Hard Body Paint Question...

[J3cubfan]

I am going to be gettting ready to paint my restored Grasshopper, then off my SS. Since both of these are hard bodies, what is the best paint for spraying these bodies?

I know for my 1/48 scale aircraft, I use Testors Model Master through an airbrush. Are there any quality paints out there on the market that would give a premium finish?

John

[Bibbo]

I've been doing some painting recently on my Ranger body. I messed it up a few times and ended up stripping it and repainting. It's been a nightmare!![V]

I wanted to use Tamiya paints because you know they will be good. I would say they are perfect in the spray can. You can trust it and once you get used to it you know that each can will work the same.

The only problem I can see is that their range of colours don't suit all cars. The Ranger is a case in point because there is'nt a decent blue. TS-15 is too dark and the others ( I can't think of their numbers ) are too light. So I will have to use some car paint I've got. ( Opel Regatta blue. cheers synchronc. )I tested this on an old body and it seems good. so tommorow is the big push[:0] Will it be back in the brake fluid bath!![V]NNNOOOOOO!

Anyway, I'd say Tamiya spray cans are good but I'm sure there are other paints that are just as good. The main thing about a decent paint job is a lot of patience and a fair amount of practice. This is probably more important than the typoe of paint you use.

Oh, and ALWAYS use a decent primer. I always use the Tamiya fine primer.

[J3cubfan]

I don't have the Tamiya spray paint, but have the Tamiya bottle paints, so I give those a try..

Thanks again for the info...

John

[Bibbo]

I tried those too. You mean the acrylic's not the enamels?

Then it depends on how good an airbrush you have. I have one of those cheapy ones that run off of an air canister. It's made by Badger I think and it cost about £15. It was'nt that bad for doing big areas ( bodies ) but it was'nt as good as the spray cans. The flow of paint was'nt very controlable. I would say it would be a good investment to get a can. They are only about £5 in UK I think and 1 does a car normally.

[DJTheo]

Yes, I also got better results with Tamiya TS cans than with my non-expensive airbrush, to get better results with airbrush you need alot of experience and patience, cans are sooo easy and fast!

If you use acrylic bottle pain, you should be always carefull that no alcohol/spirits used for cleaning gets later on the body, thats why I would avoid it. Enamels take very long to dry and have heared that they yellow easier?

quote:Opel Regatta

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Whats that, know only Opel Record and Fiat Regatta?

[Bibbo]

quote:Opel Regatta

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Whats that, know only Opel Record and Fiat Regatta?

It's the name of the colour, not the name of the car it was used on. If you need some then you will need the code numbers to get it from a supplyer. They are 0777 or 27LL220. If you go to a commercial car place and give those numbers they should be able to make it. If you want to see the colour it is on synchronc's Ranger in his showroom.

[DJTheo]

I thought it was a model name as Opel used in the past similar names, like Kapitän (=Captain), Admiral....

[bholio]

When it was time to paint my blackfoot, I went the to auto-parts store and purchased some automtive primer. It went on great. Nice even coat. I then applied some Testors (plastic model) spray paint. Awful. Ran easily and was very rough and bubbly. When it was time to apply the second color (I did Blue/white like the original F150), I grabbed some random can of white spray paint that I had in the house. General purpose etc. It also went on great, except for the one place where I coated way too thick.

I then applied some automotive clear coat over everything and it looks pretty good.

My next project is (currently) a sonic fighter. I used grey auto primer for the body. I then applied some coats of auto clear coat over the primer and decals. So far it looks great. One word of warning. Be sure to have all of the air bubbles out of the decals before clearcoating. Any air bubbles will cause the decal to ripple when the clearcoat goes on. I'm seeing some wrinkling on parts of a few decals.

This is all from spray cans, no airbrush. I'm going to continue with the automotive paint until something goes bad. The auto paint is way cheaper than the hobby paint too.

[TWO STAR]

ive been using Plasti-cote with an automotive clear and so far its been panning out well...everybody will get different results,it also depends on the temperature,& humidity,ive had glass finishes and had

fish-eye finishes!.

[Shodog]

The best spray paint I have used it the Tamiya spray paint. I have used it on my Hilux, Super champ, Midnight Pumpkin and Mountaineer. I wish Tamiya had more selection in the spray paint line. One of the local hobby shops stocks Boyd's color. Boyd is a poular hot rod designer and has licensed his name to use on paints produced by Testors. I used testors spray on my Lunchbox. That paint really sucks. I did the best i could but i still ended up with some orange peel. If I ever get ambitious, I am going to strip the body and start over. becuase of my lousy experience I am hesitant to use the boyd's paints. I used automotive paints you can buy at the auto parts stores. It makes it easy to match a color on a real car. I found that the quality of the paint is lame and it didn't leave a high gloss shine like the Tamiya paint does.

Jim

[DJTheo]

quote: next project is (currently) a sonic fighter. I used grey auto primer for the body

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A unique advantage of the Sonic Fighter, it needs only to be primed! []

In the beginning I was using airbrush, but it was too much troulbe and didn't give that great results as Tamiya spray cans which are also very easy to use. Once I used even cheap ($3![]) general spray paint and it also went very well... The most important is how you paint and have prepared everything...

[bholio]

quote:

A unique advantage of the Sonic Fighter, it needs only to be primed!

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Thats what I thought. I was wrong. After priming the body, I started assembly. After installing the front suspension, rear gearbox and electronics, I noticed that the primer was very easily scratched and that there were scratches all over the body where my tools touched it. A light touch with a fingernail would cause a mark in the primer. It didn't remove the primer, it just left a mark in it.

So, I disassembled the whole thing, did another coat of primer, then put on the decals and clearcoated it before re-assembling it. Now it shines.