Dave G.

Ultimately, it seems that's the conclusion most of us get around too. In my case it was 1975, after 15 or so years of rattle cans.

A quick search online will get you the Duplicolor.. One place I saw listing your lighter green was Autozone. But the only thing with this route is often the metallic flakes are out of scale, making the finish appear metal flake in 1/25th. Just sayin.

The One Shot sounds interesting. But honestly in over 60 years of building models, many of those years using enamel, I can off the top of head count on one hand how many times I fully clear coated a model. And most of those yellowed. Enamel comes out so nice without clear, and I build mostly really old classic cars, so not much need for clear. And my experience with clear enamel, is that yellowing. These days, I may or may not use enamel depending on mood. But I have to agree with the poster who suggests the LP lacquers. Awesome paints, right there.

I notice too that Hobby Lobby here locally, has cut down their selection of model kits. I would say 1/3 less or maybe even half, from a year or two ago. Also I don't see the 40% off on plastic models sign as often. Or else I've just hit it wrong. This is SE MA USA. We have a well stocked hobby store less than a mile away from HL, if you can stand his prices. But they have about every kit out there, currently in production from major brands.

Well, Bill mentioned testing before painting the model for leaching red plastic. This thought you have is another reason to test shoot over various color primers. I shot Thicket Green for a build. The differences in test shoots were all over the place. In my testing I found black primer to produce the most faithful rendition. I really wasn't expecting it either, as Thicket Green was quite dark already. White primer was impossible with that color, grey just wasn't right, black did it. Dark grey might have worked too but I never tried it.

You will very likely need a sealer of some sort to keep the red from leaching through to your color coat ( as mentioned above). The silver pre paint is one method. Some folks like a shellac based sealer like Binns, first. It's white. If you were shooting acrylic or enamel, I'd suggest Stynylrez primer, which is a sandable poly acrylic primer/sealer. But some lacquers if hot enough can get sand scratch swelling with this. I don't know how hot SMS is.. Anyway, you want to seal that red.

You can expect clear enamel to yellow over white, so I'd keep the layers as thin as possible. If to use clear over the white and knowing the white is lacquer, I'd personally use clear lacquer if anything. With a little elbow grease, a couple extra coats of white probably could have been buffed up without the clear. But you're past that point right now, so keep the clear thin is my suggestion. As to the green, the clear will yellow there as well but you will notice it much less. That said, I rarely clear coat enamel finishes, they come out awesome IMO, without clear. But then I don't build gassers with lots of decals. At least not anymore, I did back in the 1960's. That's when I learned about clear enamels yellowing. Actually in the early 70's I had clear coated a top fuel dragster with a lot of white decals over blue. Put away for a house move, I took it out about a year later to find a blue and yellow dragster, lol !

You can mask right over the soft top panel lines. Recess them ( burnish if you will) into the groove using the back side of a plastic knife. Then cut the line using a new sharp single edge razor blade made for scrapers or the small box cutters. These are sharp but have the support on the back edge. You can buy these by the dozen or even 100 in a box for a few bucks. These are sharper than a #11, stiffer than a scalpel blade. Then just peel up the inner portion of tape. Just cut slowly, it takes little pressure and is easy to do. Now with that masked, paper off the rest and spray the panel. You will get a clean sharp edge..

I saw a video on one of these where there were three settings for pressure, adjusted by a press of the on off switch to get to each increase in pressure. Seems to me something around 20 psi up to 31.. .3 needle seems common on them all. The videos I watched all use acetone for thinner and cleaning. They were nail polish kits.

Enamel and acrylic have different dry/cure rates. You will want to be sure the enamel is well cured, as it's weeks or even months compared with acrylic. Before success gets etched in stone, it could be months or a year before you find a failure. So just be aware. I've seen acrylic top coat peel off of solvent based paints, like enamel or lacquer. And I've seen the entire finish wrinkle 2-3 months down the road. And I've seen all go well. Just sayin, I wouldn't make statements on this spoken with too broad a brush

edit: repeat post

I clicked the link and there was an apology flag there, saying he had food poisoning and orders are moving out slowly etc. Nothing about being closed though.

With Tamiya acrylic, I give it a couple of hours. Then to be sure, a couple of days in room air. It's usually pretty hard after that. Usually 106- 108F . If I just want to be able to handle the parts, 30 minutes will do. I can do pretty much what I want with craft paints after 30 minutes to an hour. 105f Enamels I do six hours for decent handling and it still needs days in the air to be fully cured. Some people consider it cure coming out of the dehydrator after 10-12 hours. I'm not in a rush, I just want it to be handle-able. It's enamel I do at 110F ( I had said Tamiya at 108-110 but no, it's enamel that gets 110. In fact if I've tested the plastic I'll go 112f.

