Can someone give me a painting tip, please?

[dazzed]

Doing a 1/8 E-Type Jaguar kids got me for father's day. Great car, love the build but I'm new to getting the paint right. Using Tamiya primer, fully sanded car before priming, new expensive airbrush, SMS paint and clear gloss. After clear coat and polish I'm still left with this "orange peel right in the middle of this part. This part goes under the car so it was a test run for my skills but want to get it right before I start on the body. Is this dust on the part after priming before paint or just my lack of skills. All help appreciated. Extra photos to show off.  

[Simo5555]

Its not dust, its uneven clear coat. It usually happens when the primer and basecoat isnt dry enough befor clear coating or the clear itself isnt thinned enough (or combination of both).

[Dave G.]

Shoot it with Tamiya rattle cans. Save the new tools and paint you have no experience with for smaller projects, till you get to know what you're doing. Just my suggestion.

[bill-e-boy]

I have found SMS primer is quite coarse straight off the gun. I think the primer has soaked up the colour and left you with a coarse finish. It needs sanding with 1500-2000 grit sand paper to take away the coarseness. 

The other is one of paint and it may have been sprayed from too far away. SMS is ready to use paint but it always helps to thin the top coats down a little more to help the paint settle and give a good finish. Then clear coat it the same way

 

[Ace-Garageguy]

Oh boy...all this advice.

Looks to me like your passes shooting the color or the clear simply didn't overlap sufficiently there in the middle, so there wasn't enough paint to wet out and flow.

Try cleaning the panel with 70% isopropyl to get any contaminants from the polish off it, scuff the whole panel, and shoot a couple more coats of clear...paying extra attention to getting good overlap at the edges of each pass with the airbrush.

Then colorsand and polish again. That should take care of it.

OR, if you feel like living dangerously, try sanding the peel more aggressively with something like 600 wet. If you don't go through the clear, sand up to 3000 or so and polish it. 

If you do go through the clear, or even all the way to primer, just scuff the whole panel, clean it with iso, and shoot it again.

EDIT: Just for credibility, this is what my paint consistently looks like.

 

 

Edited September 14, 2024 by Ace-Garageguy

[StevenGuthmiller]

In 1/8th scale, you’ve got all the room in the world for paint!

Give it a couple more coats of clear and polish it out.

With that much real estate to cover, the chances are pretty slim that you’re going to get every surface of that big body perfect, for certain.

Personally, I would just plan on putting on plenty of color and clear, and getting my “perfect paint job” through cutting and polishing.

It’s probably going to be the best way to get all of the surfaces consistent.

I’ll add a “credibility” photo as well.

Disclaimer;

I ALWAYS polish my paint work.

 

 

 

Steve

Edited September 14, 2024 by StevenGuthmiller

[robdebie]

On 9/12/2024 at 10:13 AM, dazzed said:

Doing a 1/8 E-Type Jaguar kids got me for father's day. Great car, love the build but I'm new to getting the paint right. Using Tamiya primer, fully sanded car before priming, new expensive airbrush, SMS paint and clear gloss. After clear coat and polish I'm still left with this "orange peel right in the middle of this part. This part goes under the car so it was a test run for my skills but want to get it right before I start on the body. Is this dust on the part after priming before paint or just my lack of skills. All help appreciated. Extra photos to show off. 

Yet another route to try: the 'Donn Yost' paint technique, as demonstrated here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCKZ_fo4eW0

I had 30 years of problems like you describe, but this really works well, with all of the brands of enamel paint that I have in stock. No polishing, no clearcoat, simply smooooth paint ?

The Paasche H, or a similar *crude* airbrush, is the key ingredient I believe. You need to crank it wide open for the final coat.

Rob

 

 

[robdebie]

On 9/12/2024 at 10:13 AM, dazzed said:

Doing a 1/8 E-Type Jaguar kids got me for father's day. Great car, love the build but I'm new to getting the paint right. Using Tamiya primer, fully sanded car before priming, new expensive airbrush, SMS paint and clear gloss. After clear coat and polish I'm still left with this "orange peel right in the middle of this part. This part goes under the car so it was a test run for my skills but want to get it right before I start on the body. Is this dust on the part after priming before paint or just my lack of skills. All help appreciated. Extra photos to show off. 

I forgot to point out that your 'new expensive airbrush' is likely a large part of the problem. It atomizes the paint too fine, creating a very large total surface area of the atomized paint. That in turn causes a lot of thinner evaporation in the short distance between the airbrush and the model. The paint arrives thicker (more viscous) on the model that it was before you added thinner, and is so thick it cannot flow out to a smooth paint layer. Hence the orange peel.

