Hello,
In line with the previous thread about thinners for this brand. Scalecoat has always been a favorite paint for painting brass in the hobby. Once the clear coat was stripped from a brass piece all one needed to do was apply several light coats of Scalecoat without primer, bake the piece in the oven at 175 for an hour and it came out rock hard and very glossy. Eliminating a primer coat and a gloss coat.
Now that Scalecoat is gone what is an alternative to someone like me needing to paint 6 Hallmark Katy heavyweights in Pullman green? I have tried Tru Color and it is good paint however I would be afraid to put it on brass without a primer. Being a synthetic acrylic I found its best on plastic. Also the thinner is very expensive and like Gunze Mr Color a bit fickle on paint to thinner ratio's. I have tried Trucolor with Gunze's thinner and it worked prettty well but dried flatter, most likely to the hot nature of the thinner. Any advice or experience would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
SB
Hello SB,
I empathize as SC was my preferred "go to" for airbrushing models composed of metal. Nice not having to use primer and being able to apply decals as soon as the finish cured. Floquil also yielded very nice results. It is frustrating that our options have become more limited over time.
But to be fair, Tru Color actually adheres well to brass models as long as you apply a quality primer (as you pointed out).
Good observation that your thinner apparently causes the paint to dry to a flatter finish. Although it is an extra step, you could consider applying 1 to 2 thin coats of either TCP-014 semi-gloss clear or TCP-018 gloss clear over the finish. A plus about this step is that your paint finish will be better protected. If you take this route, it may be helpful to test spray a clean scrap brass strip with the primer, paint and clearcoat, then check the results after it has cured.
An option that I've used before, which unfortunately is more expensive, is applying automotive paint. Reputable paint & body businesses, like "Finishmaster" and "Autobody Express" can match paint samples with digital scanners that yield good results. I applied single-stage acrylic enamel (Centari) on to a friend's Pennsy K4 some years back. The finish was smooth and "rock hard" glossy but the paint and materials were not cheap. I was fortunate in having worked at a transit system shop and received discounts from the vendors we bought our materails from.
Respectully, my apologies for not being more helpful.
"I like my Pullman Standards & Budds in Stainless Steel flavors, thank you!"
I brush paint the Tru-Color so take this with a grain of salt: When I clean my brushes, I use good old acetone. As I don't airbrush, I don't know if that would do anything or not, but it does thin the paint.
Thanks for the reply's. I have, Antonio, purchased at the suggestion of a friend in the scale modeling business some of Gunze's Hobby Color gray primer to try with Tru Colors Pullman Green on top. It is formulated for priming photoetch so should be good on brass. If it does not gloss over I can alway use my Tamiya X22 gloss on it.
I have also thought about trying acetone with true color but have heard spraying it makes it dry way to fast and pebbly which makes sense as it atomizes and travels through air which makes it more dry. But acetone is great for cleaning airbrushes as long as ur brush uses teflon rings.
The autopaint match isn't bad for a lot of cars. But for only a few I like TCP well enough.