Any paint rant

[MichelB]

How does one keep paint from 'cooziing up' between all those little bits and pieces on a deck? I'm trying to paint Repulse's deck and the paint keeps clogging between all the ammo lockers. You brush it away once, but five minutes later it has drawn itself into a heap again, and if you try to brush it away then, it's dry up streaky. This is really frakking up a nice kit and it hurts.

So, here's to paint (any brand, I have 'm all); ^#^$^&$#&&)*$#*($*()^&*$$#*(#$&!
Sorry, had to get this off my chest. Have really been p.o.ed by paint recently, darn stuff seems to act against rule I thought I knew in over 20 years of modelling.

ps. no paintbrush sollicitors please. I know .

[tony t]

I usually thin down the paint by 30-40% and apply several coats. First couple of coats look terrible but by the 5th or 6th coat it looks very smooth.

Thin paint is less likely to glob up in the corners and edges of stuff.

The other problem might be you're soaking up too much paint on your brush, so you end up flooding the deck with paint. Don't dip the whole bulb of the brush into the paint, just dip it so only the bottom half of the bristles have paint on them.

Hope this helps.

[Timmy C]

Flip the model upside down, so that gravity pulls the paint down the other way

[Sauragnmon]

The other alternative to thinning it down is to increase the viscosity of the paint, so it behaves and stays bloodywell put.

[Guest]

To keep paint from stacking up, this works well for me:

I have found that after loading the brush with paint, I brush some of it on and clean paper dinner napkin (folded several times) and repeat this several time until there is enough paint there for the job at hand. I then dip the brush into clean thinner (75% mineral spirits paint thinner and 25% lacquer thinne) and brush it over the paint on the napkin, repeating the process and mixing it uniformly into the paint on the napkin. More thinner is added and mixed until the paint appears to be thin enough (but not too thin, else it will stackup). Then test it on a scrap piece of plastic. It should brush smoothly, uniformly, and cover in just one or two coats (the second added while the first is still wet). The napkin acts as a blotter to hold the thinned-paint-mixture, preventing it from evaporating and causing the paint to thicken and blob while painting the part. Adding more paint and thinner periodically will keep the supply going while you paint. Cleaning the brush every few minutes with thinner is essential to keep it from globbing up and streaking your paint job. Generally the napkins (ZEE) does not put crud in the paint that you have to pick off the model. This has worked very well for me with Model Master paint, which aside from coming in wide asortment of colors, brushes about as good as latex house paint. I like PACTRA Brand for brushing but have not found any for many years. Using the above technique approximates the brushable qualities of PACTRA from an otherwise unusable paint.

Good luck.

Mr. Wizard

[MichelB]

When adding a new, thinned layer, the old layer started to crack up. Oh man I'm soooo ballistically miffed right now.

My own fault. Too much thinner...

[tony t]

When adding a new, thinned layer, the old layer started to crack up. Oh man I'm soooo ballistically miffed right now.

My own fault. Too much thinner...

Are you using enamels? I normally use acrylics (Polly Scale); I'm not sure how enamels react to the thinning method..

[Dave The Gaffer]

Can anyone help.

I am in the process of constructing the Tamiya 1/350 Tirpitz and I have spray painted the Hull below the waterline the Tamiya Flat Red colour....anyway, the masking wasn't brilliant and I now have some splash on the Bow section which has set hard.

Should I sand it down and then paint over it, or would you just try and paint straight over ( assuming the camouflage colour in that area is a very light sea grey)?

Any help would be gratefull received.

Cheers

[les]

I'd sand it and then repaint the cammo followed by the red. Red can be hard to cover.

[Dave The Gaffer]

cheers les.

i will sand it!!

[El Guapo]

Hmm, a paint rant, perfect. I can not seem to master not getting buildup at the edge of masked areas. I suspect that I am applying the layers too thick, but I am not sure. How can I combat this, and how can it be fixed if it happens? Sanding, wet-sanding, a global thermonuclear weapon perhaps?

Thanks.

[Pieter]

Multiple layers of thin paint may help on the last question. About the build -up around small details, if you're scratchbuilder like Michel pre-painting the small parts and adding them at the last moment using superglue is an option if the small part does not have to carry force . If it does you will have to improvise some kind of locating pin. Another trick which sometimes works is to lightly score around the piece of detail with a very sharp blade before painting. This forces the capillary effect (which is the cause of paint build up) into the small trench you have created and keeps the edge reasonably sharp. And after everything has been painted and you have waited for at least 48 hrs for the paint to dry thoroughly ( this applies to acrylics as well as to enamels!) you can accentuate the edges using washes/drybrushing.