Help Me! I'm Freaking Out!

Phil_H

 

If I were doing a car, where a flawless smooth finish is required, I would not consider brush painting the shell. In the absence of an airbrush, I would be seriously looking at spray cans.

I have an airbrush but zero experience with it so I'm going to be practicing on old bottles, etc. until I get the hang of it. I want to build a spray booth, though as I live in the great white north and we have about 6 months of winter up here and I have to spray inside.

Best thing is practice . Just get in there and make a mess . I've heard the enamel / acrylic debate for a long time . Myself i use both .  

Griffin

I have a fairly extensive collection of Vallejo paints, a few Tamiya paints and one/two MM acrylics that I've tried but I haven't been particularly happy with the results.

Vallejo (ModelColor) and Tamiya acrylics work best when thinned for brush painting. Of the acrylics that I have ued (Vallejo, Tamiya, Gunze), Vallejo's brush paint the best. You need to thin the paint, apply in multiple coats and use good quality (red sable or better) brushes.

If I were doing a car, where a flawless smooth finish is required, I would not consider brush painting the shell. In the absence of an airbrush, I would be seriously looking at spray cans.

Unless things have changed, Humbrol enamels hand brush paint the best. For metallic colors, I prefer the Metalizer series from Model Master, although designed for spray use, they hand brush paint very well.

For car bodies and other large areas, Tamiya's rattle cans work just fine. Practice some with "Silly Putty" as a masking product, it works well and is re-useable.

Mike T.

I have to agree with what has been said above, Acrylics are just plain bad for brush painting. I like to brush paint with slightly thinned enamels, Model Masters and Testers paints work best for me.

Try Humbrol enamels, they brush paint real well, and have every color in the book.

Nathan

Dons right thats what i did helped alot no stress .Ron

My advice:  Put the kits away and spend some time painting junk plastic, like empty bottles.  You can try different paints and thinners, and work on your technique, and there's zero stress.

Don

Ive observed that enamels seem to be better for brush painting/primer coats. Beware of the Tamiya paints, I have heard they don't brush too well. I mainly use MM enamels. With those, the flat colors cover the best. I have not used Vallejo paints, so I cant comment on those. MY favorite to use is the MM enamels in the little 1/4 oz jars

and don't freak yourself out and worry too much, you are no good to yourself if you do that. if you are worried about getting the hang of things, just experiment on some cheap kits . If you hang around this forum, you should see the quality of your kits go up. There are a lot of helpful people here!

OWL