Steve Noble

Hope you get it sorted. There could be some logical explanation, not necessarily a fault with the compressor. When I looked at your video I can see that the Sil-air unit that I had was different because it wasn't auto shut off. It just ran all the time. Still it lasted nearly 30 years and was still working, just had a tiny hole in the tank so wouldn't build any pressure. If I hadn't picked up the used Jun-Air that I have now for such a good price I would have gone for another Sil-air 100%.

No. The Spy Who Loved Me was a series 1. The For Your Eyes Only car was a Series 3 Turbo Esprit.

It depends on what the part is. I build cars and bikes mainly, so I certainly primer the body and exterior parts. Some of the interior parts, such as seats and stuff I probably don't primer..

I'd love an Esprit S3, the white or gold one from "For Your Eyes Only"

When I had my Sil-air I very rarely had to put any oil in it. It usually stayed at the middle of the bubble. As suggested I would talk to your supplier and check it out. It may have an oil leak.

I think it's normal. I used to have a Sil-air 15 export and I placed it in a plastic tray because the oil used to collect and drip from the bottom onto the carpet. The plastic tray used to catch the oil and I used to clean it out about once a month. I didn't have to top the oil up very often as it only lost small amounts. I've just bought a Jun-Air compressor and this has a catch bottle for the excess oil. There is a pipe that the oil flows down and goes into the bottle, a nice addition and no mess. Not sure if something similar could be fitted onto your Sil-Air unit?

Are you using Mr Color, the lacquer version, or Gunze Aqueous the acrylic version? I've been using the Mr Color for a few years now and it sprays a dream. I know if you use the wrong thinner with the aqueous it can be a real pain in the butt and clog like crazy. I only use the proper aqueous thinner.

I used to use Model Air a lot. I don't use it much now as I prefer Mr Color lacquer paint which is fantastic. But when I used Model Air I just used it straight from the bottle, no thinning, no retarder, nothing. It worked well enough. The only problem I had was that over time it did gum up my airbrush and I had to do a strip down and clean to make it work good again.

Yes the Iwata stuff. I've had it a long time it lasts a while..

I have some media airbrush cleaner, works very well..

I used to love visiting Clumber Park to watch the cars go through. It's literally 40 mins up the road from me. Sadly now I can't travel to Wales to see the cars, it's too far. Plus the cars of today are not like the cars from back then, more like Playstation game cars. Wish they would shake up the whole series and put it back to how it used to be. Proper cars and drivers in a proper rally. God I miss those days!!

Not sure you'll find just one airbrush that can do all that. But for the cars I use Tamiya HG Wide 0.5mm, Iwata Revolution CR 0.5mm and recently Gunze Mr Procon Boy 0.4mm single action which sprays fantastically with lacquer paints. Cleaning all is a doddle. Just use a little spray airbrush cleaner in the cup and place some tissue over the nozzle and backflush through the brush followed by spraying through. A quick wipe out of the cup and that's it, takes 20 seconds max. If you're stripping down and doing a full clean everytime you spray that takes 30 mins you're going too far. No need to strip the brush down unless it fails to spray. Over zealous cleaning of the airbrush will do far more harm than good.

Looking very nice!!

Same here, I use it as is. I also use it for brush painting small parts again straight from the bottle and it works well for that.

No and neither would I. That's why I always use the recommended thinner. We agree 🙂

Yes, as I already said above Tamiya thinners are a mixture of ingredients. I never said that a thinner that has IPA in it is bad for Tamiya paints. I use the Tamiya thinner myself for their acrylics, but I wouldn't use pure IPA to thin with. It's not so good as it dries too fast and causes problems. It's just my opinion. I've tried IPA as a thinner with Tamiya acrylics and the results were poor, both for adhesion and spraying performance. Those extra ingredients you mention, retarder and distilled water make all the difference to the performance of the thinner.

Yes, but they also have other ingredients in them. They're not pure IPA. Pure IPA is very harsh as a thinner. Spray some and it dries almost instantly. That doesn't make a good thinner as it dries too fast and the paint doesn't settle and level properly. I agree that Mr Levelling thinner works well with Tamiya acrylics.

The IPA dries too fast when used as a thinner, so the paint doesn't have time to flow out and level. Those white patches/cloudy effect that you had was all the matting agent in the flat clear that had separated and pooled up, then dried instantly. The correct thinner would have prevented it happening in the first place. I'm glad you sorted it with a quick overspray of IPA. It's reactivated the clear and allowed it to level.

Thinning the XF-86 with IPA won't have helped matters. Use Tamiya thinner instead. IPA is way too harsh and evaporates far too quickly to use as a thinner for Tamiya.

I've just purchased a small jar of Gunze Mr Hobby aqueous clear premium to try. I tried some yesterday thinned with their own aqueous thinner and it sprayed very nicely. Also tried it over decals and again no problem and a very nice finish. Left it for a few hours and flatted and polished it. Worth a look. Very little smell and a good finish.

They're not the correct type for the Metro. Rothmans Rally in white on the front and side and Rothmans Rally in blue on the rear tailgate and spoiler.

Do you have a link to them? Can't seem to find them at Spotmodel?

I usually mix 50:50 equal paint to thinner as a starting point, then check how it sprays. I'll add more thinner if it's not spraying well enough.

When they did the Monte Carlo Rally they used Marlboro on the car in the principality of Monaco itself and then removed them and replaced with 'Tommi' on the actual stages..

I think it carried them for only a couple of rounds on the British Open Championship. But the BBC wouldn't show the car at all on the TV coverage because of the logo's. They then switched to the Racing logo instead..