question about colors

[youpey]

I am testing some colors out for my model. i am looking at tamiya light blue pearl.

 

i had an idea that if i used a different color base coat under the light blue pearl, it might slightly alter the color. however, i tried 4 different colors, a silver, aqua blue, green/gray and white primer. the only difference i see between the colors, is the one with the white primer is just slightly lighter than the others. i would have thought changing the base coat color could have altered the color a bit. i was hoping a the aqua would have given it a slightly blueish tint,  but it  didnt happen. 

 

is it possible to do what i am doing with spray paints? or do i need to use my airbrush and alter the color before hand?

[Snake45]

Every paint is a law unto itself. Some paints will exhibit lots of change in the test you did; others will hardly change at all. You did the right thing by testing. 

If you have an airbrush and want the paint bluer than it is now, then by all means add some blue to the paint and airbrush away! 

[gman]

Much of determining how a certain colour is going to look over a particular base coat will depend on the thickness of the paint coats, and the number of paint coats in total. Most metallic and pearl paints are translucent, so if you apply a couple of thin coats the base coat will have a bigger impact on the final colour than the same paint will with several coats.

If you need a large difference in colour, it may be best to decant and mix according to your needs- if you go this route, mix up more than you think you will need, should you find the project will need more coats, or allow for touch-ups.

[peteski]

Most non-candy paints are quite opaque, but even if the top coat is translucent enough to show some of the underlying color, it will be hard to produce even color over the entire model (because paint seldom goes on in an even thickens over the entire model). The thicker areas of the top color will allow less of the underlying color to show through.

Every paint is different, but if you want to achieve certain color, one sure way to do this is to mix those two  different color paints (in a liquid form)  together, to get the shade you want.  Of course both paints have to be compatible to be mixed.

Edited April 17, 2021 by peteski

[NOBLNG]

Here is a sample of the effect of four different colour primers. The paint is Tamiya LP-46 Pure Metallic Red in the little bottles airbrushed. All were sprayed with equal coats...I don’t recall how many, likely two.

This is Tamiya TS-60 pearl green aerosol that I decanted and airbrushed. It covered the red oxide primer in pretty much one coat. The only way to know for sure is to experiment.

Edited April 17, 2021 by NOBLNG