paint keeps dissapearing out of the door/turnk lines.

[lanesteele240]

i am using tamiya red spray can over tamiya primer. the primer dried for a week. i put down a very light paint coat in the areas around doors and trunk lines. i let it tack and i sprayed the second coat of red paint. the door lines became pink. Should i forge on with a third coat or is it punt time. what did i do wrong? Should i may de-can the paint and air brush in the door lines. i have not had this problem when airbrushing other cars.

[Zoom Zoom]

It happens sometimes w/Tamiya sprays; being lacquer it can melt the layer below it, and their pigment isn't terribly dense. Spraying from the spray can may cause enough of the lacquer "melting" around high spots around panel lines that it can be annoying.

Decanting does help tremendously; allows you to build up layers of paint in much thinner coats with a lot more precision. It still won't guarantee zero pullback around panel lines if you get a final coat a bit too wet, but since I've been decanting & airbrushing (I decant Tamiya the vast majority of the time) it hasn't happened to me.

You probably have a perfectly good paint job going...wetsand what you have now for another coat, decant some of the red, respray and fill in the light areas, slowly build up to final wetter coats. Don't fall into the typical trap of stripping perfectly good paint that has a flaw or two. Flaws can usually be fixed, and a flawless paint job is pretty rare even in perfect conditions.

[Karmodeler2]

Hey Gary,

I have to agree with Bob. (and he knows a little bit about paint since he has a book on how to use an airbrush). You will save yourself a TON of grief if you take the paint out of the can and use it in an air brush. It will go 3 times as far (trust me) and the pigments will cover much better.

A little note about the Tamiya paints. They are so great, but the sprays come with an extremely volatile propellent and that is what you are fighting. That propellent is great for spraying out of a can but has a nasty tendency to pull paint away from the edges of panels (yellow is the worst). If you decant it, you will eliminate your problem.

What I'm about to tell you works 100% of the time, but don't tell anyone I told you to do this. I do it all the time and even demo for others, but you didn't hear it from me. I take a fresh can of Tamiya. I don't even take the cap off. I turn it upside down, pop the plastic on it, cover it with a paper towel and hold it between my knees. I place a sharp awl on the bottom of the can and rest it between the bottom and the lip that is on the bottom. I hit the awl with a hammer while holding it tight against the bottom of the can. While I continue to hold the awl, I will vary the angle of the awl, and start to allow some air out. I close the hole. Move it again, let a little out, close it again. Repeat until all the air is out. At this point, set it aside for at LEAST 45 minutes and let it gas out. That propellent is so volatile that if you start to pour it out, it will spew everywhere (trust me, unfortunately I know). You can even see the gasses rising up from the bottom of the can like asphalt in the desert. When you 45 minutes are up, punch another hole 180 degrees from your first one. (let's the paint flow out easy) Pour it in to two 2 OZ. jars (yes, I told you there was alot of paint in there). It will fill up one and half of the other. Let them gas out for another 30 minutes before putting the tops on the jars. You will be amazed at what coverage you get when you do this. I could not believe it when someone told me.

And, there is a pretty blue marble in the can, if you collect marbles.

David

[Modelmartin]

De-canting rocks! Digging the marbles, too!

[Guest]

Another thing that may be happening is this, since your issue is along panel lines, when a body is pulled from the mold, if it is still a bit warm, the mold can lpull some of the plastic, and leave small ridges you cand see along the lines, but you can ffeel them. Lightly block sanding along the panel lines will remove them. Paint will be pulled away from those ridges, when you block sand, they disappear, and the paint can lay flat. Hope this makes sense.

[Rat Fink]

I place a sharp awl on the bottom of the can and rest it between the bottom and the lip that is on the bottom. I hit the awl with a hammer while holding it tight against the bottom of the can. While I continue to hold the awl, I will vary the angle of the awl, and start to allow some air out. I close the hole. Move it again, let a little out, close it again. Repeat until all the air is out. At this point, set it aside for at LEAST 45 minutes and let it gas out.

David

David wouldn't it be safer to turn the can upside down and spray the propellant out the nozzle?

[MrObsessive]

First---------NEVER POKE A HOLE INTO A "SUPPOSEDLY" EMPTY PAINT CAN!! There's no telling how much of the propellant is still left in the can and unless you like being covered (and everything else) with paint, I say go for it!

Here's what I use to decant paint into an airbrush jar..................

Quick and easy with no mess!

Also, as far as block sanding your body (which I highly recommend), get yourself some balsa wood. You can cut it into various sizes with a coping saw-------it's excellent for getting the ripples, dips and dives out of your bodywork. As the others have mentioned, this will go a long way to keep paint from drawing away from your door lines. If you're painting candies.........this is ESSENTIAL!

Hope all this helps!

[MikeMc]

Love the Balsa wood tip Bill.....should work better than a rubber block!!

[Zoom Zoom]

Oh jeez, another thread about can poking

I have excellent results decanting whatever quantity I need via a straw; I found a package of translucent almost-neon-colored bendy straws at the grocery store that friction-fit nice and snug on a Tamiya nozzle. I spray into an open mixing cup and let the propellant gas-out for a few minutes. Add a few drops of Mr. Color Thinner (or Tamiya lacquer thinner), and I'm good to go.

My spray cans remain usable as a spray cans until it empty, I only decant enough for what I need at the moment. I'm not ready to become a potential Darwin award recipient (or have a video on Funny or Die) so I have no need to decant paint in any other fashion

[MikeMc]

Please guys listen to Bob.....after all He DID write the book!!!

