help to smooth it out a bit more. I'll do another test paint once I have the primer.

I also did the test paint with the marker; I may try draining some of the paint out and using a brush next time. The tip of the marker is like a Sharpee; good for coverage, not great for working in crevices.

[Hotrod]

Update: Just before making myself some tea after lunch today, I dunked the warped base into the almost-boiling water for about 5 seconds, then I dunked it into a cup of ice water. Problem solved! The base isn't quite perfectly flat, but it's so close it doesn't matter.

This has introduced another minor issue: the pose of the model's feet don't line up well with the base; there are no "feet go here" spots, and the fact that both feet are oriented so that the "toes" are a little lower than the "heels" means that I'll either have to accept some separation between the model and the base or I'll have to add a bit of material (sprue rocks or something) to make it all line up. This is eminently workable, and the rubble design of the base lends itself well to adding more bits of rubble here and there. I'll sort that out later.

Now I just need to figure out how to mount the pieces for priming, painting, and varnishing. To facilitate this and add the ability to bore out the Boom Gun's muzzle and the back rocket venturies a bit, I also ordered a pin vice drill with some small drill bits today from Amazon for $6. Shoot, I might even try boring out the laser drills and poking a couple short pieces of wire up through the base and into the GB's feet, so you can actually see the pylons. That might be fun.

I'm still looking for a good American Flag to pose with the miniature.

[Kraynic]

Update: Just before making myself some tea after lunch today, I dunked the warped base into the almost-boiling water for about 5 seconds, then I dunked it into a cup of ice water. Problem solved! The base isn't quite perfectly flat, but it's so close it doesn't matter.

Nice! I have melted holes in things that really didn't need holes with a heat gun before, so I didn't want to put that forward... It is nice when something simple works.

I might even try boring out the laser drills and poking a couple short pieces of wire up through the base and into the GB's feet, so you can actually see the pylons. That might be fun.

That sounds like it should work, and look good doing so. Hopefully there will be pictures when it is done.

[Captain_Nibbz]

Oh man, I'm just dipping my toes into mini painting and this is blowing my mind that you know how to do all this stuff

[Hotrod]

Oh man, I'm just dipping my toes into mini painting and this is blowing my mind that you know how to do all this stuff

YouTube 40k model and paint tutorials are a guilty pleasure of mine. I just haven’t done much with them other than apply some of their tricks, like edge highlights, to my map icons. This is my first plastic model I’ve made since I was 12, and that was a Star Trek ship model (Enterprise original cast movie refit, with lights and weapon sounds).

[Whiskeyjack]

After priming a base of thin white paint might help with the mirror paint. I've never used mirror paint, but I do paint minis a fair amount (just posted three on the Palladium Roleplayers Guild FB Page).
The white would give a good light base colour that should help with the mirror paint.

[Hotrod]

After priming a base of thin white paint might help with the mirror paint. I've never used mirror paint, but I do paint minis a fair amount (just posted three on the Palladium Roleplayers Guild FB Page).
The white would give a good light base colour that should help with the mirror paint.

I’m worried about making the recesses dark more than I am about the underlying color showing through, the mirror paint in my test of the spruce did’t seem to show anything of it’s underlying color. I’m also worried about getting the surfaces as smooth as possible. If I were going to paint any part significant surfaces of the model without the chrome finish, I would definitely use white as an undercoat. Maybe I should use some white with the base?

[Orin J.]

if you're worried about a smooth coating, you might want to look into an airbrush. if the paint's compatible then that will save you a lot of stress as long as you remember to cover the recessed bits you want to paint another color.

[Hotrod]

if you're worried about a smooth coating, you might want to look into an airbrush. if the paint's compatible then that will save you a lot of stress as long as you remember to cover the recessed bits you want to paint another color.

Tempting, but buying an airbrush and compressor would more than double my budget for this project. It’s brushes and markers for me, at least this time.

[Orin J.]

fair enough, getting a gloss finish spray will forgive lot of minor sins on the paintjob.

[Whiskeyjack]

The grey primer might be fine just on its own. Generally, you want some darkness in the recesses. That's why one of the main techniques for mini painting is to use ink washes. It settles in the recesses providing easy shading and depth to the model. Going for a mirror finish may change that though.

