tamiya pearl white paint ts-45

[youpey]

i have on order the tamiya pearl white paint (ts-45). do i have to spray that any differently vs any other tamiya ts paint?

basically, i just do a primer coat, and 1 or 2 light coats, and then one gloss coat. is the pearl paint the same steps?

 

Do i need to put a bottom color below it, like silver or anything first? or just the primer

[Plowboy]

It sprays the same as the other TS paints. You want to use white primer or paint as a base. If there are any spots on the body that are a different color such as putty, you'll want to spray a coat of gray to get everything one color before white primer. Also, you need to spray the hood with the body even with the gray primer. I learned that lesson just recently. The Pearl White is very transparent. Any variance in shade on the base color will show through. I guarantee it!

[RichCostello]

I've noticed that it has so much pearl to it that it almost looks silver. I do kind of like it though.

[youpey]

23 minutes ago, Plowboy said:

It sprays the same as the other TS paints. You want to use white primer or paint as a base. If there are any spots on the body that are a different color such as putty, you'll want to spray a coat of gray to get everything one color before white primer. Also, you need to spray the hood with the body even with the gray primer. I learned that lesson just recently. The Pearl White is very transparent. Any variance in shade on the base color will show through. I guarantee it!

thankfully the body is all one piece. 

i am going to have to spray it on a test piece. the color of the real car looks like plain white. if the pearl is not perfectly white, i will just use the tamiya pure white. i think i have one of those still

 

thanks guys

Edited February 17, 2021 by youpey

[Plowboy]

One coat of Pearl White is all you'll need over a good white base color. Then you can add clear. This is one coat over white.

Even though I painted it all together, the hood and trunk were off a shade. You can see how transparent the Pearl White is by the tape in the windows.

[Tommy124]

5 hours ago, Plowboy said:

One coat of Pearl White is all you'll need over a good white base color. Then you can add clear. This is one coat over white.

Even though I painted it all together, the hood and trunk were off a shade. You can see how transparent the Pearl White is by the tape in the windows.

I have never used TS-45 Pearl White before, but I am wondering if there might be a mix-up with TS-65 Pearl CLEAR. 

[Plowboy]

1 hour ago, Tommy124 said:

I have never used TS-45 Pearl White before, but I am wondering if there might be a mix-up with TS-65 Pearl CLEAR. 

No. I've used Clear Pearl a few times as well as the Pearl White. The Pure White is also pretty transparent. I had to strip a paint job with Pure White once when I sanded through the white primer to the styrene. I could see the difference in shade between the two. But, I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Three coats of paint and I could still see the spot.

[youpey]

1 hour ago, Plowboy said:

No. I've used Clear Pearl a few times as well as the Pearl White. The Pure White is also pretty transparent. I had to strip a paint job with Pure White once when I sanded through the white primer to the styrene. I could see the difference in shade between the two. But, I thought it wouldn't be a problem. Three coats of paint and I could still see the spot.

i had the an issue on the kit i am finishing now with the pure white. i could see differences in the paint that took me a lot of work to fix, but i finally got it. i thought i was going to need to strip it and go again, but thankfully just using course tamiya compound was able to get things squared away. basically i sanded and sprayed and sanded and sprayed, and finally just used compound and sprayed and that seemed to help. there is a tiny swirl mark in the paint, that i should be able to fix after the clear coat. 

i had messed it up by buying the tamiya foam sandpaper from amazon. i am pretty sure it was imitation or something because the 1500 grit basically put scrapes in the paint really badly. i thought i had gotten it all squared away, but there was one mark that was just dull on the white. i think most other colors wouldnt have been an issue with it.  teaches me to buy from 3rd party people on amazon.

tonight i will do the decals on the body and clear it. unfortunately it was a very expensive kit, so i was determined to get it right because i wasnt buying another. although most kits are at the point.

Edited February 17, 2021 by youpey

[charlie8575]

I like the 3000 grit sanding foam from Tamiya. It may still remove some paint on the high spots, but it really knocks down a lot of imperfections. I used it on some of their TS-14 gloss black spray last night, and will apply one more coat today while it's not too cold out (although I'll probably heat the can first to spare myself any surprises). The coarser foam is good for sanding primer. I do find using soapy water helps reduce excessive paint removal.

Charlie Larkin

[Dave Van]

The pearl over Tamiya white primer.......

I taped off the roof and left it. I like it.

Edited February 17, 2021 by Dave Van

[Deuces ll]

Woh!..... 😮😎👍

[cobraman]

Funny you mention that color . I just finished painting the top section of this truck with it . First I primed with Duplicolor white primer  then the Tamiya followed by 3 coats of Tamiya clear . Has not been polished . 

