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c64orinoco

Mixing polycarbonate paints (PS) with normal sprays (TS)

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My wife wants to paint her Sand Scorcher metallic purple. Only problem is, Tamiya don't make a metallic purple in the TS series. There is however a metallic purple in the PS series.

The other thought we had was using the TS series purple as a base and putting PS Lame Flake (glitter!) over the top and then a coat of TS gloss clear.

I think if we were to use the PS metallic purple I would undercoat with the TS silver because I know the PS metallics need silver as a backing. Then a coat of the Lame Flake and finally clear coat over the top.

Will the PS paints stick as well to polystyrene as they do to polycarbonate? My mind says they would, polycarbonate seems to be more difficult to stick to.

Has anyone had any experience mixing the two series? Are the paints compatible with each other? Do the PS series work on polystyrene?

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Hey, I followed someone else's advice about mixing the two types of paint on the plastic side mirrors of my Ferrari F60 recently. I used plastic primer, PS60 metallic red, then TS13 clear. Was a little harder to get a consistent shine (just needed more coats) but worked fine. Granted, it is a small area so someone that has sprayed larger areas may also want to comment. But I'd do it again, in fact I'm about to with a spare body set! Have fun and remember to post some pics!

Kurt

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1 hour ago, c64orinoco said:

Will the PS paints stick as well to polystyrene as they do to polycarbonate? My mind says they would, polycarbonate seems to be more difficult to stick to.

I always use primer on polystyrene shells meaning any subsequent paint will stick, and I usually just use car spray paint for the main colour. Is there any reason you are restricting yourself to using tamiya paints? 

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26 minutes ago, rich_f said:

 Is there any reason you are restricting yourself to using tamiya paints? 

Not a major reason, just what's available locally. Years ago the local hardware stores stocked a great range of paints, but anti-grafiti laws down here severely restrict what is available - just basic flat colours, very boring. You can't even easily browse spray paints - they are locked away in dark cages and you have to find someone with the key; you even have to show ID to show you are over 18 (I'm a bit over that). It's laughabe as it doesn't seem to stop the amount of grafiti you see!  Real car places don't have the colours that my wife wants to use either. There are no real cars currently available in metallic purple, so the Tamiya range is our best option.

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31 minutes ago, c64orinoco said:

Not a major reason, just what's available locally. Years ago the local hardware stores stocked a great range of paints, but anti-grafiti laws down here severely restrict what is available - just basic flat colours, very boring. You can't even easily browse spray paints - they are locked away in dark cages and you have to find someone with the key; you even have to show ID to show you are over 18 (I'm a bit over that). It's laughabe as it doesn't seem to stop the amount of grafiti you see!  Real car places don't have the colours that my wife wants to use either. There are no real cars currently available in metallic purple, so the Tamiya range is our best option.

Holden uses a color called Morpheous Purple, which is quite attractive. Shouldn't be too hard to find where you are.

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51 minutes ago, c64orinoco said:

Not a major reason, just what's available locally. Years ago the local hardware stores stocked a great range of paints, but anti-grafiti laws down here severely restrict what is available - just basic flat colours, very boring. You can't even easily browse spray paints - they are locked away in dark cages and you have to find someone with the key; you even have to show ID to show you are over 18 (I'm a bit over that). It's laughabe as it doesn't seem to stop the amount of grafiti you see!  Real car places don't have the colours that my wife wants to use either. There are no real cars currently available in metallic purple, so the Tamiya range is our best option.

Go to Supercheap Auto and check out the Duplicolor acrylics. They have a heap of choices in automotive colours

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If you've got access to an airbrush, then nail varnish is a good source of these more unusual colours. I painted a dodge charger model in the closest nail varnish I could find to 'plum crazy'. 

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I'd recommend sourcing from an automotive paint supplier if your struggling finding what you want.

A quick Google search provided quite a number in Sydney.

They will have a multitude of off the shelf pressure packs or tint up what colour you're after, either in a pot or pressure pack.

Failing that, any crash repairer worth their salt can tint any colour you want.

Or as @mtbkym01 suggests, Supercrap Auto sell Duplicolour & if your after purple, one cannot go past Ford Wild Violet which they stock...

Ford Falcon XA GT Sedan Wild Violet - Muscle Cars For Sale | Muscle Car  Warehouse

 

Footnote: Early '70's Aussie muscle cars were graced with some of the best colour shades ever. B)

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9 hours ago, c64orinoco said:

Will the PS paints stick as well to polystyrene

Yes, but not the other way around (TS on Lexan will chip off).  

