What procedure/order do I use these products ?

[rob1957]

Hello . Finished painting my ' 70 Plymouth GTX . I've got my Tamiya polishing compunds here , Coarse , Fine , Finish , my Testors Spray Lacquer and my Tamiya modeling wax .

I'm already to go but have no clue as to what sequence I am going to use these in . Also have my Bare Metal Foil to do , I think I do that last .

Did I waste my money on some of these products ? Our local hobby shop is limited in what they carry so I have no choice as to what I can get .

 Thanks.

[tbill]

Normally, on a solid color, I will wet sand the base color with 2000 grit, once happy with that, I clear coat, depending on how that lays down, I may wet sand each coat, or just wet sand the last coat. I will usually wet sand the clear with 2000, 3000 and then 5000 grit. Once that’s done, I have two compounds I use, one is an aggressive /rough cut polish, that usually gets 90% of the surface smooth/glossy, then I go over it again with a fine polish to finish it off. Once all that fun work is done, I do the foil work. I also buff the foil with some of the fine polish, it really makes the foil pop.

[Casey]

3 hours ago, rob1957 said:

Testors Spray Lacquer

Tamiya polishing compunds: Coarse , Fine , Finish

Tamiya modeling wax.

^That order.

[Snake45]

10 minutes ago, Casey said:

^That order.

Agree. But you could probably save yourself a buttload of time and eliminate at least one of the polishes if you'd wet-sand the clear lacquer with #1000-#2000 grit paper before any polishing. 

[rob1957]

Thanks for the advice everyone , I appreciate your help , we'll give it a go and see how we make out .

Paint job is Tamiya X-15 light green , closest we could match from our local hobby shop inventory . Looks good though .

 Air-brushed the " stripe" in middle of hood with Tamiya XF-1 flat black . Quite the contrast with the green .

 OK, when I'm wet sanding am I going to stay away from the flat black on the hood ?

 We picked up this packette of waterproof finishing paper  : 320 , 400 , 600 , 1000 , 2000 , 4000 , 6000 and 12,000 . 10$ CDN.

 When we would we be inclined to use the 6000 and 12,000 paper ?

  Robert.

[Casey]

Please read this:

http://italianhorses.net/Tutorials/PerfectPaint/paint.htm

[tbill]

I get my sand paper from the local auto parts store. I also got my meguires polish there ( 105 and 205). As for the flat black, do you plan to clear over it? Or have you cleared already, and then applied the black ?

this is what I get with the process I mentioned

 

[rob1957]

I applied the flat black then cleared over it , looking at it now that might have been a mistake . All part of the learning curve it seems .

Nice finish and foil job on that car Tom , looks great , well done .

Thanks for the link Casey , lots of helpful direction there .

[Snake45]

21 minutes ago, rob1957 said:

I applied the flat black then cleared over it , looking at it now that might have been a mistake . All part of the learning curve it seems .

After you get your polishing done, you can mask off your nice shiny paint and shoot the flat black with either a clear matte coat or just more flat black. 

[Michael jones]

I don't bother with sanding. The most important thing is to apply the base coat/clear in the best way possible to reduce orange peel. With lacquer this would be done with Mr Levelling thinner and also applying very wet without runs (very hard to do well) after some mist coats to tack it up. The photos below are 2k clear with no sanding - which is probably the easiest to get this kind of finish.

 

So I guess my answer would be concentrate more on getting a good finish from the airbrush rather than the finishing products.

[tbill]

4 hours ago, Michael jones said:

I don't bother with sanding. The most important thing is to apply the base coat/clear in the best way possible to reduce orange peel. With lacquer this would be done with Mr Levelling thinner and also applying very wet without runs (very hard to do well) after some mist coats to tack it up. The photos below are 2k clear with no sanding - which is probably the easiest to get this kind of finish.

 

So I guess my answer would be concentrate more on getting a good finish from the airbrush rather than the finishing products.

Those are fantastic finishes, but, until one can figure out the ‘sweet spot’ of paint application, they have to know how to fix the orange peel, dry spots, dust nib removal etc., and we all know that’s a heck of a learning curve, lol.

again, fantastic paint work on those!

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, tbill said:

Those are fantastic finishes, but, until one can figure out the ‘sweet spot’ of paint application, they have to know how to fix the orange peel, dry spots, dust nib removal etc., and we all know that’s a heck of a learning curve, lol.

again, fantastic paint work on those!

Agree completely. "There are many paths to the top of the mountain," and unless and until one finds that sure, smooth path, most of us will have to slog up the slow, rough way. 

[Michael jones]

To be honest the above paint finishes are not perfect and do have dust etc in the paint. However for the amount of effort involved and lack of any risky sanding, they strike a good balance. Especially with 2k clear, you generally can just follow the instructions and as long as you get it wet enough on the final coat, you will get this kind of finish consistently.

 

[Snake45]

1 hour ago, Michael jones said:

To be honest the above paint finishes are not perfect and do have dust etc in the paint. 

Aha! There ya go. Even if you CAN get a smooth "effortless" finish, it's good to know how to sand and polish out paint boogers, as they WILL happen. 

[tbill]

Not to mention, ultimately, wet sanding and polishing helps the way light is refracted off the surface. Unsanded paint/clear has little peaks and valleys, sanded/polished surfaces are smooth , so the light reacts differently. In my experience, the final product ( the paint job) when wet sanded and polished , looks deeper.

[peteski]

On 10/17/2019 at 12:57 PM, Michael jones said:

I don't bother with sanding. The most important thing is to apply the base coat/clear in the best way possible to reduce orange peel. With lacquer this would be done with Mr Levelling thinner and also applying very wet without runs (very hard to do well) after some mist coats to tack it up. The photos below are 2k clear with no sanding - which is probably the easiest to get this kind of finish.

 

So I guess my answer would be concentrate more on getting a good finish from the airbrush rather than the finishing products.

Another modeler here who just shoots paint and doesn't bother with sanding, polishing, rubbing-out, waxing . . .

Nail polish over Tamiya Fine White primer and a Testors Wet Look clear.

The finish is not flawless (but even polished out bodies usually have flaws - I don't believe that there is a such thing as a perfect flawless finish), but I just can't justify spending all that additional time and elbow grease to achieve almost-perfection, when I'm already close to it.  I have sanded and polished out some major imperfections on couple of models, but I did not do the entire body (just the areas with the boogers).  I have even glued a chip of paint that came off an A-pillar of one of my models, but unless I point it out, you won't find it (or at least judges never fund it).

I agree with Michael that striving to achieve the best finish directly out of the airbrush or spray can should be the ultimate goal. But in the meantime I guess some sanding and polishing will have to be done

 

Edited October 22, 2019 by peteski

[Michael jones]

It looks beautiful Peteski. It looks like you have got the technique down for the clear coat.

A little side story - my models sat in a show for 2 days recently and were covered in dust by the end anyway. Even the judges would not be able to tell if the tiny dust particles were part of the model or not  . Worse on white or light coloured cars. Normally my cars sit in a cabinet where they are only seen by me or my family.

I do agree there are times where you must sand a specific spot to fix dust etc. But if you have to do the whole car, you probably need to change your technique and allow the paint to flow more whether by retarding the paint or by spraying closer/moving slower/more paint.