Dave G.

Hey if it helps you get a better nights sleep keep going for it !

My time painting 1/1 professionally was 35 years but ended some 15-20 years ago. Still, Acrylic enamels and acrylic lacquers came on the scene in my lifetime. Waterborne acrylics, alcohol acrylics for models as well. Base coat clear coat in 1/1. Imron for fleets. The alkyd resin enamels and nitrocellulose lacquers were non acrylic. MCW enamels are acrylic enamel as are their lacquer paints. Rustoleum to my knowledge is synthetic enamel much the same as alkyd resin. When I say I've mostly moved on to acrylics, I'm speaking mostly of waterborne but not exclusively. On another note,I ran into something I was unaware of till I read the back of a can of Mr Surfacer 1000, they list it two ways on the back: Product name is "synthetic resin paint". Material: "Acrylic synthetic resin, organic solvent, pigment". I somehow assumed it to be nitro lacquer, well it's not listed as such. And yes, it has stinky solvents in it. So too is the case of solvents for Krylon clear acrylic and Crystal clear. They sell clear lacquer as well, and clear acrylic lacquer ( stinky solvents). So yes, I'm well aware of various uses of acrylic carriers but I don't claim to be a chemist lol ! Then we get into accelerators, hardeners/two part systems with isocyanates that you will never find in my house but people on here love to use. That's what drove me out of 1/1, when I found myself wearing basically a space suit to spray in ( not literally but that's what I called it, with it's own air supply, plastic shield, disposable white suit). We got the warnings in classes and seminars how rough this stuff is on human tissue and most notably lungs, it wasn't too long for me to conclude I don't need this. At the time it was a lot of fleet work and shooting Dupont Imron, a two part paint with isocyanate as catalyst, and Centari acrylic enamels with isocyanate hardeners. But anyway, ya you can say I'm speaking the model industries lingo on acrylic. But you might want to understand that they use no other term, non of the toxic acrylics that I know of are listed as acrylic on the front label, including Mr Surfacer 1000. Not till you read the fine print on the back. But I haven't looked too hard either.

Course with all my writing in this thread I suppose it's worth noting that I don't use an airbrush rated compressor at all. I use a 4.9 cfm portable 8gal compressor that will run nail guns and my LVLP spray guns. Airbrushes are secondary and basically insignificant to this compressors output. I air it up and then shut it off for airbrushing.

For $74 at Amazon you can get this one with a tank on it, then when/if you want to move to something like a Paasche H or VL etc. the compressor should keep up. This is a Point zero.

With enamel I go till it's done and that's it, no flash time the stuff dries too slow for that. And using lacquer thinner to thin it, no runs. When I say go till done, that adds up to everything getting hit 2-3 times, the last pass the most wet. So shoot one side, the other, top side, back to the first, second and top again, then repeat. With LT you can practically dump it on at that last coat and it doesn't run, dries smooth like glass. After 60 years of mostly enamel ( 35 professionally in 1/1) and solvents, I can safely say I've now turned mostly over to acrylic though. And a little hobby lacquers now and then. I might decant some Rustoleum 2x now and then. I do use Rustoleum on metal lawn furniture, just painted the patio set a couple of weeks ago in fact. My Models now are mostly shot in acrylic.

I bought a VL kit a while back, airbrush only kit since I have air etc and been airbrushing for decades. The kit came with a metal side cup and bottles, also an adapter from the dedicated Paasche threads to Iwata/1/4. Also a quick disconnect. I bought it for art work but with the smaller needle and tip installed it's great for models too. I generally do buy syphon brushes, I have one gravity feed but rarely use it. I use a metal side cup a lot on the Badger 200, Paasche H and this VL though. The Paasche airbrushes are built very robust and to me with decent fit and finish, good chrome too. At least the two I own. I bought my VL at Amazon, with prime it came next day as I recall.

It's Chinese stuff. But the airbrush is probably half decent. The compressor would be good for blowing bubbles in a fish tank.

The Minicraft kits seem to have their little quirks but generally it's not anything you can't deal with. The doors and hinges I mentioned on the Model A has mostly to do with the idea the hinges look like they might be better suited for a split rail or picket fence gate. They might have some scale if mounted to a 1/8 model. But really that's my main gripe, most other things you might find along the way from various kit manufacturers. Then too you need to consider the age of these kits. I think someone built one of those MG kits over in the FSM forums.

I have two of the Model A roadsters, one un opened, the other painted and ready for assembly. You could say truthfully assembly is a bit unique, mostly to do with the body and door hinges etc. If I ever get to the second one I think I'll just glue the doors in and make it one solid body. The fenders have a slight warp towards the right rear that I can deal with. But everything else seems straight or for the most part anyway. Getting the chassis square on assembly was interesting, it's a ladder assembly and narrower at the front than rear. And it's all separate rails and cross members you glue together. There is no pattern or anything to fit it to. But hey I did it. I used the slow setting black bottle Testors liquid glue and had time to tweak it as an assembly to where it mounts and just set it aside to dry. The instructions leave much to be desired. Be a great thing to model as a barn find or junk yard discovery. But you can get them together half decent too. The cowl, dash and windshield portion is just plain a piece of work. I don't perceive that my wheels and tires are out of scale. It has decent chrome, the engine has nice details. It has it's plus and minus features to the kit. But alas, that's the A, never worked on the MG.

