How to make a round thing without a lathe (plus model making tips)

Step 9 Spray or paint the project

What you do now depends on how eager you are to finish it off, or whether you are prepared to do a perfect job. If it's the latter you want to go for then you should spray with undercoat first and sand down with very fine paper, say P800 or finer, between each coat.

For me I just wanted to get on and I had no primer anyway.

As you can see here I sprayed and then sanded off, because I sprayed too much and it started to run. If that happens to you. bite the bullet and remove at once using thinners and a rag. make sure you don't get a load of lint fibres and dust stuck to the surface. Rub down with sandpaper till fine and start again.

Model Maker's Tip #2 (yes I know I have already had a tip #2) But this is the same one.

Remember the tip? find someway of holding the model so that you can spray it and then leave it to dry without it getting stuck to something or getting marks on it. I guess the tip here is THINK of this before you start to spray and not half way through when it is wet! In this case I gently rested the disc on a coat hanger wire poked into the hole that was left in the top, as the hole in the base was filled.

You could use any bit of spare real estate. In real models, witness marks (the marks left when where something that was holding the original moudling is removed) are usually covered by a label or another component.