hand brushing enamels

Tim, you should have airbrushed and used acrylics and here's why...

Just kidding!  I'm a big fan of hand painting.  Lord knows whenever I paint, most of it ends up on my hands.  But hand-brushing gloss paints is definitely tricky.  As with any bit of advice when it comes to hobbies, I'll relay what happened/worked for me the last time I hand-brushed a model.

I painted my 1/48 Hasegawa F4U-5N with a glossy dark sea blue from Model Masters.  As was mentioned in the other posts, I started off by thinning the enamel first.  Tim, I wish I could give you a scientific formula or ratio of paint-to-thinner that I used but I didn't do anything like that.  I just sort of eyeballed it and hoped for the best.  I will say this, however.  I might have added maybe ten drops of thinner but whatever the actual number was, I just added enough to BARELY be noticeable.  My goal wasn't to thin the paint down to a watery airbrush consistency.  But rather, it was only to oh-so-slightly reduce the "gooey-ness" of the syrup-like nature of the gloss paint.

I started at the nose of the plane and worked my way back using a good, soft 1/2" sable brush.  I actually applied it just a wee bit on the thick side.  My hope/goal was to keep the paint nice and wet and give it ample time to level off to a glass-like finish.  Call it luck or skill.....it worked.

I would paint with broad strokes but when I could tell that the brush was just about ready for a refill, I would try my best to "stop" at a panel line or some other form of a good natural break.  I reloaded the brush and continued the painting.  Due to the wetness of the paint and the meeting of the paint at the panel lines, the paint was able to merge seamlessly.

Again, this was just me and my luck with it.  I only hand-brushed this plane because it was one solid color front to back and top to bottom.  It allowed me to do nice, straight constant brush strokes.  I have an old FSM article where a guy did a phenomenal job of hand-brushing a camo pattern but I'm not that good enough to pull that off.  I don't think I can offer any advice on how to do that.  Sorry.

I hope this has been somewhat helpful.

Eric

PS.  Tim, I went back and re-read your initial post and I just thought of something.  Certain colors like  gloss reds, whites and yellows are notoriously problematic to hand-brush.  I've seen it described that when it comes to handbrushing those colors, in a sense you almost have to "float" the paint on so that it covers completely.  That means you have to lay it on pretty thick and use the barest number of brush strokes you possibly can.

PPS.  Here are a couple example of planes using the technique I mentioned above:

Hand painting a gloss finish is one of the hardest tasks in model building!  Yes, priming helps.  So does thinning the paint, and using a high quality brush.  I use almost the same thinning ratio as for airbrushing.  However, such thinned paint will take many coats to cover, and sanding each coat with a fine sandpaper- 600 to 1000 grit is a good idea.  I still have not mastered the technique- I find airbrushing easier.  BTW, this is a good topic to bring up in the Painting and Airbrushing forum.

You will need to thin enamel in order to brush it.  And it helps to have a good quality brush, preferably a sable, or natural bristle brush.  I usually use a flat surface such as a frozen orange juice metal lid or a margarine tub lid (washed first of course) or something similar.  I place a little bit of the enamel paint on the lid and then I put a drop or two of mineral spirit thinner close to the paint.  One can dip the tip of the brush into the thinner and then into the paint to get thinned paint of the desired consistency.  Too thin?  Go back and pick up more paint with the brush; too thick, mix in a bit more thinner.  As you try this technique, you will see how it works and probably make adaptations/adjustments until you get it working for your needs.  Give it a try and see how it goes.

Try to minimize your brush strokes, don't "play" with the paint so much.  Brush in one direction and the paint will nicely flow together and level itself. 

Gary

Hi Tim,

I'll give this a bump, too. I know there are some guys out there who know a thing or two about hand painting.