allecb

How did you do the striping?

Pictures: https://imgur.com/a/hsDpUF9 So I order online for curbside pickup for "Testors clear wet one coat" The image online is the exact product I need, and IMO is an AMAZING clear coat that has delivered great results.... When I go to pick it up, it's a completely different label. I question the employee that this is wrong product and I request a refund, but she is confident that because the SKU is the same, it is the same product. So I try some investigating. The sku number matched up so maybe Testors just changed the product label, it happens, and the lid of the new can *does* say "wet look clear." ....yea. it's nothing like the wet look clear one coat Testors used to offer. It comes out in like a foam almost. I will for sure be returning this can, even if I sprayed it once already. I was a dumb dumb and used a side view mirror as a test subject instead of a spare part on a tree. (I did end up spraying spare parts just to make sure it wasn't my error initially) Oh well, I can sand off the mirror and I have just enough paint to fix up my messup, but wow! I'd have been very upset to spend 50 dollars on this kit, 10 on primer, 20 on paints, and this very last final step, the clear coat, puts me in an 70-80 dollar hole. For the record, that is a light mist. Don't think I just sprayed the BLAH_BLAH_BLAH_BLAH out of it to where it started to bubble and go crazy. It sprayed on foamy and white. It looks like it ends up dries clear but the extra foam makes it all bumpy and bubbly as an end result. For the record, I tried AGAIN today. This time I set the can in warm water and shook the can for five minutes aggressively. Perhaps the contents just settled after sitting for so long. But no luck, this is not the easy point and spray and produce a glossy finish like it used to be. It shakes differently too, as if it's really thick. And when it sprays, the same. Just a thick mess that produces all of this white foam. Maybe I got a bad can? Either way, I'm turned off forever. If I see this can, I will not purchase it. I should probably move over to another clear now just in case I encounter the same situation on Amazon or something (IE: buying the product based on the picture but receiving the updated inferior product)

ah yes. Thankyou. I cous have sworn it was revell for some odd reason. How are amt kits? I usually build tamiya, aoshima, fujimi.

i was browsing my local hobby store for paint on a porsche 911 gt3r (chose ts23 light blue, by the way!) and i stumbled upon a revell 2017 camaro "fifty" edition. i realize this picture is of a calendar set, but the box looked 98 percent IDENTICAL to this: now i cant find any news about this revell kit ANYWHERE online. i should have bought the dang thing for the 26 bucks they were selling it for (ive been looking for a decent camaro kit)

here is a link to the album. click on them to zoom in closer couple comments before you look: the older year (and mainly american) cars are the ones i did before all of the exotics/foreigns.i did them when i was younger (26 now. was doing those when i was 16-20. i tossed my first 5-8 cars i did when i first started). the majority of them were revell, so you will see a lot of glue or mis-fitting parts. i chalk it up to being revell, and being newer in the hobby. i am really sorry for all the dust and grime. they get harder and harder to clean as they age. the dust i cant reach just gets compacted into those areas, and yeah. i also have a cat and a golden retriever! also, due to so many cleanings you will see tires that need to be fixed that fell off, windshield wipers lost, or decals kind of unsticking/looking like booboo. i am hoping you can see the difference in quality from the older revell kits i did compared to the newer tamiya/fujimi/aoshima exotic/foreign cars. of course, youll see mess ups on all of them. but i think i upped my skill atleast a little with the newer ones. by nature of design they are way more complicated to build atleast. the lexus lfa and bmw m3 dt car are my newest additions i just finished these last few months. the BMW was the biggest pain. some parts didnt fit right, and the decals kicked my ass (accidently ripped them, or directions were unclear of placement). the lambo and benz are not pink. it looks like it in some pictures. the benz is the classic red color you'd see in real life. and the lambo is red with pearl white over top. the pics with the pack of other cars are more true-to-color. GTR uses pearl white as well, couple pics of it in the pack you can see. sprayed bottom trim with gun metal grey. the white (with black hood) mach mustang, and the yellow mach mustang were my dads. the cream mach mustang is mine (horrible front bumper fit issue as you can see). the cars on the bottom shelf that is ultra dusty except the AUDI and camaro are my dads. the three dark colored classic cars behind the white mach mustang on the shelf are also my dads. i have a box or two full of other models my dad did that i played with as a kid. anyways, hope you like. tell me your favorite. your least favorite. and what i could due to improve! edit: ah jeez, looking at the pics it highlights the elmers glue or some parts i forgot to clean up when i first finished the models. oh well! they look good in the big circle picture though

