What is the best type of paint to use when painting plastic structures such as a Walthers Cornerstone building? Enamel? Acrylic?
Acrylic. No bad odor. Any spill cleans up with water and you don’t have to worry about running out of brush cleaner. Acrylics look better IMO.
As long as you use a flat finish, just about any color will work. In addition, I try to avoid using loud colors as they will draw attention away from your building.
Does everyone prefer spraying or brushing ? And do you paint them before or after assembly ?
Hi, all…
OK, now for my $.02 worth. I’ve built several of the Cornerstone kits including, most recently, the Roberts Printing Co. building with some modifications. I like to use an airbrush (my Badger model 350 works just fine) and Floquil enamels, painting and weathering each wall before final assembly.
Click on the link to see the picture:
http://web.tampabay.rr.com/djobloni/robertsprinting.jpg
I first sprayed the entire wall with Floquil Aged Concrete, then masked off the concrete portions of the curtainwall and painted the brick with Roof Brown. You can use Boxcar Red if you prefer red brick. Window frames were painted with Weathered Black. A light mist of Weathered Black over the concrete and brick gives the building a nice, old, dirty look. BTW, I customized the building with a corner cutout for a sharp radius curved track and enclosed the rooftop watertank base with brick.
I hope my contribution is helpful and inspiring!
Bruce J.
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Building sounds great. I would like to see it. The link won’t go.
I’ve been working on a number of DPM kits lately. I’ve tried various techniques, but the one that works best for me is to spray paint the large surfaces with cheap primer from Lowe’s in some brick-like color. Then I hand-paint the details with acrylics. In this case, I’m usually assembling DPM kits with the windows molded as part of the wall pieces. If the windows are separate, always paint them first before assembly. It’s easier, and it produces a much neater finished product.
I did do one building by spraying gray primer for the “concrete” trim, and then hand-painting the brick color. For that one, it turned out to be less work than the other way around.
The first thing I do on any building is spray the inside of the walls with flat black paint. This makes the walls much more opaque, and eliminates the “Chernobyl Valley Railroad” effect of buildings that glow in the dark when you install interior lighting. It’s less important with DPM kits, because the wall castings are already quite thick, but it’s an easy step.
Had a problem linking to my to Roberts Printing building picture. If you’d like to see the pic, try this:
Click on the following link and you’ll get a new window with an error message
"You are not authorized to view this page…yadayadayada…HTTP Error 403 - Forbidden "
Click on the refresh button and the picture should be displayed. Give it a try:
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/djobloni/robertsprinting.jpg
Bruce J.
Does painting before assembling cause problems with glue?
There are several methods of dealing with painting before assembly. For one thing if paint is thinly applied, most glues and solvents will penetrate. If there is a problem, you can mask joint areas or sand befor assembly.
I have yet to use an airbrush.
I have always primarily used a brush except for occasional use of spray paint as a primer. I also use markers, chalk, collored pencils and watercolors as well as acrylics.
Hi Bruce,
The link still doesn’t work for me, even after clicking refresh.
John
I just tried using alleged ‘matt’ Humbrol enamel paint brushed on a plastic building kit…it did not work at all. It’s very shiny, and was too thin, not covering the surface properly at all. Is there something I’m doing wrong? I had the impression that a matt paint finish wouldn’t hurt my eyes under bright light.