Paint for main body of cockpits

[Yoshimitsu 3475]

I made the mistake of not using Tamiya spray paint for my cockpit....

As I'm having to redo I take it Polycarbonate Spray will stick and stay stuck?

🫣

[Superluminal 3750]

Do you mean the white moulded styrene cockpits like the rally and touring car ones? If so I just paint them with whatever Ive got to hand in the colour I want. I normally use Halfords grey plastic primer and auto spray paints and then paint the drivers and details by hand using pots of model acrylics like humbol or old citadel ones. I recall someone here having a bit of a bad reaction painting PS paint over TS paint though ive not experienced it myself.

[Juhunio 6830]

Tamiya recommend acrylics (eg in the manual for the lancia 037) so if it was me I would use TS sprays, not PS 

[Yoshimitsu 3475]

I had used Plastikote spray which lifted off and flaked when twisted.

Use of the plastic primer might have helped right enough.😬

Or as Juhunio says TS spray..

[Superluminal 3750]

Did you wash it first with some soapy water? I normally give them a very light going over first with some wet and dry paper just to remove the gloss on the plastic and provide a better key for the paint.

[Yoshimitsu 3475]

11 minutes ago, Superluminal said:

Did you wash it first with some soapy water? I normally give them a very light going over first with some wet and dry paper just to remove the gloss on the plastic and provide a better key for the paint.

I did not.

Amateur hour!

[Superluminal 3750]

Aw man! You totally smashed it on the body shell though. Live and learn.

[Willy iine 18806]

I would just spray it with TS matte black or whatever interior color.  TS matte can take quite a bit of twisting and bending without cracking.  

GL @Yoshimitsu

[OoALEJOoO 3127]

It would depend on the type of cockpit.

For the ones that are made of styrene, such as the stand-alone cockpit sets (54157, 54298 and 54491), TS sprays are the best. As @Willy iine and @Juhunio mention, TS paint can resist a significant amount of bending. PS sprays will flake/peel really bad if used on these cockpits. Wash with soap & sponge first. I normally go TS-14 black (masking the drivers), followed by detailing with acrylics and then sealing the whole thing with TS-79 or TS-80 for a matte finish. Tamiya's bottled acrylics can also be used directly with these cockpits, and they stick well.

There are other Tamiya cockpits that are lexan, such as the ones supplied with the Terra Scorcher kit. On these, PS spray bonds better (although not as good as it does on bodies). Conversely, TS does not stick so well and will flake significantly easier when you try to bend it. You can still use TS to seal acrylics though, provided you have a PS layer underneath.

For hard plastic cockpit parts, both TS and PS work. I usually apply primer first.