Green Cat

Beginner tasks – Learning to Airbrush

My husband and I embarked upon a project to learn how to collaborate creatively. We started building and painting a large scale model of the Neo Zeong from one of the Gundam TV series. I hopped right in and started to airbrush – I’ve been sharing pics along the way on Instagram. With my new found skills and some nudging from the Mr., I decided to take on a smaller scale project. I ran across this guy while at the Dick Blick art supply store near us:

airbrush - neko original

I’m not a huge fan of this particular green and almost didn’t buy it. As I was humming and hawing over the purchase, Husband leaned over and said, “you could paint it.” And lightbulbs went off… I have a TON of pink airbrush-able paint from a project I never finished. So, once we got it home it was a matter of figuring out the material which proved to be quite easy. At first, we thought it was polystone but nope! The cat is plastic! Once we figured out the composition, there are a ton of ways to peel the paint. Husband has some paint stripper for clearing off plastic car parts, which worked like a charm. Bubbling off the paint:

airbrushing - neko stripping

After one coat most of the green was gone and the bare plastic shone through:

airbrushing - neko stripped dry

The paint stripped off nicely after a few coats of stripper and I was able to primer the kitty with some Mr. Surfacer. The primer hid any of the green that was left.

airbrush - neko surfaced

The airbrush took about 5 refills to get the cat covered but it’s nicely coated. The pink has tinge of salmon to it but it’s nice and bright.

airbrush - neko coat one

I put in a few more details with a Gundam Marker to make the M pop. I have the fine tip type in a few different colors.