Dave G.

In my case, fortune ( in kid terms) came young, in the form of a 108 customer paper route. In a time when layman's wages were all of $85- $100 or $125 a week, I was doing nearly half of that. I always had money, enough for models, supplies, a Fribble at Friendly's Ice cream whenever I wanted. And a new bike. I did OK as a kid, but worked for it too. Once I got that paper route I was out from under the pennies a week allowance for chores category. So happens I made a friend through church, a fellow modeller who had that route. I used to go on the route with him, ride the paper truck from the corner market to where the route was. I just helped out, got to know everybody, from the one kid, to truck drivers, even a visit or two from the paper manager guy. So when the kid's family decided to move out of town, I was already in position to take that route over, no charge ( in those days, they used to sell the routes). Well, lets face it, in those days kids were allowed to do the work ! Not today.

Much of what I use for tools today, is what I did back in the 60's. Actually I started building in 58. I won a ribbon in a model contest with an AMT 49 Ford, with felt interior, thread for plug wires and gold spray paint from the hardware store I could ride my bike to.. That was 1961 or 62, immediately before I discovered Testors and Pactra candy coats, which might have gotten me a notch higher in my placement. I always built with a combo of razor saw, same handle I put the blades in. Really I liked and still do, the industrial grade single edge razor blades for box cutters and such, no handle just the back of the blade to grip, it's very tactile lol. And some form of pin vice.. You can buy a 100 of the blades in a pack at Amazon. And for the pin vice I only bought the size bits I needed. A short bundle of left over phone workers telephone wire was a gold mine for decades. Finally lost it as the kids started growing up. It's solid core fine wire in a bundle that sometimes a strand with insulation is perfect but more often stripped to the bare core is the better option. You could always find scraps of this stuff in new neighborhoods/new construction, which was prevalent in the 50's and 60's.. The corduroy I used in a 32 Ford build. A fenderless coupe, that I cut the doors out to make opening doors, and then opened up the soft top. Upholstered the seat and door panels . I had discovered Testors metallic paint, so it got metallic burgundy paint. As I recall, I painted gold accents. But something about the build, it didn't seem substantial enough real estate wise, in my young mind to enter that one in a contest. So the next year, I made about the same plan layout in a 39 Ford sedan. Same paint, really nice paint too, surely a winner I thought. That was until my 3 yo cousin visited, who as soon as I turned my back decided to help me out by glue bombing it with the cap from a Testors orange tube smack in the middle of that long roof. So that was reduced to pieces in the original box one week before the contest, and when I recovered, long after the contest was over, I built that into a circle track racer with dents all over it. The most notable being a sunken roof dent !. So you want to build 60's style. Testors paints, bottle and spray. A trip to the fabric store. Testors glue ( by the way I still like the square bottle fwiw). A couple spools of different thickness thread. Bug the telephone guys for some scraps. Get to rely on making things work, by kit bashing and what may seem a bit unorthodox today. Oh and don't forget some flocking, common pins to work with and a sewing needle or two. Tooth picks, balsa sheets ( you never know). And sanding sealer for anything wood, say in a pickup bed or where ever. I don't recall the brand putty I used, except that it was grey and I wasn't too nuts about it. But later on in decades it was a product called Nitrostan.

My compressor once aired up, I could spray small parts for a week lol. I don't even have it plugged in for the in house airbrushing. The brush won't matter much, but with craft paints and water clean up in general, you want synthetic brushes. Natural hair brushes eventually turn into a bad hair day brush from cleaning up with water all the time. They're best for oil painting anyway. I had a small set of Taklon brushes I liked for models but I think they got integrated into the artist inventory of brushes my wife and I have. We must have over 100 brushes between us, and as many colors of craft paints. To which craft paints aren't our main inventory since we use artist grade paints, both acrylic and oils more so.. Speaking of which, artist grade acrylics are another good source of paint for brushing small parts. You had some of the Liquitex redarder fluid already, for making up my blend of thinner, same stuff... But you don't have to use it, just water will do. You just want the paint thin enough to where it flows off the brush and levels out when dry.

I just airbrushed yellow/cream Createx into a kitchen trash bag yesterday, for 34 Ford pickup wheels. I cut the flow back to where I saw no over spray around the bag at all. I had to move the brush in close to see paint build on the wheels. I've done this for wheels before with various paints. The wife was upstairs sleeping, I was in the kitchen downstairs doing my thing. But actually, I've painted the whole truck the same way, though with more flow. The only thing I step outside for is spray can paints and or decanting solvent paints. The yellow I mixed was about 6 parts white to a heavy 4 ish yellow. I added the usual 25% or so 4030 and cut the whole mix with 4021 reducer. The paint went on awesome. Tomorrow is 4050 clear coat on them. That said, I paint my engines now ( for the last three years or so) with a brush and mix my colors from craft paints, even in 1/16 scale. You see no brush marks. Just thin with a little Liquitex retarder and plain water. But I could air brush those the same way I did the wheels yesterday. To which I wore a dust mask but there wasn't anything visible to breath. Anyway, brush painting the engine/driveline parts takes me back to my childhood, IE I enjoy it 👍. And the crafts paints work great for me, back then so many years ago, I used Testors enamels.