One solution is a cruder cheaper airbrush, that atomizes coarsely - see the 'Donn Yost' technique as mentioned in my previous reply.

Rob

[NOBLNG]

12 hours ago, robdebie said:

The Paasche H, or a similar *crude* airbrush, is the key ingredient I believe. You need to crank it wide open for the final coat.

Rob

I don’t want to turn this thread into another soap opera, but I wouldn’t call the Paasche H “crude”.  It is a very well made, no-nonsense workhorse. It is a single action external mix airbrush. It may be simple, but it’s not crude.?

[robdebie]

On 9/16/2024 at 1:32 PM, NOBLNG said:

I don’t want to turn this thread into another soap opera, but I wouldn’t call the Paasche H “crude”.  It is a very well made, no-nonsense workhorse. It is a single action external mix airbrush. It may be simple, but it’s not crude.?

You are right: I meant to say the atomization principle is crude, not the manufacturing or finish.

Rob

Edited September 24, 2024 by robdebie

[NOBLNG]

On 9/12/2024 at 3:13 AM, dazzed said:

Doing a 1/8 E-Type Jaguar kids got me for father's day. Great car, love the build but I'm new to getting the paint right. Using Tamiya primer, fully sanded car before priming, new expensive airbrush, SMS paint and clear gloss. After clear coat and polish I'm still left with this "orange peel right in the middle of this part. This part goes under the car so it was a test run for my skills but want to get it right before I start on the body. Is this dust on the part after priming before paint or just my lack of skills. All help appreciated.

What airbrush are you using and what size of needle and nozzle do you have?

[Radretireddad]

The Tamiya primer is the best anywhere but it dries in an egg shell finish and the paint you’re using is conforming itself to whatever is under it. I’ve found that’s a sign that your paint is properly thinned. A simple wet sand of the primer coat before you apply the color coat works well to eliminate most of the orange peel. If you want an absolute mirror finish, further wet sanding and compounding of the finished color and clear coats will be required. 

[peteski]

What exactly does "eggshell"mean?  Surface sheen, or texture?  Primers by design have flat or satin finish.

About 30 years ago I built a 1:8 Scale Pocher Mercedes.  I sprayed its bare black plastic body parts with a gloss black Epoxy Appliance paint spray can.  It came in a large can (like Krylon paints). I don't recall the brand name or where I bought it.  Probably a local hardware store. I sprayed it on rather heavily, and it gave me nice smooth gloss black finish. No primer, no rubbing, buffing, compounding, polishing or waxing.

From what I see is most modelers are too timid when spray painting, so they end up with all sorts of rough surfaces which need to be massaged to look presentable. Spray heavy, but not heavy enough for the paint to run.  I guess it takes practice although I was fairly new to spray painting when I built that model.

Edited September 19, 2024 by peteski

[StevenGuthmiller]

15 minutes ago, peteski said:

What exactly does "eggshell"mean?  Surface sheen, or texture?  Primers by design have flat or satin finish

In the paint world, "eggshell" refers to the sheen.

"Orange Peel" refers to texture.

Just as with interior house paint, an "egg shell" paint has a a very light gloss sheen to it, which for all intents and purposes, is pretty much the same as a "satin" finish.

So, I suppose that you could say that a satin finish primer is roughly the same thing as an egg shell finish.

It's basically just a variation of terminology,

Although I suppose that there might be technical differences between the two, for our purposes, they're basically one and the same.

 

 

 

Steve

[Can-Con]

1 hour ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

In the paint world, "eggshell" refers to the sheen.

"Orange Peel" refers to texture.

Just as with interior house paint, an "egg shell" paint has a a very light gloss sheen to it, which for all intents and purposes, is pretty much the same as a "satin" finish.

So, I suppose that you could say that a satin finish primer is roughly the same thing as an egg shell finish.

It's basically just a variation of terminology,

Although I suppose that there might be technical differences between the two, for our purposes, they're basically one and the same.

 

 

 

Steve

Being a house painter for almost 35 years,, I'll hold my tongue, Steve. ??

[StevenGuthmiller]

32 minutes ago, Can-Con said:

Being a house painter for almost 35 years,, I'll hold my tongue, Steve. ??

By all means, give us your take.

This is just how I see it, and as I said, there my very well be deeper differences between an eggshell and a satin paint, but of course, I’m not a chemist and don’t know all of the ins and outs.

I just said what I said based on what I see.

