I was trying to paitn today and when I paint the paint will not go in the cracks of the engine. I am using enamel paints. Why is it doing this???
[banghead] [banghead][banghead] [banghead]
Please help
What paint, thinner and airbrush are you using?
model master enamel paint and model master airbrush thinner. I use a paasche H.
It sounds like there may be something in the cracks that is repelling the paint. Did you clean the shell very good? Soap and brushing with a soft tooth brush and then getting it dry might help.
A couple of things come to mind:
The surface of the plastic may still have some parting compound / oils from the molding process - clean with detergent and water, rinse and air dry
Spray paint is very directional, it does not like to get into cracks and deep corners. Try spraying into a 90 degree corner at 45 degrees. Sometimes even that does not work. For a deep groove sometimes the only thing is to brush paint a stripe coat into the groove before spraying - commercial spray painters inside tanks have the same problem around angle iron and other internals.
You did not mention the color of the paint. Colors like yellow, orange, creams, light tans, some whites just do not cover well. It’s not you, it’s just the way the paint is formulated. With these, you just have to apply light coats and allow the paint to build up until it covers.
I hope this helps.
Airbrushing is a balancing act. When spraying too much paint onto an irregular surface, the paint will puddle in the hollows. Contrariwise, when spraying with too much air pressure, the pressure will force paint out of the hollows (think Venturi effect). If your surface is free of oils and/or releasing agents, try dialing the pressure on your compressor back.
Not to be obtuse, but paint color shouldn’t matter in this example. If it’s covering the flat surfaces, but not the crevices, the problem is probably not the paint color.
Also, and please forgive me if this sounds condescending, ensure successive coats are applied from different angles.
Good luck.
Lynda
I was using black paint so.I don’t think that’s it. I can’t tell how much PSI i’m spraying at, so that might be it. Is there any cheap pressure gauge I can get??
Thanks,
dekruif
Almost any hardware store will have an inexpensive pressure gauge, and don’t forget the fittings to tie it into the line.
It may be a combination of pressure, thickness of paint after thinning, and thickness of coat. Too much pressure can cause what you describe, or too thin a paint viscosity allows the pigments to float to where they want to go, and too thick a coat of paint can cause the same thing. I find a fairly dry thin base coat, or two, at low pressure does best. I learned when I first painted some VGN diesels many years ago. Yellow does not cover black too easily.