If you want white pearl then you will need white primer or a white base coat under it. If you don't have white under it you will get a color cast from what is under it. This sometimes might be wanted, like I might use rose gold for instance. But if you want white you need white under the pearl finish in my experience.

Right, I thought of this, thanks for bringing it up. I often forget people are using hot lacquer primers sometimes. I use Stynylrez, Mr Primer Surfacer or just Mr Surfacer, non of which is hot lacquer.

As someone said block sand it. I'd feather sand that, then prime. Scuff the primer with a micro pad. After that a single coat of primer before the color coat goes on. That's more primer than I use if the body and parts were all set to begin with but needed in this case. IMO.

This is Starlight Black, a 1968 Pontiac color chip of it:

I do pretty much the same as Steve in terms of craft paints ( and get decent results but his is ridiculously perfect in comparison), also artist acrylics. I'll use water or my own thinner I make up for acrylics. The artist paints get a bit better grip on things like chrome grill washes. On engine washes I have an oil stain that is water clean up that I use. I don't think they are any longer available though so when it runs out it runs out.

The Mr Primer surfacer is truly a primer and that's according to their website. But the Surfacers without 'primer" designation have plenty of Grip non the less. I personally use the Mr Primer Surfacer in gray. My black primer of choice is Stynylrez. Both of these I airbrush. I rarely use rattle cans on models anymore, even if I have rattle cans I generally decant them for airbrushing. The point being I buy these products in bottles. OK, that said, some fill scratches, some meant for super smooth surfacing and primer/surfacer is pretty much self explanatory. To my Mr Primer Surfacer 1000 hits the middle mark of all this, comes out egg shell smooth with still some grip for the top coat. Great stuff but so is Stynylrez.

I use craft paints on my interiors these days, or artist acrylics. Plenty of colors to choose from and what may not be dead on is either close enough or I mix it myself. I brush the colors on usually, but spray the primer. If you go to a place like Micheals you will find more colors than you know what to do with. Or Hobby Lobby for that matter. A lot of people here don't like Rustoleum paints but in the 2x spray paint line you will find aqua, or ocean mist enamels. The key would be to find it in flat or at most satin, you don't want gloss unless you're willing to spray a flat clear over it . Also Tamiya might have a spray can of aqua, not sure since I don't use rattle cans, I airbrush most things. Here is a chart though:

Without a shop discount and for Joe Average consumer, Duplicolor is still the better bang for the buck, at least at Amazon.. That said, as mentioned, I airbrush the Mr products or Stynylrez personally. To me there is a lot of waste in spray cans. With airbrushing, smaller quantities go further.

Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500. It gets top reviews from just about everyone who tries it and it's specifically made for models, gundam etc. I.E. plastic. It's not as inexpensive as Rusto though. But it's lacquer not enamel. Dries in minutes. That said, my personal choice in black is Stynylrez poly/acrylic black primer, but you airbrush that.

My first thought was this is a kit bash, one body another kits underpinnings. And yes instructions would help prove it out.

Ya, it's been a long time since I've used Micro Sol but when I did use it years ago it was the same as you're describing. By the next day I want it all over with, I don't want to be disturbing them at that point lol .

Createx clear just takes polishing. If you put it down with no orange peel just a couple applications of something like Formula 1 Scratch out will gloss it right up. Even their 4030 will buff up this way. I like their UVLS 4050 clear. UVLS 4053 clear is supposed to have more of a wet look, I'm not a fan of the so called wet look as the era cars I build didn't have that.

That's why I said to check first because to my knowledge this is automotive acrylic enamel . The point is to cut it, I almost said lacquer thinner instead of mineral spirits too . I'm glad you guys corrected what to use.

If you used enamel straight up then next time try cutting it with about 30% mineral spirits for brushing. It should level nicely and lap strokes should blend well. At least so if it's like other enamels.

I've used the MCW lacquer and it sprays fine. I made the mistake of leaving rumble seat underside and door jams for brushing on a 1/16 model A . 3 coats later it still wasn't truly covered well is best I can say. Now that was maybe 3 years ago and I know MCW went through a time where the lacquers were mixed a bit extra thin, so maybe that's what I got.

I find that gloss "as shot" pretty much to be the case with most enamels, even decanted and airbrushed Rustoleum 2X. The key is to mix it and put it on right. However, I will say that if I recall correctly, the MCW enamel is solvent based acrylic automotive enamel ( not to be confused with waterborne enamel acrylics in any way). But it's not the old alkyd enamel either.