Mcpesq817

It just occurred to me that maybe another issue I had is maybe I didn't stir the paint enough, and so I was shooting more thinner than had I properly mixed the paint in the bottle? I'm going to have to find a bunch of plastic spoons and practice it seems...

Sorry, I meant melting/crazing the plastic, which happened with me. Unfortunately, it looks like I can only get small bottles from Hobbyworld USA, so I might try the Mr. Surfacer as primer and go much lighter on the Zero paints base color. I had ordered a bunch of the Zero Paints from Hiroboy, but the shipping was pretty pricey. Don't want to pay that kind of price to just ship a bottle or two of primer. It looks like others have used Tamiya primer which i have so I can always try that out. So I randomly found a video of a guy comparing Gravity and Zero paints. At 22 minutes in, he starts spraying the Zero paints. His first coat seems very light, and then the second he goes heavier than I went - but only waits like 30 seconds to add the second coat. In the span of a total of 3 or so minutes, he applies four coats. Then at 27 minutes he complains about the rough texture. It's hard to tell from the video if he experienced what I experienced, but my guess is probably so. I waited 5 minutes between coats, and I'd say I probably went a little less heavy than his second coat. He calls is orange peel, but I think it's plastic crazing. Then at 30 minutes in, he says he couldn't sand out the orange peel using 2000 wet grit. The video seems a bit misleading in that he clearly isn't following the directions. When you shoot, do you just do light coats as his first coat and wait the 5-10 minutes between coats? EDIT: I just found this guy's video, and don't think I sprayed it any heavier than he did, but maybe I did. Very confusing!

Thanks for that info Bill, really appreciate it! I'm going to buy some Zero primer and try that out. It's possible that the Mr. Surfacer was fine and I just oversprayed, but not worth taking the chance again. I use those spring loaded body stands (I think I have the one from Tamiya), and have a spray booth that I vent to a window. The window has a screen so I've been cracking the window open and venting to the screen, but I might start popping the screen out and extending the venting hose out of the house. I didn't realize how toxic these paints are. I haven't used newspaper, but have used cardboard to line the bottom of the booth to keep things somewhat cleaner. Here's another question if you don't mind. Does the Zero primer run hot? I was thinking of using the Mr. Surfacer to prime and fill, which I would then sand down, and repeat to get as smooth a finish as possible. The Mr. Surfacer is designed to fill minor imperfections, so I figure I can go with that and then spray the Zero primer on top as the base for the Zero paint. Unfortunately, seems like domestically there isn't much Zero primer available except for smaller containers of the micro fill, so I figure maybe I can get away with doing the prime/fill job with Mr. Surfacer and not use a full container of the Zero primer.

Bill, many thanks for outlining your steps, this is very helpful! I did everything you did through step 4 except with I didn't use the Zero primer, I used Mr. Surfacer. Have you used any other primers with the Zero paints? Their website says all primers should be fine, and Mr. Surfacer is a pretty good one in my experience. Another question if you don't mind. When you spray, how far away do you keep the airbrush? And do you do one quick pass per section per coat? I think my issue might have been putting down the first pass, then seeing that I missed a spot, and respraying on top to get that spot. My guess is that was the big problem. Those car bodies are beautiful by the way, I'm hoping to get bodies half that nice!

Fantastic, thank you and everyone else for all the help and guidance with this!

So the first one, which was the worst, finally came out of the bath a few minutes ago (work has been killing me the last two days). The plastic is crazed like everyone thought - the bumps are in the plastic. It's almost feels like a textured finish now, and you can see the effect on the hood. Does it look like I stripped enough paint off? Since I'll have to sand, I didn't think I needed to get it perfect, but given this is the first time I've stripped a body, I wasn't sure if I need to get it stark white or there will naturally be some paint/staining. I used a kitchen sponge and Q-tips to get the paint off, and interestingly, I couldn't get that much off on the underside (which won't be shown anyway given that these are curbside). I guess what I'll try doing is sanding the body down, and then using Mr. Surfacer 1200 primer again which helps fill minor imperfections (actually, I just ordered some of the heavier Mr. Surfacer to get a little help on the filling of the imperfections). We'll see how that goes. And of course, I'll practice on some spoons. In the meantime, I just put the second body (from the earlier pics) in the bath and will let that soak a few days too. This green body may not be salvageable, but the blue one isn't nearly as bad.

Thanks Peter, I've seen that approach used by others and should have thought to do it. The Zero Paint FAQs made it seem like shooting the paint was fairly easy, but apparently not for me!

Thanks Geoff! That's very helpful! Really appreciate all the help guys, thank you! I had picked up a number of Zero Paints from Hiroboy, so would love to be able to figure out how to use them properly. Looks like I should try dropping the PSI on my airbrush, and using very light coats - lighter than I might be used to with Vallejo and Tamiya. I still haven't had a chance to take the one body out of the bath, but hopefully later tonight I can do so.

Thanks Geoff, those look fantastic! Can I ask what you use as a primer under the Zero paint? And when you shoot Zero paints, are you just applying a fine mist coat?

Thanks guys, really appreciate all the thoughts and feedback. I'll pull the body out of the bath today I think and see what I'm dealing with. This has kinda burned me on the Zero Paints experience. Any recommendations for other manufacturers that might run a little less hot? I just didn't see the types of paints you see on cars in the Vallejo or Tamiya line, with some exceptions.

