North American Supermarine Sapphire Sabre

[Captain Canada]

Oh what a great shape that has !

[kitnut617]

That looks great H, you've given me an idea ---- 

[Weaver]

Just tried hand-painting the LAG undersides so I didn't have to mess with the airbrush, and it looks.... sh, sh.... rubbish...

Need to sleep now, so I'll do what I should have done in the first place and get the airbrush out in the morning.

[Weaver]

Okay I got an airbrush coat of Light Aircraft Grey on it this morning and it's looking a lot better. I think I over-thinned the paint when I tried to brush it last night: these newer Humbrols seem to be much thinner and finer than the old ones in the tin.

[NARSES2]

Okay I got an airbrush coat of Light Aircraft Grey on it this morning and it's looking a lot better. I think I over-thinned the paint when I tried to brush it last night: these newer Humbrols seem to be much thinner and finer than the old ones in the tin.

They are indeed, especially since production has been brought back to the UK

[Weaver]

So, a summary of the current paint saga:

1. Tried brush painting with Hu166 Light Aircraft Grey diluted roughly 4 paint: 2 thinners. Came out streaky 'cos it was far too thin.

2. Tried airbrushing with Hu166 Light Aircraft Grey diluted 4 paint: 4 thinners. Worked fine.

3. Tried airbrushing with Hu164 Dark Sea Grey diluted 4 paint: 4 thinners. Came out far too thin and watery and failed to cover. May also have blown under some masking  .

4. Tried airbrushing with Hu164 Dark Sea Grey diluted 4 paint: 3 thinners. Worked fine.


It's the Hu163 Dark Green tonight: anyone want to take bets...? 

In all fairness to the paint, step 3 above may also have been affected by a subtle airbrush malfunction.

[DogfighterZen]

I always put some thinner in the airbrush's cup before pouring paint in there, then after paint goes in, i back flush it to mix the paint and thinner with the bubbling of the air, just put the lid of the cup on or else, you can easily press the trigger too far back and the paint just bubbles out of the cup...
If there's not enough thinner in the mix, you'll hear the air forcing it's way through and the spray will be very inconsistent, if any comes out at all.
One thing i find helpful to get it right if i'm in doubt before painting plastic is spraying it on a paper towel to see how it's flowing, if all's going normally then i'll spray the plastic. But i have to admit that now i only use Tamiya Acrylics, which are the easiest for me to buy at my LHS, and i'm so used to the ratio of Tamiya paint/thinner that most of the time i just pour both products into the cup, with only good ol' Mk.1 eyeball measurement, although some colors are a bit thicker than others so those get more thinner in the mix.
But results are very different with other paint/thinner brands, i gave up on Vallejo Air colors, the thinner didn't thin them and it was a PITA to get to work on the airbrush and then to clean it off...
Hope you went with steps 2 and 4 this time...

[zenrat]

I thin Vallejo acrylics with tap water.  No problems other than those caused by my own incompetence.
Vallejo Air paint is supposed to be ready to airbrush and so shouldn't need thinning although I must admit some colours seem a bit thicker than others.

[PR19_Kit]

I use a paint brush....... 

[Weaver]

I always put some thinner in the airbrush's cup before pouring paint in there, then after paint goes in, i back flush it to mix the paint and thinner with the bubbling of the air, just put the lid of the cup on or else, you can easily press the trigger too far back and the paint just bubbles out of the cup...

Sounds like a good tip, but since my airbrush is a single-action suction-feed type, I can't really use it.

If there's not enough thinner in the mix, you'll hear the air forcing it's way through and the spray will be very inconsistent, if any comes out at all.
One thing i find helpful to get it right if i'm in doubt before painting plastic is spraying it on a paper towel to see how it's flowing, if all's going normally then i'll spray the plastic. But i have to admit that now i only use Tamiya Acrylics, which are the easiest for me to buy at my LHS, and i'm so used to the ratio of Tamiya paint/thinner that most of the time i just pour both products into the cup, with only good ol' Mk.1 eyeball measurement, although some colors are a bit thicker than others so those get more thinner in the mix.

I test-sprayed the DSG on some cardboard before I started and it looked OK. It was only when it got on the painted undercoat that it looked too thin. I've now designated an old 1/48th F-19 shell as the airbrush station paint hack for future tests...

I use cheap syringes to measure out the paint and thinners fairly precisely. Having said that, the thinners does tend to make the markings come off the outside of them.. Note that they have to be the type with one-piece plastic plungers: the type with a rubber 'piston' are no good for enamels because the thinners caused the rubber to expand. It's a good demonstration of how self-sealing tanks work, but lousy for measuring paint, unfortunately...

But results are very different with other paint/thinner brands, i gave up on Vallejo Air colors, the thinner didn't thin them and it was a PITA to get to work on the airbrush and then to clean it off...

I'm used to Humbrol enamels, but the problem now is that the old ones and the new ones have different consistencies.

Hope you went with steps 2 and 4 this time...

Problem was choosing between steps 2 and 4! I went with step 4 (4 paint : 3 thinners) and it worked OK this time.

[Weaver]

I use a paint brush....... 

I tried!

[Weaver]

Well the good news is that the Hu163 went on without a problem, the masking is off, and the it turns out that the DSG did not blow under some masking as I thought, so there's very little touch-up to do. This might also be because I abandoned the Blu-Tack-snake masking method and went back to cutting wavy edges out of 18mm Tamiya tape so I could burnish the edges right down. I've experienced some downsides to the snake method using enamels, notably that the thinners tends to make the Blu-tack extra-sticky and difficult to get out of deep cracks and holes like intakes and exhausts, leaving a residue. In fact, there have been times when I've given up and painted the Blu-tack black!

Couple of observations about the paints:

1. They seem very dark, particularly the DSG. I think they're accurate, but this might be one of those scale-colour issues where the full-colour paints work all too well at camouflaging the aircraft. It might also be because the Airfix instructions show the DSG as much lighter (almost as light as Light Aircraft Grey) but I suspect that's just for contrast to make it easier to seen the demarcations lines.

2. They're all supposed to be satin, but the DSG looks much more matt than the other two.

[kitbasher]

Hairy stick user myself, but comments about the Humbrol paints are still helpful.  Although I tend to use them as base coats for Xtracolor, they still need to go on well and I've noticed the thinness too. Streaky finish, needs two coats, etc.

BTW any plans to put the Fury wings on the Swift?  It'd be a shame to waste the leftovers.

[Gondor]

I use a hairy stick as well although I have found that some metallic colours do not work well with that. I have a build stalled because of this and I don't like all the faf that goes with using an airbrush one of which I do own and will probably need a deep clean before I ever attempt to use it again

Gondor

[Weaver]

Hairy stick user myself, but comments about the Humbrol paints are still helpful.  Although I tend to use them as base coats for Xtracolor, they still need to go on well and I've noticed the thinness too. Streaky finish, needs two coats, etc.

BTW any plans to put the Fury wings on the Swift?  It'd be a shame to waste the leftovers.

No, but the Fury wings will probably come in useful at some point because they're swept and tapered, which is relatively unusual.

I'm not a fan of the Swift, either aesthetically or technically, and I've already used the prettiest bits, so I suspect I'll end up using it as a parts donor more than anything. The cockpit is particularly nice, and with more time and nerve, I might have adapted it to the Fury.