Why is my coat so splotchy

[Milo]

It is not a mirror

Does anyone know why this is happening? I'm gonna blame it on my airbrush cuz it's pretty bad. I'm using tamiya acrylic thinner and tamiya acrylic gloss clear 1:1

it's on a testors enamel paint job.

[stitchdup]

your paints arent compatible with each other

[peteski]

Whenever trying new combination of paints, new painting technique. or just learning to spray-paint or airbrush, I recommend using something disposable like plastic spoons, or for a larger surface empty plastic soft drink bottles. 16fl. oz. bottles are similar size to 1:25 model cars.  That way you won't have to keep stripping the body of your model after bad results. Stripping paint is a pain in the rear end!

[espo]

Hard to tell without seeing it in person, but in the picture, it looks as if there may be some sort of contaminant under the paint. Was the body cleaned before painting? Were there any other projects that you are working on also on the work bench at the same time?  Sometimes moving back and forth between builds you can bring contaminants from sanding or even a slight over spray on to another project and if not cleaned well before painting sometimes you can get a finish that will look like this. My first thought would be a resin body or parts in the work area that may have been handled and then you pick up this body to paint. I will not even sand or cut on a resin part in my build area for this reason since it takes so little to do something like this. 

[Milo]

14 hours ago, stitchdup said:

your paints arent compatible with each other

Everyone said that this would work. Also everyone says that acrylic covers everything 

[stitchdup]

6 minutes ago, Milo said:

Everyone said that this would work. Also everyone says that acrylic covers everything 

its the other way around, you can use some enamels over acrylic but but acrylic doesn't like going over enamels. theres something in acrylics that causes the enamel primers to soften again and restart the gassing process but it doesn't happen the other way around. maybe its just more porous than acrylics and soaks up some of the thinners. The tamiya paints (and some craft hobby paints) just confuse things by having acrylic enamel written on the jars. You can use duplicolour primers with the tamiya paints and so far i've found it to work for the majority of my paints, both acrylic and enamels

[Milo]

6 minutes ago, stitchdup said:

its the other way around, you can use some enamels over acrylic but but acrylic doesn't like going over enamels. theres something in acrylics that causes the enamel primers to soften again and restart the gassing process but it doesn't happen the other way around. maybe its just more porous than acrylics and soaks up some of the thinners. The tamiya paints (and some craft hobby paints) just confuse things by having acrylic enamel written on the jars. You can use duplicolour primers with the tamiya paints and so far i've found it to work for the majority of my paints, both acrylic and enamels

you have it backwards buddy

[jaymcminn]

When did you apply the base coat? Enamel can take weeks to gas out whether or not it "feels" dry and your acrylic top coat will react if it's being sprayed over "wet" enamel.

Really, the best suggestion has been made several times in responses to your threads, which is to buy a pack of plastic spoons and practice until you get fairly consistent results. Learning how to airbrush is a lot less painful when you're ruining spoons instead of kits!

[bobthehobbyguy]

In addition to practicing on spoons.

You will save yourself a lot of grief by sticking with one brand and type of paint.  Mixing brands and types is a recipe for disaster. 

[stitchdup]

20 minutes ago, Milo said:

you have it backwards buddy

i only use acrylic primer. most of my paints are also acrylic but on the odd occaison i've used enamel paint over acrylic primer and it worked fine. i use enamels for detail painting over acrylics too and that works too. the only time i had problems was acrylic over enamel and it was a complete failure. heres a little experiment you can do if you have both types of primer. spray a line of each on something and leave it for a few days. when you come back to it use the same paints and paint a pair of lines over the first 2 lines. ,i bet the acrylic over enamel is wonky and the other 3 crossovers turn out fine.

[Milo]

3 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

In addition to practicing on spoons.

You will save yourself a lot of grief by sticking with one brand and type of paint.  Mixing brands and types is a recipe for disaster. 

It'll just cost me too much to switch from enamel to something else

[Milo]

15 minutes ago, jaymcminn said:

When did you apply the base coat? Enamel can take weeks to gas out whether or not it "feels" dry and your acrylic top coat will react if it's being sprayed over "wet" enamel.

 

If that's the case, which it most likely is, can I sand down my clear coat so that it is smooth, but still is acrylic as last layer, can I put another clear coat over that?

[bobthehobbyguy]

17 minutes ago, Milo said:

It'll just cost me too much to switch from enamel to something else

You don't need to switch from enamels. Just stick with one brand of enamel.  

[Milo]

9 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

You don't need to switch from enamels. Just stick with one brand of enamel.  

I'm not going to use enamel clear though

[Dpate]

Man from what I seen in the video based off the hood, and some parts on the body you got more issues to worry about than a clear coat. Looks to me the enamel didn’t cure, and the clear with the thinner dissolved some sections. If you do not have a dehydrator? You’re gonna have to be patient, and let the testors enamel dry properly for a good while. Really depends on what you thinned the enamel with, and without an added hardener it’s gonna take a long time. If I were you I’d take the time to practice, read up, and be patient or you’re gonna have a miserable experience.  You also don’t have to have everything the same brand. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but mixing products work just fine long as you know what you’re doing. You could thin that testors enamel with Mr hobby leveling thinner, and it will work every time. That’s just an example of a different product used with a different product. 

[Milo]

No the paintjob was brushed, and a couple of spots were messed up. I'm just trying to practice getting a smooth glossy finish.

[Dpate]

2 minutes ago, Milo said:

No the paintjob was brushed, and a couple of spots were messed up. I'm just trying to practice getting a smooth glossy finish.