[Hotrod]

Well, I got all the parts cleaned up and mounted on a piece of plastic. I bored out the boom gun muzzle and the rocket venturies/jet nozzles. I found a blemish on the boom gun and patched it with a dab of superglue; not the best filler, but it worked well enough. I also bored out holes in the heels and the base for the support pylons.

Next step is priming!

[Orin J.]

The grey primer might be fine just on its own. Generally, you want some darkness in the recesses. That's why one of the main techniques for mini painting is to use ink washes. It settles in the recesses providing easy shading and depth to the model. Going for a mirror finish may change that though.

you don't use ink washes on a largely smooth area, that's why GW has been breaking smooth surfaces more in their minis. he's probably gonna detail in the recessed slots and such with black before going over the model with the mirror paint, it'll be a much cleaner look for this sort of thing.

[Hotrod]

The grey primer might be fine just on its own. Generally, you want some darkness in the recesses. That's why one of the main techniques for mini painting is to use ink washes. It settles in the recesses providing easy shading and depth to the model. Going for a mirror finish may change that though.

you don't use ink washes on a largely smooth area, that's why GW has been breaking smooth surfaces more in their minis. he's probably gonna detail in the recessed slots and such with black before going over the model with the mirror paint, it'll be a much cleaner look for this sort of thing.

I’ve been debating that, actually. A wash would work fine, but I could also use some of my cheap WalMart black acrylic paint thinned with water to darken the recessed areas. Or I could use a very fine tip pen to darken them. I was contemplating spending more money on a wash, but those last two options sound better to me now.

Oh, I mocked up the model on the base with a couple of thin drill bits in place of the wires that will be the pylons. Those pylons will be barely visible, and the uneven surface creates some odd gaps under the feet. I might end up gluing some sand or bits of sprue to address this.

[Hotrod]

Here's a shot of all the pieces mounted on nails (used my new pin vice drill and a touch of superglue).

One other thing I'm thinking about with the upcoming painting: there are a bunch of spots on the model that seem appropriate for some color For example, above both shoulders are little boxes with some round bulges inside that I interpret as headlights or sensors of some kind. Looking at the color painting of a GB on p107 of RUE, I see what look like two headlights, one on each shoulder, and two darker bumps on the right shoulder that look optics-ish. The model has only two bumps on the right side, so I'll make one a light blue headlight and one a darker red optics sensor.

The front of the boom gun has a little laser targeter attachment on top, and the large top protrusion sight array has three little bumps on the front. My plan is to paint all of these with a touch of red.

[Hotrod]

Well, the model parts are primed. I found it a little stressful using a spray can, and I was a little worried that I'd sprayed it on too thickly at first, but the fine features seem to be reappearing as the primer dries. I still haven't decided whether to go with a wash or just paint the recessed areas black.

EDIT: I did a couple of test paints with the liquid chrome and some watered-down black acrylic paint and a marker pen on the primed plastic base I'm using to hold the model parts. Overall, the chrome looks great; the black is less so. The pen is ok, but even though it's ~1mm thick, it's a little thick for drawing in tiny details. I'll either have to be a little sloppy in drawing the black, and then cover up the spillover with the chrome, or vice-versa (or both). I'm also considering blowing 8 bucks on a fancy model wash like Nuln Oil at a local hobby shop. In any case, I'll be giving the model parts a full 24 hours for the primer coat to fully dry before I do anything to them.

I'm still waiting on the varnish to come in, but that won't come in for another two steps at least.

[Hotrod]

As I looked over the primed pieces tonight, I found a few mold lines and print irregularities on the boom gun and main body. Looks like I’ll be doing a little more scraping with a knife tomorrow, and adding another primer coat.

When my entire model inventory consists of a single mini, my desire to get it right is a little stressful.

[Hotrod]

Over the last week, I've been finding and scraping off more blemishes, bumps, and mold lines, and I applied a second primer coat last night. The model is looking much cleaner and smoother now, and I think I'll be ready to continue with the next step of painting it tomorrow.

