Airbrushing with Tamiya Gloss Paints

[lrvero]

Hi all. I am a new member and new at airbrushing. I have attempted moderate size area airbrushing using an Aztec airbrush and Tamiya gloss paints. The gloss comes out more like a flat in some areas, and the airbrush takes forever to cover the object, even using the large size nozzles. Can anyone give me a few suggestions? Thanks in advance.

[S.C.Williams]

Hi all. I am a new member and new at airbrushing. I have attempted moderate size area airbrushing using an Aztec airbrush and Tamiya gloss paints. The gloss comes out more like a flat in some areas, and the airbrush takes forever to cover the object, even using the large size nozzles. Can anyone give me a few suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Well if you are using acryl gloss, you should use the black nozzle. Also be sure to make sure your using your airbrush under 15 psi. Another thing to check is the adjustment knob at the rear of the airbrush to get the correct air to paint flow. It can be difficult to get that nice smooth coat at first, but be sure to practice on some scrap or cardboard and you'll get the hang of it.

Steve

[Fishwelding]

Additionally, if you are painting light-colored tamiya acrylic gloss, it will take a lot to achieve a solid, opaque finish. For white and yellow, I anticipate having to put it on in two separate sessions, with at least an hour or so in between to let the first coat set up. Occasionally I've gone back a third time. In the first passes, I put on a light mist, that generally looks less glossy. When this has essentially established opacity and some "teeth," I then put a wetter, glossy coat on by opening up the paint, and getting a little closer to the plastic. The trick is to hit it heavy enough to gloss up, but not so heavy that it runs. For whatever reason, I find Tamiya's gloss yellow to be the most difficult in this regard, as it seems to resist glossing.

Tamiya's gloss acrylics are good stuff, I think. In the past I've even mixed some common military colors out of their gloss line, because it goes on smoothly, and then is ready for decals. But particularly lighter colors will require more patience.

[Jinxter13]

It may be a good idea to hit the area with primer as I've been told acrylics need a base to lock on to. When I applied my Tamiya Acrylics gloss white on my Super Hornet; I first laid down a light coat of Mr. Surfacer 1200. It took very well without the fade out or run off and settling in lower places.

[toadwbg]

Although it somewhat defeats the purpose of using acrylics- I've had excellent results with Tamiya Acrylics using Mr. Color Leveling Thinner (a Lacquer solvent).

Yes- primer underneith first!

[Matt]

It very much depends on the colour being applied. The darker colours (especially the basic Red and Blue) lay down really nicely. As with all paint, the thinner the mix the smoother it will go on. The down side though is that thin coats are hard to get a nice consistent colour.

Laying down a solid primer colour first is one way to tackle this.

One of the other options with Tamiya specifically is that they pretty much do a flat version of all their basic gloss colours. Rather than try and lay down a consistent solid gloss right off, lay down one or two thin coats of the corresponding flat coat, then lay down one or two thin coats of the gloss. If you struggle to get a nice smooth flat coat, then try a 50/50 flat/gloss mix before finishing with a thin gloss only coat. This final thin coat is the one that you can concentrate on getting just the right 'wetness' in the application to get that nice gloss finish rather than worrying about perfect colour coverage. Also, for a nice glossy finish, just concentrate on getting the gloss colour coat on nice and smooth and use a clear gloss to bump up the 'shine'. For 'super shine', go talk to the car guys who'll happily get into how to sand and buff and polish your way to those super deep showroom finishes.

Cheers,

Matt