Much depends on the abrasive itself. In the model world it seems hard to find a standard. For instance, I use a version of micro pads. But to say 3000 is something standard seems optimistic at best. 3000 in my set seems more like 800 or 1000 in 1/1 sand paper. I'd never scuff Tamiya lacquer with it. Starting around 5500 or 6000 would be more realistic. I don't do much sanding of lacquer color coat if I intend to clear coat though. Just knock off any little dust nibs. Then put down about 5 coats of clear. Plus scuffing metallic before cleat coating can be something of a diminished return. However, if Tamiya lacquer goes on real nice, it will be very glossy if it's a gloss paint, I see no need to clear coat it on the classic cars I tend to build. Same for enamels, I've never seen the need to clear coat enamel finishes if put on right. Paints in lacquer, like MCW or Scale Finishes is another matter. These are automotive lacquer, much hotter than Tamiya and much harder surface. They also don't dry super glossy to begin with. Most folks just plan on clear coating that stuff. It's often used as a color coat/clear coat system, perhaps rightfully so.

Just for the record, I use a dehydrator on all my model my paint jobs, using any paints from crafts paints, to Tamiya acrylic, LP lacquer, Createx, decanted enamels, Testors, etc. Even primers get a little blast from the dehydrator.

You can make pink pearl by using pearl white with a little of that magenta in it. I'm planning that on a T Bird build. Supposedly my wife wants to build it, it's her kit. We shall see. She already built a yellow 1960 Bird, so ya. I sprayed two 60 T Birds with Createx, one yellow, one blue. They were the little 1/32 AMT curb side kits.

I flash dry each coat with the hair dryer. I learned this using Createx on T shirts but with a heat press. Then I saw a fishing lure maker who used the heat gun on his lure painting with Createx paints, at each coat, to fully flash dry. His results were awesome, so I incorporated that into model building. Also, the first two coats are very fine mist coats. You can barely see them on the primer. But it's the foundation for later wetter coats. No runs. So, I put down a faint mist coat of color, then flash dry with the hair dryer on medium. Then a second. The second coat you begin to see color, heat set it. Subsequent coats are wetter and wetter, each one heat set. The paint flashes off very quickly so it's not a big deal to perform.

Yeah, I read about that reducer. But 4011, 4030 and Liquitex retarder gives all the leveling I need. I also heat set each coat with a hair dryer and you can watch the coat settle right in to the surface. I just kind of like that ! Not that I won't ever try 4021, after all I did say leveling, not flow out. I actually make my own thinner for Createx, it's a 4011 knock off, but with retarder added.

Just for the record, Mr Leveling thinner is lacquer thinner. It has an initial retarder feature that allows the paint to flow out. But overall dry time is still good. I thin Tamiya acrylics about 1 to 1, so equal part paint to thinner. It acts a lot like shooting the LP lacquers. I've also used hardware store lacquer thinner, for me personally it's good too. But IMO, the MLT gives a result a notch above.

Createx is a system paint. Buy their additives. You should include the 4030 clear intercoat. A small amount added to the paint gives a harder shell finish, converting the colors to poly acrylic. Their part number 4011 is now the correct thinner, try to skip the 4012 because it won't play with 4030 intercoat well. Honestly, it's a great paint If You Use Their System. I found out the basic formula to make what is close enough to 4011 thinner by looking up the msds, to work as well as 4011 does. But I had all the ingredients here. Or close enough anyway. By the way, 4030 intercoat and 4011 thinner is a good combo to use in many craft paints !! Edit: And finally, yes you should use primer. I use Stynylrez under Createx on plastic models. I see no reason why Mr Surfacer wouldn't work as well.

Try lacquer thinner. If you go to the Tamiya site, you will find suggested thinning methods/products. Lacquer thinner is listed for the purpose of a harder finish. That said, while I've used regular lacquer thinner, I prefer Mr Leveling Thinner for it's leveling feature.

I don't recall total engine color but seem to recall reddish valve covers. However, to my knowledge tri power was not a factory thing on a truck in 1960. Most were aftermarket conversions, with something like a Wieand manifold and three Stromberg two barrel carbs. Then three dome shaped chromed air cleaners on top. It was simply the thing to do back then. But in that process, the engine might become any color. I know I guy who converted his 60 Ford panel truck from 6 cyl to a 292 V8. He did the three carb thing and painted the engine yellow. He followed the pattern of two or three different Model A and 32 Ford hot rods we encountered growing up, where they too all had the engines painted yellow. I'm not saying to paint your engine yellow ! Just, once conversions start happening, and maybe a small upgraded camshaft etc. Probably about any color to to tick the owners dreams might be applied.

Basically wrap the cars in paper shop towels ( tis can be bought at Lowes and is actually not paper but rag material, though tearable) or cotton linen. Then you can use foam or whatever you want from there. Bubble wrap perhaps. But you have that protective rag layer between the paint and cushion material. I tend to plastic bag mine, kitchen bags, 1 gal freezer bags etc., give an extra layer. And I don't use much clear coat, certainly not 2K,

I knock off any easy flashing with parts on the tree. Then prime everything. The body is a separate issue or pieces that very obviously need more work than can be done on the tree, I don't prime bodies while on the tree. But I want everything primed for a couple of reasons. The first, is it gives realism to the shape of the parts and takes away the plastic glow or semi opaque look. The other is I can get a better view of what more work may need to be done to each part. From there, Some pieces may get color coat on the trees, minus the body as already mentioned. But I also do some sub assembly work before color paint as well.

Yes, you should be fine, Kyle.