Tamiya X-1 Gloss Black as primer for Alclad

[BenB]

Thanks for the link! I need to order some more. My bottle is more Reefer Amber than white.  :-)

Ben

[Ryan K]

@Matt - it's been awhile but I think I used Ace hardware generic lacquer thinner when using Floquil reefer white. I had issues with the Tamiya white but I didn't try w/Metalizer thinner.

@Ben Tower Hobbies - bought mine about a year ago.
http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/WTI0095P?FVSEARCH=floquil+%3Cb%3Ereefer%3C%2Fb%3E+%3Cb%3Ew%3C%2Fb%3Ehite+1

[BenB]

+1 on the solvent-based Reefer White. If you can't find it, Tamiya Flat White + Metalizer thinner works fine, too. If you want gloss, just hit it with a coat of Tamiya gloss white. For large areas of white, like an airliner or the underside of a grey/white USN plane, you can't beat Tamiya White Primer in the rattle can.

Ryan, where are you finding Reefer White? All I can find now is that Polly Scale-based crap that Tom's Trains sells.

Ben

[Matt C]

Hey Ryan, I've had nothing but bad luck with white.  Floquil Reefer white in particular tends to gum up on me (with alcohol).  I'm going to give it a shot with the Metalizer thinner, and if that's a no go, then I'll have break down and try some name brand acrylic thinner with it.  Every modern aircraft has the white undercarriage, so I've got to find something that will work, or switch to enamel!

That's a good tip on using it for a backing to yellow though, I'm going to give that a go for sure.

[Ryan K]

Matt,

White, Red and Yellow can be a pain. I would use Floquil Reefer White if it is the final color or as a base for yellow or red.

[Matt C]

Believe it or not, I just sprayed MM Acryl thinned with Metalizer last night!  My first try at it as well.  I did about a 50/50ish mix.  I will say that it's very fast drying, the little bit left in my mixing bottle was dried solid in about 5 minutes.  I was working with a flat grey color, but I'm curious to see if this might tame the issues I always seem to have with white...

At any rate, it seemed to work great in the airbrush.  Went on smooth and even, seemed to be slightly less prone to tip drying than Acryl and 91% Alcohol, seemed to dry quickly and evenly, and took second/third coats after only a few minutes.  I did have to use several coats, it goes on very thin...  I've yet to mask it, I'll give it that a shot tonight, but it seemed to hold up a bit better to fingernail scratching on a spare bit of sprue I sprayed.

My current F-18E project has a black spine and stabilizers, so I'm going to try using Ben's X-1 paint mix.

You do get the nasty fumes back, so that's the big downside to this...

[lgriffin]

Good stuff, Ben. Thanks for the pics and technique.

I doubt that the Model Master Acryl will be compatible with the Metalizer Thinner, but I'm willing to be proven wrong by someone who wants to risk it. :-)  The Acryl seems more akin to PollyScale as a latex type paint in its formulation than to Tamiya or to Gunze. I know that lacquer thinner has been used by some modelers for years to thin Tamiya "acrylic" paint. (Rodney Williams, for example,  is a proponent of this technique.)

Cheers!

Lee G.

[Ryan K]

Ben,

Thanks for the info, just picked up some Alclad, so this will come in handy.

[BenB]

At the Sept. meeting, I mentioned that I'd been experimenting with Clyde's method of using Tamiya gloss black with Testors Metalizer thinner (mixed 30% paint with 70% thinner) as a base coat for Alclad.  I spray at 20psi and the paint goes on very smoothly, and dries very fast. I've also had good results using same ratio of Metalizer thinner to paint with Testors Model Master enamels, Gunze Aqueous Hobby Color acrylics, and Xtracolor enamels. The gloss enamels dry in minutes instead of days, and the acrylic paints seem to hold on to the plastic a little better than when thinnned with alcohol, water, etc. I guess the Metalizer thinnner gives the paint more "bite." Gunze's Mr Color lacquers need their own thinner, and Xtracrylics and Polly Scale acrylics just make a big mess (bigger than usual for me!). Haven't tried Metalizer thinner with Testors Acryl paints. I haven't had any problems with the airbrush (Badger 100G) clogging, regardless of how hot the temp was in my garage.



Here's my Revell-Germany Fokker 100, with its black base coat. The gloss black also really makes the flaws in the plastic stand out, too. If you need to fix something, you can just fill & sand, then hit it again with the gloss black. I was able to handle the model within about 5 minutes of spraying it. 


The photo below was taken exactly 15 minutes after the one above, which was taken about 10 minutes after I finished spraying the black base coat. Alclad White Aluminum over the gloss black.


I'll go back and mask the model so I can paint the light grey areas, then it will be time for decals. If I'd had the time today to mask and paint the grey areas, I'd have been able to start applying decals within a couple of hours of starting painting. The Metalizer thinner dries the paint that fast.

Ben