How to go about painting my Honda CB750F?

[Guest]

Hello everyone, the other day I bought my first motorbike kit, the tamiya Honda CB750F, and to be quite honest I have no idea how I'm going to be paint it.

I'm used to acrylics and the like and I've never done any other bike and I would like to know what you guys recommend for painting this guy up? What kind of paints? Enamels? What brand? And if possible, do any of you have any good resources with tutorials for bikes?

Thanks!

[PaulTRose]

do you have an airbrush? if not use a rattlecan of paint and then clear coat on top

[Guest]

I have had success in getting a really good smooth shiny finish with Tamiya synthetic Lacquer (in a spray can). You can use a polish such as Micro-Surface Finishing Products (sales@sylmaster.com in the UK) or Novus No 1 Plastic Clean and Shine (https://www.novuspolish.com from various UK suppliers ) to get an even shinier finish. Any dust or hairs can be sanded out lightly and polished. No need to use an airbrush (no cleaning). It has the smelly Cellulose Thinners but I use it in the garage and cover the model immediately with a box and have had negligible trouble from dust etc. It gives a harder surface than acrylic gloss paint. By "harder" I mean that literally—it resists scratching and, because it goes on with a thicker final coat, any sanding out of a fault tends not to break through to the undercoat. Hold the can about 18 inches from the part and apply one (or two) light pre-coats, then a final one to wetness. No need to apply a clear gloss coat.

[papa 695]

Joe I used just Vallejo acrylics when I did my CB 750 but I did mine a little different to most. If you want, take a look at the motorbike group build to see what I mean

[Guest]

Thanks guys, yes I do have an airbrush and I think the tamiya synthetic lacquers sound like my best bet at this point!

[Guest]

Thanks guys, yes I do have an airbrush and I think the tamiya synthetic lacquers sound like my best bet at this point!

In that case, here are a few more tips I discovered. The final coat must be sprayed to full wetness, so that the surface is smooth after spraying, with no orangepeeling which won't polish out. I think that the general advice to do two misting coats is to allow the paint to build up a good thickness, rather than relying on one (final) coat to do that when running might occur (although I found running was not a problem with only one mist coat). Make sure that the can is 18 inches away, otherwise you will flood the part. If a small blob, hair, dust particle or scratch appears the final coat is sufficiently robust to allow light sanding with 3,000 through to 8,000 micromash then a polish. If you go through to the primer (I use Vallejo primer, acrylic, let it dry for a few days) you can touch up with a brush with the lacquer (or perhaps with an acrylic gloss) and then sand and polish it.

I find that if you want to use a polish for a super shine, the Micro-Surface Finishing polish works faster than the Novus No. 1 but leaves a slight bloom on the surface. The Novus takes that off. Leave the final coat to dry fully (probably 36 hours or more at room temperature) before polishing, adding anything to it, such as decals, other decoration etc., and don't even touch it for 24 hours or your fingerprints will need polishing out. At all times use a soft cotton polishing cloth like those yellow ones in the kitchen. Advice is that paper towels etc. will scratch (after all, they are made form wood).