I had initially sharpie-painted my squadrons, but now with a little more experience under my belt, I would like to paint them. Can I simply paint over them or do I need to remove the sharpie? If so how?
P.S. I want to paint some of my rebels up as Black Sun. Has anyone else done this?
Always Prime
Even just a quick gentle coat. Even a mostly 'dusty' coat from a spraycan.
The point of priimer is to prime the surface to receive paint. (Not to colour it).
The Prime will solve any and all potential problems you would have.
That being said, I think the possibility of problems are minimal to start with... But its a good practice anyway.
Get some of this stuff http://www.supercleancanada.ca/images/superclean_cleaner_degreaser_group.png
Walmart or an auto parts store should have it. Drop them in a shallow dish, scrub them with an old toothbrush and rinse well with water. I recommend you wear some nitrile gloves. I did some extended cleaning on a lot of squadrons and it drastically dried my skin out. Nothing painful or permanent and fixed with a couple days of lotion but probably don't want to do it repeatedly.
Get some of this stuff http://www.supercleancanada.ca/images/superclean_cleaner_degreaser_group.png
Walmart or an auto parts store should have it. Drop them in a shallow dish, scrub them with an old toothbrush and rinse well with water. I recommend you wear some nitrile gloves . I did some extended cleaning on a lot of squadrons and it drastically dried my skin out. Nothing painful or permanent and fixed with a couple days of lotion but probably don't want to do it repeatedly.
I second this, as I use it to prep resin and shapeways minis, not to mention to clean pots and pans after cooking. It can do more than dry your skin out, Super Clean is essentially liquid lye. And lye can cause chemical burns. Trust me on this, you don't want to have a chemical burn, I've had one.
I had initially sharpie-painted my squadrons, but now with a little more experience under my belt, I would like to paint them. Can I simply paint over them or do I need to remove the sharpie? If so how?
P.S. I want to paint some of my rebels up as Black Sun. Has anyone else done this?
I did the same.. you REALLY need to clean off the sharpie (or at least most of it) with some solvent or thinner before even priming them.. the solvents in the primer or even the sikkatives in Acrylic paints will make the sharpie bleed through.. I had to paint my first batch of A-wings 3-4 times with thin layers of white before the red cockpit line made with a sharpie stopped bleeding through and blurring the white/red border.
I did the same, but have since painted my squads with low end testors paint. Never primed or cleaned the marker off and they look great. Would show a few off but phone posting...
Example:
Can't wait for black squadron lol
No need for special solvents. Rubbing alcohol will clean the sharpie right off. Just dip for a minute, scrub with an old toothbrush and rinse in water.
Ammonia, Windex, and, (of all things), Deepwoods Off is great for removing any permanent marker.
Old Army trick.
Dry erase markers will remove most sharpie lines. Although I can't vouch for sharpie that's been on long term.