Elderley newcomer

[yan]

Hi to all,
I am hopefully about to start airbrushing and would like some advice please. The first reason for starting is to enable me to renovate a large collection of my 1950s Dinky vehicles.
I would like advice with airbrushes and paints, the airbrushes I have been reading about so far have been the Iwata HP-CS, HP-C and HP-CH. I have read that maybe the HP-CS may be suitable as it will allow wetter coats to be layed down fast especially when clear gloss finish coating.
Regarding paints would acrylics be suitable with a clear gloss finish coat on top bearing in mind that the material being sprayed will be diecast alloy.
Thanks with any advice regarding airbrush type, paints/additives and my project as I an struggling at present.

[Kevthemodeller]

I'm not sure about the airbrush detail you give, how much paint or top coat is applied is really down to you and your finger plus needle size and air pressure. For something like Dinky cars anything between 0.2 - 0.4 needle airbrush would do, I'd say.

As for the paint, I would doubt your standard water based model acrylic would do, I'd suggest either lacquer or enamel paints.

[barrythornton]

Lots of youtube videos lately , covering matchbox, Hot Wheels and Dinky , all of which are of course die cast metal , so the information should cross over.
Last one I was looking at re paint stripping and repainting, he used Tamiya paint (sudo acrylic). But make sure you lay down a good primer , and it should be up to you what you cover with.

[yan]

Hello Kev
Thanks for your reply, regarding how much paint is applied was down to me reading that getting a good gloss finish is helped by keeping a wet edge when spraying gloss clear coats, and brushes with larger nozzles being better.


Hello Barry,
Thanks also for your reply I will view the video to see if it can help me, I have looked at a lot of YouTube videos for Dinky renovations but most are hand painted. The finish on others have been difficult to see properly as some videos are not good quality.

[barrythornton]

Although we are primarily a `modelling` forum, which denotes the use of plastic , you`ll find members here dealing with almost every material ..... resin , Brass , Aluminium , White metals , and all are treated equally.
That being , probably the most important step would be the primer , as in painting a real car. It is the primer that bonds to the raw material , giving any subsequent layers of paint something to grab .
There have been some stunning vehicle finishes achieved with primer, Acrylic, gloss coat on this site alone, where you would not know if the model was plastic , resin , or die cast.
So get a feel for the restoration process via the Matchbox / Dinky guys and turn to modellers for the airbrush / paint process.
Cant go wrong watching Admin Pauls video series on spraying car models.
Good luck.

[yan]

Hi Barry thanks for your message, really good to know there is plenty of help here.
I have watched one of Pauls car builds mainly the airbrushing of the acrylics and 2k clear gloss lacquer which I found very interesting.

I would like some advice with which primer, acrylic and gloss clear to use. Also advice on which airbrush to use with these type of paints. I have already seen that Ultimate thinner and cleaner are very highly thought of.


I have watched many YouTube vids regarding the Dinky restoration guys but after seeing the paint finish on Pauls models they take some beating.

[barrythornton]

Any of the Airbrushes you have lined up will be more than adequate, primer seems to have a clear winner .... Ultimate primer or Badger Stynlrez (same stuff) , or if you need some handy , Halfords Grey car primer is old school and sticks to all metals.
Paints are up to you , recommendations start disagreements usually , so I would say it depends on the colour you pick , Tamiya are easy to get and good for solids but not for unusual car colours.
Mr Color are great and maybe more choice of colour , but if its an unusual colour , you may want to ask as some ranges will and some wont do it . The colour alone may lead you to a certain range of paint.

[yan]

Ok Barry thanks, that gives me a good start.
I have a reasonable idea of what I need to purchase for a start to my project.
Over the rest of these winter months I can start to purchase all of the things that I require. That will give me time as my workshop is in the garden and takes a bit of heating, and I struggle in the cold weather.