Paint it White by Ray

[Guest]

Been reading a few threads about painting white and the pitfalls of doing so, so I hope to shed some light on the matter and show some quick tips for you.

First this is my way, and I am by no means saying this is gospel.

I will be keeping away from auto paint products and just going to use 2 Tamiya paints. which most of you may have or are just as easy to get hold off.

Products for this tutorial are:

Now the first part Im going to explain may raise a few eyebrows, I wont be useing primer. Im going to show you how to pre prime with the paint. now if white is been used for interiors of tanks we are trying to preserve detail.

So here we have an old turret from a Sherman, an ideal tutorial spare as you can see it has a joint line running around the middle and it has screw/rivets, we want to preserve this detail.

Ok I have the airbrush set at 18-20 PSI, the mix is 50:50 paint thinner,now from left to right we will make two light passes, then right to left also two light pass.

So now the model has been pre primed, and a sitting time of 5 mins, or in my case a quick fag and slurp of tea.

Right lets repeat the last motion again, twice left to right, and twice right to left.As you can see its getting whiter and we are preserving the detail.Sitting time 5 minutes.

This time we are going to add a drop of X-22 clear into the airbrush cup, this will give a low gloss to the final pass.This will set up the paint for a gloss varnish if you want to pin wash the details or you want to do a full wash.

So off we go again for the final one light pass method left to right and right to left.Sitting time 10-15 minutes.

Ok thats that all is done and the detail is still there, we have a nice white un-blemished model.

I have taken the pic below under natural light, to show it un-lit and dry.

And thats that, this method can be used with Yellow and Red, it follows one simple rule dont dump all your paint in one go.

Thanks for reading

Ray

I hope this has been of help, and please feel free to ask any questions should you have them.

One other thing Im just useing a cheap and cheerful airbrush which I bought just for primer,varnish,Klear etc.

[Guest]

That is really good and simple Ray. It has exposed the fact that I thin my white too much which seems to be why i was having trouble! Thanks for this detailed yet simple to follow SBS guide!

Thanks

Stuart

[Guest]

Thanks Stuart, it good to put back into this great forum. Alot can go wrong if you over thin white.

[Guest]

Very well illustrated and described Ray. I think everyone hates the idea of spraying white, especially impatient ones like me who want it whiter than white and NOW! This, what I call dusting, technique is one that really pays off if you have the patience to really give it a go. I suppose we should paint most colours this way, I know I am very guilty of sloppy airbrush techiques, I will certainly make a point of following this when I have the interior of my T34/85 to do. Again, a much appreciated tutorial.

[Guest]

Thanks Graham, you got the keyword right patience, we have all been guilty of rushing jobs to get it finished., and paid the price.

[Guest]

Thanks Ray nice technique will be sure to remember that for future use.

scott

[Guest]

Superb tutorial and a perfect example of how the right technique produces the perfect result. Interesting to see that you put a spot of clear into the cup and get a satin finish without all the performance of mixing a satin up specially in a seperate receptacle. I take it you make a couple of passes off the model to flush it through when you do that but it does open up a lot of possibilities if you consider mixing in the cup like that.

[Guest]

Many thanks Richard, I appreciate your input, and indeed I did make a couple of passes, I have found adding a drop of X-22 leaves a nice surface for a gloss coat, I suppose the more you add the glossier it woud become, I have even added Klear to a final pass mix, to set up for a wash.