3rd gen Camaro

[MarkJ]

3 hours ago, 1959scudetto said:

Long-time project, Mark, finally reaching the finished line.  I'm looking forward seeing it in the "under Glass" section.

Thanks, Helmut, for stopping by and commenting. In a way I'm kind of glad I messed up the finish I had. I believe when all is said and done this airbrushed body will look a lot better in the end. I just don't have the talent to pull of what Pierre does with a bristle brush. I get the paint way to thick even eliminating the door and trunk separation lines. Thats not a good look for a model car.

[MarkJ]

Did the final touch up for the black items so next comes the clear. I'm hoping I will not have to polish it. Just future after the decals are applied, I will have to sand the headlight covers a little before the clear. probably use a 4000-grit pad.

Edited March 7 by MarkJ

[Belugawrx]

You did a great job with the airbrush Mark, colours look so smooth (2Thumsup)

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Bruce. i'm hoping for better results with the clear when I get some more good weather.

[absmiami]

Some journey 

[MarkJ]

Thanks for stopping by Andrew. I agree. 

[MarkJ]

I bought these huge gravity cup strainers at harbor freight, but they were way too big to use on an air brush. I decided to cut the strainer parts out and make 2 little ones from each big one. Haven't tried them yet but I think they should work just fine. The little piece of green tape is to secure them to the cup while pouring the paint into it. also make a nice little handle to discard them when finished.

[MarkJ]

The little fold I put in them makes them conical, so they fit inside the gravity cup. Here is something weird and maybe somebody can explain it to me, but I tested one of these little strainers with distilled water and it would not go through just sat there. I then tried some 91% alchohol and that did flow through the strainer.  My problems in the past with airbrushes was getting little bits of trash in my paint mix that would clog up the brush. I'm hoping these strainers will help .

[MarkJ]

I watched the you tube video on how to use acrylic paint and clear to paint a model again. The guy did not strain the clear, so I won't either. I guess there is no problem with sediment when using clear. I posted a link below if you're interested. It's weird, he's painting the same model I am. Freaked me out the first time I viewed it.

 

painting a model car with airbrush - Google Search

[kensar]

The surface tension of pure water is very high - the water molecules want to stick together.  This is why water beads up on surfaces with low surface tension (like the metal strainer).  Oil, on the on the other hand has very low surface tension, so it runs easily and wicks into cracks easily.  Mixing a surfactant (soap or certain alcohols, for example) into water lowers its surface tension and reduces its tendency to bead up.

FYI - I never shake up my paints just to avoid getting particles in the paint - only stir them.

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Ken for that info. Also, thanks for the tip on stirring instead of shaking. The only problem is Vallejo acrylics come in bottles that you can't stir. Only shake. I don't have to worry about that because I plan to be switching to Tamiya paint for my airbrushing paint.

[MarkJ]

I shot the Tamiya x-22a acrylic clear today and its glossy, but it still needs to be polished. Have any of you guys ever polished it and how long for it to cure before you can polish it? I don't want to rub through it to the paint and especially not to the primer. I was thinking about 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit polishing pads. Thanks in advance for any replies. I'm antsy to get the decals on and future this baby.

[Pierre Rivard]

13 hours ago, MarkJ said:

I shot the Tamiya x-22a acrylic clear today and its glossy, but it still needs to be polished. Have any of you guys ever polished it and how long for it to cure before you can polish it? I don't want to rub through it to the paint and especially not to the primer. I was thinking about 6000, 8000 and 12000 grit polishing pads. Thanks in advance for any replies. I'm antsy to get the decals on and future this baby.

I used Tamiya X-22A before shifting to Vallejo about a year ago. I usually waited about 3 days before polishing. It is not a very hard clear but still polishes good, starting at 6000 if you don't have orange peel.

[MarkJ]

16 minutes ago, Pierre Rivard said:

I used Tamiya X-22A before shifting to Vallejo about a year ago. I usually waited about 3 days before polishing. It is not a very hard clear but still polishes good, starting at 6000 if you don't have orange peel.

Thanks, Pierre. I realized that I had bumped the roof with the airbrush and knocked a spot in it down to the primer so I think I will try sanding with the 6000 today to see what happens and touch up that spot and reclear the whole model again. I'm not getting orange peel but more like a sandy look. I might increase my thinner to a 1.5/1 ratio instead of a 1/1 like I used yesterday. That would be 6 grams of thinner to 4 grams of clear. Maybe it will flow out a little better. Now I'm starting to remember why I went to brush painting in the first place. You watch these guys on you tube using the airbrush and they make it look so simple and get beautiful results but when I try to mimic them, I don't get the same results. I guess I'm paint challenged no matter what I try to use.