The next step will be a couple of very thin coats of black paint focused on the recessed areas using the cheapo Walmart acrylic paint I have thinned down with water. While I had thought of going out and buying a proper shading wash, this seems unnecessary to me, as I'll simply be covering all the raised areas in the silver paint and leaving the recesses black.

An interesting side-benefit of the method: by mounting all the pieces on a large chunk of plastic and priming the mounting plastic with the model pieces, I can use the mounting plate as a test paint area before painting the models.

As a side-note, the varnish for this model still hasn't arrived yet, which is annoying, but not a show-stopper at this point.

[GangreneTVP]

GL, I look forward to seeing the progress. I understand the waiting for the delivery. My Palladium XMas package sat in Michigan, unmoved at the post office, from December 23 until just recently. It arrived on Saturday 1/9/2021. I'm not upset about it. With Covid, it is what it is... Good things come to those that wait.

[Hotrod]

Here is the model primed and dry for painting.


I've started with a basic base coat of black. My first coat of paint had maybe 1 drop of black paint to 4 drops of water. This keeps the details sharp and seems to especially darken recesses and cracks. Here is the model after its first thin coat of black.

I'm contemplating whether I should give it a second thin coat of black or whether I should move on. My inclination is to give it a second coat. Once that's done, I'll layer in a bit of color on the lights and optics pieces, though I might wait on that until after I put on the mirror paint.

I'm also thinking of dry brushing the base to highlight the rocks a bit. I'm also contemplating adding some chopped-up sprue bits and/or sand to give the base a rougher look, but that can wait until after I assemble and place the model. I would also like to place the base atop something like a poker chip to make it a bit thicker, but I can do that anytime.

I'm still waiting on the varnish, which is annoying, but not a show-stopper yet.

EDIT: Sorry for the clutter in the background of the images. I need to tidy up.

[Hotrod]

I decided to press on this afternoon and did a bit more painting, specifically with the laser targeter, the optics, and one of the big lamps on the main body. My smallest brush felt a bit big for this kind of detail work, but the results were good enough for what I was after.

I also decided to throw caution to the wind and painted the ammo feed belt with the chrome marker. Since I don't particularly care about the recessed areas, I felt this would give me a good indication of what the final product might look like if I just went over the whole model in the chrome paint. I had a little accident as I did this; that pesky piece came loose from the nail holding it. That was irritating, and it might affect the finish slightly. I got it back on, and I superglued it, but I had to finish painting this piece in one go, so I had to press on.

A few lessons from this: avoiding the little cracks with the chrome marker pen is going to be impossible for me; the tip is too thick, and the paint itself tends to run down into the cracks. I may be able to counteract this by using a brush, but my brushes aren't very high-quality, my skill with them is of less quality, and I can't adjust the chrome paint's consistency. I may just have to shade the recesses after I varnish this thing with a lacquer.

I'll try painting a piece chrome with a paintbrush next, but I need to give the superglue holding the ammo belt on some time to dry.

[Hotrod]

The lacquer arrived! Time for me to get busy painting.

[slade the sniper]

My plan:
1. Remove components from the sprue, Clean up the components, removing the flashes and smoothing out mold lines and surface discontinuities with some knife scraping and/or a nail file. Possibly find a suitable American flag to pose with the model's off-hand.

Awesome!!!!

I want to see this when it is done!!!!

-STS

[Hotrod]

Well, good news and bad news. Good news is, I got the chrome paint on, and it looks amazing. Bad news is, I forgot to clean the model parts before I applied paint, and I think a bit of residual dust made just slightly bumpier than they could have been. Still, these detached pieces look really good. I'm going to give this at least 24 hours to dry, and then I'll lacquer the parts, and then it'll be assembly time!

I'm terrified to touch this surface, as it's quite fragile, but this paint really is amazing.

[Whiskeyjack]

That's looking pretty good!

[Hotrod]

That's looking pretty good!

Thanks! I did a bit of touching up this morning. Based on what I've been reading, it's best to wait a full week before applying a protective lacquer, which will very slightly dull the reflectiveness, but not enough to notice (at least according to what I've read). I was afraid I'd lose detail, but that doesn't seem to be the case; I could have skipped the watery black paint layer (though it didn't hurt anything, and the base looks better with the watery black coat).

