Help !
Test sprayed my T-62 with a colour I'd mixed up for an Egyptian sand mix.
I use 'halfords' automotive primer on all my models initially, as with this one, as the primer coat.
That went on no bother.
Test sprayed the belly, and all the paint 'beaded'

Immediately tried a Tamiya acrilyc mix and it went on flawlessly.....

It gets better however....

I the sprayed the interior on a slightly off white colour, again tamiya, again on no bother.
I come to hand paint some intrior details in tamiya, and that paint now doesn't want to go on evenly....
It's been stirred and mixed correctly, but would appear to be ' reacting ' with the white base coat of the interior....

I'm missing something here, but unsure as to what....

Any ideas ?

AC

Photos ???

You have an orange skin effect ???

Andy, I have had the Model Air beading issue - you mean it turns into little separate droplets on the surface rather than staying as an even film of paint.

There are a few threads on here that mention this I think, including this note that came from Adam Wilder kind of on behalf of Vallejo, or something...

I sort of agree with part of what it says, in that I found by giving a light coat first, allowing that to dry properly, then applying a few more coats, a satisfactory finish was obtained without any need to either strip the beaded coat off nor to sand it or anything, i.e. by repeated application it came good.

When I first tried this paint I had some issues which are discussed here and that related mainly to the paint drying too fast and blocking the nozzle etc.

My expectation, which I think was reasonable, was that this paint is usable in an airbrush straight out of the bottle, but I now think that isn't really true. See mine and others' comments about mixing with varnish or retarders etc. to improve its performance. I now always use around 2/3 drops of the Liquitex retarder to 12 drops of Model Air into the A/B cup and stir it up in the cup.

In the second part of your post I assume you are talking about brush painting Tamiya acrylics; that usually happens in my experience, I find Tamiya acrylics virtually impossible to brush paint with, it clumps and smears and streaks... better off using enamels or oils, and ironically, Model Air probably works better than Tamiya for brush painting. But personally I find acrylics and brushes don't mix too well (you can't even put your paint loaded brush down to go to the loo without it setting the bristles together).

Finally, and I know this didn't form part of your question, but aren't Halfords primers around £6 a can? Have you tried using some of the cheaper ones you get in small car spares shops for around £3?

M
Thanks for that !
I have their retarder and satin coat, so I'll play about a little, and try again....

AC

add a little dish soap into your paint water, and drop a little into your mix beofre spraying, this should sort out the surface tension problem.

Without sounding completely naive, I take it we're not talking about '' fairy liquid '' ?

Matthew;
What are you using to thin your Tamiya paints with when you have tried to hand brush. I have been using Tamiya almost exclusively for 20+ years and have never encountered clumping problems unless I am applying a second coat over wet paint. I also airbrush with Tamiya and usually have no issues if I thin the paint well. I would love to hear what your issues have been. Cheers

M
when I was trying to pick out some detail, I wasn't thining the paint.
It was mixed thoroughly, then put onto a foil 'ash tray' where I then picked it up with my brush, and ( tried to ) apply it.
I recall in my ' youth ' using Tamiya with no drama also...hence why I thought senility had crept in and I was missing something...

The Tamiya of our youth and the Tamiya of our more mature years are two completely different animals. I've seen the former used to brush paint cars with decent results. I used it extensively in the 80's, buth hand and air brush.Somewhere along about 1990, the formula changed. Mixing colors for flesh tones became impossible, the paint would dry too quickly. Brushing anything meant apply a brush stroke and come back tomorrow for the next otherwise the paint had skinned over but not dried underneath causing it to lift. Attempting a correction led to increasingly bad results and eventual stripping of the product. A 1/35 gerry can could take hours to paint.

i think Vallejo model colour is superb for brush painting Tamiya is useless for brush painting excellent through an airbrush.I productI found that causes problems is Revell model colour mix thinned some paint with it once took two coats of well cured enamels plus a automotive primer off down to the plastic,i use it only for stripping paint now.

As to the problem with hand brushing Tamiya; this is common. I find that dipping the tip of my brush into IPA and, then, lightly touch it to a paper towell. Do this at least every other time you load your brush. It will take a little longer to dry and will require two or three coats, but the results are worth it.

And in between, enjoy sips from your IPA (India Pale Ale , that is.) Of course, too much IPA and the results won't really matter.

Damon, I have found Tamiya acrylics exactly as described by Al above. The paint essentially starts to set as soon as it is applied so that any attempt to redistribute paint or smooth it out etc, starts to pick up semi-dried paint and things start to get worse rather than better. In answer to your question about thinner, this is either without any thinning or using Tamiya's own thinner. In an airbrush on the other hand, everything is fine with these paints however.

Completely unlike enamels where you can keep spreading because the solvent keeps the paint dissolved. With acrylics you cannot re-dissolve the paint, once it starts to dry, that's it. Hence my comment about you can't even put your brush down for a loo break without cleaning the paint off first. Now with oils of course, you can go away for the weekend and come back and your loaded brush is still good to go!

BTW, I was amazed that someone in the US knew what IPA was... but then I saw the location was Ma, so practically in England then.