Hi guys,

First off I'd like to take a second to say (or should that be type) that I have only recently started visiting this forum on Armorama. That said, I have in that short time seen some amazing work by everyone here. I have always admired car modelers from a distance and looked at what they have done with paints and decals as almost "black magic". Of course this is coming from an armor modeler.

Due to a huge influence by the work I have seen in TMMI and recently here, I've decided to give this genre a go. Now I have taken note while perusing the articles that the biggest factor in making a car model look good is the finish on the main body. This scares me as the base coat on my tank models is flat, ugly and not very precise.

So, I am going to turn to the experts here for any questions I have during this foray.

My first victim is Tamiya's Peugeot ESSO 206 WRC:



As I understand it, the painting of the body can take weeks when you factor in the drying time, so I began there. and thus my first question already:

I have cleaned up the mold lines on the body, washed it up to get the particles, grease, etc off and just given it two quick coats of Tamiya Primer. How many coats of primer do you guys use, and second after the last coat is finished drying do you do any sanding prior to the painting of the main color?

I am sure that more questions are to follow, but we'll keep it simple for now!

Thanks for any help,
Stuke

I think 2 coats of primer are fine, i use 1 or 2 depending how it covers the plastic, i only sand my primer if there is a lot of texture in it if its smooth you don't need to sand it. What kind of paint will you be using.

Welcome back Stuke:-H,
So your going to paint a car, one of the trickiest tasks of the hobby. Already having on the primer is the first step, now that it dried it’s time to wet sand it. I like to use a 1000 grit. Don’t use to much pressure or you’ll end up sanding the primmer of. Wash it down and let it air dry.

I like to use enamels, you could use acrylics also, I’ll touch on that later. The enamels dry harder which is way I like to use them. You have less a chance of burning the paint off during sanding and polishing. Enamels also take longer to dry, in most times in about a week. I like to tackle the body first, prime and paint. Enamels and lacquers need the drying , the paints have to gas out. I won’t go into that, I don’t want to make this any longer for you.

Laying on the coats, first spray on a very light coat, wait 20min’s then spray on a second coat the same way. Reason for the two light coats is it give the paint something to bite on to. Now the third coat would be the wet coat, it’s the heavy coat which cover the body. When spraying ( airbrush or can ) you want to start before the car and end past the car body. Spray about 8-10 inches away and don’t stop anywhere on the body. The best way is to practice on an old kit, maybe a tank or what ever you have. Once you have finished that your going to want to protect it from dust and lint. It’s best that you put it into a plastic container with a lid, and wait it out.

It look like your going to decal the kit, so once the paint is dry and there nothing wrong with the paint, again just wet sand it with, this time with 1200 or 1600 grit wet/dry paper and let it air dry. See if it’s to smooth of a surface the decals won’t stick. But don’t worry about it looking dull, after the decals are on and once they dry your going to need to wipe over them (decals) with a damp cloth to remove the decal glue. Now it time to clear coat. I like to use an acrylic clear coat, I find it to yellow less in time than the enamel clear coats. You want to spray it on the same way as to the painting, and again you want to protect it from the dust.

There are many was to paint, this is one of the easiest. Model Masters has a polishing kit which works great. But that works with a car body with out decals.

Ok now the acrylics, basically it works the same way with out the long drying times. But it is a softer paint.

One more thing, when sanding try not to sand to hard and watch out for the edges. The edges are the trouble spots, that’s where you’ll end up taking the paint of the easiest. So be careful and the key to a great job is taking your time. Looking forward to seeing your car.

Thanks for the immediate help gentlemen!

First off, I am using Tamiya paints. I am an acrylics guy and want to go with something I have a little experience with.

I got the primer down last night and did some minor sanding of a bit of orange peel I got on the hood and roof.

I then gave it a light coat of TS07, let dry 20 minutes and gave another light coat. I finally followed up on that with a third coat. It still needs more coats, but I wanted to make sure that what I was placing on it was very thin...I'd hate to see any runs!

I will continue with the light misting until I feel the coverage is good, then set aside to dry for at least a week. No hurry here. Unfortunately, it is back to work for me so my modeling time will be greatly diminshed.

Here are some shots of my "regular" work. As you can see, nothing shiny or perfect here!

Stuke, most often orange peel is due to the paint being cold. In a cup add some warm/hot water and set your paint into it, about 30/45 seconds should do. If you use a can, run it under the water and shake till the paint becomes warm.

You've done some nice armor, your weathing and shading looks super.

You hit the nail on the head Joe. I did not place the primer in the warm water for long enough. The spray can was bigger than the can I am using for the body color. I did not make the mistake with the body color fortunately.

I will spray more coats this morning before work.

BTW, I perused your shots in the gallery. Very nice work on a very nice variety of subjects.

A few shots after six light coats:

Wow Stuke the paint looks even and smooth. What are you using. The kit your working one how is the interior section, well detailed! Looking forward to seeing more pics.

Thanks Joe for the encouraging words. I made sure to heat up the spray can before spraying with this base coat!

I am using TS-07, Tamiya Racing White. I must say that it seems to be making my job pretty easy. Hopefully the road ahead will go as smoothly with this kit.

The interior detail seems good to me, but my inexperience with this genre probably makes my opinion "uneducated". There is not engine detail though, I believe you call it a "kerbside" model.

I can take some shots of the other sprues tonight if you wish to see them.

Nicely done so far Stuke as Mother said the paint looks very smooth, are you going to be using a clear coat.

Stuke, good to hear that the paint on smooth, can't wait to see the pics. Yes your right, a Curbside model is without a engine. Do you think that you'll be done with this car before the end of the month, if so why not join the "Armorama 500" campaign.

Link:
https://armorama.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=Campaigns&file=index&req=showcontent&id=76

Thank you very much for the kind words and yes I will be using a clear coat....several is the plan actually.

Joe, I doubt I will have time to finish it in a month, but I'll give the ol' campaign a look over.