Pablorambo123

hello people,
im having a problem with painting my model with tamiya acrylic paint. when ever i paint it, you can easily leave marks/scratches on the paint which makes it look shabby. i didnt put an undercoat on it so that might be a problem.
any opinions appreciated

Mankster

I'm no expert, but you'll need to prepare the surface, prime, paint and seal (varnish) to get agood finish. I find automotive paint superior to model paint, I guess stuff they sell in toy shops and that can be bought by children have their guts taken out of them to make it 'safe'.

Gaz

I'd agree with you that it's to do with the lack of undercoat...

Don't know if it'll help you but I "blu-tac" (or glue) whatever I'm painting onto an old paint pot, makes handeling it a bit easier.

Pablorambo123

well the surface is just plastic so yeah... but the paint is tamiya acrylic and i would think that should do fine.... but its not. could it be the water/paint ratio?

Mankster

Even plastic need to be washed to remove mould release, keyed, and primed.

poppy74

Never had a problem with tamiya acrylic. Not using a primer coat first should not be a problem with acrylic paint. Just make sure that the surface is properly sanded to leave a key for the paint, then wash in washing up liquid and rinse and dry well.

alan2525

If you are painting a styrene model kit - tamiya etc, you shouldn't have to prime the surface first. Primer will just start to obsure the small details.

Some of the larger areas can be keyed tho with wet and dry just to help the paint adhere to the surface and clean off any release agents with a brush and a bowl or warm water, and a drop of abrasive cleaner.

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Bunkerbarge

The thing that caught my attention was "Water/Paint ratio".

Acrylics should require very little, if any, watering down to be able to spray it and the effects that you are experiencing all sound to me like you have too much water in with your paint.

I would try with neat paint first on a test sample and see how it performs and if you still feel the need to thin it I would use the correct proprietary thinners and not water for this.

Water evaporates at a completely different rate to the paint so can mess up the curing process on the model. The correct thinners is designed to evaporate at the same rate as the paint so is necessary to use when spraying. You can get away with water as a cleaning medium but, to be honest, it may be cheap but it is not as good as a correct solvent anyway so spend the money and use the correct thinners.

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Pablorambo123

ok thanks for the sound advice, but im not spraying it on... its the same with brush painting yes?

Bunkerbarge

If you are brushing it on you definately do not need to mix it with water. Paint it straight out of the pot.

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“Dirty British coaster with a salt-caked smoke stack, Butting through the Channel in the mad March days"