Tamiya 1/12 motorcycle painting queries

[pokethepope]

OK, so i've decided my dads xmas present this year will be a model, assembled by me, of his mid-life crisis bike; a Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa. I've been looking around and can get the kit for just £10 (im in Hong Kong), but i'm clueless about which method of painting I should use.

So what are the best options - air brushed, spray canned, paint brushed?
Tamiya enamel, Zero paints, or something else?

The Tamiya 10ml enamel bottles are ~90 pence here, is one 10ml bottle for each colour usually sufficient for a 1/12 kit?

The zero paints i've seen recommended on here are about the same price (relative to volume) but it appears not all the colours that are recommended for the kit are available - should I go for all Tamiya, or the colours available from Zero plus the remaining in Tamiya, or is there another option I should look at?

And finally (I guess this answer may effect choices above) should I go for air brush, paint brush, or aerosol can? I can get a Tamiya starter airbursh kit for ~£20 that seems to have everything I need. Is it worth going for an airbrush or can I get an equally good finish from a paint brush or spray can (bearing in mind my modelling experiance is limited to a couple of poorly painted Airfix planes)?

Heres a pic of the paint layout if it helps:



Thanks for reading and any advice you can give.

[dr_gn]

pokethepope said:

OK, so i've decided my dads xmas present this year will be a model, assembled by me, of his mid-life crisis bike; a Suzuki GSX1300R Hayabusa. I've been looking around and can get the kit for just £10 (im in Hong Kong), but i'm clueless about which method of painting I should use.

So what are the best options - air brushed, spray canned, paint brushed?
Tamiya enamel, Zero paints, or something else?

The Tamiya 10ml enamel bottles are ~90 pence here, is one 10ml bottle for each colour usually sufficient for a 1/12 kit?

The zero paints i've seen recommended on here are about the same price (relative to volume) but it appears not all the colours that are recommended for the kit are available - should I go for all Tamiya, or the colours available from Zero plus the remaining in Tamiya, or is there another option I should look at?

And finally (I guess this answer may effect choices above) should I go for air brush, paint brush, or aerosol can? I can get a Tamiya starter airbursh kit for ~£20 that seems to have everything I need. Is it worth going for an airbrush or can I get an equally good finish from a paint brush or spray can (bearing in mind my modelling experiance is limited to a couple of poorly painted Airfix planes)?

Heres a pic of the paint layout if it helps:



Thanks for reading and any advice you can give.

I would say use Enamel paints, airbrushed, and clear varnished after applying the decals. It is essential that you let the gloss enamel paints dry thoroughly before handling though.

A paint brush for the panels is useless - it won't give a good enough finish.

My experience of aerosol cans is that they tend to give a thicker finish than an airbrush, and are more prone to running and sagging (at least the gloss colours).

Hope this helps.

[tim-b]

OP, sounds like you're a bit of a novice (like myself), tbh I know everyone says airbrushed enamels give the best finish, BUT, as one noob to another I don't think I'd recommend that as it's a steep enough learning curve as it is!

Enamels take days to go off properly, greatly increasing the chance of getting dust on the surface. They also stink so you really need somewhere suitable to use them and leave them to cure. Even using less toxic acrylics in my garage (with the door wide open) gets a bit stifling. Also I understand that airbrushing is not the easiest technique to master.

I've had some success with acrylic rattle cans, following these guideline http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial/.... They're easy to get hold of (i.e. Halfords) and seems like less hassle than airbrushing as there's no mixing or cleaning etc.. I'm getting better at putting the right amount of paint on, but even if it's not a perfect paint finish you can sand and polish it to a nice gloss.

My advice would be to get a spare kit to practice on first, to get comfortable with spraying, whichever route you take. If you try too hard at the first attempt you might get put off, I nearly did!

Good luck, and hope that helps!

[dr_gn]

tim-b said:

OP, sounds like you're a bit of a novice (like myself), tbh I know everyone says airbrushed enamels give the best finish, BUT, as one noob to another I don't think I'd recommend that as it's a steep enough learning curve as it is!

Enamels take days to go off properly, greatly increasing the chance of getting dust on the surface. They also stink so you really need somewhere suitable to use them and leave them to cure. Even using less toxic acrylics in my garage (with the door wide open) gets a bit stifling. Also I understand that airbrushing is not the easiest technique to master.

