First Build - Painting Advice

[vroomvroom]

Hey Everyone,

I'm getting ready to build my first car. I picked a Knight Rider model because I figured the all black would be easier. Should be here in about a week!

I've been doing a lot of reading / watching videos about painting, but I was hoping to get some advice for a beginner, and for the car I am going to work on. I think airbrushing would be fun, and I found one with a compressor for about $50, but I'm not sure I should make that investment until I build a few cars and see if I'm still interested.

What to use to paint?

So my main question is, should I just go ahead and get the airbrush? Or should be I be using spray cans? Or should I just be using brushes. From what I've gathered, most people use a combination of airbrush / spray and a brush for small details. Is that right? Or if you have an airbrush, do you even need brushes?

What kind of paint?

Should I go for acrylic, enamel, laquer? It looks like most people go with acrylic, right?

Thanks for any help!

Edited February 3, 2015 by vroomvroom

[jbwelda]

black happens to be pretty much the most difficult color to do, shows up every imperfection of the body (and in the 1:1 world, looks like it hasn't been washed in a week when it was just washed yesterday). it is really difficult to get to look good. an airbrush will definitely make things easier but you will have to learn that as well, so maybe you should rethink your color and concentrate on one hard thing at a time.

or, you could shoot some coats of a light color as a base for the black and get some practice in on that before tackling the main color.

on the other hand, as you probably already know, a beautiful smooth deep gloss black finish makes any car look like a million bucks.

one other thing you might consider is buying some Tamiya Black paint in a spray can. if you are going to try black, this is a relatively easy source of good paint. follow it with some gloss clear.

what I really mean is don't be disappointed if you can't get it to look how you want, you've picked a real challenge!

jb

Edited February 3, 2015 by jbwelda

[chunkypeanutbutter]

Just go over the body and make sure it's nice and smooth. Get some sanding films, and use the finest grit to smooth it, especially on the seams.

I just painted (about a week or so ago) what I think is the best paintjob I've ever done, and it is in black. I used the ColorPlace paint you can get at WalMart with no primer, which isn't always advised. I did one light mist first, then a slightly heavier coat, then two more mists. After this had about two days to dry, I cleared it, with some 10+ year old ColorPlace clear. One light coat, then another, then another... I think I did four or five coats. It still needs some time to harden up before I polish it.

One thing to watch out for with black is that you don't want to be in a place with dust or dirt. Somewhere with a vent fan would be best. EVERYTHING bad with the kit and where you painted it shows up in the final outcome. If it doesn't go well: try, try again. Get some Purple Power in the gallon jug at WalMart while you're picking up some paint in case you mess up. Just put the body in a plastic bag of the stuff and let it be for a couple days, or until all the paint's off. Rinse it and let it sit somewhere to air-dry and then paint it again.

Edited February 3, 2015 by chunkypeanutbutter

[unclescott58]

I'd use Tamyia lacquer spray paint. A little bit expensive. But, not that bad and almost fool proof. There are cheaper paints out there. But, I found you get what you pay for.

Scott

[StevenGuthmiller]

For black you can use almost any type of paint with good results. Even good oldTestors gloss black enamel will give you a nice finish. As long as you don't mind waiting for a couple of months for it to cure. I use almost exclusively automotive lacquers just because they dry terrifically fast and they don't cover up any detail. Just a spray can of Duplicolor black & some clear will do nicely for you. Just don't forget to prime, prime, prime! Automotive lacquers are hard on styrene so you need a good barrier between paint & plastic. Steve

[unclescott58]

Tamiya lacquer is designed for use on plastic models. No need for primer. But it's a good idea, none the less.

Scott

[martinfan5]

For a first timer, and wanting to do a black paint, Tamiya black paint is probably the best way to go, its for the most part user friendly, will give very nice results

Best advice as for the painting part, use Tamiya Primer, and apply the paint using very light mist coats, wait about five minutes in between them, if you do it right, you will not need to do any wet coats.

[unclescott58]

For a first timer, and wanting to do a black paint, Tamiya black paint is probably the best way to go, its for the most part user friendly, will give very nice results

Best advice as for the painting part, use Tamiya Primer, and apply the paint using very light mist coats, wait about five minutes in between them, if you do it right, you will not need to do any wet coats.

Best advice anybody can give you. I agree 100%.

Scott

[StevenGuthmiller]

The only thing you have to remember guys, is Tamiya paint is not readily available for a lot of us. I don't use it, but if I did, I'd only be able to get it by ordering on line. That needs to be taken into consideration as well. Steve

[vroomvroom]

Thanks for the advice everyone! I'm not really worried that it's black or that it might not come out perfect, no big deal!

I started building it today, and have the engine about halfway done. But I'm curious about something, why bother to paint the engine if you aren't going to be able to see it anyway?

Which leads me to my next question. How do you know what pieces to paint before you glue them? Or should you paint all the pieces first?

[TheRX7Project]

If you have a Hobby Lobby or Michael's around, you can get Model Master lacquers as well, but yeah, Tamiya lacquer in a can is almost impossible to screw up. Just remember to lay down a couple THIN coats of primer first. My paint jobs look a hundred times better since I switched from enamels to lacquers, and I don't even buff mine out. The lacquer is thinner and seems like it has no problems laying down very smooth.

Also remember that lacquer is a 3-part deal- in addition to the primer and color coats, you want to lay down some clear on top of it all.

There's also a lot of very good tutorials on how to paint right on this site. Check them out.

As far as your other questions-

You can see the engine if you don't glue the hood down. It's neat to be able to pop the hood on your model and show the detail work you've put into the engine bay.

As far as painting before you glue, there are a couple theories on this. I'll look at subassemblies and determine what parts are getting glued together that are the same color, and paint them as a unit. Some people paint everything separately then glue them together. That's really a personal preference.

Edited February 8, 2015 by TheRX7Project

[vroomvroom]

If you have a Hobby Lobby or Michael's around, you can get Model Master lacquers as well, but yeah, Tamiya lacquer in a can is almost impossible to screw up. Just remember to lay down a couple THIN coats of primer first. My paint jobs look a hundred times better since I switched from enamels to lacquers, and I don't even buff mine out. The lacquer is thinner and seems like it has no problems laying down very smooth.

Also remember that lacquer is a 3-part deal- in addition to the primer and color coats, you want to lay down some clear on top of it all.

There's also a lot of very good tutorials on how to paint right on this site. Check them out.

As far as your other questions-

You can see the engine if you don't glue the hood down. It's neat to be able to pop the hood on your model and show the detail work you've put into the engine bay.

As far as painting before you glue, there are a couple theories on this. I'll look at subassemblies and determine what parts are getting glued together that are the same color, and paint them as a unit. Some people paint everything separately then glue them together. That's really a personal preference.

Thanks, that makes sense. One more question to bother you guys and then I think I'll be good.

Do you need to use primer on parts that you handpaint, or just ones that you spray?

Also, I decided to go with something different instead of Knight Rider for my first one. So now I'm going for a '69 Camaro.