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Take one of your correctly painted models to an automotive paint shop and have them computer mix you a pint of enamel. Should last you a lifetime if you re bottle it into small, aromatherapy bottles without the droppers. They hold as much as those old paint bottles did.

-- Ray

Ray Haddad said this on 2/15/2009 1:09 AM:

I was going to say Home Depot or Lowes, but not sure they do more than latex in those machines. But they advertise people bringing in teddy bears and such to match!

They do but automotive shops are used to small batch requests. Touching up a car often only requires a few ounces at most. Plus, if you really want it, you can get two part epoxy enamels there which I use for my other hobby, RC flying.

Is it OK to mention RC flying? Am I in trouble now? Back off with that ruler Sister Mary Big_Al!

-- Ray

Don't point at me, I do both (or did). Had a huge 6ft wingspan plane hanging in the garage for years after I stopped flying. Gave it to the science teacher at the HS. He was heavy into physical teaching aids. I think its in the blood to model in multiple ways. I did those car kits as a child, then anything else, heck trains and planes was just more expensive. LOL

Never could get the hang of doing a Cuban 8 with my "cabeese" in formation. Picture the Blue Angels in Tuscan Red. But very slow.

-- Ray

Forget home paint centers...find, as earlier poster suggested, a paint shop that caters to the automotive trade. I've been doing that for 20 years in matching Lionel colors. Enamel would be fine, personally, I prefer lacquer as it easier to work with and will dry very quickly. A pint of lacquer might run you $20-$25 but when one considers you reduce lacquer 3:1 with thinner, you get 3 lifetimes of paint for your purchase.

When I thin mine I mix i6t up in Scalecoat 2 oz bottles.

With lacquer, please use a proper respirator.

Not every plastic can accept lacquer without damage or softening. Do a test area inside the shell before using it outside.

Wear rubber or latex gloves when spraying. Stuff dries fast, too. Hard as nails. I prefer two part epoxy enamel to any other. When you get the proper color mix, have them write the pigment combination down for you in case you have to take your order elsewhere some day.

-- Ray

Thanks to EVERYONE and their replies. I'm usually pretty smart but this is one of those moments I smack myself in the forehead and say " why didn't I think of THAT !".

Yet to sound ignorant again, is there any special brand that anyone has had better suces with than others ?

By the way, anytime I open a bottle, I use a piece of plastic wrap to reseal the bottle and keep the paint in good shape. Did you know that on the ends of Sarand ( sp ? ) wrap or tin foil boxes they have areas that you can push in to keep the roll from coming out of the box when tearing off a sheet ? Something I just learned a few weeks ago.........

Area for possibly more research. The 'suitability' and usable film (the paint) thickness, says that you want to find whoever has the 'most finely ground pigment'. The 'finer' the pigment, the thinner you may apply the paint, and still get desirable results. [For 'House Paint' the pigment is fairly 'course'. Automotive paints have smaller pigment, the 'model paints' have extremely small grain size for their pigment. Hope that doesn't dissuade you from further search. Chuck D.

On 2/15/2009 5:21 PM Charles Davis spake thus:

Bullshit. This is a myth that just won't die.

Yeah, people think "well, since we're painting models with details that are, say, 1/87 the size of the real deal, the pigments must be ground about 87 times finer, right?"

Wrong. Even the pigments in house paint are ground about as finely as those in your expensive $200-a-gallon equivalent model paint.

I regularly use acrylic craft paints (Delta Ceramcoat and equivalent), and their pigments are ground just as finely as any Floquil, Polly S or whatever.

Sorry David. Pigments cost money, More finely ground pigments are more costly. House Paint, uses the 'cheaper' large grain size pigment. [I guess you have never 'thinned' housepaint till it reached the 'white sand' and semi clear liquid' state. Most often seen while washing out paint brushes for use tomorrow.]

You're mostly right, Charles. All enamel uses fine ground pigments that are the size they are to make it into the atomizer of the spray head and pass through without gumming up the works. Thinned house paint requires a different nozzle than enamel. Model enamel and automotive enamel use the same nozzle, pressure and thinning.

As I mentioned earlier, I prefer the two part epoxy enamel which goes on much thinner and smoother. Details are incredibly shown in perfect relief after the painting. I thin it with satin or flat finish solution first and then clear thinner. I use the same paint mix for model airplanes making them hot fuel proof in the process.

-- Ray