Friday, May 05, 2006

Ready mixed paint


email color
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
Needing to finish my boat with a gloss coat, I popped into a local model shop to buy a can of something suitable. I had to go for Revell instead of my preferred Humbrol as that’s what they had.

On the rack was something new, ready mixed airbrush paint. £1.99 a jar. Cheap enough to give it a go although I bought a couple of metal tins as well.

After a good shake (as per the instructions on the side of the bottle) I decanted some into the cup on the airbrush and started spraying. The verdict – too think. A squirt of thinners improved things no end.

One interesting side effect was the creation of “cobwebs” of varnish appearing in mid air. I think this was a combination of too thick a paint and too wide a spray pattern. Thinning the mix cured the problem although it confused me for several minutes.

Although the bottle is reasonably large I still had to use about half of a tinlet to get a decent gloss finish. Straight from the can it needs a lot of thinner though. Probably 3:1 thinner:varnish. This might explain why the ready mixed version is on the thick side.

And why is it called Email paint ? Not enough letters for enamel or can you download it from the web ?

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