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AFV Painting & Weathering
Answers to questions about the right paint scheme or tips for the right effect.
Am I on the Right Track?
shonen_red
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Metro Manila, Philippines
Joined: February 20, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 08:38 PM UTC
As many of you know, I got problems when airbrushing. Here's my inprogress on the 1/100 Tamiya F-4EJ.

Spraypainted the entire kit with flat black


Image shown has been painted with Tamiya enamels. 2 part sky grey, 4 part light grey. Almost 4-6 coating. Should it really be that long to cover the underside completely?


The paint bleeded on the top part. I'm quite worried this would happen with the underside once I paint on the top part.

BTW, I'm using Badger 175 and 25-30 psi compressor. I wonder if the compressor's doin all the bad luck.
Babva
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Washington, United States
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:09 PM UTC
How much are you thinning your paint... looks to me that it is either too thin of a mix... or you have a lot of water coming from your compressor.

I did not know that Tamiya made an enamel paint. I thought they only had acrylic... for airbrushing.
shonen_red
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:12 PM UTC

Quoted Text

How much are you thinning your paint... looks to me that it is either too thin of a mix... or you have a lot of water coming from your compressor.

I did not know that Tamiya made an enamel paint.



I think it was about 10 part thinner. Nope, no water coming out. Spraying distance is about 7-8 inches away and yes, Tamiya does enamels and they are pretty good.
Babva
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:28 PM UTC
Are you talking about thier polycarbonate line of paints ? If this is what you used... these are water watersoluble. What did you use to thin them ?

10 parts of whatever type thinner to 1 part paint sounds like way too much to me.
viper29_ca
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New Brunswick, Canada
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:32 PM UTC
I don't know how Tamiya Enamels are, as you can't buy them here, but if they are like any of the other enamel paint here, like Model Master, or Humbrol, normal thinning is about 80% paint to 20% thinner.
Possibly 75% paint, to 25% thinner, but you shouldn't have to go any thinner than that.

As well....what kind of thinner are you using?? I am assuming that since Tamiya has thinner for their acrylic paints, they must have one for their enamels as well, are you using that??? Have always gotten my best results using the thinner for the paint that the paint manufacutrer provides, Tamiya thinner for Tamiya paints, MM thinner for their paints, etc, etc, may cost a few bucks more, but the end result is well worth it.

25-30lbs of airpressure on your compressor??? You shouldn't need any more than 10lbs to airbrush with, I usually spray at around 5 to 8 lbs, pretty much all you need.

Where you live is it fairly humid??? If it is a watertrap on your airline is a must....although if you are using enamels exclusivly, the water won't mix with your paint, but you could still end up with water droplets on top of your paint.

As well, does your compressor have a tank??? If it does, does it have a releif valve on the bottom that you can open?

When you are done airbrushing for the day, you should open the relief valve on the bottom of the tank to not only relieve the air pressure, but air underpressure will have condensation in it (hence the watertrap on the airline), but if you don't use it for awhile with the air compressed in the tank, the water will lay in the bottom of the tank and will rust it out, then you need a new compressor. If you compressor doesn't have a tank you don't have to worry about it, but you should still have a water trap.
shonen_red
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Metro Manila, Philippines
Joined: February 20, 2003
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Posted: Saturday, October 09, 2004 - 09:42 PM UTC
I guess the paint quality is somewhat like Humbrol's offering. 80 paint to 20 thinner? Looks like a good try. Will try again this weekend.

BTW, here's a pic of the enamel paint:

(forget the figure :-) )
Grumpyoldman
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Posted: Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 08:32 AM UTC
You need to lower your air pressure if you are spraying a 10 to 1 thinner to paint ratio.
viper29_ca
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New Brunswick, Canada
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Posted: Sunday, October 10, 2004 - 10:03 AM UTC
Basically you want your paint to look like the consistancy of skim milk.

On normal enamel paints that most modelers use here in NA, that means a 80:20 or 75:25 paint to thinner ratio, depending on what it looks like, if you try 80:20 and it won't spray at 5 to 10 lbs of pressure, try adding a little more thinner to it.

Like I said, I have never used Tamiya enamels before, but I am sure they are similar to the others.

Thin your paint properly, 80:20 or 75:25 paint to thinner, and lower your compressor pressure to between 5 to 10 lbs and you should be good.
shonen_red
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Posted: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 03:24 PM UTC
I tried following the 80:20 ratio and here are the results.




Still used ordinary hardware paint thinner + Tamiya enamels.

Daym!!! They work pretty fine with me! I'm so glad I've made it! Thanks a lot guys!
Tarok
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Victoria, Australia
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Posted: Tuesday, October 12, 2004 - 06:13 PM UTC
I guess when a manufacturer (not sure if I should mention the name ) puts statements like this:


Quoted Text

When spray painting enamels, best results are achieved by adding 2 parts of thinner to 10 parts of paint.

on their product page, it is no suprise that we get the ratios mixed up. Don't think an enamel thinned to this consistency would even go through the average airbrush...

allycat
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England - North East, United Kingdom
Joined: October 03, 2004
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Posted: Saturday, October 16, 2004 - 11:39 AM UTC
[
2 parts of thinner to 10 parts of paint

This ratio equates to 1/5 or 20% which seems fine for enamel paint.
Tom
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