Matey: You have a lot of vareables here 1 were you using enamels,laqures or acrylic 2 you said you were using a spray can 3 you used 2 coats of primer ok you only need one coat of primer litely you said your finish coat ran. Sounds like you held the can to close to your model, keep the can a minumun of 12'' from your model. Metallic colors are hard to spray from a can or airbrush. Don't give on modeling and painting it just takes pratice. One more thing put your spray cans in warm water before using. This warms the paint and helps it flow better. And remember several light coats are better than a heavey one.         Good luck       Aceses5

Sorry that the paint job didn't go according to plan.  If you didn't break anything put the painted body of the car model in some DOT 3 brake fluid overnight to strip the paint.  

I use the Testors spray cans for car bodies.  The spray enamel takes an awful long time to cure/dry so it is prone to run.   I usually use their lacquer line.  It dries much faster and sprays great.

As ACESES5 stated, make sure that you spray from about a foot away from the model and use several light coats as opposed to one heavy coat.  Definetly put the enamel rattle can in the warm water prior to spraying.

Dont give up on it.  Painting car bodies is one of the tougher things to do.  Patience is key.  Good luck.

A couple of suggestions:

Practice on some junk plastic, like empty bottles until you get the painting figured out.

Start reading the Model Cars Forum, especially the On the Workbench section and the Tips, Tricks and Tutorials.  There is some good step by step stuff there.

Don

Thanks for the info! but i have one more question are you supposed to use these for the airbrush?

http://www.cyclofiend.com/Images/rbw/testor2230.jpg

thanks for the info everyone!

Yes you can.  The paint in the 1/4 ounce square bottles are the same as the ones in the circular 1/2 ounce bottles listed as Model Master.  Just thin it with enamel thinner to the consistancy of 2% milk and use the light coat method.  good luck.

sorry also one more thing whats the difference between enamel, acrylic and lacquer?

thanks

The color pigment is suspended in three different solvents: mineral spirits, alcohol, and lacquer thinner.

http://www.artsparx.com/Undmatsolv.html

It's all bad for you if you breathe it.

The Matey

sorry also one more thing whats the difference between enamel, acrylic and lacquer?

Read this thread /forums/t/125865.aspx

Have a packet of headache  tablets within arm's reach....

Phil H: Read your paint thread now if you thin acrylics with water would'nt that make them more like latex paint oh I'm so confused ?           Aceses5           

Prepare to be confused even more...

Some acrylic paints use "latex" and vinyl as co-polymers. I believe Gunze's Aqueous Hobby Color  paints contain a small amount of what appears to be latex or similar. Vallejo's paints appear to contain a vinyl-like compound. Whatever co-polymers are added to these paints, it does not alter the fact that they are primarily acrylic based.

Some acrylic paints can be thinned with water (eg. Vallejo) but others have an alcohol base (eg. Tamiya and Gunze Aqueous Hobby Color) and thinning with water can have an adverse effect on the paint's finish and adhesion. Though Gunze's Aqueous paints say they can be thinned with water, alcohol yields better results.

Even the type of alcohol used can yield varying results. Tamiya's thinner is primarily Isopropyl alcohol, but to a large extent you can use Denatured or ethyl alcohol with the flat paints, but less so with the gloss, as it lowers the gloss sheen. For Tamiya gloss acrylics, it's better to use their proprietary thinner or IPA. Don't even think about using water with Tamiya  gloss acrylics - ask me how I know...

When using acrylics, you have to make sure that you are using a thinner suitable for that particular brand of paint.

This is unlike the majority of "enamel" paints - If you take a representative sample of Revell, Humbrol, Testors and Tamiya enamels (yes, they do make enamels, though they are not available in all countries) you will find that they can all be thinned happily with mineral spirits.  

Is your head spinning yet?