Hi folks; I have a question. I am new to airbrushing and had an unusual experience when priming my p-51d with a gloss black enamel (alclad II polished aluminum is going on over it). When I airbrushed the gloss black enamel, I got that old bumpy, orange peel effect and I am not sure why that is happening. I now have to sand it down and start again. Before I do this, though, I would like to know what I may have done wrong, and what I can do to avoid it. I am using a Badger 150 dual action internal mix airbrush. I was using approx. 10-12psi and was about a medium length away from the model (about six inches). I believe I was being pretty uniform with my spraying, but maybe not?
Any help would be greatly appreciated!!
Thanks in advance,
Jamie. [:D]
Are you puting it on too wet? Don’t try to cover it all at once. Spray light coats and after dry go back and spray on more light coats. Give each a time to dry prior to applying another coat. One heavy coat will cause runs and orange peeling.
It’s also possible your paint is not thin enough. It should be thinned to the apx. consistency of skim milk. Good luck.
Lee
Thanks guys, I am pretty sure that I thinned the paint enough, probably not letting it dry enough between coats. I will take your suggestions, Berny, thanks again.
Sometimes the paint may orange peel because it is partially drying on the way to the model. It doesn’t sound like the pressure you’re using is too high, so you may want to experiment with a little less thinner, a wetter coat (higher paint flow if using a d.a. airbrush), or working a little closer. I’ve often heard it said that for a gloss finish it is best to begin with light “dust” coats, and finish with “wet” coats.
The light coats are needed to give the gloss finish something to bite or attach to because of the smooth finish. When I spray gloss I do just that and it works very well.
What I do when I paint is I thin my paint to almost 70% thinner and 30%paint …I then keep my nozzel almost closed and slowly go over and ovwer the same spot maybe 6 or 7 times before I can even see a change in color …it can take me hours to paint a kit but the effects you can creat are awesome …try it you’ll like it !!
Rick
Here is a link to an article on the Tamiya site that someone posted on another board. From the title you may not think it applies but as the author said, there are some good tips that would apply to any spray painting situation.
http://www.tamiyausa.com/product/plastic/tips/syntheticlacquers.html
After getting orange peel, how can you fix it? can you just spray over it with a wet coat? or f you have to strip it off completely?
After nearly 17 yrs. as an industrial painter orange peel is no stranger. We may be working in a much smaller scale but the effects are still the same. As stated previously many thinner tack coats works the best. Don’t try to cover your project with one or two heavy caots. As for fixing the problem it is best to remove it from the effected area as another coat put on to hide the orange peel may not hide all of those nasty little dimples, and could take out some of your detail.