GeeBee

only managed a few builds this year, the black Mini was a tamiya Mini Cooper I converted to a basic Mini, the other two are Austin cooper S models

Just bought myself one of these, there made in China, (but then what isn't these days ?) by the Fenghua Bida Machinery Manufacture Co. Sits nicely under my desk, gives plenty of power and is pretty quiet, you can talk quiet easily while it's switched on, I know a lot of people bang on about Iwata, but the cheapest Iwata over here was £250.00, and then it only had a small 450 c.c airtank, I paid 75.00 for mine, has a 3 litre airtank, no contest !

I've never used it, so can't comment on it's quality, but they don't need thinning, they are designed for screwing straight to your airbrush, and working without adding any thinners.

I never spray from the can, I usually get mine mixed in 100mls, and delivered in small bottles, but if I do find the correct shade in aerosol I always decant the paint into a glass jar and add a small glass ball to the jar, which helps mix the paint later.

is this the one ? http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=35623

I pretty much use Dupli Color paints to paint my bodyshells all the time, although I rarely use a clearcoat, as I prefer to polish out the paint which I think looks more like the factory finish for the models I build, I have used there clearcoat a few times, and had no problems with it.

Here's a few shot's of mine, the spraybooth and the desk it sits on are new,

Paasche also do a compressor with an airtank, model # D300R, I've just bought the same unit, but not branded as Paasche here in the U.K, but very quiet, I've also got there spraybooth, (HB-16-13)again, not branded as Paasche over here, which I will only be using acylic's with it, I will wait until the warmer weather to spray with lacquers and spray them in the booth I have in the garage, but it's way too cold to go out there this time of year, the Paasche seems a good booth and a little bit bigger than I though it would be, for the price I can't think of anything else that comes near.

The only time I buy paint in aerosol form is if the local auto store has the correct shade on the shelf, which I then decant into a glass jar for airbrushing, you have to let the paint de-gas for a while, but it's already thinned for spraying.

Looking good Steve, can't wait to see more, might pump into you at Scale Modelworld, I'm there on the Saturday

For most of the time for spraying bodyshells I use regular cellulose or single pack acrylic lacquer which I get mixed up in small quantities, yes it smells really bad, and you need a respirator at all times, not easy to clean up, but the results for me are worth it. For painting small parts I use either Tamiya acrylics, Revell enamels, Citadel (Games Workshop)Paints and even artist acrylics,when mixed with the correct airbrush thinners gives a slow but good coverage, some of the colour range you just can't get in hobby paints.

Which is why I went for the glass marbles, if they work with the cellulose I work with, they should be fine with acrylic's

If your looking for aerosol paint, then the Halfords paint is very good, but these days I don't use them, I much prefer to use an airbrush and buy my paints from either http://www.cartouchuppaint.co.uk/ or http://www.paints4u.com/ these paints come un-mixed, so you need some cellulose thinners to thin them down and to clean out the airbrush afterwards.

there was a problem I think down to the labelling of the contents, the TS paints are just coming back in stock, but still no sign of the AS paints yet

I ran out of BMF while I was building this, and no one had it in stock this side of the pond, managed to come across a roll of this aluminium tape, and it worked a treat

The 60 ML bottles I buy in have a small BB supplied, although I still haven't used them yet

Yes, just regular glass marbles, cheap to buy Although for smaller jars, BB's are perhaps the way to go

Most of my bottles of paint apart from the smaller one's have a glass ball, which helps when the paint has settled for a time

In the early 90's I travelled to Omaha, Nebraska to see the Big Boy they had there, and it was massive, next to it they had the later Union pacific DD, which was a monster ....

Very nice clean build, what kit is this ? and scale,

Very nice, paint turned out very good, did you put a clearcoat over it ?

There 1/12th Mini actually represents a 1992 Rover Mini Cooper 1.3i, which is a totally different animal to the 60's Mini's, but if you need any help with reference, etc, give me a shout.

Yes, sorry bit of a typo' there, yes they are small wool mops that fit in the minicraft drill, it's easy to burn through if your too heavy with it, Mr bean Mini is already being planned,

This is the Tamiya Morris Mini Cooper kit with a few modifications to take it from the post 1966 to an earlier Cooper S, one thing that needed changing was the door handles and safety boss fitted to the later Mini's, I needed to do this as I want to paint it in Surf Blue, a colour that was replaced by island Blue on the later cars, paint was standard cellulose paint, as used on the real thing. Interior and seats were painted using artist acrylic paint, they grey is tamiya XF-19 Engine was painted using Vauxhall leaf green acrylis and detail parts were done using Tamiya acrylics Mini Coopers had 9 hole wheels, the wheels supplied just have an indent where the holes are supposed to be, the instructions tell you to use flat black to make them stand out, i prefered to drill them out just like the real thing The bodyshell was painting in Surf blue cellulose, left to dry then machine polished with a minicraft drill and some woll mops, using Poorboys SSR2 polishing compound, then hand polished using meguires NXT tech wax.

I bought this months TMW, haven't had chance to read it yet, but look forward to reading the article on you build ...