[Karmodeler2]

To all those that responded to my method of decanting....

I don't know what you are talking about. I told you.....you did not hear it from me.

But if you did hear it from me, you would hear that I use ALL the paint that I decant (that's why I decant it ALL) and rarely use spray cans for spraying. I have much better results with my airbrush and that's what I like to use. Others may use what they want.

As far as poking a hole in a can. If you read carefully, you will see how I do it. I'm not going to be a "non safety" guy, but I will tell you that a Tamiya can will not blow up on you if you poke it on bottom near the edge. There is not enough pressure in there to cause the can to explode. Think about it. If that were the case, they would be ticking time bombs just waiting to go off if they were punctured during loading and unloading at the dock. Sure they are going to spew paint (duh...it's under pressure....but not that much pressure. And the union between the bottom and the side where it has been crimped is one of the strongest parts of the can.

You do it your way. I do it mine. I have been doing this for over 10 years and never had one explode........yet. And for all those that believe what you are told about paint cans.......don't read the next line.

I even do it with full size primers and paints. Really, it's no big deal IF you know what you are doing. I hate the straw and pressure relief method with the nozzle. Just not my style. May be yours, just not mine.

Now, I must go and wipe off all the paint that just exploded on me.

David

[Karmodeler2]

you have your way. I have mine.

And the way I was saying "you didn't hear it from me" was sarcasm because I was denying it. (DUH)

I don't want to be blamed for someone's incompetence.

And for me, my method works for me. 10 years and counting.

[brett]

I use the straw method as well but I found the cotton swabs I use or BMF have the perfect size straw for most spray can nozzles. So after you've done your foiling snip off the cotton heads and store the shaft for your next decanting session. Not knocking Daves method ,have used in the past but once I found the safer method thought I rather stick with that.

[lanesteele240]

thanks for the tips everyone!!!! sorry i got a fight started

[Karmodeler2]

here's my concern with puncturing the can. one of the younger members or even guests here reads your recommendation and decides to give it a try. he takes a can of spray paint into his room or out into the back yard and hammers his dads awl or a nail he found in the garage into the bottom of the can and it explodes. it either kills him or causes serious injury. now how do you feel about your method? you can claim sarcasm all you want, i really don't think an investigator or lawyer will find it amusing, but i do think they would use it against you.

if it works for you then good for you. if you hurt or kill yourself that's your problem. by recommending that method as well as demonstrating it you now make it your problem as well when something does go bad for someone that took your advice.

i have to ask too, is it really worth taking that risk just to paint a model car?

Dave

If you, or someone you know, dies from poking a hole in a Tamiya can, I will pay for the funeral. Happy now?....probably not. And you can't regulate stupidity. GIve the government time, though. They have been pretty good at regulating everything.

David

[Duntov]

Interesting thread on Tamiya paint. I really like it a lot but have not tried to decant it as of yet. I like Bill Geary's method the best.....but one ohter question....do you thin it or just shoot as is with the airbrush?

Thanks

Regards Bill (Duntov)

[charlie8575]

Interesting thread on Tamiya paint. I really like it a lot but have not tried to decant it as of yet. I like Bill Geary's method the best.....but one ohter question....do you thin it or just shoot as is with the airbrush?

Thanks

Regards Bill (Duntov)

Most people I know who decant hit the paint with a couple of eye-droppers of lacquer thinner, but it's not always needed. You want it to leave a thin coating on the jar...think milk swished around in a glass.

Charlie Larkin

[MrObsessive]

Interesting thread on Tamiya paint. I really like it a lot but have not tried to decant it as of yet. I like Bill Geary's method the best.....but one ohter question....do you thin it or just shoot as is with the airbrush?

Thanks

Regards Bill (Duntov)

Bill, if it comes out the can, it oughta come out the airbrush! Like Charlie said, you may have to add just a bit of thinner..............sometimes depends on the color too I've learned over the years, and how long the paint has been in said can.

BTW, I've had difficulty spraying with Tamiya cans in the past. IMO, they use waaaaay too much propellant in their sprays, which can lead to a lot of little air bubbles embedded in your paint if you're not careful.

At least if you decant it, you can let it gas out and minimize the air bubbles problem when airbrushing.

[MrObsessive]

That was probably the case Mark as I tried Tamiya's paint years ago when it first came out, and had that problem. I was able to get rid of the bubbles (it was on a Tamiya Morgan), but then another thing I wasn't crazy about is the paint is too soft for my tastes.

I noticed this especially when it came time to rub certain areas out, and then the paint rubbed off as if it was a water color. For the cost and the amount you get, I'll just stick to the automotive paints.

[lanesteele240]

i tried the decanting method with a straw and airbrushed the lines in my car. it worked great. it did take about 3 hrs for the paint to gas off all of the propellant. found that out the hard way after i closed the lid 2hrs into to the process. paint went every where. i will post pics when i get back from a trip to Va. beach. thanks for the tips. i love this site

[Duntov]

Bill, if it comes out the can, it oughta come out the airbrush! Like Charlie said, you may have to add just a bit of thinner..............sometimes depends on the color too I've learned over the years, and how long the paint has been in said can.

BTW, I've had difficulty spraying with Tamiya cans in the past. IMO, they use waaaaay too much propellant in their sprays, which can lead to a lot of little air bubbles embedded in your paint if you're not careful.

At least if you decant it, you can let it gas out and minimize the air bubbles problem when airbrushing.

Thanks Bill!!!

Regards

Bill (Duntov)