Hand painting black

Mostly gloss black.  Other colors rarely give me this problem. I built two WW2 planes and a modern jet with my recent return to modeling.  I decided to try a race car.  It’s interesting how cars are a different discipline.  more gloss surfaces like the body and little to no weathering.  I think there are more places to go with planes.  I‘ll build mostly planes but will branch out to other subjects occasionally to keep it interesting.

I’ll admit I do no brush set up.  Didnt think it made much of a difference.  I did buy a few black Micron paint pens yesterday.  They have really fine points.  I really like the chrome silver ones.  I’ll try the advice here and the pens and see what works for me.

I have one of those plastic artists palettes you get at art stores that I mix paint and thinner for brushing on, also ratios for custom blending colors before I wreck a whole bottle of paint lol.

For flat black, I like using the Testors paint pen decanted into a palette and thinned with Testors airbrush thinner.  This combo seems to give me the best results.  But with Testors going away, I’ll need to find alternatives.

Are you hand brushing Gloss Black or Flat Black? On either case, I say try giving the little square bottle Testors enamels a try. But for hand brushing your paints, make sure that they are thoroughly stirred to insure mixing. 

I like to use index cards both as a palette and to check if my paint is in the proper consistency. If I need to add thinner, I'll do it there. Then I'll paint whatever item. 

Your paint brushes are important too. Some are more prone to leaving brush marks or other problems. Brushes give best performance when the bristles are first slightly moistened with thinner or water, depending upon if you're using enamels or acrylics. Periodically clean the brush if you're doing a longer session with a particular color.

wpwar11

Someone else was telling me about mineral spirits.  I think that is a good product to clean up enamel paint washes.  I’ll give it a try.  Thanks.

 

MS is what the hand pin stripers use in the One Shot striping enamels doing all that fancy brush work in 1/1 and motorcycles etc........ Some guys I believe use Turpentine though.

You can clean up enamel washes and also oil washes with MS.

Someone else was telling me about mineral spirits.  I think that is a good product to clean up enamel paint washes.  I’ll give it a try.  Thanks.

Most of my black parts get primed and sprayed black right on the sprue trees using the .25 needle on my Badger 200. Then I just touch up the spot where it gets nipped off the sprue with a brush. But for brushing, enamels can be cut with good quality old fashioned mineral spirits about two parts paint to one part spirits, that should self level pretty well. I also brush craft paints for some things but you didn't ask about that.

Basically just thin paint enough so it flows out/self levels. It also could have to do with your brush and or how much of the brush you use. You want the paint to just flow off the end of the brush not bearing down on it much.