Paint ?

[jimmy]

To christen the new combined "creative" forum, I'll ask about paints!

What do people use ??
Ive only recently done my 3rd proper shell, using faskolor (and createx) paints, which i find easy and quick to use. When i change colour i just unhook the brush, walk to the sink, run it under the tap, hook it back up, spray it clean, and next colour..
I dont seem to be able to get quite as fine an atomisation (!!??) as ive seen on other peoples shells tho.. ive seen some shells by other people and it was all perfectly smooth, i dont seem to be able to acheive that with my faskolor ?

I thin the faskolor very slightly with tamiya acrylic thinner, just to make it spray a bit easier..

Ive got a bunch of thinner based pactra paints which ive not used because i dont like the clean up involved, I like the smell but thats a bad thing . anyone tried the pactra acrylic paints ?

[ApexSpeed]

Yay.


Ok, best trick with Faskolor (Parma/Createx) is not to thin with water but to use a household window/glass cleaner, like Windex. The key is to use one of the clear ones (I use an Armor All Automotive Glass Cleaner). It's essentially 95% water and the rest isopropanol alcohol, ammonia and ethylene glycol (anti-freeze). In my opinion, its exactly the same stuff Parma sells as "airbrush cleaner" except you can buy like 20 times more for the same price when it's called glass cleaner.

I thin all of my paints down in those tiny Dixie cups, and with most colors, it winds up being like a 3:2 paint to thinner ratio. I try to get the paint to look like the consistency of milk. I shoot most paints up around 35-45 psi, unless I'm looking for special effects or doing freehand details. I will go as low as 10 psi and as high as 60 psi for various different effects.

I spent just about 10 years painting with Pactra laquer RC paints (the original stuff), and thinning it with lacquer thinner. It was nasty stuff and in like 1989, I was having some odd nerve issues in my arm, and when I stopped painting, they went away. I tried the acryllics a few times, but found that they had really bad bonding properties with Lexan, especially the fluorescents. I threw out everything that wasn't a candy clear paint. Right now, I use aboout 95% Parma Faskolors, and a few Spaz Stix anodized clears and chrome. I also shoot the insanely expensive Alclad Lexan chrome sometimes, or to use it as a backing color for candies. I'd suggest the SpazStix chrome, as it is FAR cheaper to use, and easier to get.

A clean brush is always the best to paint with. I don't use a sink to clean, but I'm lazy. I run clean window cleaner through the gun and wipe the gravity cup down with a paper towel, until the spray is clean. If I'm going to use a darker color next, I dont worry so much aboout how clean the brush is. If I am doing fades and blends, I sometimes mix colors in the paint cup and blend right on the body as the old paint mixes with the new color. I'm working on a XXX4 body right now with about 7 different metallic blues in it that was done that way.

I've been painting R/C cars since 1983, with a bit of a hiatus in the late 90s. I paint for others on rare occasions, but mostly for myself.

Below are two recent bodies that I have painted. The buggy was my entry into the current (ending tonight) rctech.net 2-color Challenge. Two colors, no fades, no blends, only hard masked edges. Tough challenge; really makes you work the right side of your brain to not fall back on metallics, fluorescents, pearls or fades. I don't think a lot of people took it seriously, though.

The second was my last 12th scale body that I run on my CEFX c12. There is kind of a lot going on, but I was experiementing more with color and design than looking for a specific end product...



doug


(edit: for some reason, I clicked the thumbs down icon. whoops)

[jimmy]

Nice one doug, thanks for the info! great stuff..
I wonder if this tamiya acrylic thinner is similar to your window stuff then ? I assume it must be..
Not cheap though.. certainly wouldnt use it to regularly clean out the brush..
Not sure about the window cleaners like windex as we might have different products over here, but im sure I can find some armorall car stuff somewhere.

I certainly havent thinned the paint as much as you have, but ill try it next time and see how it goes, i could do with finding some little pots to mix colours in.

What are the spaz clears like ? I would like to get some nice vivid clear blue and red. are those paints water based or thinners ?

Good tip about mixing gradually in the paint cup to create a colour change, I'll give that a go also.

Oh and lastly, love the 12th shell, very nice.

[ApexSpeed]

Yeah, you can probably find a clear window glass cleaner at an auto parts store. I think grocery store cleaners wind up with perfumes and colorings in them.

The Spaz Stix paints are beautiful to work with, but lacquer-based so they need to be thinned and cleaned with lacquer thinner. Nasty fumes, wear a respirator if shooting indoors. My educated guess is that they are automotive House of Kolor paints re-bottled into little tiny bottles and sold for 10x their street price. I like that they have a BB in the bottle, though, to help mixing.

Another good tip now that I mention it... a box of BBs is cheap, but one or two in the bottom of the paint bottle will aid in mixing things as you shake the paint up.

I find that the Faskolors don't like to be sprayed thick, and I use a large tip/needle on my Paasche VL. I have gotten some of them down to 1:1 thinner to paint ratio to get them to work right. You need to be a bit more paitent when laying the paint on, but it shoots so much nicer.

Grocery store for mini paper cups are great for mixing. Sometimes arts & crafts stores have little plastic cups that can be reused if you want to wipe them out when you're done with them. All cheap, all needed.



doug

[DCM]

I use predominantly Faskolor myself and have had pretty good results with thinning with water but it isn't perfect, you put to much in and you get watery paint. I have some clear 'budget' window cleaner which isn't perfumed so I may give that a try for cleaning the airbrush through and thinning.

I cleaning my airbrush out by blowing out as much paint as possible, flushing through with fresh water then go wash the paint cup out and fill it with water with a tiny drop of detergent in it, but do regular strip and clean as I use a small spray head and it can clog.

When money is not so tight, I will invest in a decent airbrush. The biggest thing I have found is learning what colours to use and where and layering to get specific effects. I have used Spaz, the chrome is ace, but have learnt not to use it up to an edge, as I have found it can chip.