Lesson #2... Don't freak out

Or, if you do have to freak out, then set the horse aside until you regain your composure. The worst thing you can do in... well, any situation, really... is freak out and then rush into something you shouldn't.

In this case, you MUST let the matte finish dry... as hard as it is to see your lovely pony all awfuled up, don't touch it. Resist the urge to poke it with your fingers (or anything). Let it sit... Overnight is best, since that way there is no doubt that it will be dry. If you try to mess with it too soon, you could pull the paint up right down to the resin! AGH!! And then THAT would be a really tricky mess to fix. Trust me on this one... self control was a tough one for me to learn.

In the morning, you can start the task of fixing the horse. The good news: its fixable. And, you don't have to strip the horse. The bad news: you will have to do some repainting. And it requires patience and more of not freaking out. But, hey--you didn't have to start completely over, right? That's a good thing!

First, take a very fine sandpaper and buff the afflicted areas. On this lady, it was pretty much everywhere. This is a VERY light buff; its just to take off the worst of the offenders and do a light smoothing. Clean off all the extra powder from sanding (I use a blush brush) and then... and I am not crazy... Hit the offending areas with Krylon Gloss. Use an even, but not too thick, coat. The goal is to fill the wrinkles but not obsure the sculptural detail. Because the gloss is thicker than the matte finish, it will give you a huge head start in evening out all the imperfections.

The next step is similar to the first, in that you need to wait a day until the gloss is totally dry. Then, take out the fine sandpaper and sand all over. You can be a bit rougher with this round of sanding; the gloss coat will protect the existing paintwork. Your goal is the remove all the texture from the wrinkles. Basically, you are smoothing them down. You'll still see them, but at this point in time, you don't want to *feel* them. Run your finger over the areas until it feels smooth.

If you have very bad areas, where the wrinkle has been forced upward like two techtonic plates, creating a horrible wrinkley mountain chain... then sand it down as best you can, gloss just that area, and sand again. By the second time around, it should be nice and smooth. Most wrinkles melt away though in the first shot of gloss.

Alright. Now that the horse is buffed to a baby-bottom smoothness, you can touch up the areas. In my case... that was pretty much the whole horse. Looking at the bright side... I only needed two coats in most areas, and I didn't have to strip and repaint her. Woot!

Here is a closeup of the wrinkled area after the repair. At this point, I can go back in and start re-applying the shading. You do not have to repaint all the areas you've sanded. When you apply the next coat of matte finish, the scratches you see will melt away. This is why its important to use a fine-grit sandpaper; you are buffing the surface, not gouging it.

After the touchups, seal her again with the SAME can of matte finish that gave you the problem in the first place. This is important since it will prevent the same thing from happening again. If you use another can, you may have another chemical reaction and experience a whole new wrinklage... and that would probably REALLY cause a freak out. The gloss is an excellent sealer, but I'm not one to take chances. Mist the horse first with the matte finish. Let that dry. Then mist again. Don't spray it heavily!! Just keep misting until you feel satisfied that its sealed.


At last!!! Repaired. Pics of her finished will come tomorrow. :-)