I was thinking on making a smooth paint on my gundam but since industrial spray paint is not smooth enough for my liking is there any steps to make it happen other than dip in warm water ?

Well for me it was about 15-30cm depend on the wind also i use action base to hold the kit.

Maybe i should say that the paint is uneven as there some spot it was lighter than others

Is there any tips for samuel decal because for some reason when i put it in water, it instantly leave the decal backing. (or this just normal ?)

Thanks to both of you, now i starting to get hang of the water slide, now to face ver ka style decal

I was wondering that is using flat topcoat will have side effect on flat color ?

I don't see any noticeable difference with it, just the spray spread differently as far i remember.

No, Mr Hobby thinner was lacquer thinner. You should get Tamiya X-20 Thinner or lighter fluid (the ones like Zippo)

I read that oil paint can also be used but you still need to thin it down and take hours or days to dry, but to be honest just go for the good stuff since you really need to practice the thinning ratio of paints since different brand have different consistency, not to mention cleaning the airbrush itself.

Not sure if decanting spray paint is cheaper tho.

Yep, you need to buy the thinner just that i recommend getting the same brand as the paint and keep in mind the type of paint like acrylic paint thin with acrylic thinner and so on.

This post has been edited by Khai62: Sep 3 2012, 03:34 PM

Is there any solution for air leak on the quick release joint on airbrush ?

the air leaked between the lock and airbrush connector.

Just to add you go with out use primer since most paint stick to plastic solidly just that you need primer if you want to do shading or if you want to paint over a dark color part with light color.

You do need to mix with lacquer thinner (not sure if other type of thinner can) because out of the bottle the paint is quite rough. I usually mix about 1:2 ratio.

Mr surfacer is actually enough for priming purpose just that Mr. Primer Surfacer is combination of Mr. Surfacer, Mr.Resin Primer and Mr.Metal Primer. Thus make this primer a multipurpose primer that you can use on any modelling material.

As for me i hand painted using both lacquer and acrylic and i find the latter is much more better for this since it don't feel thick but smooth on the brush but both need to be thinned properly about the consistency of mild milk as in not too watery and still feel thickness of the paint. As for painting by layer, you really need to wait for about a minute or 2 to dry before applying the next coat as the bigger the painted surface area the longer it will dry but lacquer tend to dry the fastest and you need to paint in one direction only to minimize brush strokes. As for the gloss it either get a flat topcoat and spray on your finish kit or get a flat coat in a bottle and apply it by brush after the paint have dried.

It was like 1:3 or 1:4 ratio but usually my measuring stick for thinning paint was take a drop of the mixed paint and let it run on the side of the tray and see if it flow smoothly and still have some paint stick to it's side. It will take practice to find that sweetspot and if it was an old paint i will add more thinner than usual as they are much thicker. You do need to add some thinner again if it start to dry up especially with lacquer that tend to dry fast.

Wow that quite expensive, not sure want to since i have the Tamiya Sharp Pointed Side Cutter for Plastic which do quite well.

You can looking for airbrush cleaning here:
http://www.airbrushguru.com/cleaning-your-airbrush.html

I use a flat plastic ice cream spoon and wet fingers.

Ah yeah i should note i use epoxy putty never try the basic ones. The instruction do tell to use glove when mixing but after that u can use wet finger to apply, personally i don't have problem when mixing without gloves but i keep my fingers wet while doing it because you certainly don't want the putty stick to the fingers.

As to restore clear parts transparency you can refer here:
http://www.kenzbuilds.com/intermediate.php...ed_clear_parts#

For the metallic parts one the ways i know is remove the nubs with a sharp hobby knife, paint the nubs area with silver and then use clear color over it that the same color as the part. Like if the part was red, use a clear red paint over the silver.

This post has been edited by Khai62: Dec 15 2012, 04:41 PM