Okay, I’ve finally had a chance to start painting my first kit, a Tamiya M-41 Walker Bulldog. I’m airbrushing it with Tamiya XF-62 olive drab over white primer. It took a few coats for this to take on any semblance of green color, it started out as a nasty greenish brown until the primer was covered enough. I had about 3 to 4 coats when it started to look green finally.
I’m just wondering how this works with Tamiya paints, do they usually take several coats to get to their true color? This is the first time I’ve used any of them. I usually use Vallejo style acrylics.
I’m new to Tamiya paint so I’m learning too. I think that it has more to do with the color of the surface that the paint is being applied to than who made the paint. Darker colors have a harder time covering a lighter surface than a dark one. Just tonight I did basically the same thing. I am working on an AMtec kit. They used plastic that is almost white. I preshaded the panel lines (first time ever) with Tam flat black then sprayed the XF-62. By the time I got the plastic covered my pre-shading was totally gone. It would have been better to prime with a darker color first, like neutral gray.
I’ve had similar problems covering light colors with darker color using MM enamels.
Though I only brushpaint my models, I usually will need AT LEAST 3 coats for the darker Tamiya colors. For white, I usually need 10 coats, or more. For colors such as grey, it’s something in between… maybe 6 coats.
I personally prefer several light coats built up to give me the base coat for a model, this is followed by several more light coats of various post shades of the base color.
Hkshooter is correct. It is not uncommon to have to apply a lighter or darker color to the bare plastic to maximize opacity of Tamiya. This is true with enamels as well, in some cases…but generally a neutral gray, as mentioned is ideal. I will usually undercoat with a complimentary color unless I’m using solid black or white. For example, if I need to paint a scheme that calls for the underside to be Light Ghost Gray, I will undercoat with white to maximize the final color’s opacity. Other factors to concider are the kits styrene color and the finishing colors needed. Hope this helps!
I never paint with Tamiya paints without a Model Master enamel primer coat first. If that is done first the Tamiya acrylic will hold better and take far less coats.