MikesWagon

I haven't made any kits for ages, but seeing pics of rally cars recently I thought I'd give it a go again.

I've bought a large number of Tamiya's acrylic pots, and seem to be struggling to get decent coverage. In some cases I brush over an area to smooth out brush strokes and all the paint seems to come off with me.

I'm just painting straight onto the plastic - dash, suspension etc - and never used to have probs with the Humbrol enamels.

Any suggestions would help me and the other half.

Mike.

Paulo P

iTrader: (42)

I always used to get all the bits that were the same colour and put them on news paper together and spray them in car paint (model paint doesn't come out any good) and then do the same for the next colour. Hope that helps because I found excellent results doing this especially with the bodies.

Neil Smalley

Just a few hints(from memory)

Wash the plastic in soapy water first.
Paint the plastic before gluing
Stir the paint well

See herehttp://www.tamiya.co.nz/tips.htm

ScoobyLoobyLou

M,

What are you doing posting at this time of day? Have you no work to do?

L

MikesWagon

L. - what are you doing surfing at this time of day - have you no work to do?

Paul - having spent few quid on the tamiya stuff, don't want to try anything else yet. Always under the impression that you didn't get as fine a finish with car stuff, and much of the fine work requires different colours - nightmare masking.

Neil - thanks for that, to try and get back up to speed on the brushwork, I'm finishing off a Cossie touring car. The kit was lying around for years, and may have been a bit dusty. Had a quick look at the link, and may have been too thick straight out of the pots.

Got an Escort Cossie rally car to start next, still unopened. Hopefully it'll go ok before I buy any of the current Scooby & Focus kits.

Mike.

BOB.T

HI

I've still got a 500 series merc to build, I've had it 6 years now

I've not used any Tamiya paint yet, like you I've always used Humbrol. One thing I will say is go steady with the car paints I once sprayed, an RS500 kit funnily enough with car paint and it went really **** up. It finished up full of pinholes, I think it may of been a silicone reaction I'd definately recomend testing it on sumfink first!

Good luck

Bob

Josh L

Mike,

Always wash the parts, and dry them thoroughly.

Using something like a plastic scourer, very lightly rub the surface to be painted to give the surface something to bond to, and trying to apply a primer of some kind.

If you're using acrylics on a large area, I would suggest building up the colour in thin layers. You can thin the paint down using water, but I prefer isopropanol, as it aids drying, and seems to leave a smoother surface.

Although not everone has, or wants a decent airbrush, for body shells there really isn't a decent alternative to sprays. Most of us sad modellers tend to use car paints these days. The Halfords ones are favourite, and it's worthwhile just just getting Primer, 'Appliance Gloss White', and Celulose Laquer. Just bear in mind the laquer can't be used on enamel paint!

If you have any more queries, feel free to email me.

Josh

Timpreza

I'm preferring Tamiya's enamels in favor of the acrylics. They are much smoother and easier to paint and they give better results.
X11(chrome silver) for example looks like crap in acrylic but looks great in enamel. and X18 (semi gloss black) isn't semi gloss but more like gloss in acrylic and it isn't smooth to paint.
Never had trouble with enamels. except for red, yellow and blue maybe, they(re such a pain in the **** to paint with enamels, they hardly dry an make stripes. But I haven't tried those in acrylics.

Josh L

Timpreza,

Lovely smooth finish on the body. I've been asked to build one of those for someone, and have asked my dealer for some WR blue paint. Should be interesting.

How did you get on with the kit? The floor-pan really is a piece of ****e though, God knows how long it's going to take to mask up. The old Impreza kit was much better in that area, but it still took me a couple of hours to mask each one up. I'm hoping the 2001 WRC kit is better, but I haven't got hold of one yet.

Re the paints, I've only ever used Humbrol enamels myself. I find them really easy to airbrush, and tend only to use Acrylics for small areas, and the range of colours available. For metallic stuff, I've got a very large stock of the old Metalcote paints (before some of them were withdrawn) and they are perfect for exhausts etc.

Josh

MikesWagon

Thanks again guys.

Maybe I shouldn't have bought all those Tamiya acrylic pots?

Josh - for shells I use aerosols, not as good as a decent airbrush I know, but decent enough for the money.

Timpreza - interesting you saying you prefer the Tamiya enamels, I don't know if we get them here, least I haven't seen any. That's a great finish on the pics by the way, hoping to make something similar once the current kits are built.

I'll keep trying with these acrylics, being Scottish I'm loath to waste money on them.

Thanks,

Mike.

TonyG

I've never seen the Tamiya enamels in the UK. For large areas like bodyshells, I always use aerosols, and they don't come out too bad if you put the paint on in layers. Otherwise, I now use a combination of either Tamiya pots (although I also find these paints dry out on the brush too quickly and then the paint comes off as mentioned already), Humbrol acrylics (smaller pots, but not bad) or the old Airfix/Humbrol enamels that I've still got from years ago.
Games Workshop also do paint, but I only use their black paint for cars - everything else is a bit too 'muddy' and the finish is somewhere between semi gloss and matt, but some of their browns are ideal for mud splashes up the side of rally cars.
Hint for acrylics - if you're using acrylic silver/aluminium/gold, you need to put a base under it of either white/light grey or yellow for gold, otherwise you can get the colour of the plastic showing through
Timpreza, Nice finish. Must finish off my '98 Monte Impreza in the next few weeks.

Timpreza

I used Tamiya TS50 aerosol for the body and finished it of with Graupner varnish. Nothing special there, but both the paints are great to work with. I prefer aerosols to airbrush, Im too lazy to clean my airbrush

The underside is pretty easy. Tamiya says the underside must be painted in body colour. I painted it semi gloss black, it looks more real, I doubt if the real one has a body colour underside.
Then I painted the exhaust and some other parts in chrome silver and flat aluminium. Just be carefull with the exhaust, no big deal otherwise.

I found it was one os the easiest models to make, but that means it was one of the models I had least fun making: rear lights don't have to be painted, there's no engine,the underside is one piece, the front wheels don't turn, you don't have to make the suspension, wheels are pre-painted...
Quite frustrating really, You make models and when you open the box you find out Tamiya made half of the model for you
It's one my best models to look at but there's no challenge to it, and to me that's what modeling is all about. It's all made too easy IMHO.

Josh L

Timpreza,

I haven't come across that varnish here. I tend to use a Halfords acrylic laquer. However, I don't use these aerosols straight from the tin, I spray them into a pot with a few drops of celulose thinners, and airbrush them on. How sad is that! However, it works a treat with the laquer.

I'm afraid that I'm very picky about the finish on metal coloured parts, and prefer to mask them of and spray them. Metalcote applied by brush is pants, but applied with the airbrush, and buffed up they look superb. Although most of the underside would be satin black, the drive-train wouldn't be so I just creat more work for myself by spraying all the different areas. Stupid really as the guy's never going to take of the stand.

Josh