Paint peel: How to get rid of it?

[conchan]

How does one get rid of the orange peel effect from an imperfect spray can paint job?  
All paint and primer used was by Tamiya. Pink surface primer and TS8 (Italian Red).  
Body was lightly sanded then primed before two light coats of top coat were applied.

[Miatatom]

Sand it down smooth and don't use light coats next time.

[4mula1fan]

It takes a pretty wet coat to level out. How much is too much is the trick. I trust my eyes to see how the paint is laying down and adjust accordingly. Trial and error, my friend. 

[Fat Brian]

I agree that a final, wetter coat would help you tremendously. What I would do with what you've got now is lightly wet sand it with 1500 or 2000 grit paper to remove the worst of the pebbliness and lint, then once it's dry hit it again with the red a little heavier and maybe a touch closer. When you spray from really far away the paint can dry out too much so instead of hitting the body and flowing out it piles up like little pellets. 

[Erik Smith]

Make sure your painting area is clean. Looks like a lot of dust in the paint. Tamiya is pretty forgiving and has a high “shrink” rate (there is probably some technical term for that), so your final coats need to be wet - they will look heavy on the model, like almost ready to run, but when dry it will be smooth and details that looked obliterated will be visible. That’s my experience. 

[Dpate]

Was your primer coat smooth? That can cause color coat to be rough too if the primer coat isn't smooth.  Top back side looking little pinkish too.  You're gonna have to do some wet sanding and than do another coat.

Edited February 8, 2022 by Dpate

[tbill]

At a guess, you were too far away, and didn’t spray enough paint. If possible, wet sand what you’ve got to get it back to smooth , dry it off good with paper towels, and let it sit for a day ( unless you’re confident it’s completely dry), then take your spray can and spray ‘quick and close’, start to spray ahead of and beyond the body. Quick passes 3-4 inches away from the body. I do one side, do the other, once across the grill part of the body, once across the tail lamp area, then with a side to side motion, I trunk to roof to fender tops. Takes a few tries to get a good feel for it, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll get pretty smooth results ever time. Hope this helps.

[peteski]

You are not the first person with orange peel print problem.  This subject comes up from time to time.  Here is a recent thread which provides lots of useful hints, some of which will be same as what is already mentioned here.  Just click on the link: http://www.modelcarsmag.com/forums/topic/167753-dreaded-orange-peel/

[conchan]

Thanks everyone for all the advice and information. It is very much appreciated. 
The link was a great help too. 
I've put some additional information below.

I tried the 2-3 light mist coats method (is that a method) from roughly 15 cm away to avoid runs, which means that I probably sprayed too lightly for the paint to become "wet".  And is probably why the pink primer is showing through the on the roof. 
I thought the area was clean but by looking at the lint on the model I was obviously wrong. I will mist some water in the paint area before spaying again in an effort to eliminate this problem. 
The primer was smooth, or so I thought but again it obviously wasn't. 

I will wet sand the body with 1500 then 2000 paper, let dry then respray the body. After the model dries I will use the Tamiya polishing compounds before applying a final clear coat. This is assuming that I get the body paint right the next time. 

Again thanks to all who took the time to answer my question. 

Stay safe and enjoy!

[Michael jones]

Just FYI do not use polishing compounds before applying the clear coat. That will surely cause fisheyes. 

[conchan]

16 minutes ago, Michael jones said:

Just FYI do not use polishing compounds before applying the clear coat. That will surely cause fisheyes. 

Thank you very much for this information!!
It saved me writing another post on how to remove fisheyes. 
 

[Fat Brian]

10 hours ago, conchan said:

Thanks everyone for all the advice and information. It is very much appreciated. 
The link was a great help too. 
I've put some additional information below.

I tried the 2-3 light mist coats method (is that a method) from roughly 15 cm away to avoid runs, which means that I probably sprayed too lightly for the paint to become "wet".  And is probably why the pink primer is showing through the on the roof. 
I thought the area was clean but by looking at the lint on the model I was obviously wrong. I will mist some water in the paint area before spaying again in an effort to eliminate this problem. 
The primer was smooth, or so I thought but again it obviously wasn't. 

I will wet sand the body with 1500 then 2000 paper, let dry then respray the body. After the model dries I will use the Tamiya polishing compounds before applying a final clear coat. This is assuming that I get the body paint right the next time. 

Again thanks to all who took the time to answer my question. 

Stay safe and enjoy!

Another thing that will help in the future is wet sanding the final primer coat. I didn't believe it so I never did it and always had bad results when using primer so I never used it. Once I tried it it was a night and day difference. Wet sand it with like 2000 grit, it still needs some "tooth" to do its job but smoothing that final coat out makes a world of difference. 

[peteski]

Like I mentioned in the other thread, it is all in the painting technique.  If you spray the paint on wet, there will not be any orange peel. That goes for primer and paint/clear coats.  It seems that a majority of modelers seem to be afraid to do that, and they mist their paint coats.  That causes the paint to partially dry traveling from the airbrush to the model, not being able to self-level on the models surface, causing orange peel.  If one sprays heavier coats, the paint/primer is able to spread out on the model and level out.  No orange peel.  I lay it on heavy.  Yes, there is a possibility the paint will run, but with experience that can be prevented. I never sand/polish my paint jobs.

[Ace-Garageguy]

13 minutes ago, peteski said:

Like I mentioned in the other thread, it is all in the painting technique.  If you spray the paint on wet, there will not be any orange peel. That goes for primer and paint/clear coats.  It seems that a majority of modelers seem to be afraid to do that, and they mist their paint coats.  That causes the paint to partially dry traveling from the airbrush to the model, not being able to self-level on the models surface, causing orange peel. 

I believe a large part of this widespread and ongoing problem derives from misunderstood "expert" advice that says misting paint is the way to go.

What falls through the cracks of understanding is that ONE way to paint with an AIRBRUSH is by over-reducing (thinning) paint, and turning the material flow way down.

Paint that's thinned excessively and "misted" will still flow out somewhat due to the excess thinner keeping it from drying before it hits the surface, as Pete alludes to above.

But the bottom line is the same as it is for any endeavor that requires skill. Don't accept everything you read or hear as gospel, and PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE.

There are LOTS of ways to get a good finish on a model, but learning how to apply just enough paint to flow out without running it is an essential skill to master...and once you've mastered it, your paint will look like this with NO sanding and polishing (this is Duplicolor rattlecan green with Testors clear).

NOTE: Small plastic soda bottles make excellent practice targets, as they're about the same size as a model car, they require the painter to turn them as one does when painting a model, and they're FREE.