I am trying to do some retouching on my hospital ship model (U.S.S. Hope being build as U.S.S. Repose), using decanted Tamiya TS-45 Pearl White paint, but it’s not going well.
I used Tamiya Deck Tan and Dark Grey acrylics to paint the deck, but inevitably got paint on the white bulkheads and deck furnature. The decanted spray paint disolves the underlying Tamiya acrylic paints that I’m using to cover up the errors, and I end up with dirty-looking bulkheads and deck furniture. Is there a solution to this? I really like the Tamiya spray paints. Unfortunately, Tamiya doesn’t make liquid paints in the same colours.
Bob
OK. Perhaps I have the answer to my question.
I remembered that I bought a small bottle of Tamiya Pearl White lacquer paint several months ago, on my last pandemic-era trip to my hobby shop. That’s probably the paint I should be using for touch-ups. Right! (I’d still like to know why the decanted Tamiya spray paint doesn’t seem to be working as I’d hoped; my understanding is that the Tamiya spray paints don’t interact with acrylics, but that may apply only to sprayed paint, not brushed-on decanted spray paint.
Bob
Any time you brush paint onto something that is already painted, you run the risk of it attacking the paint that is already there. Acrylic clear coats help, but even that isn’t a guarantee.
I took another chance, sprayed the problem parts with glossy clear Tamiya spray, and used the Tamiya Pearl White lacquer (liquid, in a small jar) to continue touching up errant blotches. It seems to have worked quite well. One problem was some dark grey acrylic deck paint which developed tiny cracks after the clear spray dried. Using Tamiya paint remover, I managed to smooth out the cracks and repainted that part with the dark grey acrylic mixed with retarder. Looks pretty good!
Bob