Newby Need HELP

Wilo, first of all welcome!

What I tend to do, is to build up the engine halves (since you picked engine block as an example) and sides. Build up the whole base block - all of it will be the same colour, after all. It reduces seams, etc. as well. And something as small as engine blocks I tend to handpaint. If you get brush-strokes in you finish, try to thin your paint down. What paint do you use, btw? Also, same as for spray-painting, keep your layers thin! Rather do multiple thin layers - mostly mine are almost see-through.

As for tips - there is a hints and tips section in the forums. You can also check out a current MotoGP GB running in the Group build section, as well as a production bike GB.

Some handy sites will be Joel's onetwelvth.com as well as Roca's site - there will be a lot more out there as well, just two I remembered off the top of my head.

Good luck and don't be shy to ask! We're all here to learn and I've learnt an immeasurable lot from these guys out here...

  Joel's site has a nice tips section as well.

I assemble major halves like engine block with smaller parts that's to be painted the same color, exhausts, and swingarms, fill up the seams, primer coat, and airbrush the color coat.  Parts with relatively larger flat surfaces all gets airbrushed and the rest of the details brush painted.

My cousin used to brush paint his bikes and thins his Tamiya enamels (he got a job in shanghai china, so he gets all those small bottle enamels)  3:2 paint to thinner ratio and puts down at least two thin coats.  He uses primer for light colors and metallic colors, but not for dark colors like X-18 semi gloss black. 

I tend to be impatient and ends up with too thick of a coat which bleeds and accumulates on the edges as it's set to dry, so keeping it thin definitely helps as SeaBea had emphasized.

Welcome to the forum~

I agree with the the two replies above. When possible I'll build up parts and the spray paint (can) but if the weather isn't right or its a night I'll also hand paint so I really find its "horses for courses" and after a while you decide which is best for your eye. I like to have a variety of gloss finishes and use washes a bit as well to highlight or playdown certain features. I think this is a better way to go on the parts other than the body which I spend most preperation time on to get the desired finish