Newbie in search of help, is this the right place to post ?

[Diizix]

Hi all !

 

Started model making a couple of years ago but only built 3 models entirely yet (4th is currently WIP). I already had some questions, but no one to ask them.

 

I mainly have questions about painting the models so here we go :

 

First of all in what order do you paint ? what I was used to do is I would first asselmble and paint the cockpit, then building the main parts of the plane : fuselage and wings. I would then paint them according to the camo instructions on the build sheet (not confident enough yet to invent new camos). But i saw people on the internet who would almost build the entire plane and finally paint it ? My thoughts are that it is more difficult to masktape a fully built plane ? Also I read almost everywhere that it is not recommended to glue painted parts. For example a sensor (?) on my Mirage 2000 falled down recently althought i glued it very hard because it wasn't easy to stick it. Am I doing something wrong here ?

 

7-8 months ago I purchased an airbrush on the internet (I know it's a cheap one, I didnt have alot of money at that time and I didn't wanted to invest too much for a first try). I didn't manage to tame the beast at the first time, wich made me "ragequit" at the time x).

My airbrush seems to get stuck with paint veeeeery quickly: What I do is i put a little but of paint directly from the container (revell aqua color mainly) and then put a little bit of water with a pipette untlill i get something ressembling a "milky" consistence. I put a first layer of aluminium paint on my P51, it worked almost alright, but when i tried to put the white for the "normandy black and white stripes" camo the airbrush suddently was almost immediatly obstruated with paint. I quitted for half a year as I was doing that.

I just tried again and had the same problem so i painted the rest with a brush, giving a horrible result compared to the aluminium airbrush finish right next to it... i cleaned the airbrush very well to begin the black stripes. aaaaand i fugered out the airbrush wasnt fuctionating with the black paint either. but i then found out i had screwed something at the back of the airbrush. this part would make the movement of the trigger less ample, wich i found more comfortable, turned out it didnt let the needle back enough for the paint to go through the air flow, so i fixed that and it worked !!!! But it wasnt a total victory because it turned out i thinned the paint down too much, and it looked like aquarell when applied on the model. I finished the layer whoever because it was a little bit odd : sometimes the paint was almost perfect and sometimes it was too watery so i managed to finish regardless.

But the best is yet to come... as i was airbrushing, a black drop of paint slowly but surely made its way down from the top of the airbrush container to the end of the airflow, and as i was painting the last stripe... i ruined my whole paint job with a pitch black splash without me knowing what the wiffle just happend...

Again, do you have any tipps on how i should use my airbrush ?

 

And lastly a question about masking tape : I currently use the revell masking tape for the edge of the masking and a regular masking tape from retail to mask the rest of the plane. but regardless if I am painting with a brush or an airbrush, paint always seems to leek under the tape I placed with precision and insisted on sticking it properly on the surface... Do you have any tips about that ?

 

Sorry for this very long post... I hope you came through it, thanks for advice, and sorry for bad enlgish, french native here :D

[Planebuilder62]

Hi there

 

About the painting sequence:

1. Paint the cockpit

2. Assemble the large airframe parts like the fueslage, wings and tailplane. The canopy could also go on now. Leave off all the small parts that get broken off like undercarriage, stores under wings, senors aeriels and pitot tubes.

3. Airbrush paint the plane starting with the lightest clour first.

4. Paint all the small bits by themselves

5. Put the decals on

6. Glue on all the small bits

7. Voila. Finished

 

About masking tape- get yellow Kabuki Tamiya tape. Buy several widths. 6mm, 10 mm and 40 mm is what I use. For some special curves use the 2 mm white Tamiya tape for curves.

 

Sorry I can’t help with your airbrushing because I use enamels. Did you know there is a section lower down on Britmodeller for tips about paint?
 

Hope that helps.

 

regards Toby

[alt-92]

Hi!

well, if you have questions, you certainly found the right website

 

1) Personal preferences, but generally all things that will be hard to reach (internal/cockpit/wheel wells) painted first then masked.

You'll see several approaches if you check out some Work in progress threads.

Generally, you want to keep mating surfaces where you glue stuff together free of dust/grease/paint. 

 

2) airbrush... There is a good tools & tips section if you check the main forum content page.
In short: you get what you pay for. A good airbrush is like your main tool.

A crappy 1€ hammer or screwdriver from the specials bin won't last long either.

My perspective is that generally you don't want to skimp on your tools.  It's better to save up a bit more and buy a decent entry-level AB.
Saves a lot of frustration in the longer run - once you have some experience, there is opportunity to experiment

 

3) masking tape, Tamiya/kabuki tape is certainly different from your local hobby/hardware store painter mask tape. The glue is different, and generally conforms much better to shapes than what you've experienced. It also helps if you use a cocktail stick or cotton bud to help with gently pushing the masking tape in panel lines.

[Troy Smith]

3 hours ago, Diizix said:

paint always seems to leek under the tape I placed with precision and insisted on sticking it properly on the surface... Do you have any tips about that ?

seal the edge of the tape with the colour you have masked or clear varnish, any leak will be original colour or clear.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

It also helps to not mix different types of paint without a good clean between colors. If you do you essentially get jelly in your air brush. You don't have to break it down every time you change colors. However a good thorough clean with thinners and shoot some water. Once there is only clear water flowing through, then you can do the next color. After words when everything is done then give it a full cleaning.