Hey everyone! I've recently finished the construction portion of my first model, a 1:35th scale DML BMP-2. Now never having painted anything on plastic... ever I'd like to ask a few questions; Is it a must to remove any excess glue from areas of the model which will be receiving paint? I've chosen to use acrylics due to their ease of use, and plan to paint the model using the Finnish 3 colour splinter camo pattern. I understand painting the entire model with a black base coat first is a good idea but my range of acrylics consists of 1 large bottle of black Apple Barrel craft paint. Has anyone ever heard of this brand? Is it any good? So far Ive been hesitant to order any paint of the Internet without doing further research. My other main concern is applying the paint. I'm going to be painting the model by hand, so some advice on painting a model without an airbrush and what brushes are of decent quality would be much appreciated! Thanks!

Hi Alex welcome on board

First of all, if I were you I'd avoid to start with such a difficult paint scheme. It would be probably better painting a monochrome scheme such for exemple the Russian one

Another tip which I can give you is not to use paints which are not coinceved for kit modelling. They caleed them "acrylic paints" but actually acrylic paints are not all equal. Those which are coinceved for artistic crafts couldn't grip on plastic surfaces. If you're going to handpaint your model, you shoud get Valeyo or Lifecolor paints which are quite easy to use also for a beginner.

Acrylic paints need a primer, you can't apply them on bare plastic, especially if you're not provided with an airbrush. Otherwise your result will be awful.
You should clean the plastic model surfaces with a home degreaser (not a stronger one) or with a bath of water with some drops of dish soap. When the model is dry you'll be able to spray on them a rattle can primer such for exemple the Tamiya one



If I were you I'd chose the finest white one.
When the primer is well cured (In my opinion you have to wait at least 12 hours. Don't trust if the surface looks dry! The underneath layer could be already wet) you'll be able to start painting.

Regarding the glue excess, yes it would be better to remove them. To be precise it would have been better not having them ... but anyway, you can remove sand them down with a fine grit sandpaper.

I hope that can help you. However there are lots of tutorials on the net which you can follows and lots of guys here on the site who can give you the best tips

Cheers and have a good job!

If you want, I can send you an airbrush for the cost of shipping from the US. It operates fine, just needs a compressor. Fine line airbrush, but a good starter. It accepts Badger siphon bottles, which you will also have to purchase. However, I highly recomend getting an airbrush. I can remember the days of hand painting models and was overjoyed at the advent of the airbrush. It is so much easier. So, if you want it,pm me.

Thanks so much for the quick replies! Its a good thing I didn't go ahead and use the craft paint without a primer haha totally just saved the model. I'll try and get my hands on some tamiya primer but while living in a small town has its benefits, its not very good for any sort of hobby. Do you guys know of any good online stores which carry both paints and primers for models (with preferably cheap shipping to Canada)? And if i cant find the Tamiya primer are there any other good brands?

As for the airbrush, I don't think I need one at this point. Perhaps in the future once I get a few more models under my belt. Thanks for the generous offer though!

Alex, in my opinion there's really no need to buy tamiya primer, you can just as well use the acrylic primers sold for use on cars, probably cheaper and easier to find as well. You Can use white, black, grey, red oxide, whatever you like, perhaps depending on your top coat, e.g. don't hand brush a very pale color over black or red oxide. For hand painting the top coat I would strongly urge you use enamels, e.g.Humbrol. Frankly, you can probably get those on Amazon, and the brush cleaner is white spirit, so same shop you get the auto primer in, or any hardware shop. Enamels are MUCH kinder to beginners and brushes, believe me!
Good luck.

Alex,
First, it's important to clean the model before you paint. Take a bottle of Windex (or whatever blue ammonia window cleaner you have)and liberally spray down the model over the sink, soaking it all over. This will clean off all the mold release, skin oil, sanding dust, and dirt. Then rinse gently with clear water from the sink sprayer and let dry. You don't HAVE to prime.
Buy the best brushes you can afford, most modelers settle on Winsor & Newton. These can be ordered from art stores.
Lastly, get the right paint. Vallejo sells a new line of colored primers that have the primer and base coat all in one. They have a Russian Green in the lineup. Vallejo is the best paint on the market and it brush paints beautifully. You have a dealer right up there in Canada with you, Elm City Hobbies, that carries the entire Vallejo line and will be happy to ship to you. https://www.elmcityhobbies.com/shop/index.php
The owner of the shop, Scott Millican, visits here quite often and is a very nice guy and very helpful. Tell him I sent you if you order from him.
This should give you a pain free painting experience and a beautiful finish on your model.

If I thoroughly cleaned the sprue's before I built the model do I need to clean them again? I think I might just rise the model. As for paint stores, I found a great Canadian one Meeplemart.ca that sells all 3 lines of Vallejo model paint. So I'm gonna go with them. I've got (hopefully)1 last question. I've been reading a lot about Krylon Fusion plastic primer and extra flat camouflage paint. Lots of people say its a good cheap primer for models. Seeing as the paint scheme I'm looking for is mainly black (at least the base coat is) I'm thinking about spraying the entire model with the extra flat black primer and then finish the rest of the job (2 tone green + other details) with the Vallejo paints. Any input on this idea?

Well, as you can see, there are different opinions on all this... and of course, dare I say, trying things out and practising is what most of us are doing most of the time! Just my opinion, I would say you don't have to wash if you prime... I have certainly sprayed automotive primer over an unwashed model and had no problem with doing that. I guess the worse combination is not washing and not priming either (and then attempting to use Tamiya acrylics with a brush... that's a recipe for deep modelling unhappiness and has probably killed the enthusiasm of some stone dead.)

I haven't used any of the particular paints you're talking about so won't pass judgement on that - though it sounds fine in terms of the colours.

Alex,I have used the Krylon fusion paints for my models and they work very well for Me.I will say that they are ULTRA-flat with no gloss at all.I have used them for hull base colors and for painting tracks.Everything that I have put over them,Tamiya acrylics,Vallejo acrylics,Testors enamel and ModelMaster enamels have not had any effect on them.Jeff T.

Thanks for the help everyone! I'm gonna get the model prepped and ready for paint tonight.

Cant wait to show off the results! (good or bad )

You shouldn't forget that touching the model during the assembling, leaves on them a lot of your finger grease. Paints and primers can't grip in a good way on greasy surfaces, is a problem which unfortunately I had some times when I was a beginner. You could tell me that using disposal gloves can prevent this problem and so that can avoid washing the model. Well, in fact disposal gloves are lubried with talcum podwer, if you use them you'll solve the finger grease problem but you're most likely to leave on the model the podwer... Moreover assembling steps produce invisible debris, think for exemple when you sand down some parts. Those debris have to be removed as well as dust and lints. If you don't do it the dry primer will fix permanently them on your job and there's nothing worst in my humble opinion

So the cleaner is your model the safer will be your painting process

cheers