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Painting up my guitar as a jet fighter

Jet guitar

This guitar is the definition of the expressions ‘all’s well that ends well‘ and ‘third time's a charm’. It took three attempts over a period of a year and a half to get this result, but I am really happy with how she turned out. 

For the paint scheme I was inspired by the grey-green camouflage used by the Koninklijke Luchtmacht throughout most of the Cold War, which was basically a direct lift from the livery of the RAF. For the final version I used the following enamel spray cans: 

MoTip Olive Green Matte RAL 6014

MoTip Basalt Grey Matte RAL 7012

Dupli Aerosol-Art Clear Lacquer Matte

I started my first attempt over the Christmas break of 2021. I removed the neck, but kept the pickups, bridge, etc. in place because I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to resolder the electronics properly. So, I carefully masked everything off, gave it a sand and got to painting. After a couple of weeks everything was done. I had ordered some decals from Redbubble and had given the finished body a final coat of clear varnish to lock in the decals and give everything the same level of reflectivity. It was looking pretty sweet, actually. 

But while removing the masking tape disaster struck. For some reason the clear varnish had not adhered properly and large chunks of it came off along with bits of the layers below it. Furious that I had just wasted several weeks of work I put the guitar aside and didn’t look at it for the next six months. 

But then, in June 2022, I picked it back up again. This time I figured I would do it properly. I removed all of the hardware, gutted the electronics (taking plenty of pictures, so I would know how to put it back together again), and sanded off all of the previous paint layers. 

I then got to painting again, taking my time and giving the paint plenty of time to dry in between coats. At least, that’s what I thought... The 3-4 layers of primer went on without a hitch. But then, after applying the second coat of the basalt grey paint it started to randomly crackle in some places.

NF-5 Freedom Fighter
Example of a Dutch NF-5 Freedom Fighter in grey-green camouflage. 

Apparently, this is the result of the top coat starting to dry while the coat beneath it is still degassing. I had given the paint several more hours to dry than the recommended drying time listed on the spray can. Perhaps I had applied the paint too heavily or it was a bit more humid that day than usual? In any case, I had to sand everything back down again and start over with priming...

The third time around I really, really took my time and gave each coat at least 24 hours to dry before applying the next, making sure to apply 5-6 very thin coats for the primer, both colours and the clear lacquer. As I have no special painting booth and can only paint one side at a time, that look a lot of days! 

I ordered some new decals and this time decided to varnish them separately before applying them to the guitar. In this way, I could test whether the paint would stick to the decals without ruing all of my previous work and I could even remove them if I got bored with them. 

Well, third time around everything went alright. I decided I would let the paint dry for several weeks, just to make sure that it had fully cured and would not be damaged during reassembly. Those weeks turned into months, as I completely forgot about the project. But then, today, it was finally time to put everything back together, resolder the connections and so on. I was a bit nervous and wondered if I hadn’t irrevocably ruined my guitar forever, but luckily she still plays and sounds as well as she did before. And doesn’t she look awesome?

Jet fighter guitar

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