Brush painting drama with Tamiya acrylics

First: you have scrubbed the plastic and applied an undercoat, right?

Thin the paint. Apply multiple thin coats.

Curiously I found Tamiya paints to be fine straight from the bottle when I was painting metal miniatures. Painting plastic models I've found thinning to be essential, multiple coats are essential, and you must give each coat time to dry thoroughly. Even so I wouldn't attempt to brush-paint any large area; the paint doesn't really seem to "grip" very well. I've only been working with 1/76 armour kits (so far), so I haven't really had to worry about "large areas" as such.

Bruce Melbourne, Australia

This happenes to me sometimes too. Not always and I'm not sure what are the reasons - because sometimes the painting is OK. Maybe it's the kind of plastic that behaves that way. I recall painting PST IS-2 - it was very difficult to paint it. After the layer has dried, painting the second one was removing the first? Can you imagine - the second layer had to be painted in 'getting-that-right-with-the-first-brush-stroke' way. :) But this happened only once. Revell model plastic seem to like tamiya paint. Also metal figures are quite pleased being coated in tamiya :)

I can only suggest multiple thinned layers, I add vallejo retarder and some tamiya thinner.

Retarder again :)

That can kill details.

The plus of Tamiya is once it dries it's soo incrediby flat. No other paint (acrylic) is that flat. Great for fabric painting. Of course until you touch it ....

Bruce Probst wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@i13g2000prf.googlegroups.com:

I was painting over freshly airbrushed pactra and Tamiya, yes so you could say the surface was kinda primed.

Thinning the paint did unfortunately not do the job. Perhaps I should thin the paint even more. I am used to Pactra Acr which paints just like your standard enamels. So I think I'll have to change my Modus Operandi.

Larger areas I airbrush.

And indeed it's the "grip" that give me a headache.

Thanks,

PaPaPeng wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

No it not really is, when you are using Pactra paints. Well it doesn't get as smooth and thin as airbrushed, but I found coverage very good with Pactra.

I sure will give it a try!

Thanks

"Maciek" wrote in news:f9rm99$djl$ snipped-for-privacy@atlantis.news.tpi.pl:

I'll give the retarder a try. Thanks.

But as flat as Tamiya acrylics can be, nothing can beat a final coat of Pactra Flat Clear!! In my group of modellers "Pactra Flat Clear" and "Pactra Flat Black" are magic words!!!

dull cote goes in there for me. it's cheaper on large areas plus you can thin the hell out of it to make any degree of subtlety.

One thing you might want to take a look at is the type of brush you are using. All paint brushes are not considered equal. Different fibers work better with certain paints. I've found Tamiya paints have a hard time sticking to certain plastics, therefore a primer is suggested.

Well I'm gonna have to disappoint you - I do own 'Pactra Flat Black' and it CLEARLY loses with tamiya flat black in terms of flatness :) I can paint a test fou you and send in email :)

Well but it's not really important since its flatness will be lost during painting and the varnish should be applied last :)

Never seen Pactra Flat Clear in action though.

Maciek

They had it when I was a kid; and it was _extremely_ flat. In fact, it was so non-reflective that it might not be accurate for most military modeling subjects which tend to get at least bit reflective with time and weathering. You really had to stir it well prior to use. About the only thing I ever saw that was completly flat finish was a helicopter for night use that was coated in some sort of thick and very rough dark OD anti-IR paint. It looked like it was covered in medium grit sandpaper. This can't be good from an air drag point of view.

Pat