Hand/Brush painting

[neil_w]

In my current build I hand painted the interior of my pods with Testors enamel. I did it out of necessity; getting spray in there would have been more trouble than it's worth.

The insides of the tubes are pretty non-critical so I wasn't too careful with it, but the results were good enough that it made me wonder if there weren't more times when it'd be a good idea to pull out the paintbrushes. In many cases, it seems like it would save a lot of masking effort and a lot of wasted spray.

In the same build, I'm now almost certainly going to paint some strips with the brush, but then when I get to things like fins and nose cones I start getting nervous. Is it possible/practical to get really good results hand painting those sorts of things? Has anyone had success?

Although eliminating one or more rattle can steps sounds fantastic, I wouldn't do it at the expense of a good looking paint job. Rattle cans are a pain but I do get good results.

Was hoping folks could share their experiences here.

 

[MikeyDSlagle]

I painted one rocket with a brush a few years back, didn't turn out very good at all. But I was using a cheap brush and didn't know any techniques and what not. Try it on a less expensive bird first, or a blank tube.

Mikey D

 

[Daddyisabar]

In my current build I hand painted the interior of my pods with Testors enamel. I did it out of necessity; getting spray in there would have been more trouble than it's worth.

The insides of the tubes are pretty non-critical so I wasn't too careful with it, but the results were good enough that it made me wonder if there weren't more times when it'd be a good idea to pull out the paintbrushes. In many cases, it seems like it would save a lot of masking effort and a lot of wasted spray.

In the same build, I'm now almost certainly going to paint some strips with the brush, but then when I get to things like fins and nose cones I start getting nervous. Is it possible/practical to get really good results hand painting those sorts of things? Has anyone had success?

Although eliminating one or more rattle can steps sounds fantastic, I wouldn't do it at the expense of a good looking paint job. Rattle cans are a pain but I do get good results.

Was hoping folks could share their experiences here.

A good brush with fresh paint, good surface and thin coats applied right can give a decent finish. A lot of the brush marks will dry out. You can even sand it with ultra fine paper but I have never gone that far. Then give it a clear spray overcoat or plexiglass polish overcoat and even more brush marks will disappear. Never perfect like an airbrush, but good enough for a non competition, flying model.

 

[grapetang]

Ditto for what Daddyisabar said, especially applying properly thinned paints in thin coats. There's also this Apogee newsletter covering the issue.

My kid hand painted an Alpha III with craft store acrylics. It was applied thick over primer but came out fine though a bit heavier as a result. Craft acrylic is soft and isn't as tough as spray or bottled enamels or lacquers (I don't have experience with Testors' bottled acrylics). I'd prefer use the tougher solvent-based paints if it weren't for the toxicity.

Spray if you're covering large surface areas; your choice (or use/make decals) if it's small or non-critical. You will still need to mask carefully, especially for stripes or color transitions.

Good luck & have fun!

 

[tomsteve]

one shot sign paint and high quality striping brushes = great results.

paints with longer dry times allow for more time for the paint to flow out.

 

[Micromeister]

I'm an OLD Sign Hand Lettering Painter.

Absolutely! Hand Painting can give outstanding results. It is a matter of Good Brushes, Good Paint (Not necessarly Fresh - I'm still using 1973 One-Shot Lettering enamels). and getting the proper Pallet Drag... Yes guys even painting has a Drag coefficent LOL! Proper thinning of whatever paint your using, Testors tiny bottle paint can give just as good a finish as 1-Shot Lettering enamel, if we get that correct pallet drag which allows the paint to flow just a little as it dries making the brush marks disappear. If we have the consistancy right.

I've hand painted many rockets. Just because I had the color I was looking for that didn't come in a rattle can or air brush container.
As with most things Hand brush work comes with a learning curve. If you are interested in learning the how and why's of Hand painting I did a Tech Tip over in the www.narhams.org website Library section on "Brushes and Brushwork" Tech Tip-005 which has recently been updated and expanded with photos and new material 04-15-2015. It's a free 7pg pdf download that might be of help.

Below are just a few of the hand painted models I could think of quickly. On the PMC models ALL the multi-color camo patches, lines and such are all brushed on. That little F-14 tomcat is completely hand painted, in Testors Flats, yes the wings move.