Paint Questions and Experiments!

[Longbox55]

I'll give you one more tip that might prove useful; Rather than using bodies to practice one, get yourself a pack of white plastic spoons. They are generally made of the same type of plastic that model kits are made of, and can be had very cheaply. While they are not the same as using a body, they will help with getting technique down, and also allow you to test a given finish to see how it looks before you apply it to a kit body.

[Ace-Garageguy]

Bill's right about the spoons being great for testing colors and helping get your technique established, especially in figuring out how far away from the subject you need to have your spray head for each type of paint.

The only shortcoming with the spoons is that, in many cases, orange peel develops as successive coats are being overlapped when painting a body and a "wet edge" isn't maintained. Part of the technique you'll need to master is holding the body and rotating it (my method) or otherwise moving the spray-fan relative to the body, and getting smooth, even overlaps with each pass that melt into each other and level the adjacent pass. Painting an actual model car body is the best way to practice this, BUT...plastic soda bottles work very well as stand-ins for car bodies, for practice.

[1hobby1]

I have about 5 bodies to practice on. If I tape off half the car that gives me 10 practice sides to practice. I'm going to go with that for now, and its more fun painting a body than a spoon . But I have read that plastic spoons make great practice and I will try that out as well.

This was sprayed with Rustoleum Plastic Primer.

So today I washed and sanded down a practice body after paint stripping it with purple power. Here are my pictures of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd coat of primer.

1st. I sprayed about 6in away from body and it covered very smooth with a glossy finish.

Second coat went on 15min after first coat. It was also a wet coat and was smooth and glossy

Third coat went on 15min after the 2nd and I began to see some orange peel with this coat.

I will let it dry and air out for a couple days. From what I have read and been told I should sand this to smooth out the orange peel correct before applying paint?

Once again feel free to chime in with advice, this is becoming a very very helpful thread!
Thank you!

Edited September 3, 2014 by 1hobby1

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yes, that much peel will make your color coats look like hell. What kind of primer are you shooting? Coats one and 2 look really good. If there's no bodywork on your model that you need to fill with primer and re-sand to get rid of coarse scratches, you can probably get by with ONE primer coat if it's as lick as your first one. Do the toothbrush-Comet scuff (be sure to look for areas that may need blocking however) and paint.

You're getting a little heavy primer buildup at this point...starting to fill the rear door line,,,so you might want to strip her again.

[1hobby1]

I have 1/2 the car taped off so I can always try the other half with 2 coats and see the difference instead of constantly stripping the whole body. I am shooting with rustoleum plastic primer. Next time I am only going to do 2 coats though. the third was a little much for body lines. should I switch to the dupli color? I believe its called dupli color scratch filler primer now?

Also of now, Should I try sanding from 1800 threw 3200? to smooth it out for paint? and see the results?

thanks again Ace, Been a huge help!

[my80malibu]

To me the Rustoleum, and Krylon brands, come out to heavy.Therefore obscuring the details. Duplicolor is a better choice for Models,because it goes on thinner.dries faster, and is very forgiving.

[Ace-Garageguy]

should I switch to the dupli color? I believe its called dupli color scratch filler primer now?

Good question. Duplicolor makes basically 3 types of rattlecan lacquer primers.

1) SANDABLE: Gray, black, red, white. It's LOW BUILD, and dries quickly without a lot of film thickness. It's the one you want for bodies that have NO bodywork, or only very minimal sanding of mold lines, and shallow fills of sink-marks (sanded flat with 400-600 grit or finer). You can shoot 3 medium wet coats without ruining details. Shoot 2 slick coats and scrub with Comet, or block sand wet with 1000 grit or so, and you're ready for paint.

