Painting

If this is your first time painting a model, I would suggest practicing on a donor model first. I've painted a few models and still make the occasional mistakes.

Heres a brief description as to some of the steps I follow.

First, I disassemble the model completely. Followed by extensive sanding. After all is sanded, I tape the model off using masking tape and newspaper. After double checking to ensure everything is covered and sanded appropriately I commence painting.

Painting will vary depending on aerosol or a mini air gun(I always use a mini air gun). The first coat I lay is more of a mist followed by two to three coats of a even layered spray. I would let the paint dry between each coat approximately 24 hrs depending on the paint.

After the paint is completely dry, a clear coat is applied followed by another 24 hrs of drying/curing/hardening.

This is the part where I run into some confusion myself. Applying polish to a painted model. there seems to be different methods to this and I'm not sure which yields the best results. Maybe someone else can shed some light on this for the both of us. :?:

Hope that was helpful as it has yielded me some nice finished projects. :mrgreen:

Well being a spraypainter myself, i paint my models with a proper 2 pack hvlp gun. Id say if using cans, disassemble the car taking all plastic bits off that you dont want to get paint on. Lightly sand back whole car with 1600 wet n dry paper or even finer if you wish. Clean with some prepsol to get rid of oil and or impurities from the models surface. Tape up parts if you wish that you dont want painted. Apply a light coat of primer so that its not to dry and not too wet. Then wait for it to dry so you can touch it without mmaking a mark then add more coats following letting dry inbetween coats. Id aplly prob 2-3 or even four coats of primer. Let dry for at least 24-48hrs then wet sand with 2000 wet paper, till its smooth as glass or roundabouts. If using metallics after cleaning the model again with say prepsol, spray first light coat of metallic on and allowing to dry inbetween , prob apply enough times until you cant see the primer thru it. Let dry the last coat for another day or so or until you think the paint is dry enough to not leave a mark if you touch it, then apply clear over it. If using non metallic colours than it should be a direct gloss finish which means you spray the colour on and theres no need for clear afterwards.

hope this helps