The Little World

I have numbered the photos today for the new members of the club who wonder how to spray paint things without injury. It is not possible – expect to lose a lung at some stage of the game.

In the meantime, No.1 is the Seiran in grey undercoat – in this case Mr. Surfacer 1200. Tamiya kits are so good and need so little gap-filling subterfuge that the finer grades of undercoat are preferred. I use a single-action Mr Hobby Pro-Com spray gun that lets me just hold down the button, rotate the model in the paint stream, and it is done in a minute. Of course there is thinner, but for this sort of surface the Rapid Dry bottle is fine, and it really is ready to go within ten minutes.

No. 2 has seen the grey underside sprayed with the double-action Mr Hobby Pro-Com brush. A little more precise than the single action, but as it is a lacquer coat it goes down very smoothly. In this case the thinner is the regular consistency. Cold weather allows plenty of drying time.

After the colour grey has had two hours to harden it is on with the tape lines and then the kneadable eraser rolled into putty worms. The jury is still out as to whether it is better to place the worms or the tape first, but in the end they are united in a sad mess by some liquid mask. The least attractive stage of a build.

No.3 is the green topcoat and No.4 the finished grey paint. They went on with no problems, but still had a slight matte look to the surface – no matter – a rattle can spray of clear gloss smoothed and evened the whole in preparation for the decals. I might have been tempted to avoid this on decals other than Tamiya – but they are hard enough to coax into detail lines as it is. My choice of rattle can is a simple one; whatever is on the shelf at the local hobby shop. I prefer Mr Color lacquers and then their acrylics, but will make use of Tamiya or Testor’s as I encounter it. In the Perth hobby climate it does not pay to be too fussy about what you get.

The single action gun can also be brought into this stage as it sprays clear beautifully, but getting Mr Color 46 can be problematical at times. The experiments with dilution of a commercial clear acrylic from Supercheap Auto were spotty – but there may still be a place for it as a clear coat.