building a mercedez model, with tamiya ts-8 red. i primed it, sanded the primer smooth, did light coats of TS-8. sand off dust or whatever if needed between coats. the paint is looking pretty darn good. any person who doesnt build a lot of models would be very impressed. however, i am really trying to make this thing pop. for a test, i had finished painting the hood, sanded the hood with 4-6k grit, and then painted over it again. that thing was smooth!! my real question is..i am planning on clear coating. 1) what is a good kind of clear coat to get? testors one-coat clear? and whats the difference between a clear- coat and a glosscote? and, 2) if i wanted to try to make it even shinier, what is the next step? sand the model with 4-12k grit, THEN clear coat? or just spray the clear over the red, THEN sand the clear cote, THEN spray another clear coat and call it done? i do not plan on polishing at this time. i dont think i am ready for this, as well as the model is turning out pretty good and i have no more ts-8 and dont want to buy another can for this model to fix any mistakes lol

some of the parts say to paint it "PH A" and i cant find anywhere in the book what ph A means. i mean the normal colors say "ph 12" or whatever, with the number corresponding to a certain paint color on the chart in the manual. well, theres no "ph a" in my chart..

first is the primer question. bought an aoshima lambo kit and im going to paint it tamiya italian red lacquer. i have grey primer, and sprayed a spare part, then put the italian red over it. came out pretty dark. definitely not a "hey im a lambo!" red..so i am assuming i need to get white primer. however, ive seen some talk about duplicolor primer being cheaper/the exact same thing as tamiya primer/mr hobby primer. so why pay double the price, for half the amount? what is the EXACT kind of primer from duplicolor (or anything else) that i need for my model?and where do i buy? i do plan on sanding it, by the way. second question is, i bought a 3 state wax/polish kit from my local hobby store. i clear coated the body, and polished/waxed. i noticed a MINIMAL difference. i was then told by the worker that i was supposed to SAND the clear coat with 1-6k paper, THEN polish/wax. is this true, or is he giving me misinformation? thanks!!

i have this model. i am ALMOST done, and its been HELL. what the HELL is up with this front bumper? it does NOT align right. finally after hacking pieces of plastic off, and gluing it and holding it together with my hands for 30 minutes i FINALLY got it to look half way decent. now, im about to put the shell on the car..ok cool, its going over the chassis and interior just fine..and now to do the final clip-ins..and guess what? it doesnt stay down. i cant get the shell to latch onto the chassis.the back is just fine. but the front just doesnt want to pop in. i do not understand whats causing the problem. this is infuriating. i guess ill just stick with a model that will just fall apart as soon as i pick it up. maybe ill tell people it has a "lift kit" on it.

got it! i was gonna do the pearl white route, but i actually just found an old can of testors clear gloss lacquer overcoat. and just because i am short on money right now, would it be OK to use the blue 3m painters tape and then coat over it? or should i just honestly wait till i get that prestigious tamiya tape and coat over it?

i just used regular tamiya lacquer paint. the rubbing alcohol melted the paint right off!! enamels OVER lacquer is ok. got it. so ill be ok to spray this enamel clear coat over the tape then.

this site is always so helpful. so what i did was i just got 91 percent alcohol and the bumper is sitting in a cup. im just going to start it over. i tried sanding it away, and that wasnt working. and i didnt have any polisher, but i didnt even bother because there were various indents and everything. i did notice the blue masking tape didnt leave residue when i used it...but it kind of reduced the shimmer/smoothness of the paint? maybe the paint was just still soft..tamiya tape or yellow 3M tape wont cause this, correct? im asking because i saw that tamiya tape was sort of expensive..so obviously masking the whole model with tamiya tape would be pricey. so as someone stated..mask the more important parts with tamiya tape, then the bulk/non essential areas with 3m yellow tape or 3m blue masking tape? and one more question..if i were to do the clear coat over the tape idea..would i need to just do one spray? AND if im using lacquer paint, but used enamel clear to create a sealant..would this be ok?

