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Model Forum / General / Models / April 2004



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Gloss Paint and Sanding

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Chad - 28 Apr 2004 02:14 GMT
I'm not familiar with spray painting yet.

This is my concern:
I'm going to use the spraypaint recommended by the instruction manual of my
Tamiya car model.

The color is Vintage Red or Italian Red. I was wondering if a spraypaint, if
done the right way, could already give a gloss finish. Or do I have to sand
it gradually?
Keeper - 28 Apr 2004 03:37 GMT
>The color is Vintage Red or Italian Red. I was wondering if a spraypaint, if
>done the right way, could already give a gloss finish. Or do I have to sand
>it gradually?

"rattle" or spray cans can give an acceptable finish. Get a gloss Italian red,
shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about five
minutes. Then you're ready to spray; do a light mist coat, let that dry for
about thirty minutes and follow with medium cover coats thirty minutes apart
till you get the depth you want.
hth

The Keeper (of too much crap)
Chad - 28 Apr 2004 08:00 GMT
> shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about five
> minutes. Then you're ready to spray; do a light mist coat, let

You know, I never did quite understand the purpose of this. They didn't
explain it in the tutorials. ;) Can anyone explain this to me?
Keeper - 28 Apr 2004 12:50 GMT
>> shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about
>five
>> minutes.

The hot water helps the paint liquify and flow real well. The little bb in the
cans should be shaken for at least a minute before painting. I usually wind up
giving it five minutes before initial use. Four minutes before each subsequent
coat, give it a hot bath and a shake.
hth

The Keeper (of too much crap)
Chad - 29 Apr 2004 01:25 GMT
> >> shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about
> >five
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> coat, give it a hot bath and a shake.
> hth

How hot should the water be?

Also, I forgot to bring up this question along with the previous ones. What
about the primer paint? How many coats should there be? The plastic on my
model is black and I know this would be primed since red is lighter than
black.
West Coast Engineering - 29 Apr 2004 02:44 GMT
>> >> shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about
>> >five
[quoted text clipped - 10 lines]
>
>How hot should the water be?
Less than boiling 210 deg F

>Also, I forgot to bring up this question along with the previous ones. What
>about the primer paint? How many coats should there be? The plastic on my
>model is black and I know this would be primed since red is lighter than
>black.
jim klein - 28 Apr 2004 14:58 GMT
>> shake it up real nice, let it sit in a bath of hot tap water for about
>five
>> minutes. Then you're ready to spray; do a light mist coat, let
>
>You know, I never did quite understand the purpose of this. They didn't
>explain it in the tutorials. ;) Can anyone explain this to me?

Hot paint well mixed is thinner and the propelant is at a higher
presure than cold paint.  (Don't ever use boiling water unless you
want to paint your ceiling when the can explosively ruptures.

Back in the 50's, an uncle of mine (with low IQ) put an "empty" Reddi
Whip can in his incinerator. He was lucky he didn't burn the
neighborhood down when the can blew out the side of the incinerator.
Be careful heating the paint. No hotter than hot tap water.

The light mist is indended to produce smaller paint droplets. The mist
on the model does not tend to "blob" up and produce an orage peel.

On the other hand, all well polished cars (1:1 scale) are color sanded
and polished to get rid of the surface ripple. This includes the two
stage jobs, where the clear coat is "color" sanded and polished. Color
sanding is done with very dry paint, fine paper and water by "wet"
sanding.

I have run into some clear gloss coats at the hardware store that are
water based and form increadably smooth glossy surfaces right on their
own (compared to solvent based sprays). You need to be careful with
these because sometimes they stick really well and sometimes they peel
off like dry skin on an old person. :-)

The air-brush produces much smaller droplets than a spray can. I use a
Badger and attached my cheap air compressor to a stand alone Sears air
tank with its own regulator. The tank smooths out the air and gets rid
of pressure drops and it was way cheaper than the obscenely expensive
compressors with built-in tanks.

Spray cans are really good at filling in recessed panel lines if
you're not really careful.

Jim Klein
Francis X. Kranick, Jr. - 28 Apr 2004 16:13 GMT
> Hot paint well mixed is thinner and the propelant is at a higher
> presure than cold paint.

    One question that occurs to me...  Are there benefits in warming  (or
actually heating) paint for use in an airbrush?  Would the paint flow
better or would there be adverse reactions with the relatively cool
propellant, in my case, from my CO2 cylinder?  Or, would it be a wash,
benefits canceled by negatives?

Frank Kranick
(who still marvels at the finish of many competitive auto models)
West Coast Engineering - 28 Apr 2004 22:48 GMT
>> Hot paint well mixed is thinner and the propelant is at a higher
>> presure than cold paint.
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
>propellant, in my case, from my CO2 cylinder?  Or, would it be a wash,
>benefits canceled by negatives?

Well the warm paint might be thinner but the drop in temperature of
the CO2 as it goes from high pressure to low pressure is pretty large
and experimentation would be in order to see if warming the paint
helps. When using a compressor and tank, room temp air increases in
temperature as the pressure builds in the tank and then drops as the
air is used. That is why we need the moisture traps. High pressure air
holds more water and when the pressure drops in spraying, moisture
comes out and needs to be trapped so it does not become part of the
paint job. :-) Then again, the CO2 in the cans is dry and has no H2O.

I'd be really careful about heating the CO2 cans. Having a CO2 car
racing around my hobby room at several feet/sec after it ruptures
would really take all the fun out of modeling for at least a few
hours. :-)

I'm sure it depends on the amount of paint heated and I'd be careful
not to heat water based paints beyond the point where they might turn
into "pudding". Good luck and I think we might all like to here how
the heating helps (or not).

Jim Klein

>Frank Kranick
>(who still marvels at the finish of many competitive auto models)
Alan Dicey - 28 Apr 2004 23:37 GMT
>     One question that occurs to me...  Are there benefits in warming  
> (or actually heating) paint for use in an airbrush?  Would the paint
> flow better or would there be adverse reactions with the relatively cool
> propellant, in my case, from my CO2 cylinder?  Or, would it be a wash,
> benefits canceled by negatives?

It would be quite difficult in any case to heat the paint in a paint
cup, perhaps easier in a jar.  The main reason for warming a rattle-can
is that the expansion of the propellant cools the can and thus the paint
 as well.  In an airbrush, even using propellant cans, the paint is not
cooled (since the cold can is at the other end of the air-supply hose).

Even the most basic of airbrushes atomises better than a rattle-can; the
spray head is precision engineered in metal, compared to the moulded,
throwaway atomiser on a rattle-can.  This is the reason they give better
results, more consistent droplet size and with an even spray-pattern.

Going upthread, there are several reasons for applying mutliple light
coats, beginning with a mist coat.

A light, non-opaque first coat is easier to apply evenly and will not
run, sag or ripple.  An attempt to cover in one coat will usually result
in runs in some places, as it isn't easy to tell how thick the coat is
once it is opaque.  Applying several mist coats on top of each other
will give an opaque covering, but by allowing intermediate coats to dry,
there is much less risk of runs.  For a glossy finish, the final coat at
least should be "wet", i.e. run together to form a continuous gloss.

One other advantage of several coats over just one is that the colour
gains "depth".  I think this is from internal reflections between the
layers.  This is also true for varnish coats, and is improved by rubbing
down between coats; this to get the paint progressively smoother.
Chad - 30 Apr 2004 14:53 GMT
Also, I forgot to bring up this question along with the previous ones. What
about the primer paint? How many coats should there be? The plastic on my
model is black and I know this would be primed since red is lighter than
black.
 
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