I can't paint and everything seems to be going wrong.

[Guest]

I recently got into seriously building scale models. I bought me an airbrush and air compressor. I'm using Testors acrylic paint and don't know if it's me, Testors, or both. When I started brushing my U.S.S Arizona with grey primer, the brush marks were horrible. On top of that, after a day or two of drying the primer would easily come off if you scratched it in any way. Using regular masking tape (not Tamiya tape) was a no no because pulling it off meant pulling the primer and/or paint along with it.

What am I doing wrong? Is Tamiya masking tape special in any way? Is Testors and/or acrylic not ideal for what I'm doing?

Airbrushing large areas seems to be a mission. I do my best to not airbrush one area too much but I always seem to leave areas that are darker than others.

I would appreciate your help and comments.

Thank you.

[AlanG]

Firstly i would suggest 'cleaning' the plastic before you paint it. Sounds like you may have the release agent on your kit that they use to release the plastic from the moulds. Tamiya tape can remove paint just as well as ordinary masking tape. For best results tear off the strip of tape you want, place it on the back of your hand/arm so it looses some of it's 'stickiness' and then apply to model

[Guest]

I washed the model before anything.

[Dave W]

What did you wash the model in?.Some people use denatured alcohol.I wash mine in the same stuff i do the pots and pans in.once when i take the kit out of the box and again when the model is assembled and im about to paint it.Nnormal auto/car masking tape is too sticky and as you have found will pull paint off.I use it on large models to fill in areas between Tamiya tape.I run a finger across the sticky side a few times so it isnt so sticky.And i only press down hard where it overlaps onto the Tamiya tape.The Tamiya tape should not pull off paint if you have washed and primed the model.I've been using it for many years and not had a problem.Even in the days when i never primed my models.Perhaps the paints are not very good.I've only used Testors enamels and they are good quality paints.

[Guest]

First up, don't apply primer with a brush! If you don't fancy using the AB, buy a can of primer, such as the stuff Tamiya sell. When applying it, make sure it's really well mixed. Don't go for 'proper' coats at first, just dust it a couple of times before going for the finished coats.

I use Tamiya masking tape & remove it whilst the paint is still very slightly wet. That's a matter of personal judgment, according to atmospheric conditions at the time.

Whatever happens, don't give up, we've all had painting disasters!

Patrick

[Guest]

I use B&Q decorators masking tape, it's cheap, very low tack and fluorescent (so you can find it easily on model when sprayed). I use this (for large areas) in conjunction with Tamiya tape for the dtails and has worked well, the B&Q stuff is not sufficient on its own but at the same time it wont pull away delicate painted areas. I've found tamiya tape can pull away decals - even when they're varnished over. Also I used the Holts car grey primer from Halfords (the acrylic spray) which gives an excellent flat grey keyed finished for your final colour coats.

[Guest]

I'm definitely not giving up. This is something both my uncle and father have passed on to me and since I was kid have loved doing it. It's recently that I moved to get serious about it. I'm going to give Tamiya tape a try.

To my embarrassment I realized that I was not using the paints properly. I took a toothpick and dipped it into one of the bottles to mix the paint and noticed the bottom was very thick and gooey. It had occurred to me that before painting I should have shaken the bottles and what ended up happening was that I was using the thinner paint on the top of the bottle. In terms of paint job quality this probably set me back lol.