Using acrylics

I bought my first paints, for my first model a Sopwith 1-1/2 strutter in 1/72 Scale.I have 3 misterkit colors I have Clear doped Linen for the Under Wings, and the bottom of the fusalage,and the Interior,for the overall paint I got the British Bc-03 pc-10 green,for the metel Parts i.e. the Engine cowl,landing Gear,etc I got Bc-01 Battleship Grey,How do i go about thining them,is it hard?and how does one Paint with them


AJ

[mgtaylor]

Here it is in a NUT shell , Two things:

1.) Take a light grey FLAT enamel, thin the heck out of it and spray away ALL over everything you intend on painting period. I start with the parts sprues straight out of the box and coat everything still on the sprue.

Water based colors "Stick" / "Grab" better to a Flat surface the micro abrasive surface which causes it to look flat allows the Acrylic paints to hold on to better than bare Oil based plastic.

2) SOunds too simple to work BUT IT IS AND IT DOES. LOWER and STEADY That Air OCmpressor AIR Pressure. 15 psi +/- 3psi. !!!! I was window shopping at my local Target store and in the Auto section was a cheap 1 1/2 Gal Holding tank Air COmpressor with a regulator knob to control output pressure. NEVER have HAD A Problem since works like a charm.

ALso a few drops of Isopropal Alcohol will BREAK the SURFACE tension of the Water which will instantly pop those air bubbles and allow the paint ot flow smoothly thru the gun.

High Pressure creates Heat which dries the micro scopic beads of paint leaving your gun. It also collects on the internal parts clogging it up. A low air pressure with a thinning agent to retard the water's surfacr tension makes everything work smooth as butter.

Thin with Bottled Water, a few drops of 90% Rubbing Alcohol or any kind of Hobby Acrylic Paint Thinner like testors or Poly-S, Etc. (If you like spending Money?)


Or you can brush straight from the bottle.

Yours MIke

Mike do I still spry the parts with the flat paint,and thin it like you described even if i'm brush Painting it,or like you said, do just start painting right out of the bottle?

AJ

[nigelrayner]

Hi AJ,

I brush paint and use acrylics including quite a lot of MisterKit. For any acrylic, you need an undercoat and for MisterKit you need an undercoat in the appropriate colour because these are very thin paints and do not cover well. However, they do brush beautifully with no thinning, just mix well and use straight from the bottle.

Here's what I do for painting a British plane. Undercoat the whole thing in a cream colour to give a good base for the MisterKit CDL. I do tend to use Humbrol enamels for undercoats because these cover better than most paints but you could just use a flat white acrylic or even a light grey (the Games Workshop acrylics are good for this, they cover much better than MisterKit). When using enamels, I apply two well thinned coats. the first will be very patchy, the second will cover better but won't be perfect - don't worry as it is only the undercoat.

Once you have done the undercoat, then apply the MisterKit CDL on all the CDL areas. You will need at least two coats, most likely three. Don't worry about trying to cover in a single coat - more thin coats is better than fewer thick ones, as you are likely to get severe puddling if you put on a thick coat. These paints brush very nicely but they are thin. Once you have done the CDL you then need to undercoat the PC-10 areas with a dark colour. This is because the darker MisterKit paints are very translucent and you would need loads of coats to get decent coverage over a light undercoat. I use an olive drab Humbrol enamel for this (something like 150) but again you could use any dark green acrylic if you don't want to use enamel. The MisterKit Battleship Grey covers quite well so just two coats over any undercoat colour should do you.

And now a word of warning - the MisterKit PC-10 looks unlike any representation of PC-10 that I have ever seen. It comes out as a light greyish-green (this is worse over a light undercoat). Now no-one really knows what PC-10 looked like so you may be ok with this but I was really disappointed when I first tried this colour. All contemporary accounts talk of khaki through to chocolate brown (one mentions green) and the MisterKit PC-10 isn't close to any of these colours. I mix now my own PC-10 from a combination of Games Workshop Catachan Green and Scorched Brown.

The attached link takes you to a BE2e that was brush painted with MisterKit CDL and grey (and custom mix PC-10 using MK colours). Just scroll down until you see the BE2e.

http://www.wwi-models.org/Images/Ray...ied/index.html

HTH,

Nigel

[mgtaylor]

Nigel, ouch. Like Alcads if you use a Lt or Dark Primer it will affect the top shade.

My point was a Thinned Enamel FLAT Coat is what to go for to really seal the Acrylic on. I have only good reports as far as MK Coverage is concerned. I only recommmended a primer bceause as an Acrylic it helps fuse the paint to the model and a Nutural Color Wh/Grey really helps the true shade come out.

