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Bodyman! . That explains several things....
Your advices are excellent. Around me, no garage want to sale me paint. I had only 2 oportunities to paint abs bodies with car paints, the clio 4 metal red. I never try on lexan. Can the car paint work with an airbrush?

Test fit went well. I have some decals to cut and some touch ups before the plastic comes off. I switched the rims to these orange 5 star as I want to paint and keep stock rims in best quality possible.

BCM06 wrote:

... i Use only high end automotive paints for my models always have as I am an old ex bodyman. It is called emerald black by Nissan. I often get spoken to firmly on forums when i say i use car paint, But i prep my body with simple green and then an alcohol prep I use for pre dipping actual car rims, I also start with one thin base coat and let dry and keep adding coats each 8 mins until the crackles start (usually about 6 to 8 coats) ,Crackles will usually only present themselves on curves, let dry for 20 and add another 2 coats to seal her in nice and smooth like glass, I then usually will spray that with an sand-able auto primer of some sort after letting color cure for 48 hrs or so depending on weather. Never have had a cracking issue or peeling problem, its all in your prep and cure. ...

Are you up for writing/photographing an article to go on the TamiyaBase front page? Lars and/or I are quite happy to do photo croppy/resizing/watermarking + formatting/puntuation etc, it's the raw material that counts


I can understand people being skeptical about your method, as it's completely contrary to usual doctrine - but in my experience, polycarbonate is problematic anyway - a lot of paints that are _supposed_ to work on polycarbonate really don't...

In my experience only Tamiya PS sprays (with proper prep & lots of thin coats) seem to stick properly, Tamiya PC brush paints (no longer available) when brushed on would crack & peel on any impacts + needed a lot of coats, Humbrol Hobby Spray (which it supposed to be good for both polycarbonate & styrene) was very sensitive to curing time between coats, and colour choice (some colours would fall off if you so much as farted in their general direction), Faskolor (when brushed) was worse than Tamiya PC paints (I never tried airbrushing it).

I made several bodies with createx paint. And I had the best results on poly bodies. Same on styrene. The only matter is the price of bottles...
The airbrush is very easy to clean with hot water. That is automotive paints.

Hey Johnny , Yea ill do a photo shoot of the alfa being painted when it arrives in a few weeks. In my honest opinion its always too little coats or people not prepping enough, Its 95% prep 5% paint, The only time i have issues is when i get ansy like yesterday and peel my masks too soon and rip up a corner from not angle pulling, I usually just touch that up with a brush or ill remask and spray. Thin even coats with enough drying time between is key, I usually go through a full can of paint per body, and the best results i have are using Dupli-color paint. I think a lot of the model guys expect 2 to 3 coats to cover everything, In auto the deeper the paint the deeper the look and shine. I will do my best for an article but will defiantly get you guys to edit it for me but no probs on the painting pics.

Ceramic bearings going in and smoked the windows . Cutting decals while she dries...

Nice bearings

Ok that tamiya smoke spray is not easy to work with. Very runny stuff indeed. Do you layout your decals before applying ... I do or my brain explodes...

BCM06 wrote:

... Do you layout your decals before applying ... I do or my brain explodes...
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Depends on the complexity of the sheet & the chances of getting bits mixed up, I often make a copy of the sheet before I start, & use tape (Tamiya 6mm masking) to hold each decal in place on that, completely cutting out one at a time.

I cut each decal one per one directly during the deco time. And I try to put them number after number.
The hardest were my TGX 911 GT1 and the D2 MERCEDES Klass C DTM, The delta HF MARTINI and the JECCS CIVIC.