Paints for Plastics

Thanks Mr. Death. From the threads I've read, I knew Tamiya was very popular, and I do plan on using their products. I did notice from pictures here that most modelers seem to a great variety of brands, but for my first project in ages, I will just stick with the Tamiya. Back in the late sixties, I did build the 1/96 Constitution and I used Testors with brushes. It looked good from a distance but up close, it was very crude. I will use their thinner as you suggest. Thank you. I am sure more questions will arise.

Steve

Steve, there are sooo many diferent brands of acrylics. Some work good thinned with water, some don't at all. Start out using the Manufacture's brand thinner with whatever you choose and go from there. Most brands once they start to dry don't dissolve in water.

Oh... do you cut that with water?

Steve

Acrylic... got it. I was leery about it because of my misfortunes with it and a brush. But as I am going with an air brush I will take your advice. Thank you sir.

Steve

Oh... which types of paint? Enamels or Acrylics?

Steve

Guys, thanks so much. As I am retired, and read many 18th century naval series novels, I am pretty certain I will be with sailing ship models for  a while. So... I decided to go with an air brush. Starting simple with a Paasche single action, and a can of air for now. I am getting the 1/96 USS Constitution by Revell of Germany. The Russian model is now just spare parts. It is simply not worth my time trying to get the detail level I would like out of a small poorly designed model.

Thanks a lot for the help guys.

Steve

Ditto what professordeath said.  With some lighter colors, white and yellow most notably, several light one pass coats are better than trying to cover it all in one go.  They tend to pool and run and look really crappy.  Just did that several time myself recently, as I get impatient and try for complete coverage in one go.

I shall give it a go sir. I really appreciate the help Paul. Thanks.

Steve

Thanks for responding Paul.

So... paint both hull halves with gray primer, then paint the stripe with white without masking, then mask the stripe I want, then spray both hull halves black? Remove masking.

Thanks

Steve

Latigo,

White is always tough, especially if you are trying to put it over a darker color.  I would use a light gray primer first, and then spray the white.  After that has cured, mask the line you want and paint over with the final color.  Before that coat has fully dried, pull up the mask to reveal the stripe.

It's kind of backward, painting the stripe color first, but with white or yellow, that usually works best.

Paul