Wednesday, March 02, 2022

Mazda K360 - Part 2: Fleshing out the paint.

The Mazda K360 box art shows and attractive two-colour paint job, and as a change from the last two models which came out mucky, I thought I'd have a go at something pretty. 

First challenge, chose your colours. The top is white, but I remember from chosing the paint for my campervan years ago, a pure white looks odd. Pick an off-white (I used a Peugeot colour) and it looks nicer. On that basis, I opted for Humbrol 147, one of my regular go-to colours, in fact the one I use for white on other models. 

The darker colour looks to be a peach, but I don't have that in my collection. Setting out to buy some at Doncaster, the closest match, and it IS close, is Tamiya Flesh colour. 


Applying the 147 was difficult as my airbrush is still playing up. The Badger 200 is a bit brutal (great for large boat hulls though) although it did an OK job. 

As an experiment, I brushed the Tamiya in the load bed area - and after two coats, it looked really good. No brush marks, nice solid colour. No need to spray!

Drying time is quick too. Both coats were on in an evening. A little touch-up where the masking wasn't perfect, despite my best efforts, then a little silver, and things were looking good. 

A 1/32nd scale model needs a little shine if it's supposed to be clean, and so I was presented with another oportunity to experiment. 

There has been a couple of cans of Halford Satin lacquer on the shelf for a while, and I resoned I ought to try them out. If everything went wrong on this model, it wouldn't be the end of the world. 

As it was, everything went right. Three thin coats look pretty good. The paint sprays well and provides a pleasent shene to the body. It's pretty controlable too, not always the case with car paints. Maybe the results would be a bit thick for N gauge, but if the airbrush (currenlty being cleaned again) is out of action, a realistic alternative.

No comments: