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Tamiya 1/32 P51D Mustang - Passion Wagon

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  • BarryW
    SMF Supporters
    • Jul 2011
    • 6029

    #16
    I have done my first painting session with MRP.
    When I first got back into the hobby I started with Humbrol, enamels and acrylics, as I used to use back in the 70's. I struggled with the airbrush and then found out about Vallejo Model Air and gave it a try and it was a revelation. I found I could get a decent result from my airbrush after all... I have since tried AK Interactive which, if anything, spray a little better than Vallejo and Gunze which are a very good paint but not so much better that I was inclined to change my main brand.

    First impressions of MRP........ I want to spray nothing else but these ever again.....
    These are as big a revelation to me as VMA was. It is very different, of course, using them on a kit to the initial practise spraying and this is where you really find out about them.

    I had a 40 minute session spraying four colours, Olive Drab, Yellow, Interior Green and Black.

    The black I used was the MPR primer black but I used it as a base coat, not a primer. The other three colours were sprayed direct onto plastic.

    For colour changes I first used Mr Levelling Thinner for cleaning but found that this was by far smellier than the paint and for the last colour changes used i.p.a. which worked perfectly and while it has an odour is nowhere near as bad as MLT. That is good, of course, because i.p.a. if bought on-line in bulk is a lot cheaper than MLT. I did use half a cup of MLT at the end of the session and then did a strip clean. I found the airbrush rather easier to clean than after a session with VMA and a lot cleaner and easier than after using Stynylrez primer. One up for MRP.

    To deal with the smell of the paint I opened my garage windows, put my extractor fan on and wore, initially, a face mask. As it steamed up my glasses I ended up removing the face mask (I need to get that sorted) and did most of the session without a mask. The smell from the paint was not as bad as I thought it would be so I am less concerned than I was. My garage is attached to the house and my missus did not realise that I used anything different to the usual, passed that test! One thing I did do to keep any smell down and dissipate it more quickly was empty my bin of smelly tissues used for cleaning straight into my outside bin.

    Now the important bit...

    The paint sprayed beautifully, no tip drying, no spluttering, it went down beautifully. I used a 0.4 needle in my H&S at about 12 psi. I will experiment with a 0.2 and a lower air pressure as I progress. I laid paint down slowly in thin coats building it up to a smooth finish. It dried very quickly indeed and a good hard robust finish.

    I found no difference to how the primer behaved to the ordinary paint but, there were signs that the ordinary paint etched the surface of the plastic a little. MRP do advise the use of primers and I will use them when I paint the external airframe. It will make no difference on the inside.

    This paint gives me the confidence that I can now do things with the airbrush that I could not do before.

    [ATTACH]284760[/ATTACH]
    Above you can see how much the pigment settles to the bottom of the bottle. This means you really need to shake these bottles. Fortunately they have an agitator in the bottles to help. I start off giving them a good initial shake by hand and then place them in my paint bottle shaker. OK, its a nail varnish shaker (a bit pink...) and my missus still takes the pee over it, but it does take the hard work out of mixing the paint. I set the paint to shake while I get on with something else... The bottles really do need a good shaking to get rid of that sediment.
    [ATTACH]284759[/ATTACH]

    Here are my initial efforts...
    [ATTACH]284761[/ATTACH]
    I would have given you a close up showing the way the paint etches the plastic but it did not come out on the pictures. Because the Tammy plastic is good quality it is very slight.
    here is one close up - I did all this in the one session when I paid down the yellow paint. You could not do that with VMA given the time needed to dry and cure....
    [ATTACH]284762[/ATTACH]
    Once the yellow was dry did washes of thinned orange and yellow VMA. I still need to apply decal softener and a semi matt varnish. Looking at the pic it looks as if I need to soften the orange a little with another yellow wash. What do you think?
    I then managed to even start some masking ready for another session with black. I may take several sessions to do all the masking needed but this is a start.
    [ATTACH]284763[/ATTACH]
    So far so good......
    Attached Files

    Comment

    • colin m
      Moderator
      • Dec 2008
      • 8770
      • Colin
      • Stafford, UK

      #17
      Great update Barry. All quite inspiring, I must pick up some plastic soon !

      Comment

      • BarryW
        SMF Supporters
        • Jul 2011
        • 6029

        #18
        I have to say that finding something new as good as these paints really make me impatient to get back to the bench.

        The missus (bless her) and work get in the way.

        Mind you I may get a bit more than normal time in from Thursday, my beloved is going into hospital for an operation and won't be out until Monday so I will be able to spend a bit more time at the bench, even if just to take my mind off what she is going through.... Not life threatening and she is very fit, I must add, but nevertheless I don't like to think of her going under the knife. She will be in a hospital a fair distance away and the family have split up the visiting, I will take her there, see her Saturday and collect her Monday, leaving me with a lot of time to myself and at the bench.

        Comment

        • Steve Brodie
          SMF Supporters
          • Sep 2014
          • 4652

          #19
          Looking good, and i hope all goes/went well for your wife.

          Comment

          • dave
            SMF Supporters
            • Nov 2012
            • 1829
            • Brussels

            #20
            Thanks for the update on how the paints handled, hope everything goes well with the op.

            Comment

            • BarryW
              SMF Supporters
              • Jul 2011
              • 6029

              #21
              A short update today.

              I finished masking and sprayed the black.

              I made a mistake turning the 'fine pressure control' on my airbrush the wrong way and ended up blasting the black paint at 25-30 psi instead of 10-15 psi.

              No problems, for MRP it was just another day at the office. The outcome was the usual level smooth finish.