So it’s a tester body? I’m thinking it’s your actual work you’re building on. 

[bobthehobbyguy]

11 minutes ago, Dpate said:

Man from what I seen in the video based off the hood, and some parts on the body you got more issues to worry about than a clear coat. Looks to me the enamel didn’t cure, and the clear with the thinner dissolved some sections. If you do not have a dehydrator? You’re gonna have to be patient, and let the testors enamel dry properly for a good while. Really depends on what you thinned the enamel with, and without an added hardener it’s gonna take a long time. If I were you I’d take the time to practice, read up, and be patient or you’re gonna have a miserable experience.  You also don’t have to have everything the same brand. There’s nothing wrong with doing that, but mixing products work just fine long as you know what you’re doing. You could thin that testors enamel with Mr hobby leveling thinner, and it will work every time. That’s just an example of a different product used with a different product. 

I agree. However I'd avoid mixing brands until you've got the basic painting process down. The key is getting some experience. 

There is a method called the Donn Yost method which you mix cheapskate lacquer thinner with the enamel. You can Google youtube for some of his painting videos. If you are going to use enamels you need an airbrush.  Brushing enamels is not really the way to go.

Enamels dry really glossy. In most cases clears are not used on light colors becuase they can yellow You could just use the color coats for your first paint jobs. Get your paint process down. Once that is done you can then you can experiment with clears.

Edited August 17, 2023 by bobthehobbyguy

[Milo]

10 minutes ago, bobthehobbyguy said:

I agree. However I'd avoid mixing brands until you've got the basic painting process down. The key is getting some experience. 

There is a method called the Donn Yost method which you mix cheapskate lacquer thinner with the enamel. You can Google youtube for some of his painting videos. If you are going to use enamels you need an airbrush.  Brushing enamels is not really the way to go.

Enamels dry really glossy. In most cases clears are not used on light colors becuase they can yellow You could just use the color coats for your first paint jobs. Get your paint process down. Once that is done you can then you can experiment with clears.

I don't have a paasche 

[Muncie]

Old School enamel, which I believe is what Testor's enamel is, dries by evaporation of the thinner as the first stage and oxidation of the binder in the second stage (reference 1976 Ditzler manual).  It may take 6 months or longer for an enamel to completely dry. If the enamel is not completely cured, the thinner in lacquer thinners are hot enough to lift the enamel color coat. That looks like what you have here. 

That's old school but it applies to the paints Testor's enamel color and Tamiya lacquer clear that you are using.  There is a lot of newer technology in most of the available paints and those need a little testing to ensure compatibility.

There is a learning curve here., yeah, i did this... we've all had some experiences...

 

 

 

 

Edited August 18, 2023 by Muncie

[Milo]

11 minutes ago, Muncie said:

Old School enamel, which I believe is what Testor's enamel is, dries by evaporation of the thinner as the first stage and oxidation of the binder in the second stage (reference 1976 Ditzler manual).  It may take 6 months or longer for an enamel to completely dry. If the enamel is not completely cured, the thinner in lacquer thinners are hot enough to lift the enamel color coat. That looks like what you have here. 

That's old school but it applies to the paints Testor's enamel color and Tamiya lacquer clear that you are using.  There is a lot of newer technology in most of the available paints and those need a little testing to ensure compatibility.

There is a learning curve here., yeah, i did this... we've all had some experiences...

 

 

 

 

Are you talking about the paint peeling or the rough clear coat?

[bobthehobbyguy]

First off brush painting is totally different than spray painting. It's going to take a lot longer for the enamel to dry.

Second whatever you learn from brush painting isn't going to apply to spray painting.

It would be better to wait till you can get an airbrush setup.

[StevenGuthmiller]

My Opinion?

You’re getting WAY ahead of yourself.

If you insist upon using enamels, which it appears you have, and there’s nothing wrong with that, forget about the clear coat for the time being.

It’s completely unnecessary.

 

Buy a few cans of Testors enamel spray cans and practice your painting technique before you dive headlong into all of the other intricacies of painting.

Get down the basics like distance from the subject, pass speed, coverage basics, all the simple things that you’re going to have to master before you start filling up your brain with all of the other nonsense.

Testors enamel doesn’t need a clear coat, so learn to spray a couple of nice even coats, let it cure for a couple of months, and then learn the basics of polishing, and you can achieve a perfectly acceptable paint job without feeling that you need to jump through all of these hoops.

 

A Monogram 1959 Cadillac painted with nothing more than a little primer, a couple of coats of Testors red enamel, and then polished.

You’re over thinking what needs to be a simplified solution at this level.

 

 

 

 

Steve

[Muncie]

1 hour ago, Milo said:

Are you talking about the paint peeling or the rough clear coat?

yes, lacquer over enamel will cause both.

 

 

[Dave G.]

One thing about it it will sort of blend into the purple pond !

But seriously, I'm with Steve, I see no need to clear coat a good enamel finish either. Since I use a dehydrator I don't wait two months though. And the era vehicles I tend to model were never clear coated in real life either ( 1910ish to 1960). I'll airbrush Testors little bottles or decanted Rustoleum Painters Touch/2x, airbrush those with some added lacquer thinner and the finish is smooth as melted butter and the trees in the yard reflect off the finish. It's about technique, but I've shot enamels for more than 60 years too. Give yourself a chance to learn enamels ways.

Somewhere in the 1970's I clear coated a dragster because it was 2/3 decals. But I don't build modern vehicles normally.

Edited August 18, 2023 by Dave G.