Most of us may not even realize that Tamiya has a clear base for metal, called Metal Primer. That said, the old school method of painting diecast, pot metal, white metal etc. Was to mix a 50-50 solution of white vinegar and water, do a final wash of the metal with that, and rinse with plain water. This rid the metal of oxidation before priming, and offers mild etching. Over that I've used most lacquer primers with success. Larger areas though, it was wise to use Zink based primers and now today self etch primers. I think you will find that the Tamiya Metal primer is self etching. obviously, while other paints and methods have claims of success, this is how Tamiya approaches the matter. Me, I'm still old school and we have plenty of white vinegar in the house. I'd give it the wash of that before whatever paint went on.

Depends on the metal and how you treat it. What type of metal are you painting ?

I remember, Steve, back around 1960 ( I would have been 10 in April that year), painting a 58 Buick. Well the paint was flat, not gloss, which I discovered as it dried. And to an almost ten year old, this was horrifying to me. Then, My mother seeing how devastated I was, tried to remove it with her nail polish remover and cotton balls. It completely decimated one side of the body, now half the details smeared into oblivion, totally etched what was not completely melted, with fibers of cotton stuck in the now hardening plastic. So not all nail polish removers are created equally, apparently. I remember this event well, it's one of those stand out moments in one's model life, lol ! I have no clue what was in that nail polish remover but it was fast acting for sure. That reminds me, I should build and finish a 58 Buick some day. Probably the ugliest 50's Buick made.

Good point. I thought of that but where it says 100% acetone on the label, I was thinking it may work. Today in looking at the ingredients on the new bottle of Onyx 100% Acetone she bought for her nails, it lists: Acetone, Denatonium Benzoate. Here is what Google search brings up for the DB in nail polish remover: The Denatonium Benzoate is added because we unfortunately live in a world where it's not enough to put "do not drink" on a bottle of acetone. The DB is added to make it unpalatable so someone won't drink it and poison themselves (acetone by itself has no taste). Well anyway, that aside, I think I've pretty well documented by now that I use lacquer thinner personally, the medium dry in enamels. And exactly which one. Course, that's assuming I'm using enamels at all, because I'm as likely to be using Createx and such, or for that matter Tamiya LP, or acrylic. I use Mr Leveling Thinner in Tamiya, as I find better leveling and gloss for the gloss paints, over HWS LT.

Ya, My medium dry doesn't smell like acetone, or cetainly not pure acetone. Nor like automotive lacquer thinner either. It doesn't smell like Mr Leveling thinner, nor Testors enamel reducer, or odorless mineral spirits. Yet all of those smell of petroleum solvent. My wifes fingernail polish remover is 100% acetone. just thinking, If someone likes using acetone they might as well get that, it's all of $3.50 or so a pint at Walmart for the Onyx brand. Point of interest: I do believe if you look up the msds sheets on each of the Klean Strip products I listed, you will find the difference. The medium dry may even have some acetone in it, but also toluene or tolunol, maybe xylene and methanol. Those are all common in actual lacquer thinner. In various quantities as well. The real automotive hot lacquer thinner, has more specialized sub sets of stuff, usually low or no acetone.

Don't let any of it sit on your door step all day in January. Hopefully your order comes quickly and in good shape. Just sayin. By the way, both UPS and FedX cargo planes are heated. Questionable on some loading docks and the delivery trucks cargo area. If it ships by Joe Blow's delivery and ends up in the belly of an airline plane, good luck.

I had a bottle of bad Stynylrez black that I attributed to freezing. It separates, you never really get humpty back together again. I had a bottle of Createx pearl blue. The company and myself trouble shot the fact I never could get it to spray right. One of the owners of Createx contacted me and stated they concluded it had gotten frozen someplace in it's travels. They upgraded me with not just the next larger new bottle, but also a new reducer they have out and some 4030 he knew I used from working with me in my testing ! The new bottle sprays awesome. Stynylrez is an awesome primer. I highly recommend the little Badger power mixer for it. And use it lol ! They aren't expensive . But as an acrylic primer goes, I'll put Stynylrez qualities in terms of sticking to plastic right up there with solvent based primers. And to me, other acrylic primers don't match it. But don't put hot lacquers on top of it. It won't really craze it or lift it but it will swell sand scratches in places. So, if you have your acrylic colors you want to work with, or can get them locally, and you can get your hands on Vallejo primer ? That will work if you use it correctly. It's not Stynylrez, as Stynylrez is workable within an hour, is a primer sealer and is sand-able. Vallejo should sit 24 hours once sprayed, is not sand-able or a sealer, that I know of. But it will cover well, stick ok, if you give it that time. And accepts acrylic paints well. Not my first choice, but if you have limited choices it will work and get y ou started down the acrylic pathway. Just follow it's rules.

This one is medium fast dry, professional grade:

This is the fast dry. It California compliant according to the add. In that case, it's probably mostly acetone.

