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Post by 92220 on Dec 3, 2021 13:52:21 GMT
All very good points Roger, and well worth everybody taking note. Your revolving spit is a great idea as is the use of a cake decorating 'Lazy Susan'.
Bob.
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Post by chris vine on Dec 3, 2021 14:08:28 GMT
One thing to remember is that you have to put top coats on thick enough so that the paint can flow out and pull smooth. This does require a fairly quick and "heavy" coat. It is impossible to describe this, and difficult to do. That is why my recommendation for some sort of horizontal spit is so useful. It enables a thick coat of paint to be applied without it running or sagging.
If you are trying to do it in one top coat, then you will need to apply some colour (over the etch/undercoat) on the corners. If you don't do this, then the fairly fluid top coat will pull off the corners and leave lines of undercoat showing though.
There is often advice to build up the top coat with several layers, but during one session. In a way this is exactly correct, but there is a major pitfall waiting for you! If you leave it too long between coats, then the first layer will have gone a tiny bit tacky and it will steal the solvent from the next layer. The result is that the next layer sort of freezes in place before it has a chance to flow out. No amount of applying extra paint will get it to flow and you will just end up with a sticky mess.
So, you need to practice, probably on test pieces and not something major like a boiler, to work out some sort of timing between the layers.
The really skilful painters, (and it depends on the type of paint), can put on a thin coat of paint, to cover corners etc. Then they let this go touch dry before laying on a heavy coat on top. The effect is clever: The first layer steals the solvent from the much heavier top coat so that it doesn't sag/run but not so quickly that the top coat doesn't flow out. However this is pretty top notch workmanship and not necessarily something which is possible for "us", who paint a finished model every five years or so!!
The horizontal spit will help so much, and the time taken to make it, or set something up will repay itself easily compared the to pain of runs. These are your worst nightmare because, if you wait until dry before rubbing back, all will seem fine - until you re-paint over where the run was. The run will then reappear as a witness in your lovely new top coat. You, of course, know how I know this!!
Chris.
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Post by Roger on Dec 3, 2021 16:42:08 GMT
All very good points Roger, and well worth everybody taking note. Your revolving spit is a great idea as is the use of a cake decorating 'Lazy Susan'. Bob. Hi Bob, A lazy Susan is ok if you only paint one side of something that's flat. Sadly, that accounts for very little of the things we need to paint.
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Post by 92220 on Dec 3, 2021 18:49:32 GMT
Hi Roger.
Correct up to a point. However, that only applies when the item being painted, is sitting directly on the lazy-susan. When I make up a hanger to paint something, it is able to stand on the lazy-susan so that I can paint all the way around without having to contort to reach the back. Yes I could hold the item hanging from a wire, but the item could move around in the air cone from the spay gun. Really, it's all about what works for each person. People reading all these posts can decide what works for them.
Bob.
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Post by Roger on Dec 3, 2021 23:23:34 GMT
Hi Roger. Correct up to a point. However, that only applies when the item being painted, is sitting directly on the lazy-susan. When I make up a hanger to paint something, it is able to stand on the lazy-susan so that I can paint all the way around without having to contort to reach the back. Yes I could hold the item hanging from a wire, but the item could move around in the air cone from the spay gun. Really, it's all about what works for each person. People reading all these posts can decide what works for them. Bob. Hi Bob, The point I was making was really that anything that's not horizontal has gravity trying to make it sag or run. If you mount something on a spit, that isn't an issue. I don't really have the skill set to judge how much paint I can apply and be sure that it won't sag or run. It's a very fine line between getting sufficient coverage for it to pull flat, and running into trouble. You can probably do this much better than I can.
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Post by 92220 on Dec 4, 2021 8:40:34 GMT
Sorry Roger. I misunderstood. Yes a spit does get over that problem.
Bob.
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cfmrc
Seasoned Member
Posts: 107
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Post by cfmrc on Dec 6, 2021 0:14:56 GMT
Or you could buy Chris’ excellent book… I have found that with my 4” traction engines that they need really quite thick coats of paint as they have a hard life on the road and cleaning tends to be more intrusive. A Kite mini gun works well for spraying. For the really small 2mm scale stuff then I use cellulose for the body colour as that gives a hard finish which is then good for lining onto: no good for hot steam engines though.
Tim
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Post by 92220 on Dec 6, 2021 9:06:58 GMT
Or you could buy a copy of 'The Finishing Touch' from Phoenix Precision Paints. The book covers all the usual questions and answers, as well as much else, that have been posted on this forum. It was written from a paint manufacturer's view, and took into account all the questions the company received from modellers over the years. It fully describes painting a model steam loco, from scratch, and covers all the main painting problems and the solutions.
Bob.
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