PS paint is made more flexible, that's about it.  As far as the solvent in it is concerned, it smells about the same. My guess is that the binder for the pigment is more flexible in PS than TS.  But PS paint does not have the shine. The shine comes from hardened surface, since PS has to be flexible, there is no shine. But since it's polystyrene body that will not flex, you can put a clear coat on PS paint as you planned.  Just give enough time in between.  

If you want to, you could use primer.  I don't use it, Tamiya's white body is white enough.  Also, it's one more layer to make the surface rough. As it is, you would do 4 layers.  (I'm too lazy to look for rough spots and sand it. I did it on a Sand Scorcher body twice. It was tedious and boring work. I used some putty on Sand Scorcher body, so I had to use white primer.)   I never use gray primer. It makes the color you paint very dingy; like turning yellow into light brown. 

 

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15 minutes ago, Juggular said:

I never use gray primer. It makes the color you paint very dingy; like turning yellow into light brown. 

The different primer colours are for use with different paint colours. You don't use grey primer with yellow for the reason you point out. 

Generally, grey is a good primer colour for dark colours and white for light colours, although you can get specific primer colours like red or yellow. 

One less obvious reason for primer is that paint is sometimes translucent, whereas primer isn't. Any hint of translucency will make the final paint job look less solid and more plasticky. 

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Airbrush and GSI paints (either the C or H range) is your answer.

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On 8/6/2021 at 2:00 AM, Juggular said:

Yes, but not the other way around (TS on Lexan will chip off).  

PS paint is made more flexible, that's about it.  As far as the solvent in it is concerned, it smells about the same. My guess is that the binder for the pigment is more flexible in PS than TS.  But PS paint does not have the shine. The shine comes from hardened surface, since PS has to be flexible, there is no shine. But since it's polystyrene body that will not flex, you can put a clear coat on PS paint as you planned.  Just give enough time in between.  

If you want to, you could use primer.  I don't use it, Tamiya's white body is white enough.  Also, it's one more layer to make the surface rough. As it is, you would do 4 layers.  (I'm too lazy to look for rough spots and sand it. I did it on a Sand Scorcher body twice. It was tedious and boring work. I used some putty on Sand Scorcher body, so I had to use white primer.)   I never use gray primer. It makes the color you paint very dingy; like turning yellow into light brown. 

 

Just found this thread.  Great feedback @Juggular

@c64orinoco how did your build go?   What did you end up doing?   Please share photos

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Thread is too old for advice for the project. But anyway, out of experience i can say ps doesnt stick on ts. Tried it here.... ps5 on ts102 Cobalt green. I can only warn anyone not to mix it like this. Other way round works though. E.g. ps base and then ts clear. Not talking about lexan of course (never mix lexan and ts), only abs etc.IMG_20211112_202419.thumb.jpg.6cbef5b0bbdd29c187e876295e9578dc.jpg

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Spoke to a professional painter. He said that PS is a kind of plastic etching paint while TS is just, well paint.

PS-55 is in fact a clear plastic etching primer that can easily (and possibly?) bought cheaply from auto stores, something that I will try when I next pop down to one. Since it is a primer (clear or not), it will allow TS to stick on easily.

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I cheated on painting the driver.  
 

It is a bobble head from X-Rider and arrived in black plastic.  I applied red TS paint on the helmet but ran out halfway through.  Found left over metallic blue PS paint from my BigWig project and applied to helmet and gloves.  I then applied TS gloss to helmet, visor and goggles.  I am surprised how well the visor and goggles look as the gloss is directly over black plastic.  For the body and gloves I applied TS flat (black body is unpainted plastic)

E02BA0B4-AAB0-44EE-9904-F504BFF125D4.jpeg.fd5c771fccfc105801f8dc597a94c42a.jpeg

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On 12/13/2022 at 10:19 AM, Frankster said:

Just found this thread.  Great feedback @Juggular

@c64orinoco how did your build go?   What did you end up doing?   Please share photos

My wife ended up going for a sky blue colour, with lame flake over the top. It worked ok, it does look like glitter, which was the effect she was after. I don't have any photos yet, the car isn't finished.

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On 12/22/2022 at 6:11 PM, c64orinoco said:

My wife ended up going for a sky blue colour, with lame flake over the top. It worked ok, it does look like glitter, which was the effect she was after. I don't have any photos yet, the car isn't finished.

Sounds interesting. Send progress photos if you can

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