Chester the Rooster - Pt 1 - Its the small things

I pulled off the cover hoping to start the painting on Chester. I started running a tack cloth over the surface to remove any sawdust and any other debris. I was going down the back leg when I found a large nick in the wood. That has to be fixed! So out comes the filler and then it needs to be sanded and then I have decided that he needs one more coat of primer. So a slight delay before the real painting begins.

Chester will be painted in a more or less traditional carousel methods. After the last coat of primer has dried (and probably another light sanding) the body colors will be applied using alkyd enamel paints. These are oil based enamels which will dry a lot slower than the newer water based enamels although they are becoming harder to find these days. Highlights, shadows and blending will be done with artist oils. The artist oils will dry faster when combined with the alkyd enamels so it won't take months for Chester to finish drying. That will be followed up with 2-3 coats of a clear gloss.

Looks a little rough still, but another coat of primer followed by paint will hide a lot of flaws.