lol thanks a lot for the trick. im going to use th at for the continuation of the model. but as far as trying NOT to start over on this bumper piece, what should i try to do? my main problem with starting over is is that i wouldnt have enough white OR pearl white to do the bumper correctly. which means another 20 dollars gone. i do however have enough to do some "clean ups"

i really, really hope i didnt screw this up for myself. the paint is pearl white. i then masked off as well as i thought i could, and then sprayed with gun metal. all paint is tamiya lacquer. when i took off the blue masking tape from 3m, i suppose i should have waited a bit longer for the paint to dry because it was still a bit wet. i waited like 30-45 minutes but the coats might have been wetter than i thought. so now i have a list of problems 1- my gun metal middle area is damaged 2- paint bled all over onto the pearl white so what do i do!?!? obviously wait a night or two..and then i was thinking to get 6-12k sandpaper and sanding the gun metal to smooth it out. then the hard part is the pearl white. i know sanding pearl isnt generally accepted..and im scared im going to have to shoot my white base and then pearl all over again.. but if i can get away with sanding just enough of the gun metal off of the pearl, i should be safe? and by the way.. how the hell do i avoid this masked-tape-bleed-thru mess!?

so i have a tamiya kit im working on..my plan is to make it pearl white kind of like this: so i primed it with my surfacer 500. the cap is white, but the primer comes out a light gray. i sanded the whole body down and got it smooth. i painted just the hood to see what the pearl would look like over the light gray primer..it looks like dog shhh. you can barely even tell theres pearl white over it. it looks like a shiny sparkley grey. not going to work. at all. i didnt know pearl white was going to be so translucent.. so how do i fix this? i went out and bought tamiya ts-26 "pure white." do i need to paint over the primer with this pure white, and then paint over that with my PEARL white? then will it look better? also, how do i approach the problem of my hood? as i said, everything is just primed except my hood that i did a few coats of pearl on. do i need to sand down my hood, or can i just go over it with white, then back again with pearl white?

wow this is great. i needed hands on experience to understand what was being said. ok, so i just finished wet sanding my primer with 2k grit. at first, it was grainy cause of the primer..and now its silky smooth. i dont know if its needed or not, but im going to sand with 4k grit..then soap/rinse and dry..then primer it and let it sit for the night. after that i may just repeat the same process over again. then prime it one last time, followed by a 4k wetsand so its silky smooth, and then coat it with paint. sounds like a good plan yall? and p.s. so im a little unclear about this. since in this specific case im using pearl white should i avoid sanding any of my paint until i clear coat? unless maybe i have debris fall on it?

thanks man. well i cleaned the model. and started off with 400 grit. i took out some defects that i noticed. i then went to 600, followed by 1000 and 2k. ill start sanding in the same direction now that you told me thats what you do. i did a light mist of primer on my sanded parts. its been about 2-3 1/2 hours, so im going to wet sand with 2,000 grit. wash that off, prime it again and work on it some more tomorrow.

well, i had an old edsel model laying around that had been painted with testors one coat lacquer. i decided to sand it to see what it'd do. i started off with 2k wet up and down. then went to 4k wet side to side. then 6k wet up and down. then 12k wet side to side. and i must have been pushing too hard because i saw all my scratches. i then tried the hood. same thing, but this time putting no pressure on it. and the left side of the hook looked the same as the right side. i dont know if i was doing something wrong, or what.. i'd like to note that the car i was testing on is like a 'electric pink' its sort of metallicy/flakey. i remeber reading not to wetsand paint jobs of that sort until after you've clear coated. which brings me to my next point..since my paint i got was pearl white, i should do all my sanding before i lay paint down? and then once i clear it, i can wetsand if needed?

so i went to my local hobby store and bought some things. the only thing im concerned about is the mr surfacer 500. it wasnt everyones recommended primer of choice on this board, but all the model guys in the store suggested it. anyways, this is what i ended up with:

thank you! so after i put the final coat of primer on, i need to sand it one more time. before i was sanding with 1000 or less, but this final sanding before i apply paint needs to be atleast 2,000? and once the base coats have paint been applied and dried, i need to use 2,000-4,000 grit. start with 2000 wet, sand the whole body, and then work my way up to 4,000 wet, right? or am i painting inbetween sand grit changes?

