Start to finish painting steps

1. Optional. Never done it and never had any issues.

2. Optional. But does help. Though i prime most of the kit after its together.

3. New one on me.

4. Yep.

5. Can be acrylic or enamel or lacquer. Would depend on if your doing any weathering and what your useing.

6. Yep.

7. Again, does not have to be acrylic.

Bish nailed it

Never washed anything except resin parts or extremely greasy kits which your newer kits are not,or rubbed it with alcohol.

Primer,a good enamel primer does the job.

1. Clean the sprues in soapy water. More trouble than it's worth.

2. Prime (optional), build model. Not optional.

3. Wipe down with alcohol.

4. Base coat (I will be using Tamiya acrylics for both brush and airbrush painting)

5. Airbrush model with Tamiya clear gloss enamel (prep for decals)

6. Apply decals.

7. Airbrush model with acrylic clear flat

Its a matter of personal preference which steps you take, but I am definitely in the "priming is not optional" camp.  Also, IF you do a wipedown with alcohol, do that before priming.  I actually use alcohol as a safe way to strip painted parts down to the bare plastic when I screw something up, and it will attack primer too.  Most of the time I like to prime and paint individual sub-assemblies, and I never paint anything on the sprue.  But, that's just my way of doing it, and over time you'll figure out what works best for you.  Personally, I clean my parts/subassemblies with a bath in Simple Green, hot water rinse, followed by a quick dip in alcohol before painting.  I stuck with that after doing experiments where I deliberately tried to rip paint off of a test mule model part (upper fuselage portion of a new Tamiya F-14A kit) using the extremely aggressive adhesion of dymo tape.  But, those extreme conditions are never going to come up, so your mileage may vary on whether or not you want to do the washing step.  For my purposes, I'm just taking an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" approach.  Set in my ways...no reason to change. 

For primer, I haven't found a better primer yet than Tamiya Surface Primer.  I decant that into a mason jar, thin it with MEK, and shoot it with an airbrush.  Gives it a death grip on the surface of the plastic, and goes on nice and thin so it doesn't cover up fine details.  Any type of paint can go over the top of it after 2 hours of drying time.

Hey Eagle

Just curious on your painting approach.  You mentioned never painting anything on the sprue.  For parts that need all sides to have paint I find keeping it on the sprue the best method.  To reduce touch ups I'll determine what sprue gates need to get cut and cleaned keeping an attachment on a less visible place.  That attachment has a piece of sprue making for a perfect handle for alligator clips.  For pieces only needing paint on one side I'll cut completely off, clean the piece, then place the no paint side on two sided tape or blue tac on a popsicle stick.  How do you handle a piece needing paint on all sides?

Calcio

As far as a complete process I think you are on the right track.  I do the wash and alcohol thing if the model is old.  The AMT kit I'm currently building falls under this category.   For more recent kits (20 years?) I don't bother washing.  
Good luck

Paul

Hi Paul,

After test fitting and finding out where the glue will be getting applied, I choose that spot to attach a toothpick with a little bit of the point chopped off.  I attach the part to the blunted end of the toothpick with a hot glue gun, then jab the pointy end of the toothpick into the side of a cheap roll of masking tape.  Keeps me from having to do touch-ups, and I can also take time on each part to remove parting lines and ejector pin marks before primer and paint.

How clever.  

1. Build model.

2. Paint model.

3. Decal model.

4. Admire model.

5. Place model on shelf.

Repeat as necessary.

If I have just sanded out a coat, I wash it down with something, either alcohol or a paper towel with a light amount of paint thinner.  Since my shop tends to be dusty, if the model has not been wiped clean in a few days I do wipe it clean just before painting.  Otherwise I do tend to get dust in the paint.

Calcio

I am a newbie and I am just about to start my 1st model aircraft. I have read much material and got a little confused when I read about applying decals. I wanted to make sure I undertsand the painting steps.

1. Clean the sprues in soapy water Not worth it but I rarely do this

2. Prime (optional), build model  Not optional to prime - it helps adhere paint better.

3. Wipe down with alcohol Ehhh... not worth it if you've already cleaned in soapy water and rinsed.

4. Base coat (I will be using Tamiya acrylics for both brush and airbrush painting) Base coat for what? You have already laid a coat of primer on your parts. 

5. Airbrush model with Tamiya clear gloss enamel (prep for decals) Doesn't have to be Tamiya brand gloss clearcoat.

6. Apply decals

7. Airbrush model with acrylic clear flat What's the difference if you use enamel, lacquer or acrylic flat clearcoat? 

 

Am I on the right track.

Calcio

 

Now when it comes to weathering oils, it matters. 

Calcio

I am a newbie and I am just about to start my 1st model aircraft. I have read much material and got a little confused when I read about applying decals. I wanted to make sure I undertsand the painting steps.

1. Clean the sprues in soapy water

Sort of.  More precisely, it's water with a de-greaser, not just soap.  Dishwashing liquid is popular.  I use a couple drops of an automotive de-greaser, SuperClean in a pan of warm water.

As some have noted, it's not absolutely necessary.  Apparently the release agents used today aren't as sticky as the ones used many years ago.  But it can't hurt to clean the sprues, either.

If you ever work with resin kits, it's a good idea to clean the parts before you start, because in those cases, you can have a coat or film of release agent on the parts.

Calcio

2. Prime (optional), build model

Yes, perhaps it's optional.  Personally, I always prime.  It helps the paint adhere, particularly when using acrylics.  Lacquers and enamels can adhere better to bare, clean styrene on their own.

It also helps to show anything that needs cleaning up before applying finish color coats, like seams or other imperfections that you miss during construction.

Calcio

3. Wipe down with alcohol

I don't do this, but some do.  The point of this step is to provide a surface clean of things like fingerprints or other oils you put down on the model as you worked on it.  I make sure I get any dust off it, but that's enough for me.  Again, it doesn't have to be (isopropyl) alcohol, it's just something to remove grease and oil.

Calcio

4. Base coat (I will be using Tamiya acrylics for both brush and airbrush painting)

If you are using Tamiya acrylics, then I strongly recommend that you do prime your model.  I use Tamiya acrylics, too, among other paints, and I have found that they definitely adhere better if you prime the styrene.  I use Tamiya's Fine Surface Primer, as a matter of fact.

Calcio

5. Airbrush model with Tamiya clear gloss enamel (prep for decals)

Well, yes, a gloss coat. I use Future, but there are many gloss products.

The point of this step is to provide as smooth a surface as possible, filling the many tiny pits in the surface, that can trap air under decal film, and in the case of clear film, create the silvering effect we want to eliminate.

Calcio

6. Apply decals

OK.

Calcio

7. Airbrush model with acrylic clear flat

Well, a clear flat or matte coat, as necessary, depending on the subject.  Doesn't have to be an acrylic, but again, that's a matter of personal preference.  I use Testor's DullCote, myself, which is a lacquer-based product.

Calcio

Am I on the right track.

Calcio 

Yeah, your sequence of steps is common, and most of us do things like this or some flavor of this.  It really comes down to what you get comfortable doing, what works for you.  The point is to enjoy modeling.

Thank you all for your excellent sugestions. They are a big help in clarifying things.

Calcio