I am building the Revell 1/144 Saturn V Rocket, which is molded in two colors, white and gray. The instructions call for nearly all of the white polystyrene parts to be painted flat white. For this purpose, I am using Tamiya XF-2 Flat White with my Paasche airbrush. Trouble is, I’m having difficulty telling when I’ve got sufficient coverage with the white paint, because the paint color is so similar to the color of the molded plastic, that when I’m laying it down it hardly looks like anything is happening.
So far the best method I’ve come up with is to, as I’m spraying, periodically hold the part up to the light in my spray booth and see if there is a reflection. The non-painted surface has a slight sheen to it, where the sections that have been painted with the flat white of course do not have much reflection at all. So I just kind of keep laying on light coats until the sheen disappears. This is working OK, but I’m wondering if there are any other tricks to this, for example to help make sure I’m not overpainting some sections, and underpainting others? I suppose I could lay down a primer coat first (in gray, for example), but I’m getting good adhesion laying down the paint directly to the plastic, so I’d prefer to avoid that step.
I had a similar issue a while ago with the 1/48 TSR.2, white kit with all white finish. I would say you have answered your question yourself - light, get an additional light source so that you can see your coverage as you spray.
You will most likley need a few coats to get good coverage, put enough coats down so it looks good & then ad another for good measure.
I just use a rattle-can of gloss white enamel to begin with, rather than airbrush any flat white… Gotta have a gloss surface anyway (and if it’s in a rattle-can, I’ll use it to avoid cleaning an airbrush), and gloss white, at least the brand I use, is a shade “whiter” than the white plastic (car kit white) is and fairly easy to see…
I’m with Manny on this one. Did you have any seam repair? If so, unless you used a white putty you will get “read through” on the non-whote areas. I like to use Mr. Surfacer (light gray) as a primer, and it works great as a base for white. They even make a Mr. SUrfacer 1200 in white.
Of course you could go with the light gray or white primer of your choice…
I’m with Manny on this one. Did you have any seam repair? If so, unless you used a white putty you will get “read through” on the non-white areas. I like to use Mr. Surfacer (light gray) as a primer, and it works great as a base for white. They even make a Mr. SUrfacer 1200 in white.
Of course you could go with the light gray or white primer of your choice…
I’m with Manny on this one. Did you have any seam repair? If so, unless you used a white putty you will get “read through” on the non-white areas. I like to use Mr. Surfacer (light gray) as a primer, and it works great as a base for white. They even make a Mr. SUrfacer 1200 in white.
Of course you could go with the light gray or white primer of your choice…
I agree with the people who say to prime first, though I would have used Tamiya AS-12 Bare Metal Silver. The silver gives the white a boost by increasing it reflective quality.
I agree with Gerald and Bill (Bgrigg). But another technique for applying low contrast colors (especially clears) is to use raking illumination. Set up a light so that it is shining at a near 90° angle to the spray. Then you can see exactly where the paint is hitting the surface.