[Bernard Kron]

I guess I'll have to differ with comments so far regarding Tamiya Pearl White. I agree that it's very transparent and sensitive to irregularities in the color underneath It is absolutely mandatory to put down a good, even coat of white underneath. The comment above to seal the body with an even gray primer before applying white primer is excellent advice.

Where I differ is that I've always considered Tamiya Pearl White TS-45 not iridescent enough. I've done a few cars using TS-45 and it always comes out looking more like Just Plain White than anything. That is to say it doesn't sparkle or color shift enough when it catches the light. It's not a very strong pearlescent. I'm just finishing a project where the base color was Tamiya TS-45 over Duplicolor white primer and Duplicolor Universal White. Like all Tamiya spray paint it when down smooth and even with no trouble, but even after three coats of TS-45 it hardly changed in depth. I plan to experiment by  laying down several coats of TS-64 Pearl Clear over TS-45 to see if it improves things. I tried that briefly on some scrap plastic but didn't get past 2 coats of pearl clear, although I didn't experience any real improvement. I also want to try TS-45 over a coarse siver flake followed by TS-64 to see what that does. In all these cases I followed up wth at least 3 coats of TS-13 gloss clear and that only added a bit mor depth, but no iridescence.

[Dave72]

2 hours ago, cobraman said:

Funny you mention that color . I just finished painting the top section of this truck with it . First I primed with Duplicolor white primer  then the Tamiya followed by 3 coats of Tamiya clear . Has not been polished . 

Nice looking build Ray! Paint looks amazing. What are those wheels from?

[cobraman]

Those wheels are by Acme and I bought them on the bay.

[youpey]

So since pearl white is almost silver. Would clear pearl over tamiya pure white give me a white car with pearl

[Plowboy]

1 hour ago, youpey said:

So since pearl white is almost silver. Would clear pearl over tamiya pure white give me a white car with pearl

Pearl White isn't almost silver. The whiter the base color is, the whiter the Pearl White will be. I had to shoot three coats of white primer over the gray to get a good "true" white.

Pearl Clear over Pure White or even white primer would give you a Pearl White. In my Mercury build thread, Eric Smith and Carl Slusher mentioned spraying TS-13 over white primer to get a good gloss white. So, Pearl Clear should work as well.

[Dave72]

23 hours ago, cobraman said:

Those wheels are by Acme and I bought them on the bay.

Thanks! I’ll take a look.

[Plowboy]

On 2/19/2021 at 7:28 PM, Bernard Kron said:

I guess I'll have to differ with comments so far regarding Tamiya Pearl White. I agree that it's very transparent and sensitive to irregularities in the color underneath It is absolutely mandatory to put down a good, even coat of white underneath. The comment above to seal the body with an even gray primer before applying white primer is excellent advice.

Where I differ is that I've always considered Tamiya Pearl White TS-45 not iridescent enough. I've done a few cars using TS-45 and it always comes out looking more like Just Plain White than anything. That is to say it doesn't sparkle or color shift enough when it catches the light. It's not a very strong pearlescent. I'm just finishing a project where the base color was Tamiya TS-45 over Duplicolor white primer and Duplicolor Universal White. Like all Tamiya spray paint it when down smooth and even with no trouble, but even after three coats of TS-45 it hardly changed in depth. I plan to experiment by  laying down several coats of TS-64 Pearl Clear over TS-45 to see if it improves things. I tried that briefly on some scrap plastic but didn't get past 2 coats of pearl clear, although I didn't experience any real improvement. I also want to try TS-45 over a coarse siver flake followed by TS-64 to see what that does. In all these cases I followed up wth at least 3 coats of TS-13 gloss clear and that only added a bit mor depth, but no iridescence.

I have to disagree with you Bernard. Besides the mismatched panels, the Pearl White on my Mercury had the perfect effect. Pearl White is a subtle color even in full scale. My wife has a Pearl White '13 Edge. Twenty feet away, it looks like plain old white. Up closer, you can make out the pearl in it. You have to be really close and view it at angles to see the iridescence.

The way I gauge a paint job on a model, be it a pearl or a metallic, is if it's visible in a photo in natural light in the shade, it's too much. If it only shows in the sunlight, it's right. Take your model outside in bright sunlight. I guarantee you'll see a huge difference. If you're still not satisfied with it, try the Testors White Lightning. It has a bit too much pearl IMO. But, it may be what you're looking for.