Automotive Painting

Nempen

Can anyone point me towards a good guide or give me the steps to how to paint a car/truck. I've only ever painted planes and I'm currently building a Plymouth Road Runner as a gift. I'm painting it Sublime Green but want to knoe how to get that "depth" you see in automotive paint. I remember doing body work on my first car when I was younger and even using factory cans of paint it still didnt look the same

 

A couple questions. Have you bought the paint ? If so what brand and type of paint is it ( acrylic, enamel , lacquer) ? Spray cans or airbrush ? Actual automotive paint or hobby paint or something else ?

Using gloss paint is a special skill, much harder than flats.  I use auto type primer, and several coats.  Sand between coats with #1000 grit.  For last coat, I add a bit more thinner, make wet coat.  Last coat is brinksmanship.  You need to put it down until just before it runs.  How do you know it is just about to run?  Practice.  I strongly recommend practicing on scrap plastic or plastic spoons.  Then go back to model.

I haven't bought the paint yet, it will likely acrylic Vallejo or AK, I use an Iwata NEO airbrush. I've only built military models and obviously the paint is different (gloss vs flat)

Nempen

I haven't bought the paint yet, it will likely acrylic Vallejo or AK, I use an Iwata NEO airbrush. I've only built military models and obviously the paint is different (gloss vs flat)

 

IMO, if you want to pursue acrylic and if Tamiya doesn't have your color in gloss you're gonna ( which I don't believe they do) be best off to go one of two ways. Treat the acrylic as a base color coat, in this case flat is almost better, it will lay down nice and even. Then clear coat and polish the clear. Or the second option, which is shoot it in gloss enamel even if from a rattle can.

That said,in a quick search the only Sublime Green I found in acrylic is Testors gloss and have no idea if it's correct for your build even.. I've never shot that. You could grab a bottle and shoot some tests with it. I think you're gonna be into many tests before you're ready to shoot a car body in acrylic anyway. Just my take on this. Your quickest bet would be if Tamiya makes that color in gloss or just shoot it in enamel IMO. Of course being an opinion and mine at that, doesn't mean that you have to do it that way. In my own testing I have polished up straight acrylics without clear coat and it's substantially more work but I proved it can be done, aside from Tamiya which if shot right dries wet looking.. The flip side of this is if you shoot enamel right the paint is a done deal soon as it's dry. I've gotten phenominal gloss from MM enamel gloss thinned with lacquer thinner, to where you can see yourself in the finish. A close second is a combo of LT and Mineral  Spirits or combo of paint thinner and mineral spirits.  Hah I could see myself in the differential cover of the 1/16 scale Mercer shot in MM Chrome yellow thinned with LT. Tamiya in my tests was a close second but that natural looking shine of the enamel won out and the Mercer got that, except for a couple dust spots I couldn't be happier.. Ya enamel stinks but I put my parts in a dehydrator anyway and the smell is gone pretty quickly.... Just sayin.

Hi;

    That my friend is not easy to achieve in Scale. Especially that color. I would go with a Flat, If you can get it then overcoat with a couple of sanded between coats Clear.

If you put 'sublime green paint' into your google box and look around you will find multiple sources.   These range from the little square test jars, through smaller ModelMaster rattle cans and larger rattle cans at Lowe's to Duplicolor paint pens and half pint tins. 

I think I'd lay down a good primer coat and, if I wasn't sure about my rattlecan expertise and felt better with an airbrush, decant the rattle can or get the duplicolor half pint tin and spray that throgh the airbrush

Forgot to mention the question of depth.  A gloss clear overcoat will give you that "wet" depth.  This is good for customs and recent factory stock.  For older stocks and classics it is too deep.  That is when you have to use gloss and get a perfect final coat.  Very slight imperfections may be taken out with rubbing compound and polish, but ony very small- else it is sand again and redo.