My Captain America resin model kit hit a turning point yesterday. Last night I airbrushed the final color. All the blue areas on Captain America’s uniform. Started with a basecoat of black, then a midnight blue. Shaded it with True Blue, then mixed a bit of Titanium White into the True Blue for highlights. The colors worked really well. After waiting a few hours to dry, it was finally do or die time. All those layers of colors, each protected with Mold Builder. Time to peel off the Mold Builder.

I’d done a test peel on a small piece, but this was an entire model kit, over a couple of weeks. Didn’t know if it would work, or not. I expected Cap to either look great, or be a complete wreck. Instead, it was somewhere in the middle. In concept, the mold builder worked wonderfully. The colors were still there under all the layers. Some of the edges worked out very nicely. But some of the edges peeled too far. The acrylic paint didn’t stop where the mold builder did. In many places, it just kept peeling.

There were also numerous tiny dots within the area that came off. And in one massive area on his boot, a large part of the surface just came right off with it. Those, I pretty much expected. Some sloppy edges, also expected. What really caught me off guard was the paint’s tendency to continue peeling beyond the edges. It left a really sloppy look, and will probably take a lot of work to smooth out, secure, and match the shades back up.

Last night, that really bothered me. This morning, the answer was in my mind when the alarm rang.

In between each color, I’ve been spraying matte varnish(?) to seal and protect the layers. Then brushed the mold builder on. It was an ‘additive’ process, done layer after layer without removing the previous ones until the end. The next time, I would do the entire process on a color by color basis.

For instance, paint the boots and gloves brown, spray them, then coat them with mold builder. Paint the white segments, and anywhere the white came in contact with the brown, peel off the mold builder. Touch it up as needed, spray matte over both colors, then re-coat with mold builder.

Continue the process with each added color receiving a full peel and re-work. In essence, by the time it gets to the blue, all the rest of Cap will be covered in one, single, fresh layer of mold builder. Hopefully, this would be easier to peel off, and do less damage as it goes.

Secondly, I would peel the covering off slower, with an exacto knife to carefully trim the edges where the paint should stop peeling. This was a beginner’s mistake for me. When peeling off the covering, I didn’t realize the paint would come off in sheets like that. Now I know.

Overall, my first try went pretty well. I’m going to take my time and try to salvage the work already done. If it doesn’t repair to my satisfaction, I’ll strip the paint off and start over. It would be very interesting to start over and see how much better Cap came out the next time. So either way, I’m pleased. Learned a lot through all this. My airbrushing and use of the mold builder will be that much better for all the practice.

Aside from all that, my Captain America Ultimate Soldier model is going very well. When painting the red on, it kept looking pink. Once all the colors were visible together, it looked like a very nice vivid shade of red. The flesh tones turned out excellent.

And finally, the colors came together on Cap’s uniform in a way that blended the highlights into one cohesive whole. That, more than anything, was what I was hoping for from this entire process. Painting each part by hand might have given it a patchwork look. This way, the color flowed smoothly across the entire model, with the highlights all matching.

I’m looking forward to the next opportunity to use the mold builder and airbrush technique. Can’t wait to apply all this new knowledge.

In the meantime, Cap’s got a lot of detail work now. Going to take some time to get everything looking right.