[MarkJ]

I polished the clear with 6000 through 12000 pads and helped the finish immensely but I went through to the primer in certain areas. I touched up those spots with a small brush and will reclear those spots with a small brush as well. It's not what I was hoping for, but I would need Mr. hobby, Mr. color levelling thinner to do that and nobody, I mean nobody has it in stock. Supposedly it has just the right amount of retarder in it to make the paint level out to a very smooth and glossy finish. It's just like when the Revell chrom was so popular you could not get it. I can't wait any more so I'm going to go ahead and finish this one and hope to get that levelling thinner for my next project.

[MarkJ]

Well, I'm going to call the painting and polishing done on the build. Without being able to get any Mr. hobby, Mr. color leveling thinner I cannot improve on what I have here so I will put on the hood and trunk fasteners. Add the park light covers and mesh grille. Add the Windshield and back glass and I will be able to start decaling the model. Once that's done I can future it and call this build complete. Oh yeah, I won't be able to add the door handles because the real car did not have any. So, I made them for nothing. Well actually I needed to make the area of the door where they fasten look right, so it wasn't a complete loss of effort. The color is more what I wanted after the clear and polish happened to it. Not so powdery blue anymore.
 

[Mattilacken]

Looking good, paint looks flat and nice!

[MarkJ]

Thanks, Anton. It will have to do. It's time to wrap this baby up.

[MarkJ]

Got started on the hood and trunk pins.

[MarkJ]

Some more work on the hood and trunk pins. Also, I found an old body from a build I did in the seventy's that half the stuff is lost off of it so it will make a great test body for trying out different thinners for acrylic paint. There was talk back in 2019 and 2020 about how some people thought that denatured alchohol was just like mr. color levelling thinner. Lots of talk but nobody actually did a test and posted pictures of what they got. I will sand and prime this body and then use some acrylic paint and some acrylic clear with the denatured alcohol and see what I get. I also heard that plain old lacquer thinner will also work well with acrylic paint and give you a gloss shine that you won't have to polish it either. I shall try that too.

[MarkJ]

Somehow, I got silver paint on the roof, and it went right through the paint all the way past the primer. I kept trying to get it off without creating too much damage but now I will have to refinish the roof. This build is jinxed for sure or I'm just an idiot.

[Pierre Rivard]

This build is definitely jinxed. Hang in there friend.

I've been using Green Stuff World  2102 acrylic thinner with my Vallejo color coats with great success (but not good for the clear). Don't know if you still use Vallejo now that you have migrated to the airbrush but you might want to try it. Just a faint floor polish smell, no organic solvents in it.

[MarkJ]

5 hours ago, Pierre Rivard said:

This build is definitely jinxed. Hang in there friend.

I've been using Green Stuff World  2102 acrylic thinner with my Vallejo color coats with great success (but not good for the clear). Don't know if you still use Vallejo now that you have migrated to the airbrush but you might want to try it. Just a faint floor polish smell, no organic solvents in it.

Thanks, Pierre. I have been doing a lot of research and have come to the conclusion I need to use a flow improver made of a small amount of dish detergent and Vallejo retarder. You mix up a 10% solution of it with distilled water and put a couple of drops of it in the 50/50 mix of paint and thinner which can be either Vallejo thinner or Tamiya thinner. I will be using it when I do the refinish of the roof and see what happens. The blue on the model is a regular Vallejo model color paint mix I made at the beginning of the build. I plan on sticking with the Vallejo because it comes in convenient dropper bottles instead of jars and you can mix up just about any color in the rainbow as you know. I had trouble with Vallejo retarder and their clear varnish because I used way too much retarder and the clear never really dried enough to ever polish it or do anything with it for that matter. Thanks again for the recommendation about the thinner.

[MarkJ]

All primed up and ready for the repaint. Just hope for good conditions outside to get it done. I'm curious how the flow improver I made from watching various you tube videos is going to work. Hoping it's a good alternative to the Mr. Paint levelling thinner, that is impossible to get.

[MarkJ]

Good news. The flow improver did its job, and I got a nice smooth finish on the repaint of the roof. It went on glossy and with some small bumps but after it dried the bumps levelled out smooth and flat like acrylic paint is supposed to dry. When I sand it this time with 4000 to shoot the clear it will look a lot better too because I will use the flow improver in it as well. I think I will clear the whole model body again this time with the flow improver. 2 of the shots below are out of order. 3 and 4 should be switched. The third picture shows where I do my painting outdoors. it's a fenced in area behind the exterior garage wall. It's kind of a place to store stuff I might need in the future like left over pieces of wood and empty plant pots. Its kind of protected from the wind in there and i can just store my chair and table against the garage wall when not in use.