Well, I started painting the 1:350 Falcon tonight. Being such small scale, your paint coats have to be flawless.
First, I wanted to start with a black primer, for reasons I'll mention here soon. I sprayed Mr Surfacer 1500 thinned 1.5 : 1 thinner/primer with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This sprayed absolutely beautifully and laid down a smooth primer coat. If you don't have Mr Surfacer 1500, black Stynylrez is also a fantastic choice.
While I probably could have just left the primer as is, JUST to be sure, I gently polished the Falcon's primer coat with a soft toothbrush and toothpaste. This now left an ultra satin smooth finish for paint.
I chose to paint the Falcon Mr. Color 107 Character White. It's a very very light grey, not exactly white, and also semi-gloss. I chose to do a semi-gloss basecoat, because even at this scale, some flat paints may produce too much graininess, even with a flawless application. If you don't have a semi-gloss grey and are using Tamiya paints, you can mix their flat paints 50/50 with Tamiya X-22 clear to get semi gloss. If you're using Vallejo, you can add gloss medium in the same way. I thinned the paint 1:1 again with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This is where the black primer coat really does it's work. Because white has a poorer opaqueness than black, not all of the white pigment can get into every nook and cranny. This allows some shading in the crevices and is much better than a heavy handed black wash. I personally hate all but the most subtle of washes on a model, it ruins realism.
Lastly, I also polished the cured basecoat with toothpaste again to make sure it was absolutely flawless. Once all weathering is applied, the semi-gloss basecoat will probably get knocked back down to the flat hunk of junk we love.
First, I wanted to start with a black primer, for reasons I'll mention here soon. I sprayed Mr Surfacer 1500 thinned 1.5 : 1 thinner/primer with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This sprayed absolutely beautifully and laid down a smooth primer coat. If you don't have Mr Surfacer 1500, black Stynylrez is also a fantastic choice.
While I probably could have just left the primer as is, JUST to be sure, I gently polished the Falcon's primer coat with a soft toothbrush and toothpaste. This now left an ultra satin smooth finish for paint.
I chose to paint the Falcon Mr. Color 107 Character White. It's a very very light grey, not exactly white, and also semi-gloss. I chose to do a semi-gloss basecoat, because even at this scale, some flat paints may produce too much graininess, even with a flawless application. If you don't have a semi-gloss grey and are using Tamiya paints, you can mix their flat paints 50/50 with Tamiya X-22 clear to get semi gloss. If you're using Vallejo, you can add gloss medium in the same way. I thinned the paint 1:1 again with Mr. Leveling Thinner. This is where the black primer coat really does it's work. Because white has a poorer opaqueness than black, not all of the white pigment can get into every nook and cranny. This allows some shading in the crevices and is much better than a heavy handed black wash. I personally hate all but the most subtle of washes on a model, it ruins realism.
Lastly, I also polished the cured basecoat with toothpaste again to make sure it was absolutely flawless. Once all weathering is applied, the semi-gloss basecoat will probably get knocked back down to the flat hunk of junk we love.
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