Steve Noble

If you use the Hycote sprays and they are gloss from the can, you don't need to gloss coat them. Just apply, allow to dry, then simply polish them up with a small amount of polishing compound and you'll achieve an excellent finish.

Agree. When starting out a spray can is the easiest way. An airbrush opens up many different paints, Zero, Mr Color the list is endless. But you can still get many colours in spray cans to fulfil your needs...

I don't think you need a huge tank on an airbrush compressor to be honest. If the air level drops, the compressor will kick in and fill it up, even while you're spraying. The Bambi and various other "silent" compressors are so quiet that the fact it runs to fill the tank isn't an issue. I have a Sil Air myself and spray at stupid late hours into the night. My wife and 2 yr old son sleep in the next room and never hear a thing. The air coming out of the airbrush is louder than the actual compressor..

I wouldn't spend £300 on a battery powered compressor myself. Like you said you can have a really nice one with tank and super silent operation for that. I paid about £230 for my compressor back in the early nineties. It's a Premi-air ss30e (Silair) by Werther in Italy. Still going strong today and never let me down in almost 28 yrs of use. A yearly oil and filter change is all I've ever done with it.

White primer all the way for yellow. Never had anything but bad results with Tamiya acrylics when hand painted, but much better result when airbrushed. Vallejo Model Color I found was pretty decent with a brush, Model Air good for airbrush. Personally, I would have painted the whole missile grey, airbrushed the tip with white, followed by yellow. Then masked the yellow and painted the finned part behind with the metallic grey. Then added the stripes of silver from chrome foil strips and the yellow stripe from decal.

Best bit of kit I bought was a proper extractor. Really makes painting pleasant. No smell whatsoever, the workspace is just cleared instantly. Makes all the difference when air-brushing..

If the paint is non metallic you can simply wet sand the dust/debris out of the paint carefully using fine 1500/2000 grit paper, used wet. As long as you don't go through the paint layer, back to primer, you can then put your clear straight over the top and you will have a uniform finish. There's no need to apply more colour coats unless you sand through, whereas then you would have to apply more colour, so as to cover the rub through. Metallic paints are a little different. My general rule is never to sand the last coat of metallic paint before clear, as it can alter the flake structure of the metallic particles. Always apply a final coat of metallic colours before you clear if you've had to sand out any dust/debris or ibbly pibblies that got into the finish.

2 pack paint isn't any paint with a clear top coat. That would be basecoat/clearcoat system. You apply the colour coat (first can) allow to dry and then the clear (second can) for protection and gloss finish. 2 pack, either paint or clear is where a seperate hardener is mixed into the product which starts a chemical reaction causing the paint/clear to harden. Without the hardener the product will never set/dry. They are two very different systems. With the basecoat/clearcoat system you can use any compatible clearcoat of your choosing..

The Model Color was always intended for brush painting as I understand it and Model Air for airbrush. I find that the Model Color brushes very well with no additives. As for the airbrush, well it does have a bit of a learning process but once mastered it really is a very handy tool to be able to use. Some colours are just easier to cover with an airbrush, white, yellow and red to name three..

Personally I'd use a dedicated model paint in a spray can such as Tamiya TS spray. Light coats will build up a nice finish and the gloss on those paints is really nice. Or use an acrylic car paint in a spray can in gloss. They cover much better than Humbrol yellow. Oh, as already mentioned use a white primer as the base not grey. Yellow paint is renowned as being a poor hider/coverer, so a dark grey primer will be a devil to cover.

Ok, so you don't need a really expensive fine detail airbrush and can use a larger tipped model to produce a nice gloss finish. Myself I'm using one of these by Gunze https://www.1999.co.jp/eng/10411364 Very simple single action brush and great for painting car bodies and everything associated with car kits. Just fill up with paint and go. An airbrush will open up many paints that are airbrush only. Mr Color do some gloss whites that will cover very nicely and give a beautiful finish on car bodies. Check out their paint range. Also the new Tamiya LP range are much the same. Zero paints too are very good, especially their whites, really do cover well. They need a solid primer and a clear over the white as they dry matt. But their pure white is bulletproof for coverage. Any small hobby compressor will power the Gunze brush..

What models do you build? Cars, bikes or military stuff. I can recommend you an airbrush better if i know what type of models you make. Also, what finish are you doing the white in, gloss or matt? Again some whites are better than others. But I'd recommend different ones for different jobs. Give a bit more information and I'll suggest stuff you can try based on your needs...

I've never used this method, seems interesting. I usually find that the decal problems I encounter are either due to poor, or old decals. Most times I'll simply replace them with good decals and the problem goes away..

I repaired a chip on our radiator using my airbrush. Just thinned the paint with a few drops of cellulose thinner and it applied very nicely and dried quickly. Just light coats, not too heavy.

Wow, stunning job on a wonderful Ferrari!!! Which gold paint did you use on the wheels? Looks perfect. I have the same kit waiting in the stash pile, if it turns out as nice as yours I'll be very happy...