In FACT there are Two common British PC Dopes that were used during the war and it is easy to get references to each color confused. The well know color is as you say PC10 which IS a Greenish/Olive Khaki color. However you are correct whee you mention a Choclate/Brownish Khaki which came on durining the war when More Orche was added to the mix and is called PC12.

If Iam not mistaken you'll find reference to it in the back section of a Sopwith Camel Windsock DataFile. MK Makes a PC12 Brownish British Khaki.

They also make a Reddish Tropical Brown used on export aircraft in the MidEast for example, Also a Night Invisible Varnish Orderiferous (NIVO) which is a very Dark Green which was used on their Night Fighters primarily based at home like the Be2.

I have been told by a customer that they covered a Revell 1/28 Red Molded DrI straight out of the bottle without an issue and in one coat.

If I may suggest it sounds as if the air pressure may be slightly too high on your gun and/or you are thinning it a little too much if your coats are truely that thin where you are not covering the color?

Yes thin coat passes are preferable to one thick pass. But theres no reason you can't cover with good results with one spraying ?

Heres an example of French CDL over a Lt grey Primer



ANd here is Fokker Factory Olive over a Lt grey primer as well.

Thanks nigel, that will help alot.

AJ

[nigelrayner]

I don't want to appear overly critical of MisterKit but a couple of responses to mgtaylor's (sorry, I don't know your first name...) post.

First, I'm brushing with real brushes, not an airbrush. I realize coverage will be better with an airbrush. The challenge with a real brush is that the paint is pulled so thin by the brush that it takes more coats to cover. However, as I said in the original post, MK paints brush paint beautifully because they are thin - brush marks disappear completely. But when brush painting you cannot get coverage with a single coat with most colours. Every one of the models you see in my gallery on the WWI modelling site is brush painted with MK paints at least to some degree so I think I can claim some experience here. The coverage does vary: example - I'm just working on the MAC SPAD VII and the French Light Yellow I used for the CDL needed three coats. However, the French Beige I used on the front part of the plane nearly covered in one coat (probably would have done if I really tried but was content to do two thin coats).

Second, PC-10 and colours generally. I've been a long time user of MisterKit (MK) WWI paints, ever since they were first released. I have virtually every German, French, British and Austrian colour. Currently I have at least 60 bottles of MK paints. So here's what I find. Let me caveat, as I did the previous post, that this is my opinion. WWI colours are not an exact science so everyone's mileage may vary. I find the CDL colours good and I use these a lot. I also use the German blues and I like the Fokker olive and the Austrian greys. But I find some of the colours are way off my personal interpretation (and many profile painters as well). I think this is because MK have gone for "scale" colour and added white to some colours. I have tried a number of the reds and find these unusable because they are actually more pink than red (eg Jasta 10 red, British roundel red, French roundel red). As I said in the previous post, the MK PC-10 looks nothing like any representation I have ever seen in a painting, in a profile or on an original or replica plane (the same is true of their PC-12 which is a pinky brwon, not a deep brown). I'm not positioning myself as the absolute authority but I have looked at hundreds of profiles, seen a lot of replica aircraft and viewed the one known orginal remaining PC-10 example on the DH-9 at Le Bourget. None of these looked like the light greyish-green colour that I got with MK PC-10. Now MK may have changed the formulation as I bought the PC-10 a while back, so perhaps my view is out of date.

We had a recent thread on PC-10 formulation - go here for a summary of how original, contemporary sources describe PC-10:

Where did the green come from??

The words use include "ochre", "green", "olive green" and "chocolate brown" when describing PC-10, not PC-12.

So to summarize, I love the MK paints for brush painting but the colours vary and I prefer not to use some of them. I would advise potential purchasers to check these out against their own references and preferences before purchasing. And here's a challenge - check out my BE2e (which is an MK mix) an compare that to a model painted in "pure" MK PC-10. Tell me which looks more like a "typical" PC-10 representation........

Cheers,

Nigel

this will be my first Kit, I will be doing a combanation of brush Painting,and spray Painting,that primary Coat of Paint you suggested before I start laying down the acry can it be Spray Painted ?or does it have to Painted a certain way?

AJ

[nigelrayner]

AJ,

For the primary coat (undercoat), do whichever you prefer - airbrush, undercoat from a rattle can or brush paint. I brush paint because I don't own an airbrush (don't like them, just a personal choice) so I have to do typically two coats. If you airbrush or use a rattle can for the undercoat you will probably only need one coat. So do whatever works for you - often folks will airbrush the larger areas and brush paint smaller areas, such as the battleship grey on British planes because the masking and mixing for a small area is a pain.

Cheers,

Nigel

Thanks nigel for all of your help!

AJ