I’m trying to paint my first plastic structure. I bought Polly Scale paints to try. So far, my attempts with a brush are dissapointing! The brown for the trim takes many coats to cover the plastic, and the yellow for the siding doesnt cover at all and leaves splotchy brush marks. Is there some trick here that I’m missing? I’ve read that a base coat of primer is a good idea, and that it should be an enamel primer, not a laquer. Any favorite brands? Maybe I chose the wrong type or brand of paint?
I do have an airbrush that I guess I will try for the yellow walls. It’ll be my first attempt with that too.
I tried the airbrush. It used alot of paint, but the result was basically a one-coat cover using yellow paint over white plastic. Very cool!
There seems to be a mandatory period of time (hours?) to let a coat of paint sit before applying a second coat without disolving what’s underneath. I’ll put a second coat of brown on the trim tomorrow. I’ll also look for some cheaper concrete-looking paint for the foundation and shingle-looking paint for the roof. I need some maroon-ish red for trim also, so maybe some blue and red.
Your best bet is to start with the cheapest can of primer that Walmart (or any cheap place)has to offer, then paint your chosen color.The paint should stick much better .Also be careful with your mixture in the airbrush,sometimes you have to try different ratios.
A coat of flat white paint will work just as well. I tend to lay down a coat of that first…especially on those old Bachmann switch towers, which are (annoyingly) molded in dark grey and brown plastic. After that, it only takes one coat of PC green, instead of about 5
Be sure to wash your plastic first, to remove oils from releasing agents in molding plus oil from handling, that’s why it looked blotchy from brush painting. I use brushes and inexpensive craft store paints and have no problems.
I’ve only hand brushed my structures and, I think, have gotten some good results. A primer undercoat will help give the above paint layers something to “bite into”.
I’ve also found that it helps not to “overbrush” the paint while you are painting. DON’T paint “back and forth”; paint in one direction ONLY! Also, paint in long strips - a brush width wide - and finish that row BEFORE you start your next row.
I think I’m learning. It seems to help to lay on the brown trim paint really heavy in a single stroke. The airbrush did a pretty nice job, but I’ll have to find some much cheaper paint to experiment with - there are several variables including air pressure, ratio of distilled water to paint, and flow adjustment. The performance I ended up with would be lousy using gloss paint on a racecar, but for painted wooden siding, it’s quite good
I’m a cheapskate when it comes to paint. I buy Delta Ceramcoat, available at craft stores for around 79 cents for 2 ounces. They make a thinner for Delta Ceramcoat paints but you might not find it in the craft stores and have to check on-line at www.craftcatalog.com.
Believe it or not, I’ve used the Delta paints after thinning 50/50 with the thinner for great results in my airbrush. Why spend $3.50 an ounce for Badger airbrush paints already thinned? The Delta paint costs 79 cents for 2 ounces…the thinner is $1.69 for 2 ounces…thus 4 ounces of airbrushable paint costs $2.48 if my math is correct.
Another tip I have for you…every time I use a brush to paint with Delta Ceramcoat acrylic paints, I always squirt a few drops of paint into a well in a paint pallet and add a few drops of the thinner. Thus, the paint doesn’t dry out quickly and the paint goes on smother. It took me years to discover that the thinned paint works better. Hopefully, you will gain from my experience.
Someday I may learn to use an airbrush but until then I’ll stick with my old fashioned method. I spray first with a primer color that is closest to the color I want to paint. I have used gray, red, and white primers. I’ve even discovered that the primers sold by Home Depot and Lowe’s are different shades of red and gray so I alternate between them.
I also brush paint the finish coat(s) because I like the slight variances it gives to the color as the undercoat bleeds through to different degrees. On real brick structures, the shade of the bricks varies slightly and this helps to simulate that variance. I’ve recently begun using foam brushes to paint the brick or wood siding. One problem I’ve had is hairs from regular brushes coming loose and often it can’t be seen until the paint dries. Foam brushes eliminate that.
Another technique I’ve adopted recently is to mask the walls prior to painting the detailed parts. I do this if the wall is fairly simple and the masking can be done quickly. With some walls, it’s still faster not to mask and to just go slow and carefully when painting the detail.
For weathering I’ve used both powdered chalks and ink washes dilluted with alcohol. A word of caution with the ink washes. Don’t use them if you have applied dull coat. I found out the hard way that the alcohol will cause the dull coat to turn white.
I got some of the ceramcoat this afternoon. I thinned it 50/50 with distilled water and it sprayed pretty will with the airbrush. I got a little “orange peel” finish, but it’s not bad. I’ll look for the proper thinner. I also tried brushing some unthinned. It’s not bad, but it didn’t flow. I’ll try thinning it a bit for brushing too.
Try thinning the paint a little more than 50/50. You want the paint to look like whole milk once thinned.
Another tip…go to a drugstore or hospital supply house and buy those little plastic cups that are used in hospitals for pills. I got 200 of them for $2.00 and for a penny each, they are great little cups to mix various colors for spraying and for trying different dillutions of paint. The cups only hold 1 ounce but have measurements printed on the side in drams, millililiters and teaspoons, making it easy to try various dillutions. For instance, you can squeeze into the cup a couple of ml’s of paint and a couple of ml’s of thinner for a 50/50 mix. And, because the cups are flexible, they are easy to squeeze, creating a pour spout for pouring the paint into your airbrush. I have yet to spill any paint when pouring from these cups into my airbrush. Before I fire up the airbrush, I get all my projects ready and then mix all the various colors, thinned with Delta’s thinner and spray away.
