Hi all,

currently i am building my Mirage III, all the painting is done except for the missiles, i need to paint them white. When i did my first coat using tamiya flat white, the next morning there were gaps in the paint showing the plastic at the bottom. I tried to paint over it but the final product was a thick layer of uneven paint with some parts still with gaps. Am i doing something wrong or is it normal for white?

Thanks in advance

Chris

Did you primed your plastic surface?

No i didn't. Am i meant to??? Last time i used primer on a previous model there were thicker areas and thinner areas, dunno what happened.

I dont know how thick is your paint and how thick you spray...

but for me, i mixed the paint a little bit thicker than milk... then i always spray multiple layer of very thin of paint... so that the thin paint dry faster, and i can put on another layer, DRY then ANOTHER THIN PAINT then DRY then ANOTHER THIN PAINT and so on until i get the correct colour...

Im used to acrylic by the way...

Is that with an airbursh, as i left my airbrush in malaysia and i'm just using hand painting here in australia. Is there different techiniques without an airbrush?

For my handpainting... i as well paint many layers of thi paint... then more the layer... the thinner it gets... or there'll be brush strokes...

again... im refering to acrylic... because from what i observed, acrylic thinner evaporate and left the pigment stick on the surface, so if the paint is too thick, then it leaves brush stroke because there's too many pigment there... and it is the other way round for thinner acrylic paint...

hope i get my word right...

What do i thin acrylic with???

water...
but if you think water will effect the result (which i didnt notice)... you can go for acrylic thinner by tamiya...

i'll try water and see. Thanks for the advice.

White will need many many layers to cover...

Sometimes, paint don't stick due to
1. The parts are oily / unclean/ etc. Oil residue can come from the mould or get deposited by your fingers when you handle it. You could try giving the sprues a liquid soap bath and air dry before starting on the paint job.

2. There is no 'surface bite' for the paint to adhere to. Give the part a light sanding before painting. Similar to what priming will do but cheaper :) Be careful not to sand off any detail on the part...

Apart from what poohbear already said, personally i prime the model first. Usually any gray colour can do. Maybe you can get a industrial spray can and spray a layer first? Then use white.

I don't know if it's a myth or not, I still find white paint "harder" to handpaint than other colors ;)
Try repeat the same procedures with "white" and "other color" and you tend to get the white paint to puddle and creates that "void spot"..

White is a delicate paint to handle...even in full scale real bikes/ cars, painting it white is a bit more work compared to others.

Based on my experience, it's advisable to put a layer of undercoat before painting it white; preferably dark colour. By doing that, the colour of white layer will 'pop out' more compared to using light colour as undercoat.