Painting

First, welcome to the forum. You will find a great group of people here Men, women, young and old.

As for painting your model, no need to spray with flat red first. I would suggest washing everything with a mild dish detergent and warm water if you haven't already. This removes any mold release, dirt or other contaminants. I also give the body a quick sanding with 400 sandpaper before primer. This helps with adhesion and breaks the sharp edges off the corners which allows paint to stick better. With red paint I would use a white primer if possible, this will produce a brighter finish. Always start off with a couple of very light coats to give the following coats something to stick too. This is not as important with primer. Usually one light coat is sufficient to apply one or two heavy coats of primer. The opposite is true of color coats, especially gloss paint. You will want to apply two to three very light mist coats before moving on to wet coats. If you don't, the paint will run off all the egdes and never cover properly. I forgot to mention that after your primer is applied, this is a good time to fix any problems with the plastic that you may have missed during assembly.

I hope this is of some help
Darren

thanks darren!
I'm going to just brush paint it. So i should just put one or two coats of light grey primer first..then add a thin layer of gloss paint then just keep adding thin layers until she shines...How much thinner do u use to thin the paint?? is there a set amount or no?? Thanks-

Jiggarks

I would also suggest that you try this realy cool stuff called Plastic-Prep made by FLoquil. It does the same thing as washing the parts but a heck of a lot quicker! All you do is take some cloth material that does'nt leave of much dust (like gauze) and get a litle from the bottle. Next you just run the cloth over the surface of the model and thats it. This stuff also works to prevent static on the model surface so it can repel dust.

Darren has provided some very sound advice. His idea of using a white primer under red is quite critical. I have found changing the undercoat can result in significantly different hues using the same red top coat.

If you are going to brush paint it use the widest softest brush you have, and don't go back over the area you've just painted until its dry. To brush paint a car body and to get it looking good takes a lot of practice and patience. You should lightly sand between coats and use a polish after the final coat to remove or smooth out any roughness as well as giving the final shine. Check out FSM's May issue for tips on brush painting.

My advice would be not to brush paint but go for a spray can.

Practice (both techniques) on an old child's toy or a plastic bottle first until you are satisfied before attempting the model.

Jiggarks,
Welcome to the forum!!
Darren has exactly the right idea. Note that the darker your primer, the more color coats will be needed to cover it and produce a bright color - this is especially true for whites, yellows and reds.
I almost always use a flat white primer for red, white, orange, yellow and lighter blues. For darker colors, use gray.
Thinning the paint correctly takes practice, but just experiment - I assume you're using an airbrush, just add 1/4 to 1/3 thinner, try it through the gun, and adjust if necessary.
Good luck.