Dave G.

I've shot it too and pop it in the dehydrator for an hour or two and not much odor after that. Not around the house anyway,you can smell it some if you stick your nose near it.. I was just curious if that style booth could move the heavy enamel over spray out ok.

Will that booth evacuate enamel spray paints like Rustoleum 2x Ultra ? No sweat if it won't, just curious is all.

Speaking of household fans that Pete mentioned, I've done that too ( not saying Pete has but I have). They make a double fan accordion setup for instance, you just open the window install that and close the window on it. It has to face out, then you spray right in front of it. Bigger diameter single fans probably do better but you really should put up temp baffles on each side for it to be most effective. If you paint near the fan it will get everything out of the room pretty quickly. Just sayin, I've done it and it works. Granted it's not a permanent booth but one can make due nicely this way. I did this when first married and renting many many moons ago now shooting enamels for cars and Floquil for railroad equipment. And really that's all any old time paint room ever had in 1/1. Don Yost still does this in his basement paint room painting his award winning finishes almost always in enamel,uses an extraction fan. We simply back in the day called them exhaust fans around these parts. The key is to baffle or shroud it in a housing of sorts even if makeshift.

I have to admit being a Molotow fan if you can figure out how to apply it on tiny things, it's perfect imo.. I have success and then not so much, but then at 71 I'm lucky to see it much less hit it square anymore. That's part of why I like 1/16 scale. But my chances of seeing the details goes way up if I stay of the danged computer ! I bet Molotow works for ya though. Just sayin.

Airbrushes take a degree of cleaning and care period. Now you have one I assume you have to charge up too ? Not to burst your bubble mind you, if it gets you airbrushing then wonderful. You know where it would be good though is remote, where you can't or don't want to run a cord or drag out an air tank.

Ya set it up on it's side just like a booth. Get your body mounted on something you can hand hold. I grab a bottle or something and roll a piece of tape into a circle, and tape the body to the top. Now I can hand hold the bottle and shoot down on the body at the same angle for all sides and the top surfaces too.

Get yourself a good sized box and use that kind of like a spray booth. I know it's not one but it will shield the wind from three sides and you should be able to spray on a breezy day. Get it up off the ground so grass and stuff won't blow into it..

Looking good. Now what ?

You need a lid on that container.

Another thing you could try since you're scuffing and experimenting anyway, is scuff it smooth then squirt on another couple of wet coats. Let dry and buff it up. You only need to go to 3500 or so to try that, least in in my experience anyway..

Antique parchment is very close to ivory, both have some yellow and who knows what else in them ( well probably a hint of blue or green). Parchment is not a pure white, I agree it might look it when paired next to a contrasting color. I started out with antique parchment to mix the color for the wheels on my 31 Ford roadster kit ( to make that creamy yellow they had).

Too much work for me to salvage that, it would be in the purple pond right now.

I airbrush craft paints for 90% of my interiors or for that matter cut it with a little water or my thinner I make up and brush it. Apple Barrel has an Antique Parchment, they might have a straight parchment too, never looked. Vallejo has a series of earth tones too I use for canvas and such sometimes. I haven't used enamel on interiors in decades.

Most of my work is done with airbrush. Stynylrez white primer should pretty well hide the black in 1-2 coats.

You can do the same with the Tamiya clear.Put down a moderate coat and two progressively heavier coats, let that flash then lay on two good full wet coats that will pop the shine. Heat setting that I find to increase the gloss. Same with their clear colors, in fact maybe even more so with the clear colors ( they really like to shine after 15 minutes in the dehydrator at 108f). Then just buff it up if there is a slight haze when dry. I rarely sand the Tamiya clear but my desires may be different than yours. The thing about Tamiya acrylic is it actually is a hybrid acrylic/lacquer,not to be confused with solvent based automotive acrylic lacquer which I am not at all a fan of on plastic models. Even their solid colors perform well. I've never polished Model Master enamel, course that's gone now but it used to level out like glass. The regular little Testors bottles aren't bad but Model Master to me was a cut above those. Both alkyd enamel I believe. Also as long as there is enough clear coat on the surface to not rub through, any of those first samples you posted should polish up fine. Congrats on finding the key with the Rustoleum. It's probably going to mute out slightly overnight but it will polish right back up and that will last..

No good, I saw a couple of years ago where a guy tried this and the vac blew up and busted his arm. Think about it, 5 gallon or larger bomb of concealed fumes with an unsealed motor on top ! Possibly the worst scenario you could create.

All I saw was a book. That said, some people double or triple up on the filters in a vented booth and don't vent it outdoors. The theory being the filters catch the paint over spray. But I doubt it will do much for fumes when using solvent paints ( fumes meaning the smell, especially with hot lacquer). Fine for acrylics.

Sorry, no glasses on lol ! It's X-1 and I should know that without glasses anyway.

Ya thanks ! I have a 1/16 Mercer that she actually gave to me when we were first married nearly 47 years ago. That is literally all painted and ready for assembly. She dragged it out of the crawl space herself about a year and a half ago ( I thought it was long gone, she said oh no I have it stashed in there). But anyway that paint came out awesome right from the gun ( Model Master enamel). It looks great and I might just build that one up first because of the memory attached to it. Hah, that's in the box too but at least the paint is all done, including metalizer work and stuff.

No clear, not needed. Since that photo I lightly buffed them. Then I did the body in Washington Blue lacquer from MCW ( this thing is being done bone stock). That I clear coated with Tamiya X-22 against my wishes to not need clear because I really wasn't all that impressed with the blue. I should have mixed my own from Tamiya. I still have more buffing to do on the body. But my wife died in the middle of all this so now it's sitting in the box till things settle down. Actually I had a good day after her death Dec 20th and got that blue on and the clear a day or two later now that I think about it. It's been sitting in the box since Feb sometime. The emotion thing is complicated, there is more than the death involved but not for open information in a forum lol. I'll get back to this model about when summer heat hits and I'm sitting in ac, assuming all goes as it looks like it may be going in my life...

You mentioned not being ready to tackle black. These are my 1/16 Model A fenders not buffed or clear coated. It's 5 coats of Tamiya X4 black acrylic thinned with denatured alcohol about 50/50, shot with a Paasche H and medium tip. The fenders were dry in that shot and it's just from my camera phone. The running boards aren't a mistake they are to be flat black. By the way I just hand held them over the open trash bag in the kitchen, then popped them into the dehydrator. I don't stress out how I go about this stuff..

The key to craft paint not lifting when you pull the tape lays under the craft paint. It's called primer. Scuff your car body, prime and then scuff your primer. The first color should not peel . If your tape tends to be kind of aggressive then de-tack it . You do that by applying it to the back of your hand first then onto the model. I have another story on shooting the dark color first where it seems to not be avoidable but that's for another thread.

Just for the record, Steve. I think your Merc is considerably nicer looking than "pretty good", it looks awesome !! The paint is beautiful and we know the years of skill and practical experience that has gone into it even before it ever hit your bench. Just sayin.

Awesome fit !

Just suggesting if you want to wax then do it later, not a day after you painted. But you certainly are free to do as you wish. That said, I doubt you painted your 49 this morning and moved on to waxing it this afternoon...... You do keep it immaculate. We have one in town here too. I assume it's a small block but is green ( actually more mid to dark teal). We have a Ford around too but that may be original flathead in that, it's just a nicely done restoration for a business .