By the way, I was a drywall subcontractor for 30 years as well, and while that doesn’t make me an expert on paint as much as it would drywall materials, we did do quite a bit of interior painting.

That said, whenever I’ve bought interior paint for my personal projects, it’s generally been eggshell, and my reasoning was always the finish, (whether you’d call it a satin or semi gloss) and durability.

 

 

 

Steve

[peteski]

My point was that all the primers I have ever worked with produced a non-glossy finish. Call it what you will.

[StevenGuthmiller]

49 minutes ago, peteski said:

My point was that all the primers I have ever worked with produced a non-glossy finish. Call it what you will.

I’ve had some exhibit a glossier finish than dead flat.

 

 

 

Steve

[Can-Con]

1 hour ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

By all means, give us your take.

This is just how I see it, and as I said, there my very well be deeper differences between an eggshell and a satin paint, but of course, I’m not a chemist and don’t know all of the ins and outs.

I just said what I said based on what I see.

By the way, I was a drywall subcontractor for 30 years as well, and while that doesn’t make me an expert on paint as much as it would drywall materials, we did do quite a bit of interior painting.

That said, whenever I’ve bought interior paint for my personal projects, it’s generally been eggshell, and my reasoning was always the finish, (whether you’d call it a satin or semi gloss) and durability.

 

 

 

Steve

Well, basically the sheens go gloss, semi-gloss, satin, eggshell, velvet , flat or matt and ceiling flat. 

That said, all the companies have different % sheen for these names so you don't know exactly how flat or shiny unless you use it.

And some lines don't have all of them, some only have semi, eggshell and flat or call it satin, velvet and matt. 

Sometimes the paint sheen won't even match out of the same can between the cuts and rolling or a sprayed ceiling and a touchup in the center in front of a light source.

BUT, for our intents and purposes in model building, this is all irrelevant. ?

The "By all means, give us your take." response sounds like you were a bit put out by my comment, I hope I misread that as that was not my intent, just goofing around with ya. ?

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 minute ago, Can-Con said:

Well, basically the sheens go gloss, semi-gloss, satin, eggshell, velvet , flat or matt and ceiling flat. 

That said, all the companies have different % sheen for these names so you don't know exactly how flat or shiny unless you use it.

And some lines don't have all of them, some only have semi, eggshell and flat or call it satin, velvet and matt. 

Sometimes the paint sheen won't even match out of the same can between the cuts and rolling or a sprayed ceiling and a touchup in the center in front of a light source.

BUT, for our intents and purposes in model building, this is all irrelevant. ?

The "By all means, give us your take." response sounds like you were a bit put out by my comment, I hope I misread that as that was not my intent, just goofing around with ya. ?

No, I meant no disrespect at all!

I was sincerely interested!

After all, you certainly have more experience than any of us participating in this discussion so far. ?

 

 

Steve

[Can-Con]

5 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

No, I meant no disrespect at all!

I was sincerely interested!

After all, you certainly have more experience than any of us participating in this discussion so far. ?

 

 

Steve

Hey, I'm just some goof who slaps paint on walls for a living and has done it long enough to start counting down until I can stop doing it every day. 

I do just about everything people warn others about concerning painting models so I really wouldn't put much stock in my advice on that subject. ?

[peteski]

50 minutes ago, StevenGuthmiller said:

I’ve had some exhibit a glossier finish than dead flat.

Steve

Eggshell maybe?

None of the primers I have seen have dead flat finish.  Maybe it's all in the definition. To me dead flat finish is the old Floquil RR colors Engine Black.

[StevenGuthmiller]

18 minutes ago, peteski said:

Eggshell maybe?

None of the primers I have seen have dead flat finish.  Maybe it's all in the definition. To me dead flat finish is the old Floquil RR colors Engine Black.

You’re probably correct.

I just have noticed from time to time that some of the primers that I’ve used seem to have more of a sheen than others.

 

 

Steve

[StevenGuthmiller]

1 hour ago, Can-Con said:

Hey, I'm just some goof who slaps paint on walls for a living and has done it long enough to start counting down until I can stop doing it every day. 

I do just about everything people warn others about concerning painting models so I really wouldn't put much stock in my advice on that subject. ?

Well, even a “goof” that slaps paint or drywall compound on walls, occasionally has some wisdom to offer.

Luckily, I’m one step ahead of you.

I haven’t done any drywall, (at least not for money) for close to 18 years.

Don’t miss it one bit either! ?

 

 

 

Steve

Edited September 19, 2024 by StevenGuthmiller