future with brush

Jonathon, 

Due to Future's excellent self levelling properties, you can. Use a fresh brush, not one used for other paints, and wide and soft is preferred.

I will caution you about only futuring where the decals are. If you plan on dull coating the kit afterwards, the futured areas will look different from the parts that aren't. I strongly suggest applying the future as an even coat on the whole model, decaling and then applying an even coat of dull coat. Future mixed with Tamiya Flat Base X-21 makes a very nice dull coat and can be adjusted from 'dead' flat to satin. Here are the ratios from Swanny's "The Complete Future":

      1 part flat base to 3 parts Future = very flat
      1 part flat base to 10 parts Future = flat
      1 part flat base to 15 parts Future = satin

What Bgrigg said. Also, make sure that you use fresh water for cleaning your brush. Somewhere in Hornby's offices in Margate, England, there's a model of an Airfix/ Heller 1/72 Dragon Rapide, in Automobile Association markings, that I built for Airfix a few years ago. If you were to look closely at the yellow paintwork, you would be able to see tiny flecks of the black paint that was suspended in my brush-cleaning water...

When applying Future by brush, make sure the coats are thin. This minimises the risk of the stuff running. I find that 3 thin coats of Future, ove matt paintwork, is sufficient for a coat smooth enough for decalling. Another coat of Future to seal the decals in is also a good idea.

I prefer to apply Future by brush. It's more controllable, and there's no risk of the Future drying in the airbrush and clogging the nozzle. De-clogging an airbrush where Future has dried is no fun, trust me.

Cheers,

Chris.

I use a wide, flat brush, make sure it is well wetted with the Future, then scrape most of the Future off on the side of the bottlecap I use as a container. You can TRY just spot coating where the decals are going to go, but over flat paint, I've had mixed results. Sometimes you cal tell after you put the final flat coat on, sometimes you can't, so I generally brust coat the entire model surface with Future.