              [ATTACH]284799[/ATTACH]

              The masking came away cleanly, no tearing, scratches, blemishes or residue left behind. There are the tiniest bits of touch up to do, not much at all and, in fact no-one would notice if I did not do it!

              I just cannot praise these paints enough.
              Attached Files

              Comment

              • papa 695
                Moderator
                • May 2011
                • 22771

                #22
                Looks like the paints are very good Barry, thanks for the testing. I hope all is well with the wife also.

                Comment

                • BarryW
                  SMF Supporters
                  • Jul 2011
                  • 6029

                  #23
                  Just a very quick update. I have been getting on with the detail painting for the cockpit and I will produce some pictures when I get a little more progress but, for now, I have one pic of some parts detailed and weathered simply by drybrushing with Ushi crome powder. That said, I can now see a small touch up needed on the i.p. looking at the picture. No probs, I will do that tonight.
                  [ATTACH]284884[/ATTACH]

                  I can report the following however:
                  • The water based acrylics are fine brush painted over the MRP for the details. I was concerned that I would get some 'beading' of the paint but that is not the case.
                  • When I look at the MRP painted surface through my optivisor you can really appreciate the fine pigment, it actually looks as if it is the plastic itself, not a painted surface. Very impressive. One thing about such a thin, fine paint - it really shows up build flaws in the same way metalisers do. So you need to treat these paints as if doing a Natural Metal Finish in respect of surface preparation. That is not a bad thing, on the contrary, it means that the model details really show up, which we really want to happen. On the side of the seat are some cement marks that are so minor VMA would have obscured them but they are emphasised by this paint. I simply need to be a little more careful than in the past.
                  • MRP paint is also very resistent to scratches and can be handled without fear of damaging the surface.
                  • These paints are no good for brushing and can only really be used with an airbrush but, for minor touch ups, I found that by putting a few drops of the paint in a pallet and leaving it to thicken for a few minutes, you can do some minor touch ups with a brush. Be delicate with it to avoid the solvent lifting the base coat. It worked really well for me but remember these paints dry quickly so dont leave it to thicken too long.
                  • In other places where I needed to touch up I found I could wet the tip of a cotton bud (the extra small Tammy buds are excellent for this) and wipe the water based acrylic off the surface of the MRP paint with ease.

                  I am progressing well with the detailing and will show more pics soon.
                  Attached Files

                  Comment

                  • dave
                    SMF Supporters
                    • Nov 2012
                    • 1829
                    • Brussels

                    #24
                    progress is looking good.

                    It is amazing how good photographs are at highlighting flaws we missed with the naked eye.

                    Comment

                    • BarryW
                      SMF Supporters
                      • Jul 2011
                      • 6029

                      #25
                      Well, I did that touch up and have finished the detail painting, added a few decals and have applied a MRP gloss varnish as a sealing coat before applying washes which I will do tonight.

                      The gloss coat leaves a beautiful level even gloss. It is as good as the paint and, of course, dries quickly. I could have applied the enamel washes in the same modelling session it dries so quickly but I ran out of time...

                      Fuselage sidewalls.....
                      [ATTACH]284953[/ATTACH]

                      [ATTACH]284954[/ATTACH]

                      The internals - or some of them....
                      [ATTACH]284955[/ATTACH]

                      I found that Mr S Cement bonds well without needing to scrape this paint away and, what is more, does not leave any blemishes on painted areas near where it was applied. I would recommend applying the cement sparingly and with care though.

                      I will be applying a semi-matt varnish once the washes are done before dry brushing etc. I will also be using some water based matt and gloss acryilic varnish to vary the sheen as and where needed.
                      Attached Files

                      Comment

                      • BarryW
                        SMF Supporters
                        • Jul 2011
                        • 6029

                        #26
                        I applied washes, a semi matt coat of varnish and dry brushed with metal powder and various pigment to bring out the detail.
                        I have pulled most of the interior parts together and here are a few shots before I close up the fuselage


                        [ATTACH]285001[/ATTACH]

                        [ATTACH]285002[/ATTACH]

                        [ATTACH]285003[/ATTACH]

                        [ATTACH]285005[/ATTACH]

                        It is coming along nicely now.
                        Attached Files

                        Comment

                        • BarryW
                          SMF Supporters
                          • Jul 2011
                          • 6029

                          #27
                          I have spent a large part of the weekend preparing sub-assemblies, some filling and sanding at joins as well.

                          The fuse halves held together with tape and 'tacked' in places around the tape with drops of Mr S Cement. Once dry I will remove the tape and run the Mr S Cement down the join between the 'tack' points.
                          [ATTACH]285075[/ATTACH]
                          A close up of the interior
                          [ATTACH]285076[/ATTACH]
                          You notice that I have not added detail - this build is all about the paint, straight out of the box except for markings, the seatbelts and the odd adjustment to make the aircraft true to the subject.

                          A pic of some of the sub-assemblies so far:
                          [ATTACH]285077[/ATTACH]

                          This is what the fuselage looks like now after treating the seams.
                          [ATTACH]285078[/ATTACH]

                          I will finish pulling together more sub-assemblies ready for the next paint session.
                          Attached Files

                          Comment

                          • papa 695
                            Moderator
                            • May 2011
                            • 22771

                            #28
                            This is coming along very nicely Barry

                            Comment

                            • Guest

                              #29
                              As always Barry following your builds is always a pleasure. A true artist you are! I hope everything went well with your wife too.

                              Comment

                              • BarryW
                                SMF Supporters
                                • Jul 2011
                                • 6029

                                #30
                                Thanks Bob. I brought her home yesterday and I am spending most of the day with her at home. She is quite bright and cheerful after a good nights sleep, a bit bruised and sore though! I might even get a bit of extra bench time today.

                                Comment

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