Tamiya Lexan Paints....

[Len Geisler]

Anyone use any of these on a kit body??? I have a copper color that I want to use on an RX-7 but the kit wasnt cheap and I don't want to ruin it. I have used Pactra Lexan paints on plastic with no issue in the past.

Just wondering if anyone has tried it before....

Thanks,

[Steve H.]

My experience is with Testors Lexan paints, But I'll make the assumption that they have similiar qualities...

Testors will craze styrene badly, unless you use an automotive quality primer. On the plus side, lexan paints go on thinner, so less detail is abscured. I would guess that Tamiya is a "hotter" paint, though, since that seems to be true of their other paint products.

Best advice... Test all your primer/paint combos on the kit plastic!

[LDO]

I saw the Tamiya Lexan paints at a hobby shop just a couple of hours ago. It looks like they have some cool colors not available in the "plastic line".

Somebody's gotta try 'em. Who's it gonna be? I can test them on a new issue of a Revell '99 Chevy Pickup and an old issue of a Tamiya Porsche 962. I don't have any other kits with me, but I can also try them on Evergreen sheet plastic. It may be a couple of days, though. The LHS is 40 miles away. I am really curious to see how they'll work out.

[crispy]

Hey guys the problem with Lexan paints is that most of them are flat, not really a big deal. However, they will make more work for you to polish. The reason they are flat is that the RC guys spray their bodies on the inside and the nice shiny paint is actually the outer shell.

Anyway, their is a flex like additive in the PS sprays not unlike for our real 1:1 cars.

At any rate you'd be best to try it out on a scrap piece.

Chris

[Billy Kingsley]

I have a dead body here. Revell 2003 NASCAR Intrepid. I'll try it out as soon as I can buy some paint, which should be this week. I'll spray it on the bare plastic to see the results.

[LDO]

Billy-

To heck with bare plastic. We're breaking new ground here. We're pioneers! Use a primer that's commonly available to hobbyists and report the results. I'll be using Tamiya's grey spray can primer. I may grab a can of their white as well.

What is the non-model primer that's so popular? Is it Duplicolor? Can you try that one? It would be cool to have some new color options that are readily available to most of us.

[Mr. Can Am Garage]

I guess it's time for my two cents on this.

The owner of my LHS IS a modeler and he's the Tamiya lexan paints on styrene. He had no problems to speak of BUT he did use a good automotive grade primer between the plastic and the paint.

I wish I could recall if he airbrushed it on or if it came straight from the rattle can. I'm thinking it was one of the bottled paints but I could be wrong.

Anyway, I've seen the results of the experiment and it looked real nice. It did need a clear coat but that's to be expected.

[Jairus]

The Testors for Lexan is lacquer! You can spray it on plastic if it has first been primed with PlastiKot primer. Otherwise, your better off staying with enamels and mixing your own paints... However, I still mix my Testors/Practra paints 50/50 with Acrylic lacquer thinner prior to spraying.

Here is a link to an aticle I did doing just that to a lexan body!

[mhadman]

Here is a lacquer based PACTRA R/C painted build with testors primer...

They do need to be polished up quite a bit as they are shot under lexan,the paint doesn't need to shine.

same paint on this one..