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What am I doing wrong?


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Hi folks,

 

A regular lurker breaking radio silence here!

 

I'm trying to get a decent finish with Railmatch aerosol 1202 (BR warning panel yellow) but am struggling: it's as if the paint is too thin. After spraying, I seem to be getting a build-up of it along the bottom edges, and it seems to almost 'drain away from any top edges. This is after 2 separate applications (left to dry between each), each consisting of two coats applied with a fairly quick pass. (The paint's not running like it would if too thickly applied.)

 

What am I doing wrong? Should I only be applying 1 coat each application, and do several applications? I'm keen to get it right with the aerosol if that's possible, rather than try airbrushing for now.

 

I've used Railmatch dirty black fine several times on other with a single application of 2 coats, fairly fast pass as above, with no problems.

 

(The model I'm spraying is a Lima cl 50, which has been undercoated with a coat of Halfords plastic primer aerosol (the grey stuff.)

 

Cheers!

 

Mark

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Yellow is always problematic as the pigment is very translucent and does not cover well. The best advice I can give is lots of very thin coats over a white primer.

 

It is almost impossible to get yellow to cover over grey primer and I suspect that you are inadvertantly over-applying in an attempt to cover the grey.

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Welcome out into the wide open world of RMWeb (someone else will be along soon to give a better answer)

First a big disclaimer - I'm no expert when it comes to painting

 

But in my experience yellow requires a much lighter undercoat than any other colour (possible exception of crimson lake) I would have used white.

Secondly, the yellow I have sprayed (using an airbrush) always seems thinner and more translucent than any other colour and I would give the usual time to dry between each coat avoiding the temptation to second pass. I've not used the Railmatch cans for this sort of close up detailed work though.

 

[Edit] Oh bother beaten to it, sorry Karhedron, just reaffirmation from a slow typer.

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Thanks for the advice folks. Time for the modelstrip again! I see Halfords do a white plastic primer, so will invest in that and have more patience with single passes of the yellow afterwards. Looks like I've probably been over applying the yellow.

 

If I'm feeling brave, I might even post a photo here when it's done!

 

Mark

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Fully agree on the white primer - yellow is the absolute worst colour to paint, even more so if it's gloss.

I have no experience of Railmatch aerosols, but I can say I utterly detest their bottle enamels a very thin pigment in a very thick medium is my experience of them. Phoenix Precision are much better. This O Scale Class 22 was painted with Precision paints; both yellow and red (the other 'difficult' colour) were airbrushed onto white primer...

d48c13d0.jpg

 

Once the loco was weathered and matt varnished, the yellow looks pretty good. The red has almost disappeared in the grime!!

Class22Finished013.jpg

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As others have said, Yellow's a pig of a colour to use at the best of times and as you've discovered using it on-top of grey primer makes life even harder.

 

I've recently started using a coat of Humbrol Trainer Yellow (24) as an undercoat, applied ontop of white primer but before the WP yellow top coat. The Humbrol pigments cover a lot better than Railmatch or Phoenix warning panel yellows and gives a good basic yellow. The WP yellow applied on top changes the shade of yellow to the correct version. Using the Humbrol yellow means that you're not relying on the rail colours to provide the depth of colour.

 

Happy modelling.

 

Steven B.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks again to all for the advice.

 

A quick update, I've got round to spraying again: I first used a white plastic primer (got it from Homebase in the end), and have now put on a couple of layers of yellow, with a single pass each time. After the first coat, I waited 20 mins and ensure the coat was touch dry, then applied the second coat. Now it's all dry, it's looking as it should. It needs a couple more coats, but I'm confident I'm on the right lines with it now! Who knows, I might even get the blue on before Xmas at this rate...

 

Thanks again,

Mark

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Until recently I only used aerosols and I took at least 7 very thin coats of yellow over grey primer to get proper coverage without the pooling of paint around the details. When you take into account leaving 24 hours between coats and not being able to apply a coat every day this makes full yellow ends a long term commitment! I have now switched to white primer and an airbrush and the results are much better - and easier.

 

Matt

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I never use white primer (except on the all over NR yellow as thats probably asking a bit much) and I find that the yellow covers just fine with a few thin coats through the airbrush. I only leave it a couple of minutes between coats and it covers the previous layers perfectly well. Interestingly in contrast I always have a nightmare with rail blue.

 

Cav

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