I've had some success with acrylic rattle cans, following these guideline http://www.briansmodelcars.com/tutorials/tutorial/.... They're easy to get hold of (i.e. Halfords) and seems like less hassle than airbrushing as there's no mixing or cleaning etc.. I'm getting better at putting the right amount of paint on, but even if it's not a perfect paint finish you can sand and polish it to a nice gloss.

My advice would be to get a spare kit to practice on first, to get comfortable with spraying, whichever route you take. If you try too hard at the first attempt you might get put off, I nearly did!

Good luck, and hope that helps!

Good Advice re. testing first!

FWIW I've used Halford "Appliance Gloss White" over Halfords "White Primer" fairly sucessfully in the past on both plastic models and glass fibre gliders. It does give a thicker finish than an airbrush though, and can dry dull if you're not careful. I always 'flash' the finish off with a hairdryer between coats. If the plastic is white, and you need a white finish, you might just get away with a dust of primer and two thin coats of gloss white. Rub down the primer with 1200 grit wet and dry too.

I've also tried the 'Humbrol' Gloss White spray Minican on a Jaguar XJR-9 many years ago. It took a week to dry enough to handle...

[Skodaku]

I've always had success with Halfords spray cans. Wash kit parts in warm soapy water to remove any release agent etc and dry thoroughly, (I know some folk use various fluids for this but I've been O.K. so far). Use the appropriate colour Halfords undercoat and away you go. BUT.................the real key to a good finish is numerous very light coats and lots of patience. Only downside - or upside, perhaps - is that the colour range is a bit restricted.

Airbrushing is way better and Alclad metallics are truly excellent.

Depends on how deep into the hobby you want to get.

[chrisga]

dr_gn said:

A paint brush for the panels is useless - it won't give a good enough finish.

Not necessarily true, this is a photo of the tail section of doohans 98 NSR that i made. I painted this model entirely by brush as an experiment as i had heard people saying you need to airbrush everything. I'm pretty pleased with the results. The colour isnt quite correct as it is just the metallic blue X-series tamiya acryllic paint though:





And the final result:



I would class myself as a resonable standard modeller, but nowhere near amazing. I do not use an airbrush as to me it seems to complicated. I like to be able to dip in and out of modelling, and the tamiya acryllic paints allow me to do that. They are water soluble so just take a glass of water with me and i can rinse the brush between colours. So all of my models are painted by brush but i usually use the tamiya spray paints for the bodywork. I find these need a bit of practice to get good colour and good coverage, not too thick and a few coats. I can usually get 2 kits out of 1 can if I'm careful. As a beginner I would definitely recommend going down the route of tamiya acryllics brushed on for the majority of parts. I always paint the whole kit while still on the sprue and then assemble and touch up the little parts where you cut it off the sprue afterwards. Obviously get as many paints as you can afford for different colours, although you will hardly use much of each if only doing one kit, but look on it as an investment. You will get hooked. When i did my first model, i just bought silver, black and grey i think, and now have pretty much the whole selection of tamiya colours.

Excellent choice of kit to start with as well, the Tamiya 1:12 bike kits are just the best. They always fit together nicely and have amazing detail levels. I have a set of more photos of some of my bikes here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98882529@N00/sets/721...

My personal favourite is this one (body painted with tamiya spray can, everything else brushed:



Hope that helps, and if you ened any more help/advice just ask.

Edited by chrisga on Friday 6th November 12:42

Edited by chrisga on Friday 6th November 12:46

[dr_gn]

chrisga said:

dr_gn said:

A paint brush for the panels is useless - it won't give a good enough finish.

Not necessarily true, this is a photo of the tail section of doohans 98 NSR that i made. I painted this model entirely by brush as an experiment as i had heard people saying you need to airbrush everything. I'm pretty pleased with the results. The colour isnt quite correct as it is just the metallic blue X-series tamiya acryllic paint though:





And the final result:



I would class myself as a resonable standard modeller, but nowhere near amazing. I do not use an airbrush as to me it seems to complicated. I like to be able to dip in and out of modelling, and the tamiya acryllic paints allow me to do that. They are water soluble so just take a glass of water with me and i can rinse the brush between colours. So all of my models are painted by brush but i usually use the tamiya spray paints for the bodywork. I find these need a bit of practice to get good colour and good coverage, not too thick and a few coats. I can usually get 2 kits out of 1 can if I'm careful. As a beginner I would definitely recommend going down the route of tamiya acryllics brushed on for the majority of parts. I always paint the whole kit while still on the sprue and then assemble and touch up the little parts where you cut it off the sprue afterwards. Obviously get as many paints as you can afford for different colours, although you will hardly use much of each if only doing one kit, but look on it as an investment. You will get hooked. When i did my first model, i just bought silver, black and grey i think, and now have pretty much the whole selection of tamiya colours.