My preferred method is airbrushing. My airbrush is a Paasch VL, and I prefer using a number-three needle. I do many plastic structures and airbrush as much as is feasible.
While I own a home with a perfectly good workshop, my job has me renting an apartment in another city. Therefore, for respiratory reasons, I’m limited to acrylics. I’ve a very good art supply store close by, but always find myself gravitating back to Polly Scale paints.
Because I try to avoid laying down too heavy a coat on each pass, I’m able to put down successive coats within a few minutes without detrimental effect. This approach also uses far less paint than trying to cover in one coat. I also keep my compressor set at 20 PSI.
I’m currently painting a Walthers Jordan Spreader, which was originally boxcar red - I’m redoing it in Omaha orange, black, and Pullman green. Three light coats of the orange covered the red very well.
If I’m masking over a painted area, I’ll wait at least twelve hours for the acrylic to cure. The only hand painting I do is on very small areas, such as window frames on DPM structures, where masking can be more time consuming than brush work. Of course, this kind of detail painting occurs after the initial spray painting is completed; so, the base coat is already in place and hand-applied paint adheres readily.
I just completed the IHC set of five Painted Ladies “Homes of Yesteryear.” There was a lot of mixing to achieve the correct look for these kits, but they were 100-percent airbrushed, and I’m exceedingly pleased with the outcome. For the roofs, I did an initial lighter coat (covering everything) and then sprayed a darker coat from an extreme angle. The effect is stunning.
Sorry for running off at the mouth, but airbrushing is one of the aspects of this hobby I love most.
Thanks for all the tips! I can see where practice can defineatly result in improvements. My airbrush is a cheapie from Harbor Freight, but it works pretty well. I had good luck with Ceramcoat paints thinned with distilled water. The paint dried very well and seems good and stuck to the plastic.
Here’s a photo of the final result. I’m especially proud of the chimney. I brushed on a base coat of Ceramcoat Mudstone, then dry-brushed the bricks. This is my second try with the signs - the first were much too big. The scale is still not correct, but you need to be able to read them while operating the trains, so I don’t think I’ll make them any smaller. The photo shows up lots of defects in the painting, but looking at the model, the defects are not that obvious.
Anyway, thanks again! I can hardly wait to do another one. My next project is a scratch-built carfloat. So far, it’s just 1 inch pine with beveled edges. I plan to cut in resessed rails and paint it up a dirty, rusty black with a weathered wood deck.
Jim, it came out nicely. You should be pleased with your effort.
Here’s one I just completed. It’s an ancient Revell kit I acquired on eBay. It’s not detailed or weathered yet, but I’m pleased with the first go at it.
Hey, the Weekly Herald - the sides from the good ol’ Revell Enginehouse kit is unmistakable (I also think there was a bakery offered using the same sides too).
Is the front wall portion original from the kit? I don’t remember seeing a stone front, nor what looks like glass block, in the Wathers Catalogs of yore, but that was a long time ago and the catalog pictures were not necessarily that good.
Chutton, I’m certain you’re correct. I recall building the Revell bakery when I was a teenager. Putting the Weekly Herald together definitely took me back a few years. It’s kind of a pain in the you-know-what kit. There’s a bit of structural bracing in there you can’t see in the photo.
Here’s another of my recent ones. It’ll probably look a bit familiar too. All very sterile looking, I’m afraid. I’m resisting signs and window dressing until I can get them down on my layout.
Excellent job on Merchant’s Row II. Is that the old Magnuson version or the more recent Walther’s styrene copy of it. Either way it looks great. I have trouble painting the trim that crisply. Do you have any tips for that you can share.
It’s the Walthers version. I think SS Ltd. offer a version of it too. I’ve only done one Magnuson kit - the old Victoria Falls Hotel - sometime back in the early 80s. The Walthers kits, by comparison, seem easier to work with. As I recall, I had the dickens of a time with the Hotel - soaked it in hot water to remove warp and still used a tube of putty to fill in malformed corners and bubbles. I love a challenge, but I always thought the Magnuson kits were way overpriced in comparison to quality. I’ve built a number of DPM kits, and it looks like they’ve overcome those earlier issues. Haven’t tried an SS Ltd. kit yet.
As for crisp painting, I’m afraid I’ve got no secret tips beyond patience and a high-quality flat-bristle brush. As appropriate, I do mask, but that’s not always possible. Next time I do one with recessed windows I’ll try to airbrush the trim from the inside out, if the window profile lends itself to the task.
I can’t recall what the original front of the Weekly Herald looked like, although it may have been a “tile” effect. Mine was laying around, in pieces, when I decided to resurrect it as the auction building for the Lowbanks Stockyards. The new front was built up from styrene. I airbrushed the brick with Floquil Reefer Orange, then applied drywall compound for mortar, and finished with washes of thinned PollyScale paints and a bit of airbrushing.
I believe that this is a Magnuson building. I bought it out of the junk bin at the LHS: it was in pieces (literally) and there were only enough walls to do two sides of the building. I added a scratchbuilt loading dock, a new roof, and the two unseen walls out of styrene strips and sheet. The windows that were broken were rebuilt as “partially open”, using strip styrene. Paint was similar to the Stockyards building, with a different colour wash used. The trim and windows were done with a brush.
