I’ve recently ran across an issue,I think, using Tamiya paint over Testors Model Master paint. When I brush paint Tamiya over the MM the Tamiya seems to want to “roll” up, i.e. it doesn’t want to stick to the MM paint. I don’t recall having this problem before now but I rarely have to apply Tamiya over MM. Anyone know why this is happening? Is the Tamiya paint old, lost it’s properties? I don’t have a clue why this has started happening but it makes me want to quit using the Tamiya paint altogether which wouldn’t hurt my feelings much anyway, I’m not a big fan of the Tamiya paints. Maybe I don’t have the MOP down pat. Any advise or takes are welcome. Thanks in advance.
Sorry Remco, I should have stated that the MM paint I use is acyrlic also. Thanks for reminding me. I needed to clarify that part. Still could be a cure time problem although I generally don’t do any more painting of a part if I still “smell” the odor of paint on that part. I’ve always been told, modelling or elsewise, that if you can smell the paint then it’s not dry.
Does the Tamiya paint act strange only over the MM? (and not over anything else?) I’ve found that Tamiya acrylics can be challenging to handbrush, period. Although that does improve a lot, by adding a bit (1-2 drops) of Tamiya thinner to the paint. Also, load the brush with thinner before painting (then wipe dry), and dip in water or thinner after painting for a while.
Try it on a scrap piece of plastic, to see if you can re-create the problem. Do you hand-brush, or airbrush?
First, lay down a basecoat of MM acryl, then give it 24hrs to fully cure. Try the tamiya thereafter. If you’re hand-brushing, I’ve had similar problems, where the tamiya paint will actually LIFT the MM from the plastic. I think that’s just due to the strong medium. I personally avoid hand-brushing tamiya paints like the plague, as IMO they just suck for handbrushing…
If the paint beneath is FULLY cured (if not 24, give it 48 hours just to be sure), airbrushing tamiya acrylics over it shouldn’t be a problem.
As a rule of thumb, you should avoid mixing brands of acrylics period. An explenation for the fact that it worked before and dosen’t now could be that paint manufacturers are always changing formulas. I remember once when MM changed formulas, they said it would be best not to use the old and new formulas together, even though they were from the same manufacturer.
I’ve had the same issue in the past also (not just over MM acryl) … someone mentioned adding some Tamiya thinner to the Tamiya and then brushing. This worked for me… but since then I have tended to avoid handbrushing Tamiya.
Thanks for the responses. Looks like I need to thin it down some. Better yet, give up the brush painting with Tamiya paints. I generally don’t brush any paint except for touch- ups but that’s where I ran across this issue so I had to ask. Thanks again.