Erm, more wattery means ration 10:1 or 15(or more):1 water/thinner:paint. tamiya colors 'X' series is mostly water based. the rest are lacquer and will need thinner instead of water.

10:1 ratio or more is watery, what Advocado meant is it's actually easier. If your mixture is thick, we know it's easy to see how the color sticks to the paint when you did the first 5 swipes. When it's watery, you need more than 30 swipes or we called it layer. On the first layer of swipes, you will just notice it's like 'wiping water' over the kit. You wont see the effect until you try til the 10th or more. Best wait till dry then swipe next layer. I some times blow to dry or use hair dryer.

Handpaint, you have 2 techniques. wet-brush or dry-brush. Then as Rayloke says you can't touch it (if nto to "play"), what this meant is, you have to decide, when you color the kit, do you want it as a 'fixed posed' or 'posable unit', literally do you want to move it a lot or not move it at all after painting. We all know it get's scratches over time. Wet brush needs practice which is worth it, and then you will see why airbrushing using lacquer paints is somewhat what all advance or intermediate modelers prefer to use.

After 'priming', you do not want to touch it. Oil or whatever on your hands may stick on it and may beats the objective on why u primed it. - TO MAKE THE PAINT STICK. touch it and the paint will be hard to stick. Try painting on a disposable microwave transparent case (usually used for food package) using 15:1 water:paint ratio: Thats what you DONT want. the paint won't stick (easily). You may end up having brush strokes marks too ~

This post has been edited by cryonic: Mar 23 2010, 06:03 PM