What type of paints to use?

[Mannyp1980]

Hi Guys,

Looking for a bit of advice. I am new to scale model assembly. And as I live in Africa, access to quality paints are limited.

I would like to know, what type of rattle can spray paints I can use on my models. My local hobby shop has some of the Tamiya TS paints, but it is kinda expensive and they have limited colors.

I wanna find out if I can, for example use a Dulux Duco General Purpose Primer on my Tamiya 1/24 kit and then use the Tamiya TS paints over that.

Or use a Dulux Duco color on the primer and then Rattle can clear coat over the colour.

And also, I'm using Humbrol Enamel paints for the detailed parts. What type of thinners can I use with it? And what do I use to clean the brush afterwards?

Sorry for all the questions.

Your awesome knowledge would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Manny

Edited November 6, 2014 by Mannyp1980

[unclescott58]

I've had my best results with Tamiya. A little bit more expensive here. But, worth the price.

Scott

[Ace-Garageguy]

Seriously, your best bet is going to be to do your own testing BEFORE you paint a model you care about. The "Dulux" and "Duco" paint names haven't been seen over here for some time, if I remember correctly, and were DuPont brands of enamels. What you have there may or may NOT work under Tamiya.

Either on the underside that won't be seen, or on parts you won't use or sprue, experiment with the combination of products you want to use, and see what happens.

Some primers will attack plastic and ruin the surface, and some primers can NOT be topcoated with some paints.

Your testing needs to be done on the SPECIFIC plastic your model is made of, because cheap formulations of kit plastics recently have given us a lot of models that are very sensitive to what kind of primer we use.

If you have auto-parts stores where you can get Duplicolor or Plasticoat primers, they work well for most models, under most paints. The Rustoleum brand SANDABLE primers work too, but TEST FIRST to make sure any of them don't harm your model, and that they'll tolerate the kind of topcoat you want to use.

Duplicolor also has a fairly wide variety of colors that will work over these primers and give a nice gloss.

[cobraman]

As Bill has said. Test ! The only way to be 100 % sure if your mixing brands and types.

[jbwelda]

in general, you can hardly go wrong with Tamiya. other stuff...test.

jb

[Mike_G]

And also, I'm using Humbrol Enamel paints for the detailed parts. What type of thinners can I use with it? And what do I use to clean the brush afterwards?

I use plain old mineral spirits from the hardware store to thin Humbrol enamels and clean brushes.

Tamiya TS spray paints are expensive, but worth it IMO