cinifiend

Is airbrushing the only way to get a decent finish on a large area of a model? I've been trying for ages to paint the interior or a car and it has a large flat surfice. I've tried tamiya paints and vallejo paints. I've tried thinning/watering down both and nothing gives a good flat solid finish. Is it even possible to get a decent finish with hand brushing?

I also have a bunch of vallejo game colour paints left over from my warhammer days. They are a few years old but should still be good. As I recall these paints were pretty nice to work with and you were able to water them down without using thinner. How do these compare to Tamiya paints?

Thanks for the advice so far guys. Great tips. I am worried about sanding the model after it is painted? Even with 1500 grit sandpaper if i'm not careful it will still run down to the plastic. Also the guy at the hobby store told me to buy ICE automotive wax and said it works well with models. Do you guys think that will work fine with hobby paints?

I have experience with games workshop/warhammer 40,000 models and have been painting these for over 5 years now am I am able to produce near show piece work. I have mostly used GW water based acrylic paints and I am used to watering down paints and applying many thin layers to get great paint jobs. I recently bought a Tamiya model to try my hand at painting a nissan 350z and my results have been pretty bad so far. I realize that since this is my first model car it won't be perfect but I am still disappointed with the results so far in terms of paint job. I bought a whole bunch of Tamiya paints and I primed the parts I wanted to paint with tamiya gray primer. The guy at the hobby store told me that you can't water down tamiya paints and you have to use thinner. I tried applying the paints right out of the bottle to the plastic and it left me with solid colours but a chunky finish. I then tried thining down the paints and applying multiple layers of black and it left me with a finish that was somewhat smooth, but different shades of black which looks bad. The metallics seemed to go on a lot easier and covered the surface easier, but the finish was still somewhat lumpy. What am I doing wrong here? What is the proper way to work with these paints to get a professional looking finish? Can anyone give me some advice here? Are there any good newbie guides online I should read?