Guitar kit build

GloopyJon

Thanks - I might be able to hide part of it with the burst as well.  That's going to be a whole new adventure!

AndrewH13

Typical it had to rain! Bet you cursed just a little

GloopyJon

The rain wasn't that much of a problem, although I can't say I was happy about it.  For just one guitar, I thought it wasn't really worth the expense and hassle of buying one of those plastic greenhouses.  We'll see if I manage to remedy the situation.

GloopyJon

No activity last night due to rain again, but it's dry this morning so I've already taken the opportunity to get outside.  I sanded a bit around the problem area on the body and gave it another coat of blue, and it's improving.  I think I'll do one more coat of blue on the body (which will make about 5 or 6 in total) and then with a bit of luck I'll be able to give the purple a go tomorrow.  That's where it could all go horribly and irretrievably wrong!

Here's a "state of play" photo of the body after sanding but before the latest blue coat (taken with a better camera so I hope this gives a better impression of how it looks).  The blue is still a little bit greenish, due to the wood, but it's getting closer to the colour I want.
                                                                       

Magoo222

Can't see the leaf mark on that one, have you managed to cover it up?

Edit: I've just reread your post, and saw you'd sanded down the problem area.  I really shouldn't post on here pre-coffee...

GloopyJon

Here's the same photo again, taken after coat no.5.  I've sanded a few little bits (found a hair on the front!) and applied a (hopefully) final coat since this picture was taken.  The light was different from the previous photo (brighter) but maybe you can see a little bit of difference.
                                                                                 

In case you're wondering what's happening with the neck, the answer is nothing.  I think it looks fine and I'm just leaving it for now.  I think I will apply a bit of purple to create a burst (or possible just the full colour) onto the face of the headstock, but that will come when I uncap the purple spray can for the body, which will most likely be tomorrow.

AndrewH13

That's not blue, it's turquoise   Nicer!

GloopyJon

True, but I wanted it to be blue so that it goes with the purple.  Turquoise and purple could be a bit of a dog's dinner.

GloopyJon

This morning I took some photos of the final "blue" version of the guitar, before attempting to spray the burst.  I put it together with most of the hardware just resting more or less in place, and this (minus the masking tape) is what it could have looked like:
                                                                                 

Not bad, I reckon!  I could have stopped there, but noooooo, I had a can of purple paint jumping up and down in a cupboard and waiting to be used.    I masked off the sides of the headstock because I only wanted to spray the face and took it all out into the garden.  

It's drying now, so I'll take and post pictures later...

GloopyJon

OK, time for the big reveal!  It's had two sprays with the purple lacquer to create the burst on the body and on the face of the headstock.  It still needs a tiny bit of tidying up - a little bit more spraying to solidify the purple in one area of the edge of the body, and unfortunately a few spits of purple made their way into the blue parts so I need to see if I can carefully scrape those off a bit before I then apply the coats of clear gloss on the top.  After that it will need to sit and dry for about 2 weeks before the final sanding and buffing process, and then I'll finally be able to assemble it and - with a bit of luck - play it!

So here's the front of the body:
                                                                                 

And the back of the body and neck.  I decided to leave the neck blue, as I think it was a really nice colour and I wanted to leave part of it untouched on the guitar.
                                                                                 

I may be wrong, but I think that when the first coat of gloss goes on, it will dissolve the surface of the previous coats and soften the edges a bit, which would be good.  If it doesn't, it's not a big deal, but if my hypothesis is correct then that will help to make a smooth burst.

Here's the front of the headstock in close-up.  I actually wanted to leave a bit more of the blue in the middle but it's not a big deal.
                                                                                 

So unless I get requests to show specific details, I think that's about it for the photos for a while, until the lacquer dries and I can actually finish the paint job.  I hope you've enjoyed the show so far and please feel free to let me know what you think of it, good or bad!  Did I spoil it by adding the purple burst, or improve it? At least it's a fairly unique-looking guitar!