Paint problem

Hi Robert.

 Are your paints acrylic? I have Humbrols #16 in enamal but I know they make an Acrylic version too.

I ask because I messed up when I restarted the hobby and did not wash all my 1st kit's parts, the Acrylic paint would not stick to those.   Also, Acrylic won't wash off in Mineral spirits.  Try water or achohol for clean-up.

   Nino

 Jim, I have cleaned my brush's & airbrush with lacquer thinner for over 50 years. It doesn't hurt my brush's that bad & I generally wash acrylic with water first to keep the lacquer clean. Same with my airbrush. Ionly use acrylic 95% of the time. Testors or MM gold enamel is the best gold.

Robert

I've used Humbrol paints on plastic ship models for 55 years and cannot recall any serious problems. But metallic gold enamel, number 16, is a bit of an issue: I can't get the paint to leave the brush and stick to the plastic, and it will not come off the brush in mineral turpentine. Same problem with Tamiya gold enamel. It is demoralising to say the least. What on earth am I doing wrong? 

 

Sounds like you have a bad tin. How old is it? Humbrol did have some quality issues when they had their paints made in China (go figure), but thankfully they switched to having their paint made elsewhere. 

My suggestion is to get a new tin of the color. 

I cant offer any advice or suggestions on the Tamiya enamel, as I have never crossed path’s with the stuff. 

The paints are enamel, new tins, plastic parts washed (as always) before painting. Still no luck 

My new favorite method of painting brass or gold on ship’s propellers.  The  paint method, even with the better paint brands, the metal flakes in the 1:1 paint are always too large for the scale part.  

Prepare the part as you would before to minimize cuts, scratches, and mold marks. 

Use a MOLOTOW chrome ink/paint pen, available in the art pen aisle of your arts and crafts store, to paint the propeller blades.  Allow to dry.  

Airbrush on one or more LIGHT coats of Tamiya clear yellow.  You can vary colors with some clear orange or smoke.  Allow to dry and hand paint the hub.  

Sounds like a bad tin. Just cause it's new doesn't mean it can't go bad. Once I had an old tin of Humbrol enamel that looked and brushed like new but when dry, it turned into dust and came right off the plastic. Lots of weird things can happen. I've bought new testors enamel bottles only to go bad a few days later so who knows.

For cleaning your brushes I highly recommend lacquer thinner. It will dissolve and clean any paint in your brush, even dried ones.

Just cause it's new doesn't mean it can't go bad.

Second that.  No idea how long it sat on the shelf before you picked it up or ordered it.

Sounds like you did everything right, so must be the paint.