I'M EXCITED

G'day fellas... well today after buying some clear "candy colours" and breakin' out
my newly purchased airbrush, I thought it 'bout time I started mucking about with
the gun & paint & see what I can come up with. Don't get me wrong guys 'coz the
"Rattle cans" will always play a major part in every modellers paint shop, especially mine!.


But to let loose with an airbrush and some colours now and then, opens a whole new
galaxy of cool custom paint jobs. (But hey, from what I've seen,  you don't need me
to tell you this!) ...Well although fairly basic paint work (I think?) I'm really excited
about my first attempts at airbrushing on my "Test Car"...







All positive and negative comments & advice/suggestions always welcome!. Cheers guys.

looks like u got the hang of it already

The airbrush opens a new world, Not only can you paint models cars,trucks but you can do murals.

I'M EXCITED too mate, waiting to see what you can come up with, it is fun just playing with colors through the airbrush on a car sometimes.
It does open up a whole new world I think.

Wow.  What a great paint job.  Leave it as it is and build it up

zenrat wrote:Wow.  What a great paint job.  Leave it as it is and build it up

Ha ha ha Fred!...trouble is mate, that's all I got is the shell.
Never mind, throwing some colour on this has got me thinking about
what I'm going to do on my next build.
Thanks guys for your comments. Now all I have to do is build me a
small spray booth?....

nice work Jerry, where can a modeler buy candy paint in modelers quantity ?

ozmodeler wrote:nice work Jerry, where can a modeler buy candy paint in modelers quantity ?

G'day...I'm just breaking my teeth with this airbrush biz, but this is how I went.
I already had 2  x 400ml rattle cans of Anchor "SILVER" & "SPARKLING SILVER"
lacquer (Available from most (WA) hardware stores... "Easties"???.
I started with a base coat of silver, then a couple coats of the sparkling, (which
has a coarser flake). Then I loaded the airbrush with either Tamiya Clear Red or
Clear yellow and just carefully built up the coats. A fine mist of Tamiya Black
along the edge. Wait coupla hours then a couple of coats of Gloss Clear Lacquer
and there you have it!... The Tamiya Clear Colours also come in rattle cans if you
haven't got an airbrush. All this is pretty basic stuff.

But one thing, my modeller friend, there's guys on this forum that are absolute
"Wizards" when it comes to airbrush work, and I suggest that you take a bit of
 time and browse some of their posts. The quality of their workmanship will
"knock ya socks off"!.  Here's good luck with your work and hope to see some soon.

I'm with Fred, build it into a finished car.

no negative comment here looks like you already got the hang of it

Spotmodel in Spain will sell you some zero paints candies.  They really are very nice.

Ok I have some tips or info you need to about paint.

Firstly, Acrylic Laquer should only be used as a final coat, solid colour, clear coat etc. awesome to polish, a large percentage of show cars are still done in this as a clear coat as apposed to 2k clear as it polishes up so nice and can be stripped back easier if needed..
But when you multi layer acrylic paint the clear will sometimes delaminate and all your cool custom spray will prob be trashed.

When doing multi layer custom paint jobs, use Basecoat paint, can get every colour and all proper auto paint stores have it, then you can use the clear Laquer over it to get the gloss finish.

The best one I have found so far for airbrushing (apart from House of Kolor which is the best paint money can buy and it take a lot to buy it) is a paint called No Mix, its a really good price, it has a good solid pigment so it's pretty much 1 coat to cover and it thins down a hell of a lot without loosing the full colour, they have great colours I usually only use the "special" ones, they are actually called "Special yellow" etc. they also so an awesome bright silver I always use under Kandy's ect. I go for the biggest flake one.

Mal's auto in Cannington used to sell it also MLB in Canningvale stock it, you can buy 250ml which goes along long way because of how much you can thin it down.

One other thing, which is real important with airbrushing is when you thin down your paint, because it has to be so thin to go through your brush it sometimes ends up with like 90% thinner. Thinner is a solvent and I basically a paint stripper, so it can sometimes strip off your layers you have already layed down, which can really suck when you are doing the final touches and you just trashed the parts you got perfect. the best way to avoid this it to use a reducer not a thinner ie. for base coat use a base coat thinner, the auto paint store will have this as well.

It does take a bit of funding to get together a good variety of colours but they usually aren't much more than a good spray can but the quality will be way higher and you can just buy each colour as you need, 250ml of each will last years, if it does start to go thick, just thin it down, give it a good stir and put it back on your paint shelf until next time.

Personally I have had issues with the No Mix that Morrie mentioned, I have had it craze up on me a couple of times, therefore , I only ever use automotive acrylics on my multi layer jobs with no dramas over the last 20 years. I also use automotive acrylic primer, thinners and clear coat too. Everybody will have different success rate with different products though, so have a play with different things until you hit it off with something that works for you.

Thanks heaps guys for all your input & advice.
Sounds like it comes down to "trial & error" with a lot of
practice & experimentation to get the desired effects.
Can't wait to get stuck into some paint work.  Cheers.