Thanks guys, really appreciate it. I couldn't quite figure out if it was from drying too quickly before hitting the body (too much PSI, too far away), or just burning through the primer and crazing the plastic. The Mr. Surfacer primer is very much like Tamiya primer, so I think I should have been fine there. When I was spraying the first coat very lightly, I don't recall getting any of that grittiness. I waited 5 minutes, and then sprayed the second coat. With the second coat is really when I started noticing it, and I probably made the mistake of going back over it thinking i needed to even the paint out (which I've done with other paints like Tamiya and the Mr. Surfacer/Mr. Color line which self level really well). So my guess is that I sprayed it on too thick, and probably also had some drying issues. I've been spraying in a spray booth in my basement, and with the forced air heating, it's very dry in the house which probably doesn't help things. I'll try spraying closer and at lower PSI and see how that goes. I also have a GSI-Creos PS-290 airbrush with I believe a 0.5mm needle. Would that be better to spray Zero Paints with over the Iwata Eclipse with 0.35mm needle? It shoots a bigger cone of spray really nicely. Maybe I should have used that one instead - part of the reason I got it was for larger areas to spray like car bodies. Here's another question for you guys. The instructions say to spray coats every 5-10 minutes. Do you guys have issues with the paint drying in the airbrush waiting that amount of time? Reason I ask is that there is no way I can wait that long spraying Vallejo, which tends to dry quickly and gum up my airbrush. I didn't seem to have any issues letting the Zero Paint sit in the cup between coats, but wasn't sure if I should think about swabbing the tip with the airbrush cleaner in between coats.

That's what I'm not sure about. The air pressure was 20-25 which was within the guidelines of the FAQ, and I probably had it around 6" or so away. I thought it might be too heavy a coat in some places because as I saw the grittiness, especially on the first body, I went back over it and that just seemed to make it worse. I'm just not used to this issue with other paints, it's been a bit surprising especially when everyone says how easy these are to use.

Ugh, thanks guys, really appreciate it. I have two bodies that were painted. One has already been soaking in the Purple Power Bath for the last five or so hours. I'll probably strip that one completely, since it was the worst by far. The one in the pictures hasn't gone into the bath, so I'll sand it down and then reapply very light coats. See whichever approach works best. At least these were inexpensive kits. It's too bad as the colors I was using looked fantastic. I had a few other colors I ordered for some future models, but now am leery about using them. Seems like a real pain, especially with the toxicity and clean up and all the rest.

Hi Trevor, many thanks for this. I certainly hope it's not crazing of the plastic, as that might be a nightmare to fix. I primed the bodies with Mr. Surfacer 1200 which I thought would have been sufficient, but maybe not. Ugh! What's interesting is the FAQs suggest that any primer is ok. I didn't thin the paint either, so maybe it's not crazing of the plastic? From the Zero Paints FAQ: Do they need thinning? No, all paints are supplied pre-thinned for Airbrush use, they are thinned to a consistency which is suitable for Airbrushes with nozzle sizes of 0.3mm upwards. Additional thinners are available if further thinning is required. It is not recommended to over thin the paint, too much thinners and increase the chance of the paint becoming to HOT and affecting/eating the plastic below the primer. If unsure test first. Is Primer needed? YES, As the paints are solvent based it is necessary to primer the plastic/resin before applying the basecoat colour; this seals the plastic/resin and creates a key for the paint to adhere to. Any brand of primer should be OK, but if in doubt do a test first.

I tried painting a couple of Gunze Triumph bodies last night with Zero paints, and had a bit of an issue with the paint job being very gritty. Was worse the first time around, and a little better the second though I did get a bit of grit in some spots. Any ideas as to what I was doing wrong? 'm guessing the issue was from spraying too heavy of a coat, which I was a little more conscious of on the second body -- on the second, I had a little bit of that issue on the hood and trunk, where i did a couple of passes with the airbrush on the same coat, but not on the sides where the paint job ended up smooth. I saw a Youtube video of someone spraying that seemed to be spraying a lot heavier coats than I was, so I'm a little bit confused as to why I got the results I did. I know the finish is supposed to be matte with maybe some bumps, but my paint jobs seemed to be a little excessive on the grit side. I've got the first body soaking in a Purple Power bath to start over I was spraying with an Iwata Eclipse 0.35mm at about 20-25psi from about 6-8" away. Otherwise, the car was primed and lightly sanded glass smooth, rinsed, and hit with tack cloth before spraying the Zero Paints. All per the Zero Paint instructions, so I don't think it was the prep. I'm still fairly new to airbrushing and car models in general, but haven't experienced this kind of issue using Vallejo, Tamiya, or Mr. Color. I haven't done many cars (usually I model planes and ships), but the two car builds I did using Tamiya went down fairly well without issue. I just read the "Matt's tips for painting cars" on Britmodeller -- great tutorial!! https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234956647-matts-tips-for-painting-cars/ Unfortunately, I can't pinpoint what the issue is here. Many thanks in advance! Edit - here's a picture. You can see the grit areas on the hood versus the smoother paint job on the left headlight area.

Holy cow, I just bought this kit after seeing your build. Beautiful work man!!

Same here - I haven't had a problem with Vallejo over Tamiya.

Wow, Vince that's so cool you kept that car in the family! My dad had a 73 Dodge Challenger (blue) that I distinctly remember as a little kid. When our family grew, the car was less practical so he sold it to my aunt, who committed the almost criminal negligent act of never given the car an oil change. You can imagine what that did to the engine. Makes me want to cry thinking about it.

Yes, I came across it on an earlier thread on this board. There is a 48 post and a 72 post jig. My guess is that between the two, one would have a lot of wheel permutations. https://www.shapeways.com/shops/cpconsult

Love the lines on that one - looking forward to following along!

Thanks! I think you're right that it should be fine. I take it nobody else has bought and used these?

Has anyone used these Shapeways jigs? Just curious as I was going to start working on a few Triumph TR models, and thought this was a handier way of doing wheels than making my own jig. In particular, I was wondering how the posts handle the strain of taut wire, fishing line, etc. Thanks!

Sorry, mis-posted.

Thank you for sharing!