This is the green environmental stuff Then this is the original. If you can see the back label, around the second paragraph is a statement, with in which it says Medium Dry:

Really my only concern about hardware store lacquer thinner being used in Testors square bottle paints, was to get the original blend lacquer thinner. Because as I said, around here there are two more blends in the same brand name. One being a fast dry thinner, really just designed for cleaning, the other the green friendly synthetic junk. The original in the brand I use is medium dry rate and works very well at a 50/50 or so ratio in Testors paints. Also to further thin decanted Rustoleum 2x paints for airbrushing.. It last I knew still came in the blue can with orange label area on the front. But the listing for medium dry used to be in the fine print, no longer there. But the fast dry says fast dry right on the front. Blue can, white label area. And if you can still find a can for $5, I envy you. I haven't seen $5 for the stuff in a decade.

I can't really help on the clear enamel because I have no reason to use clear enamel. The classic era cars and antique cars that I tend to build get straight color, no clear coat if shot in enamel.. And any other paints I use that may get cleared, aren't enamels, so I wouldn't clear those with enamel anyway. The last time I cleared something in enamel was back in the 1970's and that yellowed. So really it was clear amber hue lol !!

If you take the little square bottle Testors enamel and empty it out into a mixing cup, there will still be paint residue in the bottle. Then re-fill that with the hardware store lacquer thinner, shake it up and pour into your container of paint you just poured out and stir together. It gives you just a tad short of a true 50/50 blend when all is mixed together. And it works perfectly. There should be no rough dry finish from airbrushing it, assuming shooting it moderately wet and a full wet last coat. With gloss paint, you should see yourself in the glass smooth finish. I shoot it up near 30 psi though, with the Paasche H #3 tip, even sometimes with the #5. You can do the same for lesser jobs using a pipette .

What you have to watch for with hardware lacquer thinner is that you get the original medium dry stuff. There is now " green friendly" lacquer thinner. Also, at least around my area, fast dry lacquer thinner. I personally believe that Testors enamels thinned with LT produces a better finish when airbrushed than using the Testors reducer. The fast dry thinner though, is really too fast a dry time, and the synthetic green label stuff is just simply junk. Another good combo, I would consider second after the lacquer thinner for airbrushing, is to mix 50/50 Hardware store paint thinner ( not lacquer thinner but paint thinner), with HWS odorless mineral spirits. And thin the Testors with that combo.

Many moons ago I went the extra mile, cut in working doors, sometimes suspension too, fancy wiring and all. You get the idea. Today at 74, a nice finish, some decent shading in the grill and other chrome pieces, Molotow chrome around the windows. And with that I'm pretty happy.It takes it beyond just an out of box build too. I mean slap in the kit chrome onto a 39 Ford sedan is one thing. But to just take that few lousy minute for a dark wash between all the toothy bars in the grill is quite another. Honestly, I almost wouldn't mind dropping back to curbside builds though, and just make it a nice presentable model. I have more important things in life. Ya know, after getting to this stage, having drag raced and built the real cars up, working in the field of mechanic, as well as refinishing 1/1, really all my life, I just like some nostalgia models at this point.

I don't know hpiguy's work flow process, sequencing etc, but using Rustoleum paint and such ( IE thick enamels), straight from the can, you know it's not a one session build as viewed in the video. I'm guessing he has projects staged up, to get two out per week. They may have been started the week or even two weeks before. With enamel, you would have finger prints all over the thing if you knocked it out even in two days. Or dehydrate for 6-8 hours to be able to handle the parts. I bet his editing gets more detail than the models lol. But, I too like the unboxing footage and the final clips. From that I can tell before spending the $30 if I may even want the kit to begin with. When I saw the AMT 51 Chevy Fleetside body come out of the box, it cast my interest in the 2 door hardtop aside and onto the Fleet.

I had this screwball idea in my head that when you bought 3D parts from folks, that they were already separated. Hmmm, that looks like someone tried to cook spaghetti in the dish washer !

HPI Guy mentioned one time that he builds these so people can see the kit assembly, fitting you tube time lines and all that sort of thing. You can take your personal detailing to whatever level you want, but he's just presenting the kit literally out of the box. That's part of the reason for his naming it " What's in the box". It was just a short blip in one of his videos. that I caught. If you're an experienced builder, you know what to do in a kit that he may show.You may decide or not if it's something you want to buy. I know that I've had an interest in a kit from time to time, then look to see if he did a video on one. If inexperienced you get to see what's in the kit. I personally feel he serves a purpose.

You should be set for life with that combo ! And that fan tip should make larger scale body painting much easier. You certainly won't run out of air with that compressor.

Every airbrush that works properly that I've ever encountered will spray thinner, reducer , alcohol or even water perfectly. Try it to see. So spurting, pulsing, blobs of paint, to me has to be something else besides thin paint. Given that the brush passed the clear liquid test. Also make sure your needle is seating when you release the trigger. A needle not seating can make quite the mess each time you let off, then re engage. At this point I'll pass the torch to the Procon users here, they may know something that I'm not aware off.