wow thanks for all the info. thanks for all the great info!!! what i noticed in your steps though that confused me, is it seems a lot of your work described is spot-checking, or touching-up obvious defects..but the steps that i thought i had learned were mainly consisting of, sanding the WHOLE car.

that first link seems to be a great deal because you get way more grit grades, plus handifiles..and its only 16 dollars. i might order that. would this be my "complete" kit to sand my models? i am however on a budget. what would be the bare minimum of grits i would need to make my paint look really good? for example, could i go into an automotive department store like autozone and pick up 600, 1000, 1500, 2000, and like 3000.. would that be all i'd need for now until i buy a real kit? or is this not cost effective at all? basically from what im understanding is this: step 1: get primer. for my white skyline, i shall get white primer. preferably duplicolor and make sure its sandable on the label. step 2: sand the body with 600-1000 grit paper step 3: prime the body with a light coat step 4: sand again with same grit. step 5: primer again step 6: sand again step 7: prime again, this time ready for paint step 8: apply light coat of paint. step 9: WETSAND with ...? now once my paint is applied, should i be using a higher grit now say 1500+? step 10: apply coats/sand as needed. step 11: apply clear coat step 12: polish with a compound from 3m? is it not a good idea to sand, primer, and then sand your way up to very fine grit..that way before paint even touches the model, the model is very very smooth, thus avoiding the need to sand inbetween paint coats?

i am inspired to sand now. you guys are great salesmen.. haha. can someone provide me an excellent link of the 101 to sanding? and exactly what products i need? im hearing all these sorts of grits.. im hearing wet sanding, im hearing beauty stores..its all a lot to take in at once. how come sanding the body doesnt remove lines on a car you DO want? like for example, where the door would open/close. am i just not getting deep enough to remove that line? most importantly why im hesitant is because i dont want to screw up the sanding. i dont know in what pattern/direction to sand in..and i dont know what to look for as mcm ohana was stating "high and low spots". but perhaps once i primer, it would become more obvious? EDIT: was searching the website about sanding..and saw "micro mesh" kits. specifically this kit from micromark. http://www.micromark.com/micro-mesh-finishing-kit,7601.html. is this all that i would need to properly sand my model? or am i missing something from this kit? if this IS all that i need, is there a place that would be cheaper at all to get something similar?

thanks guys. i will definitely use primer now. i am still not sure about the sanding, just because the little bit of info ive read on it sounds like there are a LOT of steps, and i would have to buy a cheap models worth of supplies for it..anyways, i am asking because i have a nissan gtr to build. it is like a 70+ dollar kit, and i want it to be as perfect as i personally can make it. im used to enamel paint, but i used tamiyas lacquer for the first time on my last model. it seemed so much easier to use because it dried so quickly!! so im hooked on it. this is the color i want to paint my skyline...what is the closest tamiya lacquer color out there to this? http://www.model-car-photos.com/pictures/196.jpg so, since im interested in the lacquer paint, but now i want to prime..what primer do i get? everyone on here talks about plastikote and duplicolor..i see a lot of talk about automotive shops and such to get those brands..these come in regular rattle cans..right? so i need to get a white primer, as im painting my kit white right? is primer lacquer, or enamel? i do know that in some cases you should NOT mix lacquer/enamel. sorry for all the questions!

i browse everyones builds, and a lot of them look completely amazing. i know a lot of you sand before you paint..but is it essential? ive built 10-20 models, but they are never picture perfect. and i never sand. and i almost never prime either. would doing either make a visible difference to the final product? if sanding is really that desired..is it easy to do? is it expensive? and whats a decent/good primer? gray is for dark colors, and white would be for light colors right? +is there a simple step by step guide about sanding? also, do you put the exterior together, THEN paint? for example, the bumpers/mirrors/wing? i never do, because i follow the directions..and usually the bumpers are supposed to be applied after you install the chassis to the car body. i just imagine me accidently snapping the bumpers off while im trying to install the body/chassis together