Painting Van Saar Hystrar Pattern Energy Shield

On my Van Saar I wanted them to be mostly metallic with a striking color for minor details, and because of the RoboCop (2014) inspiration I knew I wanted a laser-like red for the detail color. The energy shield is one of my favorite aesthetics of the Van Saar kit and I wanted it to be red in addition to remaining translucent. In order to achieve this affect I used Testors Gloss Red Spray Enamel. I have also seen it called Candy Apple Red, and it is suppose to mimic a candy coat paint-job on model cars. 

 

I started with one light coat on the front of the shield, because honestly, I didn't know what to expect. Here is the front and back after spraying only the front once.

At this point I started to question what I was even doing (I am sure this will come up every painting post). I could see potential but it also looked a little weird and I thought I was ruing the beautiful bit. I fought back the insecurities and flipped it over and gave the back a light spray.

It still looked a little weird to me but I decided to do another coat, front and back at the same time.

Wow that is beautiful and exactly what I wanted! So I thought I was finished and went to bed. The next day I looked at it under natural sun light and it looked blotty in ways not visible in the pic and I started second guessing myself. That night I sprayed a third coat over it.

This made it look like a thicker version of the single coat. I believe an additional coat would even it out, however it will also likely remove the translucence. I am satisfied with how it looks, though I prefer the second coat. 

It is possible there are other circumstances that affected the appearance of the third coat, but I sprayed at the same distance for the same length of time in the same temp/humidity. I had residual spray hit my hand and it did the same thing, it just doesn't coat evenly. I believe (with my little anecdotal experience) that the next coat would even it out and that it isn't environmental. 

What will I do differently on the next shield? Plan for two coats, have some Simple Green ready and be more patient. I didn't have any Simple Green at the time and was so anxious to see the model put together that I just glued it on. I have also heard of a Tamiya Red spray that is supposed to be very similar, might give that a shot.

Big lesson for me from this particular project as small piece of my broader project, EXPERIMENT AND DON'T BE AFRAID TO FUCK UP. I am doing this for me (and you, if there are any of you), I am doing this to have fun and create a world and test myself. I think I was never able to complete anything in the past because I thought "that it had to be perfect, and if it wasn't perfect then why bother." Well how could it be perfect if I never even tried, if I never failed, if I never learned any lessons. I know it will be a struggle every time I sit down to paint something, I will have to fight my anxiety and my insecurity, but I have to trust myself and be prepared to fuck up. I will come out more patient, more considerate and hopefully more creative and more skilled.