2) SCRATCH-FILLER, HIGH-BUILD, or FILLER PRIMER (it's been labeled all 3 at different times) gray, black, red, and white is a much heavier and thicker primer. It's made to fill sand scratches on real cars, and will fill 180 grit scratches on models well (but 400 grit or finer on your bodywork is better; the coarser paper you use to sand your bodywork before primer, the more the primer will tend to shrink into the scratches over time, and this is true on real cars too). You don't want to shoot an entire body with the stuff (unless it's a full-custom with no remaining molded details) because it will fill fine details as well as sanding scratches. BUT...it's excellent if used for what it's made for, which is filling sanding scratches and minor imperfections in bodywork. Be sure to let it flash off completely between coats. Sand it enough to remove any imperfections and re-prime as-necessary with either itself of the Sandable stuff.

This is two coats of Scratch-Filler primer over some heavy bodywork. I'll sand it with 600 wet, and re-prime it with the Sandable stuff (NOT more high build, unless there are local areas that need more filling).

This is Duplicolor Scratch-Filler on the frame, just-shot. It will shrink in and lose the sheen as it dries.

3) SELF-ETCHING is the other (third) kind of primer Duplicolor offers, and I've seen it in light green and black. It's a very thin-bodied primer with hot solvents. It MAY etch and craze plastic, so test it first. I like it for the color of the green, which is a good approximation of some recent factory E-coat primers (and SOME aircraft chromate primers) and I like the black because of its semi-flat appearance when dry. Not too flat.

The nice thing about the Duplicolor lacquer primers is that you can shoot just about any topcoat paint over them...lacquer, enamel, acrylics and hot real automotive paint (if you're careful).

Another example...this is Duplicolor Scratch-Filler (high build) over heavy bodywork. The top was chopped about 4 scale inches, all the chrome was removed, and the body lines were severely re-worked and blocked. It was shot wet, blocked, shot again, blocked, etc. I re-scribed the door lines between coats (should have darkened them too).

Same car, which was finish-primed with Duplicolor white Sandable primer (to make the color brighter than it would have been over gray), and wet-sanded with 1500 grit. 5 coats of Testors "One-Coat" lacquer, and 3 coats of Testors "wet-look" lacquer clear. The paint has not been fully sanded and polished in this shot.

Edited September 5, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[1hobby1]

Ace: Looks like sandable is my best bet for now (in my case) because I am way to new to modeling to be doing my own custom work like you. that is a stunning car by the way. I'm going to buy the dupli-color primer and try that out. Going to block sand down the primer I have on that half of my model and also see the outcome. Ill post pictures of both. hopefully this thread is helping others too! some great info on here!

[unclescott58]

Again, I've been getting no orange peel since switching lacquer.

Scott

[1hobby1]

I will be trying lacquer as well Scott. Thanks!

[1hobby1]

So today I had sometime to do some practice on some spare body's. The first is a Revell kit Trans Am. the body was not perfect whats so ever so I just wanted to practice good coverage. I sprayed closer than before and It covered the first coat great I almost didn't think I needed a seconded coat. Should I have sanded in between? I ask that because on my second coat It seemed to be to thick. I know spray cans spray more than model paint but like I said earlier in the thread I would like to get good with a spray can. This is still the rustoleum paint, but I will be purchasing dupli-color tomorrow for some more practice. Here are my practice results.

coat 1: minimal orange peel compared to my first paint job.

coat 2 : Very heavy coverage. I definitely sprayed to much. Live and learn!

Now This is another body I stripped and is a practice body. I do not know who made this kit but the Plastic on this was different from the Revell Plastic.
On this I used Rustoleum Sandable primer. The coverage was GREAT! smooth, and very forgiving and easy to work with. plus it dried very fast!

Then this happened. that good primer, not so good. Im still going to try it on a revell kit because this plastic was different. But the primer may be to "hot" for plastic.

Hopefully this helps other new model builders on the site! feel free to chime in!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Ah yes, the reason for always testing on a hidden part of the particular model you're working on rather than just assuming it will be OK and going ahead and painting. Well done, grasshopper.

Edited September 8, 2014 by Ace-Garageguy

[1hobby1]

Got some dupli-color primer and color today and sprayed two separate bodies. One with no clear and one with testors clear. I must say the results are much much better than the rustoleum products!

[Ace-Garageguy]

Yes, I thought you'd like it.

[1hobby1]

Yes, I thought you'd like it.

