Anyone hand-paint their models here? Thinking about doing so with my MG when it comes in.
Pretty wildly different information out there about doing so; not much on hand-painting specifically. Pretty much only got that I should use enamel, but it gets confusing when people say I also need to use lacquer, etc. Also, the guide I linked above says enamel is not recommended for 1/100+ kits, but no real reason why (I guess imperfections are more visible?).
I hand paint details on a lot of my kits after airbrushing. The tips for hand painting are pretty similar to airbrushing/spray cans. Make sure you thin your paint properly, paint in really thin layers, and let fully dry before moving onto the next layer. Also, make sure you can let it dry in as dust free environment as you can.
As for paint types, I don't have too much experience with the difference but here's kind of the gist I've learned over time
Acrylic:
Really cheap for paint and thinner. Can be thinned easily with store bought 90% isopropyl alcohol.
Thinner doesn't eat plastic, so really easy to fix if you make a mistake. You can actually dip the piece in thinner to fully remove the paint.
Dries relatively quickly. You can put on another coat in an hour or so depending on your current humidity/temperature conditions
Negatives: Paint can be very temperamental and you can get orange peeling/other texture issues if you don't handle it right. Can be difficult to get the perfect finish.
Lacquer:
Dries super duper quickly. You can move onto the next coat in just a couple minutes
Low drying time makes it less sensitive to dust and things in the air
Goes on in really nice, thin layers. The coverage on this stuff is unbelievable.
Amazing finishes if done correctly. Almost all the best candy/metallic finishes I've seen are lacquer based
Negative:Thinner is really expensive in my experience. Hobby style lacquers can be tricky to find in non-spray can form. Thinner is VERY corrosive to plastic, so only real stripping option is to sand off previous layer by hand. You also really should use a hobby lacquer thinner in my experiences as hardware store bought stuff is just too strong, which is part of what makes it expensive to use. Fumes. A lot and really nasty fumes. Need good ventilation.
Enamel:
Have zero experience with this stuff. From what I've heard it gives really nice, tough finishes, but has a really long cure time. Similar negatives to lacquer. Expensive with very toxic fumes.
I personally use acrylic both for hand painting details and airbrushing, but that's purely a cost thing. You can get Tamiya or even Gunze Sangyo fairly cheap if you hunt around online. It's touchy, but you can get it to work. The fact that it's so cheap/easy to thin is such a positive to me. If money were no object, though, I'd probably go Lacquer every time. That stuff is just beautiful to work with.
