I am having trouble airbrushing gloss white. I'd be happy with even flat white at this time. Its on a '53 Corvette, but I had similar (but not as bad!) problems with an S3 Viking; and even more problems with an NCC 1701.

Does anybody have some air pressure, dilution, paint, airbrush type settings that they have found to work?

Right now I am getting a pebbly finish, and it's cracking. Over the last 18 months I have tried Tamiya gloss, flat, Model Master and Polyscale reefer; through Pasche H, Badger 200G, 100G, Iwata Revolution; and dilutions from straight out of the bottle to 90%.

What I experience is that there seems to be almost no "sweet spot" of just enough dilution. Too much it's thin and spiders or doesn't cover, too little it's pebbly. The only other color I have nearly this much trouble with is yellow.

The closest I have come to an acceptable finish (on the hood) is with brushing. This ends up with some unaccpetable waves/valleys, which I am able to sand out using varying wet/dry sandpaper down to 4,000. Looks great, but I'm sure I can't do this on the body around the little details(windshield wipers, accent trim, tail lights)

I asked this question on Car Chat and the responses so far have been "use Tamiya Neutral Grey Primer"; Ok I admit I did NOT prime the model!!! But I did spray a bazillion thin coats of white; and wet sanded it down to 4,000 grit. It looked fine, but with an uneven color to it. I am stuck at the final finish coat. With all the coats I've put down I should be an expert at this by now; but I actually think I've gone backwards!!! The S3 turned out ok, just not very glossy. This looks worse every time I try something new

Thanks for your help!

White and yellow are probably the hardest colours to spray, red coming in third. I'd lay down a coat of flat white first in multiple thin layers then the gloss coat in a couple thin layers and a final thicker layer, not too much or you'll get the problems you've described(orange peel, cracking). I don't often do really glossy finishes but you might want to add a clear gloss coat, someone who builds cars a lot would probably know more.

It has been a long time and I do not know if Testors in the little square bottles is still available or not, but it was my weapon of choice for many years. I use DuPont Centari automotive paint now and I have heard it is being discontinued later this year. Not good.

Priming the model is always a good idea. I prime all my models. There are even some white primers now, but I use gray DuPont 131S.

Back to your problem. The idea is to get the color on first, then come back for the gloss part.

Enamel paint is the best I have found for gloss white. Assuming you have some Testors, thin a bit of it about 70paint/30 lacquer thinner, or enamel reducer if you want it to dry a little slower.

You do not want the paint too thin. That comes later.

Starting at about 20 psi on your airbrush, try laying down some paint on a practice surface. Just a light misty coat to start with. If the paint is spattering or drying too fast, thin it down slowly until you get the mix you want. Once you get the right consistancy, and I cannot tell you where that point is, you just have to tinker with it, start laying down light, wet, coats of paint. Let them flash off, get tacky, before laying down the next coat, increasing the amount of paint on each coat. Take your time, let the paint set a bit between coats and build up the coverage you want. When you get that coverage, you might want to add one more layer.

At this point you will still not have a high gloss finish when it dries. If you do, consider yourself lucky. Let the paint dry at least 24 hours. Sand out any dust or goobbers with some worn out 400 or 600 grit paper.

Now, mix up batch of very thin paint, not much more than milky thinner. 90 thinner, 10 paint should do it.

Drop your air pressure down to the lowest possible point that the brush will still spray paint. Open up the needle until you have a heavy flow of paint.

Take a big breath.

Hold the airbrush away from the model about 8 inches (I never have measured it) and very quickly spray the model in large sweeping passes. You do not want to stay in one place at all. It will take several passes. Fog the paint on until you have a wet, glossy finish. Put the model down to dry. Clean your airbrush. Relax. Have a pickle.

I have also used lacquer paints a little bit, using much the same process. Lacquer will come out to a nice shine just by painting, but to get a really deep shine, you will need to sand out with the super fine grades and polish out the surface. I just prefer enamels.

Another method is to use Floquil Reefer White. It is not a gloss paint, but then you put clear gloss lacquer over it. It is a somewhat laborious method but it works well. Much the same way cars are painted today.

The numbers I have given you are just starting points for you to play with. There is no set formula for effective airbrushing and the paint gods are fickle fellows to say the least. They can change their minds all too quickly.

I hope this helps and if someone else has a better idea, all the better.

Happy Modeling.







Mark E. Young, Jr.
MSgt, USAF (Ret)

KC-135A - Built When Man Thought He Could Burn Water

Revell Airbrush Email Color (301 matt). It comes in a 25ml bottle and can be sprayed as it comes without further dilution. It's great (as are all this range). Don't worry about gloss white in its own right - you can always overspray with gloss or semi-gloss varnish. The new Alclad AquaGloss is quite good.

What the guys said about laying down paint in light coats is still good advice however, whatever the colour.

is an excellant base. I then airbrush MM gloss white over it at about 25 psi with my Passche VL. On a couple of gull gray/white planes, I've even used Tamiya Pure White gloss straight from the can over the white primer and it has turned out more then satisfactory.

I struggled with white for most of my 60 plus modeling years. Floquil reefer white, then One Shot pinstriping enamel, then Model Car World white lacquer, buffed out. Finally I discovered Mr Color paints. Get some number 1 white and thin it half and half with Mr Leveling thinner. If the plastic is dark, prime it with Tamiya Fine Primer White and let dry. Put on a coat of Mr Color white. Repeat if necessary, then stand back and admire the nicest, glossiest white paint you will ever see.

Jim Johnson

I used to hate painting white until I became a Mr Color addict.

Stuart

Floquil Reefer wight as an undercoat.

You can't spend your way out of poverty

You can also add a couple of drops of gloss dark blue to the white. The blue will keep the white from yellowing over the years. The white will take on a bluish tint in the bottle but you'll never see it when you airbrush it. This was passed to me by Allan Day, one of the best "fiishers" of cars and airplanes I've ever had the pleasure of knowing, he was a master!

Mike

....if I want gloss, I top it off with Tamiya X-2 white.

Yes, it is possible. I gave an old posting, from Dave Roof I think, on RMS a shot well over a decade ago. He had an enamel formula that worked wonders, and he got his entire model club to start using it when he demo'd it by spraying it over black in a single coat with no runs.

The formula was roughly 1/3 Floquil Reefer White, 1/3 MM Gloss White and 1/3 Diosol (the old Floquil thinner).

In my use, I aim for a rough 35/35/30 ratio - so just a bit less thinner (and since Diosol isn't made I use MM Enam Thinner). That seems to do the trick pretty well, and yes I have successfully sprayed the formula over black in a single coat with no runs.

However, the paint does tend to yellow out after sitting unused in the bottle, so I either add a drop of light blue enamel to the mix, only mix in small batches or allow the "yellowed" paint to settle then replace the non-pigment/thinner portion (which is usually a dark yellow when fully leached out of the white) with new thinner.

depending on the color of the plastic. Usually light sanding after the last coat of flat white.

After decades of study, it has become obvious that Murphy was an optimist...