” I’m happy with that. ” is a trademark phrase from the master at Matchbox car restoration – Marty from Melbourne. And one of the things he has always been happy with is the white undercoat that Tamiya put in a spray can. He uses it on pretty much all of the toy restorations that he undertakes and you can clearly see how well it does. The detail on plain old Matchbox die-cast cars and trucks that comes out in the undercoat stage is phenomenal. We never suspected that these toys contained that much good modelling.
Well, I have to agree with him about Tamiya undercoat, but I’d also like to put in a good word for Mr. Surfacer. It’s the Creos GSI equivalent material and the part I appreciate is that it comes in a bulk jar. This means I can mix up batches to suit the job I’m doing and with an airbrush there is a lot less overspray than with a can.
Mr. Surfacer comes in various mixtures designated by numbers. There’s a 500, 1000, 1200, and 1500 version*, with the mix becoming finer as you go up the numbers. I suspect that they are all based on the same material with a different amount of filler. Hitherto I have used Mr. Surfacer 1000 in gray and Mr. Surfacer/Primer 1000 in white and found that they spray very well. They also clean up completely with industrial lacquer thinner. But the light gray Mr. Surfacer 1200 seems to beat the lot – it blows diluted from an airbrush perfectly and if you keep close as you spray, you can finish an undercoat in very few passes – no rough sandpaper bits either.
I have taken to letting it dry for several days before the next coats, and there is never a problem. As long as you have enough jobs on, the time can be used very efficiently. The cost of undercoating is also a pleasant relief from the rattle cans. I would not hesitate to recommend it to Marty as a replacement for the Tamiya.
* There are also black and brown mixtures for armour or other modelling.
The Little World 
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