Posted by Bob Read on July 27, 1998 at 21:06:45 in pm3-2-146.apci.net:
In Reply to: Painting posted by Kevin on July 27, 1998 at 13:21:01:
Kevin:
These are just my personal preferences but I used a Paasche airbrush that was a basic model that you can get from an art store or hobby store for probably less than $50. You really don't need a lot of bells and whistles on one. I used propellant cans that you can get in any Wal-Mart for the air supply. If you do a whole lot of painting, a small compressor would be good but for the occasional model the cans work fine.
The reason I painted a fair bit of my model with an airbrush is so that I could use Floquil paints.
These are laquer-like paints that dry super fast and completely cover with rarely more than one coat therby not obscuring detail.
As a rule of thumb, anything that can be painted off the model should be. In some cases there's no way around painting on the model but I found few instances of this. Now, small details like window frames, etc. have to be done with a fine brush. When painting fine details with a brush, have a really good light source and, if possible, magnification. Dazor makes some good lamps with magnifying lenses for the craftsman/hobbyist. You can find these in home improvement stores like Home Depot, etc. For brush painting I would use acrylics as a first choice and enamels as a second. Probably the most time consuming job to get a good paint job is masking. Use one of the low tack tapes and don't get in a hurry. Sometimes where tape is not practical I use liquid mask. Sharp, crisp paint separation lines are what separate the men from the boys at the hobby shows.
This is a separate subject, but I can't stress too much the importance of seam filling with putty and sanding the seams so that when someone views your model they can't tell how it went together.
Regards,
Bob Read
: I just bought the titanic model and I have a couple of questions. 1) would it be best to paint all the parts first before assembling or is there an order which I should use. 2) Do I need an airbrush?? I have never used an airbrush but I would like this model to be awesome looking or will regular hand paints and spray paints work fine. I don't really want to shell out the 150.00 to get a good airbrushing kit if I can make do with other paints. Thanks for any help.