avatar_SebastianP

Enamel brush painting for dummies

Started by SebastianP, May 07, 2009, 08:32:48 PM

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SebastianP

I've been pretty much exclusively a brush painter since I started modeling - mainly for budget reasons, because an airbrush and support equippment costs a bundle, and learning how to use the blasted thing will take a fair few kits before you get consistently good results.

I also use enamels for nearly everything, since acrylics and I don't mix very well. The only times I use acrylics is in a rattle can, and then mostly only for white, since it's the most difficult color to hand paint.

At any rate, after ten years of so of painting kits by hand, I've got the technical parts down to a science. My brush-handling needs more work still, but I thought I'd at least share my collected wisdom with those of you who can better apply it than I can right now...

In my experience, the essential tools needed for a nice flat surface with enamels boils down to the following:

* First, you need a decent flat brush, with thin soft bristles. I use Tamiya's, mostly their No.3 and No.5 flat brushes for the big stuff, or their No.1 for medium-small bits.

* Second, you need some thinner. I've pretty much stopped using brand name enamel thinners, and instead I buy naphta in one-liter bottles from a professional paint store.

* Third, you need a tall glass jar with a screwtop lid. The jar is for keeping usable quantities of naphta in, and it needs to be tall so you can leave your brushes to soak for a bit when needed.  I use old olive jars right now, they're between four and six inches tall and about an inch and a half to two inches in diameter.

* Fourth, you need some disposable styrene cups.  These are where you keep and mix your ready-to-use paint. Never ever dip your brush in the pain tin, and espescially never brush off the excess agains the rim of the tin. The first can and will contaminate the paint with anything and everything you pick up with the brush, and the other will cause buildup that will make the tin impossible to close properly, with will eventually cause it to dry in the tin.

* Fifth, you need some sprue bits with which to stir your paint, as well as pick it up and transfer it to the plastic cups. I stir thoroughly with a piece of sprue and then dip and dribble what I need into the cup. This makes mixing dead easy, though keeping track of the exact mix is a bit difficult. Better use it everywhere it's needed during the same session.

* Finally you need the paints. I use Humbrol and Modelmaster since that's what's available.

My painting process after I've transferred the paint(s) I need to a cup starts with dipping the brush in some naphta and dribbling off a few drops of it into the paint cup. You usually don't need more than a few drops, it depends on how much paint is in the cup. Then I mix the paint with the brush, which also loads it up. and test it by painting up the sides of the cup (it's styrene, same as a kit). This also takes care of some of the excess. If it looks OK, I start painting the model itself- To get the flattest possible finish, keep the pressure really light and hold the brush perpendicular to the surface you're painting. Use only the tips of the bristles, sort of like broom. If you get dust particles in your wet paint, that's exactly how you get rid of them - sweep them off the edge using the brush as a broom. As long as the paint is not too dry or too thick, there's no need to worry about brushstrokes. You can however encounter problems with too thin and runny paint - avoiding that takes some experience, but it''s pretty easy to clean it off with a piece of tissue.

Cheers

SP

Weaver

Cheers Sebastian - interesting. :thumbsup:

For paint mixing, I have glass eyedroppers for small quantities, and paint syringes for big (i.e. airbrush) quantities. I got the former off ebay and the latter from a local art shop. It's important that the syringes have solid plastic plungers without a rubber tip, because the latter will pull off due to the viscosity of the paint. You can clean either of them by drawing thinners/brush cleaner in and out of them IMMEDIATELY after use. I then use a twisted paper towel to wipe the inside of them.
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Allan

Hi fellows,
Good info on this thread. When I buy a new tinlet of enamel paint I shake it for a few days, keep it in a warm place and then give it a very good stir with a piece of sharpened sprue, but I always find that some of the paint sloshes over onto the lip of the tin. I wonder how I can avoid this happening?
Allan in Canberra