I still haven't found an appropriately-tiny American Flag for the Glitter Boy to hold yet.

[Hotrod]

Update: The first time I applied the chrome paint, I was using a brush to wick the ink off the chrome marker tip. This helped for getting into crevices, but the overall finish looked too bumpy. Tonight, I opted to use the marker directly on the GB. The tip is pretty thick (2mm), so I couldn't get in the crevices, but I could focus on the larger surfaces.

This was what it looked like when I started.

This is what it looks like now.I can see my face in this Chromium Guardsman now! The marker applied the ink a lot thicker, and the thicker coat made for a much smoother and more coherent mirror-like surface. This is what I've been wanting to get since I started this project.

Now I just have to wait a week for this coat to cure before I lacquer it. Hopefully the lacquer doesn't dull the finish much, because yowza, this is one glittery Glitter Boy!

[Hotrod]

Well, I put a coat of lacquer on. So far so good, the mirror finish remains! I did see a few small spots I missed when I chromed it a week ago. I might touch that up after I get it assembled. No picture today; it basically looks the same.

I'm gonna have a lot of excess chrome paint and lacquer when this is over.

[Hotrod]

Update: This Glitter Boy is coming together nicely. I've assembled everything except the boom gun, weapon arm, and ammo belt. I was also able to incorporate a couple of thin nails into the model and base, to make it look like its pylons are deployed. I'll probably add a thin strip or felt pad to the bottom to make sure the clipped and filed-down nubs don't scratch up a countertop.

No issues with assembly so far. The pieces still fit well together, and the mini still looks nice and shiny. The only thing I'm worried about is making the weapon arm, gun, and ammo belt fit together right; there are five contact points I have to glue, and to avoid any of them not fitting the others, I will have to glue all five contact points simultaneously.

The finish also seems to be holding up well. It may be slightly less mirror-like than it was before I lacquered it, but I can't see a difference.

[Hotrod]

The Glitter Boy is assembled, mounted, and fabulous.

A few lessons learned:
1. I don't know that I gained much benefit by waiting to assemble the model after I finished painting/varnishing it. I think it could have looked just as good if I'd painted it after assembly, and if I were to do this again, that's what I would do. The trick would be to use a paintbrush to get in the crevices and do a rough coat with the Chrome, and then use the marker for a second coat for a better, more mirror-like effect.
2. Alclad II Klear Kote instructions say you need to airbrush it, but I got fine results using a paintbrush.
3. Even with filing down the nail nubs, there's still a risk of scratching table-tops, so a small piece of adhesive felt (for furniture feet) works fine. For good measure, I put it on a spare commemorative coin that has a shiny finish.
4. Getting the ammo belt into the right position is the biggest pain in assembly. I suggest mocking up the model first, gluing on the arm and gun pieces second, and using some near-boiling water to shape the ammo belt to make it fit exactly as you want.
5. I have a lot of extra varnish and chrome paint left over, which makes me want to buy and paint more minis. This could be a problem; maybe I should pass them off to a hobbyist friend of mine.

Anyway, I'm overall very happy with the model. I may do a little bit of painting dark lines or spots in a few places (the jet nozzles on the back, for instance)

[Kraynic]

Looks good! And that base looks like it should make it pretty stable.

[Hotrod]

Looks good! And that base looks like it should make it pretty stable.

Thanks! I actually put a furniture felt pad underneath the plastic base, which is rather less stable; however, it nestles well into a commemorative coin I designed about a year ago for a totally unrelated project, and since they're both shiny, I thought I'd put them together.

[Whiskeyjack]

That's pretty awesome looking Hotrod! Next you have to make a diorama to display it in.

[Hotrod]

That's pretty awesome looking Hotrod! Next you have to make a diorama to display it in.

Ha! If I do anything more with this, it'll be adding a bit of contrast by darkening a few crevices, jet nozzles, et cetera. What I really want to do is find a tiny American flag that's solid and shaped like it's billowing, so I can pose it with the mini.