Excellent choice of kit to start with as well, the Tamiya 1:12 bike kits are just the best. They always fit together nicely and have amazing detail levels. I have a set of more photos of some of my bikes here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/98882529@N00/sets/721...

My personal favourite is this one (body painted with tamiya spray can, everything else brushed:



Hope that helps, and if you ened any more help/advice just ask.

Edited by chrisga on Friday 6th November 12:42

Edited by chrisga on Friday 6th November 12:46

I hesitate to be critical, because they are obviously fine models, and the surface finish of the paint does indeed look very good. My observation is that the metallic blue is slightly streaked due to the brush strokes, and the metallic particles are therefore not as randomly orientated as they would be with an airbrush.

But I'm sure you knew that anyway.

BTW - were the white parts of the fairings painted, or is this bare plastic?

[chrisga]

No probs about being critical, i appreciate that they are nowhere near perfect, as i said the NSR panels were specifically brushed to see what the best finish i could achieve would be. I am quite impressed with the finish which was done with only a cheap brush and a 99p pot of paint. Yes, obviously an airbrush would achieve a better finish, probably quicker and easier than the amount of effort it took to get the brushed finish like that, but as i said i dont have an airbrush as i like to be able to dip in and out of my modelling so washing a brush off in a glass of water is about as technical as I get. I'm only an amateur and as such take pride in producing the kits out of the box, i have never bought any of the upgrade parts or resin kits. The only aftermarket things i buy are carbon fibre decal sheets and different decals if there is one i like the look of such as the West RC211V or this:



I made Marco Melandris Fortuna RC211V, purely because of this manoueuvre at the end of Phillip Island GP a couple of years ago....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvsit-R53cU&fea...

The white finish on the seat unit of the NSR under the "1" decal is painted, the white stripe under the seat pad and on the front nose of the bike are decals IIRC. Ive clear coated over the top of the whole lot when finished.

[dr_gn]

chrisga said:

No probs about being critical, i appreciate that they are nowhere near perfect, as i said the NSR panels were specifically brushed to see what the best finish i could achieve would be. I am quite impressed with the finish which was done with only a cheap brush and a 99p pot of paint. Yes, obviously an airbrush would achieve a better finish, probably quicker and easier than the amount of effort it took to get the brushed finish like that, but as i said i dont have an airbrush as i like to be able to dip in and out of my modelling so washing a brush off in a glass of water is about as technical as I get. I'm only an amateur and as such take pride in producing the kits out of the box, i have never bought any of the upgrade parts or resin kits. The only aftermarket things i buy are carbon fibre decal sheets and different decals if there is one i like the look of such as the West RC211V or this:



I made Marco Melandris Fortuna RC211V, purely because of this manoueuvre at the end of Phillip Island GP a couple of years ago....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvsit-R53cU&fea...

The white finish on the seat unit of the NSR under the "1" decal is painted, the white stripe under the seat pad and on the front nose of the bike are decals IIRC. Ive clear coated over the top of the whole lot when finished.

Very nice. So how did you clearcoat them? Spray can or by hand?

[chrisga]

Is it Johnsons Klear i think it is called. Some form of acryllic based laminate floor polish called something like that anyway. Great stuff and only about £2.50 a bottle from ASDA and ive only used about a quarter of the bottle in about 3 years but brings out the colours of the models really well, and hopefully makes the decals stick forever! I paint it on with a brush again.

[chrisga]

Oh and apologies to the OP for the threadjack.....

[dr_gn]

chrisga said:

Is it Johnsons Klear i think it is called. Some form of acryllic based laminate floor polish called something like that anyway. Great stuff and only about £2.50 a bottle from ASDA and ive only used about a quarter of the bottle in about 3 years but brings out the colours of the models really well, and hopefully makes the decals stick forever! I paint it on with a brush again.

Yep, I tried it for the first time on my last model. Seems to work very well, especially for making transparent parts look thinner and even more transparent. Airbrushes on neat, and no matter what I did, I couldn't get it to run - it dried that fast. Conversley, it's so thin that it's almost self-levelling. wierd stuff (and apparently no longer made to the original formula).