Before investing the time and money in building a dozen woodies, I wanted to check the compatibility of the various sealers and paints I was planning on using. Plus, I wanted a chance to test out my homebrew cresting lathe. So, I picked up a couple of 5/16 dowels and had at it.
First I tapered the nock end, and dipped them all with 3 coats of spar urethane, allowing 24 hours drying time between coats. I also sanded with 0000 steel wool between coats.
I tried a crown dip with Rustoleum "American Accents" gloss white latex, both straight from the can and thinned slightly. I really wasn't happy with either as a crown dip, as it seemed to be too thick. On the 3rd dowel, I tried some rattle can Rustoleum that I had. That came out much nicer.
After the crown dip dried for a day or 2, it was time to crest. I picked up a set of 8 colors of Testors enamels at the local Michael's craft store, as well as a couple of good quality sable hair brushes. As soon as I put the first dowel into my cresting lathe, a couple of problems became obvious. First, I didn't even attempt to straighten the dowels before sealing. And second, the surgical tubing I was using for a chuck allowed too much wobble if the shaft wasn't inserted perfectly straight. I did the best I could with the cresting, but my lines vary in thickness around the shaft. Overall, I'm fairly happy with the results. But I did order a Bohning crester chuck from Kustom King as soon as I was done. Hopefully that will help keep the shafts from wobbling so much next time.
In the last pic you can even see half of my homebrew drying rack.
One other mistake I made was I didn't plan out my crest as well as I should before starting. I should have ended with the last silver line at the end of the crown dip.
After the cresting dries for a couple of days, I'm going to seal it under a thin coat of Minwax Polycrylic to make sure there won't be any compatibility issue between it and the Rustoleum or Testors model paint.
Topic: First attempt at cresting (Read 533 times)