Sprays very very nice. Easy to control, I am sold on it. I am going to post some pictures tomorrow of the outcome. I also used Tamiya clear over it. came out great! (well for me atleast hahaha). Im going to try the polishing process on it as well.

[my80malibu]

Where Have I heard that before.

[1hobby1]

Here is the duplicolor Primer after 2 coats:

3 coats of paint, no clear:

Here is duplicolor paint with no primer under:

1st coat:

2nd:

3rd:

3 coats of clear:

[Speedfreak]

Coming along nicely. It's such a great feeling when painting starts to turn out well. Then you start to relax and it flows. I've only experienced this a couple of times recently I'm in the painting trenches too, and the mustard gas has been thick. Great thread btw.

Edited September 11, 2014 by Speedfreak

[bobthehobbyguy]

You've made a lot of progress. The new paint samples are looking better.

One thing to be aware of how soon you are shooting the clear coat. The tamiya and testors paint seems to be alcohol based ij fact you can strip them with rubbing alcohol. You want to make sure to allow the lacquer to outgas before you spray the clear. Out gassing means that the paint solvent needs time to evaporate completely. Lacquer dries from the outside in. To see if the lacquer has outgassed completely if you smell the paint and it has a strong smell it still has a lot of solvents in it.

Hope this makes sense.

[1hobby1]

You've made a lot of progress. The new paint samples are looking better.

One thing to be aware of how soon you are shooting the clear coat. The tamiya and testors paint seems to be alcohol based ij fact you can strip them with rubbing alcohol. You want to make sure to allow the lacquer to outgas before you spray the clear. Out gassing means that the paint solvent needs time to evaporate completely. Lacquer dries from the outside in. To see if the lacquer has outgassed completely if you smell the paint and it has a strong smell it still has a lot of solvents in it.

Hope this makes sense.

Great! thanks!

[sliferkiller]

So what was the verdict on the Rustoleum primer? I want to use it on a Revell body, but only if it works!

Also will the Tamiya clear be glossy after wax and polish or will i have to get the glossy clear for it to shine?

Edited September 14, 2014 by sliferkiller

[1hobby1]

So what was the verdict on the Rustoleum primer? I want to use it on a Revell body, but only if it works!

Also will the Tamiya clear be glossy after wax and polish or will i have to get the glossy clear for it to shine?

The Rustoleum plastic primer is ok. its thick though. The Rustoleum sandable primer is too 'hot' for plastics. It begins to craze. From what I've been guided towards, as well as used is the Duplicolor Primer and Paint. I'm a very big fan, in fact, I just sprayed another model with it today and once again good results.

For the clear, I used the Testors and it was pretty good. came out glossy and smooth. All depends how glossy you want the paint to be I guess. For me it was a good amount of shine without any wax. I was impressed.

I let one of the body's I had with duplicolor paint (no clear) gas out for a week and used the Rustoleum clear on it today and it had a much glossier look. I did one pretty wet coat and it was enough.

The Model I am on now is a 66 Shelby GT350 and I want to have the stripe decals. I'm probably going to use the testors clear because it doesn't spray out as thick as the rustoleum so it will be easier to control. But if I do a body with no decals on it I think the Rustoleum clear may be my first choice.

If there is one thing I learned is trial and error. This is what has worked for me with practice models. I just painted the GT350 (which is not a practice car) and it came out way better than my first car. I'll post some pictures of it later or tomorrow.

[Speedfreak]

You're doing a good job with this Tim. I'm following along to learn.

[1hobby1]

Here is duplicolor primer and duplicolor universal black with no clear coat.

Edited September 15, 2014 by 1hobby1

[1hobby1]

Been a while but I'm back with another question! So I've been working on this 66' shelby gt350 and I never applied decals on a body before. So today I went for it. Did it come out perfect? No, but much better than expected for my first time. Anyways, the decals are drying on the body and I was wondering if I NEED to clear coat the body with the decals OR can it stay as is with no clear coat? The clear would be Testors spray lacquer. Any words of advice would help greatly! Thanks!