How do you touch-up??

Yeah, I'd be interested to here the answer ti this one as well.

Karl

Heath,

What do you mean by the color never looks right?
Do you mean it has a different shade?
Are these flat paints for aircraft?
First off make sure you mix your paint in the same way each time, I use glass eye droppers to mix mine and count the number of drops if using a small amount. Make sure you stir the paint good in the bottle first each time as the color will vary if you don't. You need to get the airbrush at a distance where the paint blends in nice, as putting the airbrush too close will cause the paint to build up thicker and actually look darker than the surrounding area.
I wouldn't use any masks as that will leave a hard edge and will stand out like a sore thumb. Just shoot the paint on the area lightly, building up the paint with light coats until it is covered and looks the same as the surrounding area.

Maybe Rick, Greg, Swanny or one of the other more experienced model painter's here could add something of value. They are far more knowledgable than I.

Mike

Mike is right on this one.

As long as the colour your 'touching up' is made of only one source, it isn't a hassle.
If you have used an undercoat or primer of any sort, this will have to be sprayed on first in the same method, but only on the area you sanded.

Make sure your paint is mixed thoroughly, as Mike said, and then hold your brush at a distance from the area you want to cover.
The point to remember here is that you only want to apply a LIGHT misting of colour.

As Mike said, too heavy a coat will make it darker than the surrounding area, too light a coat will make it lighter etc.
For example, if the area you sanded is 1 inch square, then you would begin by colouring that area first.
As the colour builds and begins to match the surrounding paint, thats when you pull away a little bit more, and ease up on the paint flow, to give a blending effect.

If your using acrylics, remember to add a little more retarder, as you want the touched up area to go on wet.

It would be a good idea to spray some styrene first, sand that, and have a practice go.
It's not hard, but it is a bit finiky.

Hope this helps.

Sean

Thanks for the tips guys!!! That makes a lot more sense than what I was doing. I did just like you said by putting too much on, as it looked dark. OH BTW it is German Silver MM enamel paint that I was painting. I did use a Primer, but I was able to not sand past the primer. I'm going to give that a shot probably this weekend as I have loads of homework to do. Our finals are in a couple of weeks, and I have 2 reports, and a large project to wrap up!!!

Thanks Sean.

I was thinking about what I posted here this morning at work and thought I better clear one thing up. I add 10% white to my colors to make them more correct for 1/48 scale, and that is why I said that I count my drops of paint with an eye dropper. I put maybe 30 drops of Gunship Gray for touch-up work and add 3 drops of flat white and that is what I was referring to. I hope I didn't confuse you Heath.

Mike

Mike & Sean got it right. As long as your using paint straight from the bottle, it should work out OK. When you mix colors like Mike, Make sure you mix more than you think you will need because it's almost impossible to match by mixing again, no matter how careful you count the drops. Better to waste a little paint than run into a major snafu. If your doing silver, I assume its a NMF finish. In that case, you can mask off the whole panel in question & just respray normally. NMF can actually look more realistic with some panels painted in a slightly different shade. If you were using a flat color paint, a slight tonal difference will likely disappear after a couple of coats of Future and a flat finish top coat. Hope I didn't confuse the issue.

QUOTE: Originally posted by rjkplasticmod When you mix colors like Mike, Make sure you mix more than you think you will need because it's almost impossible to match by mixing again, no matter how careful you count the drops. Better to waste a little paint than run into a major snafu.

That is very good advice Rick.

I wish there was a little more room in the Model Master bottles as I would just add 10% white to them all and then they would be ready to go.

Mike