Great job gathering supplies! You will also need some of that blue painter's tape to mask the headstock face with... go slow with the masking so you can get a nice razor sharp edge on the face of the headstock. Oh, and get some Naptha which you will want to wipe the headstock with before you spray it.
Make sure that the headstock face is well sanded and free of dust and particles.
Practice for a few minutes spraying on some cardboard or wood scraps and notice at what arm length you need to spray at where you get lots of coverage but not too close as to cause runs from overspraying.
It is ALWAYS better to come back and do another coat than to spray too much and get a run... RUNS WILL SCREW YOU UP THE MOST when using rattle cans. The next thing that will screw you up is "spitting". To avoid spitting, shake the living hell out of the can and put it in a X-Large drink cup full of pretty damn warm water for about 5-15 minutes before you spray.
This will probably take three separate sessions to do correctly.
Day One or Session 1). So, your first coat should be a nice coat or two of clear lacquer right onto the headtsock face. You will wait for that to dry and lightly sand it a bit with some 1000 grit... since it is a headstock face, you could use a sanding block to good effect. Make sure that it is as smooth as a baby's butt... the smoothness of your color coats will depend upon the smoothness of the headstock before you start the color. After the first coat or two of clear is dried and sanded, you can start laying down the color
Day Two or Session 2). Rub down headstock with Naptha. Then, Lay down around 3 coats of black on the headstock face... make sure you shake the black can a little extra and use a little warmer temperature water with a bit longer sitting time since you absolutely don't want it to spit. Color coats shouldn't be sanded which is why you laid down a couple of coats of clear and made sure that that surface is as smooth as possible.
Day Three or Session 3). Rub down headstock with Naptha. Then, Lay down a few clear coats over the black and make sure that the headstock looks good and right to you after a little sanding with 1000 and then 3000 to buff it up. You my want to use some of the Scratch-X now to make sure that the headstock face is fine scratch and swirl free after the nitro sets. Wipe down with Naptha and let it cure for two weeks.
Then, you can apply the decal. If it is printed on an inkjet printer, you will need some sort of inkjet "fixer"... BTW, the best decals are dry transfer not waterslide, but I do understand that the majority of decals out there are of the waterslide type. In my scale modeling days... waterslide decals were a bit of a ***** to work with. They tend to want to swim around the precise location you want it to go and can easily tear or rip.
Once the decal is applied and is
totally dry (wait until the next day just to be safe) you can apply the final clear coats that will "melt" the edges of the decal into the previous lacquer coats. As many coats as needed... headstock's need to be pretty lacquered up since you can bang the crap out of it. Obviously, you don't want too much lacquer but you also do not want to little either. Your eyes will most likely signal that you are done.
Light sanding with 1000 grit to knock down the "orange peel" and 3000 to get out the marks left by the 1000 grit. Scratch-X to get out the fine scratches and swirls and wax for a protective shine.
This will most likely take 4-5 days if you do it right. As a beginner, your biggest strength will come from working slowly... likewise, as a beginner your biggest weakness will come from working too fast. Speeding up the process can only lead to failure... PLEASE DON'T RUSH THIS, YOU WILL BE SORRY.
So, if you shoot the day before and sand the next day... clear all dust and wipe down with Naptha before spraying again (VERY IMPORTANT). The best tool for that is one of those little
plastic bulb manual air blowers that photographers use to blow out their cameras with.
