I am looking for some advice on repainting a model. I am not happy with the way my paint job turned out on the upper hull and turret and of my current build. Below the fenders and tracks is fine though.
The model was primed with badger stnylrez and then had a light coat of green before I realized it wasn’t going well. Besides the green being a tad light I also noticed some superficial fingerprints and a mold seam I missed.
My question is, am I good to just reprime after fixing the mold seem and then just carry on my way? Also what is the best way to mask tracks? Just cover them on paper towel/flyers?
Wrap the tracks & running gear in aluminium foil or clingfilm/saranwrap.
Fill/sand/repair as needed & re-prime area with StyNylRes, it is pretty forgiving, then repaint as needed.
Yea, what he said, and what you said.
Ken
Well, FWIW, I’d say just fix the mistakes and simply repaint. Unless there’re some specific problems, like runs or heavy drips, I wouldn’t bother with stripping the paint or anything else. The repaint should just be a second coat. No big deal. Imagine if you were putting a multi-color cammo job on the tank it might have 3, 4, 5 or more coats of color in some spots. A second coat of green over the original green should not be a problem.
With regard to masking the suspension, I would just cut some strips of paper a little wider than the tracks and slip the strips between the tops of the tracks and the bottoms of the fenders. If you’re careful, you probably don’t even need and tape to hold them. If the strips do want to slip out, try stuffing a small ball of tissue or paper towel between them and the bottoms of the fenders to hold them.
Rely on good airbrush control to avoid excessive overspray.
That’s a good point! Camo would get many coats. No major issues like runs or drips, just not happy with the color, gonna darken it a bit. And reapply
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Should be no problem then, really.
Consider that some folks prime and then maybe use the black & white color modulation technique with several color coats over that. A second coat of your base green color shouldn’t be problem. In fact, you might even be able to take advantage of the lighter color to work in some post-shading if all that you’re changing is the tone and not the actual color (i.e. just a darker tone of the same shade of green).
Properly thinned and airbrushed model paints are really thin once dried. It takes a lot of that kind of model paint to start to really obscure and mute details.
To the above, I’d add it also depends on where the mold seam & finger prints are located.
Often MS gets missed on a tow pinnacle or hook or tool handle. Typically, that’s an easy fix with flicking a #15 scalpel blade over the mold seam perpendicular to the mold seam. Normally far less invasive than sanding in my experience. Occasionally rehash of whole model could be needed… With a high quality paint like Floquil or Tamiya a very light dry brush across the exposed plastic works for repaint without needing a Re-prime.
Finger prints are a little more challenging. A very slow and light touch with #1000 to #1,500 grit sand paper or #sanding stick can,work wonders. It is possible in some cases to remove finger print in upper layer of paint without cutting through primer/black coat to plastic. If the print occured in the primer/base coat likely will have to go to plastic to get rid of it.
The #1,000 to #1,500 sanding paper/stick can also be used to remove bits of over spray in two of more color camo schemes or to distress paint.
In any case, be sure to blow all of the accumilated debris, fuzz, hair & dust off of model with airbrush before any paint application by dry brush, brush or air brush. otherwise repairs can become a bigger issue than the original problems.
Of course, sometimes full scale repair is needed and sanding to plastic, reprise and repaint is the only real fix.
Wish you the best with paint repairs.
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